Cooperation Between Old and New Member States - Workshop Warsaw 23 March 2005

1. FP6UK NANOTECHNOLOGIES MATERIALS AND PRODUCTION Cooperation Between Old and New Member States - Workshop Warsaw 23 March 2005 Experiences of an Old NCP from an Old Member State John Sillwood Ex UK National Contact Point Nanotechnologies, Materials and Production National Physical Laboratory, UK

2. Facts of Life Only the best (or best prepared) projects pass the evaluation threshold and only the very best of these are funded The threshold for STREPS is 21 points but as high as 24 points may be required for funding The very best projects are not normally the ones looking for partners! A long contractrual association between partners means that people are conservative in their choice of partners and tend to work with people they know or friends of people they know Finding Partners

3. DIY PartnerFindingServices Finding Partners ExistingContacts Friends ofExistingContacts Data from IST Priority

4. Be selective Don’t spend a lot of time on preparing proposals that fall down on the basic essentials Improve Networking Attend international conferences Join Coordination Actions Use Marie Curie Programme and other opportunities for researcher exchanges Use national contacts in other Member States, e.g. a strong Polish community exists in the UK So Where Do You Go From Here?

5. Is the proposal in the area defined in the call Will it make a difference in industrial or societal terms on at least a European scale Is it innovative, are the objectives well defined and will the research proposed achieve the objectives Have we got the right people in this proposal that are able to achieve the objectives Is there evidence that the project will be well managed in terms of the research and knowledge generated Are all the resources available to achieve the objectives of the project Evaluation in a Nutshell

6. A difficult question and one where it is hard to get a straight answer from anyone! It would be reasonable to think that this was a “go” or “no go” situation but it isn’t! It is a matter of degree and whether other proposals fit the topic description better than yours It is possible that the proposal can get just above the threshold for relevance to the call but other proposals can get very high marks An evaluators comment for such a case might be “This proposal fits the Workprogramme but it does not address the topic description very well Suggest that unless your idea fits the topic description very well it is probably better not to bother Does my Project Idea Fit the Call

7. Look at the Evaluation Guidelines at the beginning not just before the proposal is submitted. The Programme is not just a vehicle to fund good science – it is there to produce results that stand a good chance of being exploited to improve European industrial competitiveness The guidelines for proposal preparation should be followed without deviation A single weakness, e.g. a gap in the partnership to perform an essential task, often manifests itself in more than one criteria Evaluators have a very limited time to read proposals and it is unlikely that every word will be read! Don’t write things down just to use up the available space, and justify statements with evidence First impressions count which means that the summary and early sections should be honed to perfection Points to Consider