Preparing a succesful proposal for FRACTALS Open Call Grigoris Chatzikostas BioSense Center Novi Sad, 25.11.2014. 1
Purpose of this presentation 2
The actual idea, the work, choice of people, etc. General principles for the proposal The document that describes the idea, work, people, etc. The required sections are explained in the Guide for Applicants for the call. Generating a proposal is an iterative process. Plan key points before you write the full text this helps in providing the structure. 1. FIWARE Usage 2. Relevance with the Call 3. Market potential 3
Proposal structure No longer than 4 pages Part A No longer than 10 pages Administrative details Applicant description and details Personnel description Experience in projects and FIWARE Part B Summary Technical excellence FIWARE usage Market readiness Part C Pitch might be a link (in case of video, podcast) or a pdf (in case of power point presentation) No longer than 5 minutes 4
Part A Administrative details and experience 5
Applicant description ALL applicants have EQUAL TREATMENT, regardless of size, country of origin, etc. Short description of the legal entity Write about its size and activities StartUps are particularly welcome! Include all relevant information for the project 6
Applicant details Eligibility Financial data Linked company? Make sure you are eligible in terms of your SME or Web entrepreneur status according to the Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC. You need to provide precise information from your last closed financial year about your headcount, annual turnover and annual balance sheet. If you are linked or a partner to another enterprise make sure you are taking in account their financial numbers Note: These information will be checked during evaluation/contracting phase 7
Personnel description Your team must be 3 to 5 persons Write relevant information about all team members Given the nature of this Call you should focus on their: 1) Professional experience in ICT, entrepreneurship or Agrifood 2) Academic qualifications in ICT, Agriculture, Business administration or relevant Mr. X. is an expert in Business Management, with 8 years of experience in leading roles. Ms. Y. is an expert in software development with 9 years in X Company as a senior software architect. Mr. Z is an agronomist with 5 years of experience in technologies for horticultural crops. Complementarity 8
Earlier projects Write about your experience in EU funded or other projects (if any) You may consider making a list of your past projects with their links and relevant details, focusing on your role in the project These information gives indication that you have experience to accomplish this project, BUT first time applicants are more than welcome! 9
Experience in FIWARE Indicate (if any) experience in FIWARE of all or any of the team members When writing about experience, you should stress individual roles for example: coordinator, senior or junior stuff, relevant training in FIWARE Previous experience in FIWARE is positive, but it is NOT a must. The call is open to ALL good teams, even if they are going to be working on FIWARE for the very first time 10
Part B Technical excellence 11
Background and concept Is your concept relevant to the call? This is a call for SOFTWARE solutions, we are NOT funding the development of hardware 12
Objectives Measurable: Provide numbers! We will develop an app for optimizing the use of pesticides What is the project for? Make sure your objectives are: 1) Clear 2) Coherent with the concept 3) Measurable 4) Achievable 5) Realistic What are we doing in the project? We will reduce the use of pesticides by 15% We will increase farm profitability by 10% 13
Innovation Do you know the market and already existing solutions? Knowing the existing solutions will help you explain why yours is going to be better. Is your solution totally new or improvement of an existing solution? It is OK to deliver an improvement of an existing solution Your project idea just make sure you explain the improvements 14
Technical description What work will be done? How will the work will be organized? How will it be reported and verified? What are the risks that something goes wrong? Consider making the work plan with work packages and tasks Timetable should be achievable and realistic 15
Organization of work All work, including management, must be part of a work package. Work packages do not usually exactly match the proposal objectives. The work packages can be divided into tasks. Work Package 1 Task 1.1... Task 1.n Work Package 2 Task 2.1... Task 2.n... 16
Deliverables list For each work package there should be deliverables Deliverables are often reports, but they can be other items (prototype, software, pilot, etc.) Normally each WP should finish with a deliverable. If it does not, the reason should be explained Deliverables should have meaning and content If your project exceeds 5 months and you are planning an interim report please ensure that you list an adequate number of deliverables that should be achieved during the first period. Name 1 3 of these deliverables as milestones for the first reporting period No Deliverable Name/Description Type Delivery Date 1 R M01 2 For the Type of deliverable use one of the following codes: R: Document, report (excluding the periodic and final reports) DEM: Demonstrator, pilot, prototype, plan designs DEC: Websites, patents filing, press & media actions, videos, etc. OTHER: Software, technical diagram, etc. 17
