One of the most crucial steps in the early stages of every European project is to share your EU project ideas with others. As the majority of European Calls for funding requires you not only to have a consortium but, on many occasions, to also originate from different European countries, sharing your EU project idea is a good starting point.
This is especially beneficial for newcomer organizations to the sphere of European projects as they typically have a limited network of partners. With the introduction of Idea Pad by EUcalls, we wanted to boost ideation and assist all organizations in growing their EU project ideas and making partners matching easier than ever.
It is certain that by now, you should be wondering what Idea Pad is and why do you need it. Stay with us now as we will show you what Idea Pad is and what it has in store for you.
What is Idea Pad?
First of all, EUcalls as a smart platform for all your EU funding needs offers a time-efficient process from start to finish of your EU project. EUcalls provides a constantly updated database of European Calls that you can find in one place and save you time. Otherwise, with our advanced filters, you can find European calls for funding that best match your interests and criteria, or leverage the Personalized Matching Environment and discover suggested calls based on your preferences.
When you find your ideal European call for funding, it is then when Idea Pad comes into play. If you already have an EU project idea in mind, you can use Idea Pad to share your EU project ideas with your potential partners on EUcalls platform. By sharing your EU project ideas with over 6.000 EU partners on the EUcalls platform, you join a community of experienced and reliable European partners and automatically increase your chances of receiving funding for your idea.
How to Use Idea Pad
There are two ways to use Idea Pad: they are straightforward, and they just require you to follow some relatively easy steps.
- You can use Idea pad while searching for EU calls by clicking on “EU Calls” button on your dashboard. As soon as you have found a call that you are interested in, click on it, and a new tab will open. To continue, in this new tab, you will see all the necessary information about the specific call, like the deadline and the description of the call, among others. By looking closely, you will notice a “Declare Interest” button at the right side of your panel and a “discover Ideas” section more to the right. In this section you will see 3 buttons; the “start now”, “add +” button and a “preview”. By declaring your interest, you become visible to other EU partners interested in the same call that can now invite you to work together on their EU project ideas. You should click the “start now” button when you have an idea in mind to either save it as a draft for later use or make it public so that others can discover your idea and get in touch with you to grow it further or work together on it. The “add +” button will only exist when there is an already submitted idea on the specific call. Clicking on it allows you to draft your own idea with the option to make it public. Similarly with the above, “preview” will only exist when there is an already published idea, and it will allow you to explore the ideas and the partners that have already declared interest in it.
- The second way that you can use Idea Pad to share your EU project ideas is to do it through the “Discover Ideas” button that you will find on your dashboard. By clicking on it, it will redirect you to the main page of Idea Pad to explore all the ideas submitted by EUcalls users. There are currently more than 120 ideas created by experienced EU partners that you can ask to join.
We know that scrolling through so many ideas is time-consuming; that is why EUcalls have an integrated search bar and filters to make it easier for you. You can filter those ideas based on their status (ideation, proposal etc.), the European Programme that they belong to (Erasmus+, Horizon Europe etc.) and finally, what the idea is looking for (coordinator, partners or even a call).
We hope that this article will encourage more of the existing EUcalls members to start using Idea Pad to share their own ideas or to explore the ideas of others. You should share your EU project ideas on Idea Pad and join the vibrant EUcalls community of reliable EU project partners. Developing or finding a good idea is the first important step to winning consortia and increasing your chances of receiving European funding.
If you have innovative ideas for funding or would like to explore the ideas of others, make sure to become a part of our EU project community of partners by signing up today.
