Collaborations make projects happened. Successful collaborations can bring great results whereas bad collaborations can be disastrous for a project. For EU projects, we need more collaborations and we need to go bigger and better with every project. These collaborations are, after all, the key to survival for every European organization.
Organizations that are working together to implement European projects, need to follow certain patterns that will make the consortium and therefore, the collaboration successful. In this article, we are going to give you a few tips on how to make your every EU collaboration a fruitful one.
1. Define the goals of the project
The goals of an EU project are well-known before the project starts. They are after all in the project proposal. However, during the first meeting of the consortium, after the proposal has been approved, it is important to devote as much time as possible to go through the proposal again.
That way you will be able to define the goals of the project even clearer and answer any potential questions that might arise. This process will help the project move along, a lot faster.
2. Be clear about the roles
In many different cases, although the role of each partner may have been defined since before the initiation of the project, things might change. The roles of the project need to be as clear as daylight. Every partner needs to know what they have to do for the project and make sure to stick to their field of expertise
3. Meeting deadlines
Perhaps the most important tip of this article. Partners need to always meet their deadlines. There are specific deadlines that have been set in the proposal writing process that cannot change. These deadlines need to be met on time for the project to move forward.
However, during the meetings, partners tend to come up with new ideas on how they can make the project even better and set even more deadlines. Each partner needs to be clear about what they can do and if they take on any task, they need to meet their deadlines no matter what.
4. Addressing the conflicts
When people work together, the chances of entering some kind of conflict are rather high. People are not the same and there are always differences in opinions. But these differences must not be allowed to evolve.
When there is a conflict of any kind, make sure that the consortium, as a whole, will take the time to talk about it and solve it. Otherwise, this could really affect the outcome of the project in terms of both meeting deadlines as well as producing proper results.
5. Use the right tools for communication
Emails are useful, but they still promote a cold type of collaboration and communication that might not be what your project needs. Do not just base the collaboration on the mutual exchange of emails. Use CRM with email marketing that could really bring out your potential as a consortium.
For example, when you wish to communicate with someone, try to set up a video call instead of sending them an email. During meetings, try to use visual tools that will allow you and your consortium to ‘’see’’ your goals before you set up a course to implement them. Interactive tools will make for a much more interesting and fun collaboration.
You do not want to set up a good collaboration just to make the project work. The collaboration is going to help you build a reputation that will, eventually, bring you more partners. And ill-repute organization, no matter how much expertise it might have, will not be able to get into many projects.
Start building consortia that will work great together. If you know for a fact that you can collaborate with a specific pool of partners, better than others, try to collaborate with them more often. We can guarantee that at the end of the day, the project is going to be a success and your consortium will have created strong foundations for future collaborations as well!