Milestones Milestones represent key achievements in the project as a whole There should be a milestone when a particular stage is complete, or a target has been reached GOAL Together with deliverables they help to assess whether a project is on schedule There should be milestones in each periods of the project, so that reviews can be effective 18
Budget RTD Dissemination Management 1. Personnel costs 2. Other direct costs (travel, equipment, software, services, etc.) 3. Total direct costs (Sum of row 1 and 2) 4. Indirect costs 60% of direct costs 60% of direct costs 60% of direct costs 5. Total costs (Sum of row 3 and 4) 6. Requested EC contribution 75% 100% 100% Are your resources allocation and budget realistic? 19
Cost justification Justify all your costs by filling in the following table Budget Justification Personnel Cost (N of man months / cost per man month) Travel Cost Where? Why? Equipment Cost What? Why? Software & services What? Why? Budget Justification Personnel Cost 16 man months for development/ 2000 each Travel Cost Srbobran interaction with the end user Equipment Cost 2 sensors for app testing, 1500 Software & services S W lisence, 1500 20
Risk management All projects carry both technical and non technical risks Research projects carry particularly high risk Risks may be internal (problem with the project) or external (change in outside world, for example a new technology). Good risk management Be able to recognize the risks Assess how likely they are to occur and how severe their effect would be Have a plan for dealing with it mitigation measures and a pivot strategy Internal risks may relate to one WP or to Interdependencies 21
FIWARE usage How will the FIWARE technologies be used in your project? NO FIWARE = NO FUNDING 22
Architecture Use a diagram to explain architecture of your solution Indicate all the GEs/SEs you are planning to use 23
FIWARE technologies to be utilized Indicate all the GEs/SEs you are going to use explaining how and why you are going to use these particular technologies Are you using the most appropriate GEs/SEs for your solution? How are you planning to integrate GEs/SEs with the rest of the components of your solution? Do you have a plan for testing and validation of your solution using the FIWARE Lab? 24
Target groups Who is your target group? Why are you addressing your solution to them? What are their needs? 25
Problem and solution Identify the problem you are aiming to solve Is this problem significant to the target group? Are the improvements measurable? How are you addressing the problem? Does your solution solve the problem or just provides some improvements? 26
Economic and other (i.e. environmental, social) benefits Quantified Justified Our solution will reduce the need for irrigation by 20%, thus saving valuable water resources By increasing the quality of the product, we will enable farmers to sell their products with a 10% premium Substantial The app will directly connect farmers with end customers and will increase employment opportunities in rural areas 27
Validation from end-users Have you planned to engage end users in validation? Identify the measures, motives and procedures to engage end users Measures: bi weekly communication with end user to receive feedback and suggestions Motives: One free product license to the farmer that engages in validation activities Procedures: Communication will be handled through a Redmine application, with provision of mockups and access to demos. 28
Market Market size Geographical coverage Have you done your research? Do you know the market you are addressing? Who is your competition? Quantitative data DO NOT write that there is no competition, explain why you are better than competitors 29
Sustainability plan Positioning and unique selling points Business and growth model BOTH achievable and ambitious Market penetration strategy Estimation of your sales Business Model Canvas Talk with numbers 30
Part C Pitch 31
Prepare the pitch Pitch might be sent as a link (in case of video, podcast) or a pdf (in case of power point presentation) It should not be longer than 5 minutes To craft a great pitch, follow these steps: Identify your goal. Explain what you do. Explain your project idea. Engage with a question. Put it all together. Practice. 32
A few hints and tips for the pitch 1. Keep it simple and non technical, no complicated jargon or scientific terms needed. 2. This is a pitch towards an imaginary customer, not a pitch towards an investor, so try to think like a salesman, NOT like a CEO. 3. Focus on your solution and its benefits to the customer. Demonstrate full confidence and show that you really know what you are talking about. 4. Show them the money. How much money can they make? How much money can they save? Why should they buy? 33
Some additional practical information 34
Formatting your proposal The minimum allowed font size is 11 points Respect the length for the sections. Excess contents will not be evaluated! The paragraph spacing 6pt and the line spacing single The page size is A4, and all margins (top, bottom, left and right) should be at least 15 mm (not including any footers or headers) 35
Evaluators For most evaluators, English is not their first language. Evaluators are human! They can get bored, tired, ill, confused... The proposal must be easy to follow, even by a non expert. It must be easy for the evaluators to find the key points relevant to the Call and to the evaluation criteria. Evaluators might not have time to read every word of your proposal. 36
Respect the page limits Write only what is essential! 37
Thank you for your attention! http://fractals fp7.com About eligibility, budget, proposal writing etc: About FIWARE: administrative@fractals fp7.com tech@fractals fp7.com 38