Consortia Building: How to Put
Together a Winning Team
Ben Sharman, UK NCP SC6, ESRC
ESRC National Contact Points
▶ ESRC is currently hosting the UK National Contact Points
covering the following areas of Horizon 2020
▶ Societal Challenge 6: Europe in a Changing World:
Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies (Ben Sharman
[email protected])
▶ Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation
▶ Science with and for Society (Gabriela Nava
swafs&[email protected])
▶ Embedding Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH)
across Horizon 2020 (Manija Kamal [email protected])
Contents
▶ General Principles
▶ Eligibility Criteria for proposals
▶ What makes a good partner?
▶ How to join a Consortium – as a partner
▶ How to build a winning Consortium – as a Coordinator
▶ Embedding SSH in to your project
▶ How to find partners for your project
▶ Other online brokerage tools and project databases
▶ Summary tips
▶ Question time
General Principles
Two components to a successful project:
▶ Developing a strong project proposal
▶ Building a strong team to implement the project
–  The right expertise
–  The right balance of organisational types
–  The right approach to collaboration
–  The right background/experience
–  The right coordinator
–  The right lead (not necessarily the coordinator!)
–  A good geographical breadth of partners
Eligibility Criteria for Partners
▶ Number (and type) of partners required for a proposal based
on type of action the topic is.
▶ A full list of countries eligible for Union funding can be found
on page 3 of the General Annexes
Type of Action
Min. Number of Partners
Research and Innovation (RIA) and Three legal entities, each
Innovation (IA) Actions
established in a different Member
State or associated country
Coordination and Support (CSA)
Action
One legal entity established in a
Member State or associated
country
SME Instrument
One for-profit SME established in
Member State or country
associated with Horizon 2020.
What Makes a Good Partner?
▶ For new participants, seek a partner with a track
record of success in H2020 or its predecessor (FP7)
▶ UK Universities were strongest performing sector
across all of FP7
– But not all universities were successful
– Departments vary hugely within a university
– H2020 emphasis on Impact may not sit well with
universities as consortium leaders
▶ Willingness to be flexible, not dogmatic. Rarely does
success hinge on one partner’s widget
How to Join a Consortium – as a
Partner
▶ Prepare a convincing document
▶ Tap into your professional network
▶ Set up a profile on a partner search site
▶ Follow LinkedIn Groups
▶ Contact your NCP (and/or KTN)
▶ Participate in brokerage events
How to Build a Winning Consortium –
as a Coordinator
▶ All of the previous hints apply, as well as:
▶ Explain your ideas clearly
▶ Argue your case
▶ Tap into your network
▶ Spread the word
▶ Check out past EU projects in the domain of your
targeted call
▶ Make sure you are on target
Embedding SSH in to your project
▶ Many of the calls in SC4 WP promote inclusion of SSH
approaches/considerations/partners
▶ Standalone SSH component of Transport WP – but also
other (less explicit) opportunities in WP.
▶ H2020 aims to fully integrate SSH into all three pillars
▶ The H2020 framework regulation clearly states that in
relation to the seven societal challenges, social sciences
and humanities are mainstreamed as an essential
element of the activities needed to tackle each of the
societal challenges to enhance their impact
Examples of SSH terminology and
research questions
▶ Variation across social groups: analyse composition
of society based on income/age/education etc. How do
these groups react to the issues/solutions
▶ Human behaviour and choices, lifestyles and
wellbeing: understanding user and consumer habits
and identify the key drivers/influences of their choices.
Develop and test incentives for stakeholders and
consumers to change their behaviour.
▶ Legal, institutional and political frameworks:
how do these shape practice and decisions?
▶ Economic analysis and business models: Map
key economic actors/activities and identify
production systems, supply chains and (potential)
markets. Boost the creation of jobs and economic
opportunities.
▶ Human geography and demographic trends:
investigate how people and communities interact
with their environment and create their landscapes
▶ Therefore SSH not just limited to dissemination of
outputs!
Transport Opportunities in SC6
▶ INEQUAL-7-2016: Spatial justice, social cohesion and
territorial inequalities
▶ ENG-GLOBALLY-06-2017: The Asia-Pacific as a
strategic region for Europe
▶ ENG-GLOBALLY-08-2016/17: EU/China cooperation
on sustainable urbanisation
How to Find Partners for your Project
▶ Brokerage events and networking
–  Normally run after call for proposals opens
–  However, many mature teams already formed by then
–  Advertised through the UKRO, H2020UK and CORDIS
websites, amongst others.
–  Remember: often a pint and a conversation go a long way!
▶ Project partner search tools
–  Community Research and Development Information Service
(CORDIS) Partner Service
–  Currently over 4500 proposals and over 3600 partnership
requests
Uploading your own profile on CORDIS
▶ Do it offline until you’re happy before uploading
▶ Keep it to the point and emphasise track record – it’s
what you look for after all
▶ Watch the guidance videos first:
http://cordis.europa.eu/guidance/services/
partners_en.html
Other Online Brokerage Tools
▶ Piirus: relatively new brokerage database available to
researchers from all disciplines www.piirus.com
▶ Ideal-ist: an international ICT network, also includes a
unique quality-labelled partner search tool
http://www.ideal-ist.eu/
▶ European Transport Network Alliance
http://www.transport-ncps.net/services/partnersearch/partner-profiles.html
▶ NET4SOCIETY: international network of Challenge
Six NCPs, includes a research directory and a partner
search tool http://net4society.eu/
Other Project Databases
▶ Transport Research and Innovation Portal for European
transport projects and events
http://www.transport-research.info/web/
▶ Innovate UK database of all UK funded projects
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/innovate-uk-fundedprojects
▶ All signed Horizon 2020 projects (nearly 4,000) have now been
published at: http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/home_en.html
▶ Its also worth looking at who participates in the advisory groups
for WPs. For Challenge Six, a list of members can be found in
Annex I of
http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/sites/horizon2020/
files/SC6-Advisory-Group%20report%20for%202016-2017.pdf
Summary Tips
▶ The best way to ensure that you are on the team
with the highest probability of success is to be
actively engaged with one or more European
networking groups that have H2020 as a focus of
their activities.
▶ If you wait for publication of the Call for Proposals
before putting a team together you can be successful,
but it’s much harder.
▶ There are lots of databases to search for partners,
being invited to join an established team with strong
track record is the ultimate goal.
Any Questions?
[email protected]
Thank you!