Establishing good partnerships to implement European Projects is never easy. Finding the partners takes a long time and a lot of effort. At the same time, you can never be too certain if you are going to establish good collaboration with all your potential partners.
There are many things that you are going to want to take into consideration. Are they punctual with the meetings? Are they able to meet the deadlines on time? Are their results of high quality? Are they easy to work with?
And even if they do meet all of the criteria above, are you sure that your way of working matches theirs? Perhaps both your organizations are equally good but there is a gap in communication and working system. Something like that could be a potential reason as to why the collaboration might not move forward, continue to another project or even start.
When you go “partner hunting” for your projects, you are going to meet a plethora of different partners with a lot of ideas, systems, and outlooks in regards to the calls, potential projects and of course your ideas. Some of those collaborations might be fruitful. Others might be just a one-time thing and some could be regular but not temporary.
In this jumble of information and data, you will need to find a system that will work the best and will help you organize your partnerships in a way that can make your job easier in the future. Let’s see some of the best possible ways for you to organize your partnerships.
Create a database
This is going to be the alpha and the omega of the entire process. Creating the database with detailed information from all the partners you have worked with. That database needs to highlight all the important information that will separate the “good partners” from the “bad ones”.
The database can be in the form of an excel sheet or a data entry tool specifically created for this purpose. These tools could be a great way for you to start building your database. You just need to find the right one for your organization.
Make lists
A rather old-fashioned way but an effective one. You need to know which credentials are the most important ones for you. That way, using all of your data, you can separate the partners, and create a list with ones you want to work with again, the ones you could collaborate again in the future and of course the ones you do not want to collaborate in the EU projects.
As your organization keeps growing you will notice that keeping track of “bad partners” will become a bit more difficult. These lists will be a great way for you to find information on old partners fast and easy.
Store communications
This particular step is not so much time consuming as it is space consuming but it is an important one. From all the communications you could make in a month or a year some of them are bound to be lost. Maybe you just need to revise old emails from a different point of view. A partner that was not fit to add to your consortium a year ago might be an excellent candidate for your current project. Keeping an archive is the key.
Keep track of their course
Maybe this might sound like an unorthodox way of organizing your partnerships but just like your organization, others will evolve as well. You want to know what your old partners are doing, what kinds of projects they are implementing and most importantly which ones are the most active.
You will want to build a good network and a good network needs active partners.
These four methods will certainly be able to help you organize your partnerships easier and faster. After you create your first database, you just have to add all new information on time to keep it updated.
You can find many partners and make a lot of connections through eucalls.net. The organization is the key to keep track of your activities and build strong consortia!
