The world economy is evolving fast. As a result, it has a great impact on the European market. There are more startups being established in Europe today than ever before. It is, of course, reasonable that, many of those startups do not have the funding needed to support heavier actions to get established as major economic stakeholders for the European and world market, although some of them are built on strong, promising ideas.
Companies in Europe need money to flourish. They need a capital that will either help them get started or will give them the opportunity to expand and succeed. Luckily for them, most of that funding will be coming from the European Union itself.
In an effort to promote startups and to help the European market grow, the European Commission proposed a set of programmes to boost jobs, growth, and investment across the European Union as part of the European multiannual financial framework 2014-2020.
In this article, we are going to give some guidelines n how EU funding works, how you can set up your business for funding and what types of funding there are out there, that can be appropriate for you.
How does EU funding work?
European programmes for funding all work in the same way. There are calls for proposals that are being announced under the programme. Each call offers different opportunities and usually focuses on different aspects of the European area.
Depending on the type of business you have, you need to find the appropriate call that will answer to the needs and preferences of your business. There are always specific guidelines for the call and since you will be going up against other proposals for funding, you will want to follow those guidelines to the letter.
The usual groups of potential applicants are the following:
- Small and Medium Entreprises(SMEs)
- Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
- Young People
- Researchers
- Farmers
- Public Bodies
There are of course more types of applicants that can be eligible for EU funding.
Find the right partners
To find the right partners you will need to know which ones are the best at what they do and how you can approach them. Platforms like eucalls.net will be able to provide you with long lists of potential partners, from all around Europe, that are interested in the same calls as you. You can reach out to those partners, set up a meeting and upon agreement add them to your consortium.
Apply for the funding
Preparing your proposal can take time and it needs to be done meticulously. Make sure that you will go through all the guidelines to make it perfect. If this is your first time writing a proposal either consider training on how to do it or make sure that one of your partners will be able to do it for you.
How to handle the evaluation process
After you submit your proposal it will be evaluated. If the proposal passes the evaluation stage successfully you will start implementing the project If not, make sure that you will take your time reading the evaluation. You can always re-apply for a future call using the same proposal. Just make sure that you will fix it this time.
Managing the project
Now, this is one of the hardest and longest stages. Project management can be a difficult process. If the proposal is very complicated then it will most likely be hard for you to manage the project in the beginning. You can once again get training or ask one of your partners to do it. In any case, make sure that you will take small, steady steps and that you will not make any fast decisions.
Here are some types of project management:
- Direct Management
- Indirect Management
- Shared Management
You are either Directly managing the project, a partner could be doing it for you or you could share the task. If this is your first time, shared management could be your best option.
Types of funding opportunities
There are many different types of funding opportunities for EU projects. Here are the most common ones for most applicants:
- Grants
- Loans
- Guarantees and Equity
- Subsidies
- Prizes
Depending on the type of funding you are looking for you will most likely for into one of the categories above, with grants being the most common one. There are of course guidelines in this case as well so make sure that no matter what you do you will follow them to the letter.
Funding your business through EU Programmes can add great value to you, your business and of course the European area. If you believe that you can be a strong stakeholder for the European world make sure that you will start taking parts in EU projects today. You can fund your business, build strong partnerships and help creat positive impact for the European market!
