With money scarce on the ground at home, many see involvement in European projects as the way forward. In 2007 the European Union launched €975 billion in funding programmes for the 2007 – 2013 period. That’s 975 billion good reasons for getting involved in European projects. But is EU funding viable when you’re a private Irish SME?
Looking to break in to European projects as a private micro-enterprise or SME can be an initially daunting and labyrinthine task. There’s no such thing as “I’ll take a quick look and see what’s available”. Between FP7s, ERDFs, NPPs, Convergence and Cohesion – it’s hard to know where to begin.
When Newmarket Consulting made the decision to get involved in European programmes – a decision primarily spurred on by an business acquaintance bemoaning the lack of high quality management support available for European funded projects in Ireland – research was (as ever) our first port of call.
Half a day of online research into European funding mechanisms and we were only marginally wiser. From our online marketing research we developed a schedule of calls for proposals for the three programmes that best suited us; the North West Europe Programme, the Northern Periphery Programme and the Atlantic Area Programme. The calls for proposals outlined key areas that were to be funded (for example rural development, green energy, transport etc.) Again, we earmarked areas where we thought we could make a significant impact. Next, once the deadlines for calls for proposals for specific programmes were approaching, we scanned tenders being published on both the Irish e-tenders website and the European tenders website. And then the hard work began … we started replying to tenders.
I won’t expound on the pros and cons of writing tenders – Clodagh has already done an excellent piece on that below – in this case they were a means to an end. And finally our gateway to Europe opened – we successfully responded to a tender for a European project in the creative industries field, and got our first breakthrough.
Involvement in European projects is a bit chicken-and-egg-ish. It’s hard to get a European gig unless you have European project experience, but how do you get that in the first place? Happily for us, we got lucky, and it has really stood to us as we have subsequently been involved in two further projects with European funding – again in the creative sector and also in the exciting field of renewable energy. Our initial European project experience made subsequent proposals stronger, as we were able to display our knowledge of European projects, such as governance and financial structures and trans-national co-operation and triple helix partnerships.
We started our involvement in European projects as external experts – i.e. we responded to a tender to perform a function of the project being led by a project partner. However, increased involvement in European projects results in increased understanding and confidence. We are now at the stage where we have developed a strong network of international partners, and as such we are now being approached to become full partners in responses to calls for proposals. It feels good, and has opened up a whole new avenue of potential business for us.
So, where to start your European odyssey? To save you from hours of bamboozling European funding research, here are some easy links to your European future:
There is a simple(ish) introduction to European Funding that can be downloaded from here: http://ec.europa.eu/budget/library/biblio/publications/funds_rules/pack_rules_funds_en.pdf
Companies and SMEs are encouraged to contact their local Enterprise Europe Network to seek more information on European Funding. In Ireland they are run through the Chambers. Contact information in Ireland is available here: http://www.een-ireland.ie/eei/
Information on available EU Grants is available here: http://ec.europa.eu/grants/index_en.htm
The Commission’s portal on Public Contracts is available here: http://ec.europa.eu/public_contracts/index_en.htm
The majority of EU Funding is managed by regional managing authorities in Ireland. Those managing authorities are the Border, Midland and Western Regional Assembly and Southern and Eastern Regional Assembly. You can find their contact information here: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/manage/authority/authority_en.cfm?pay=109&list=no
Good luck with it, and if you ever need some advice, don’t be afraid to give us a shout on +353 1 4293600 or mitchell@newmarket.ie
