Preparing an IST Proposal Myer W Morron [email protected].

Preparing an IST Proposal

Myer W Morron

[email protected]

2 June 2003 M W Morron 2

DisclaimerThe contents are based on the author's own experiences, views

and knowledge and not those of any organisation he may have or may be associated with. The information contained has been checked by him. However neither the author nor any organisation assume any responsibility or liability for incorrect information herein. Any use of this information is at user's own risk.

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Session Outline• Goal• Process - What to do and how to decide• IP or STREP?• Initial decisions• Partner search• Key documents• Memorandum of Understanding• Steps• Spread sheet example• Part B description• EPSS• Financial points• Links


Goal• To explain the best way to approach

preparation and submittal of an IST proposal

• To use a STREP as the model

• Aimed at potential co-ordinators and/or consultants

• Adaptable to other instruments

• To introduce some tools– EPSS, Template, Spread sheet, My Book


Process - what to do & how to decide• Clarify your own goals for participation

• Identify Strategic Objective

• Identify topic(s)

• Know which call and time frame

• Clarify if you will coordinate or participate

• Key question is to go for an IP or a STREP


IP or STREP 1?• Danger of STREP overlap with an IP

• IP will get preference within strategic objective

SOx

SOy

SOz

IP proposalSTREP 1STREP 2

• I suggest the following process -


IP or STREP 2?Identify if area of interest covered by SO

Can it complement a project in a SO?

Look elsewhere for funding

Find consortium

Does specific topic ask only STREPs?

Consider STREP

STREPs and/or IPs

Identify potential IP proposersIs topic covered?

Allow you to participate?

Join

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

NoNo

No


Initial DecisionsAssume you have decided to co-ordinate a

STREP - you need the following -• Good abstract - is it viable? Check with your

NCP/Strategic Objective Point of Contact• Are you going to use external consultant to

assist?• Check previous projects in this area on

CORDIS• Identify project roles - user, exploiter, R&D...• Identify suitable partners and make contact


Partner SearchBest sources are as follows -• Previous/current project partners• Business partners• Targeted potential customers/distributersFor missing partners/roles use -• Idealist• EoI data base if applicable• Information Days


STREPs• STREP ~ 1-3 MEuro funding & ~4-6

partners, length 2-3 yrs

• STREPs are extremely important for SMEs

• In IST Call 2 funding is 525 MEuro

• 65% to IPs and NoEs (350 MEuro)– Of which say 75 MEuro for NoEs– and say 275 MEuros for IPs

• Of remaining 35%, say 5% for SSAs and CAs

• Leaves 30% ie 160 MEuro for STREPs


STREP possible structure

Management Board with senior representative of each partner

Partners

Chaired by Project Manager

Technical Boardwith technical leaders of each partner/WP

Chaired by Technical Director

WP5WP4WP3WP2WP1Project Management


Key documents•Workprogram 2003/2004 available•Second call will be issued 17 June •Call 1 Proposers Guides available, Call 2 17 June •“Provisions” drafts available - finals soon•Evaluation manual/IST Guide both available•Model contract available•Negotiation guidelines not yet available (Annex 1)•Drafts of Financial and IPR manuals - finals soon•Preliminary consortium agreements•No “Memoranda of Understanding”


Before you start writing• Business reasons for proposal understood

• Strategic Objective & Call identified

• Topic & subject understood & agreed

• Objective endorsed by SO point of contact

• Background work on previous/current projects

• Partners identified and agreed

• Some MoU or NDA or letters exchanged


Memorandum of UnderstandingA coordinator should sign with partners when

forming consortium and contain at least -• Non-disclosure agreement• Non-competitive clause ie competing consortium• Status in consortium ie “Core” partner or not• Role in consortium• How to handle financial viability check• Access to the 7%• Notional level of participation• Any relevant IPR issues• Any relevant exploitation issues


Steps 1Agreement on abstract

A2, cost model, rate, descr, cv Participant orderStandards, methods

Set up template

WP structure, leaders PERT & GANTTWP contributors Spread sheet

B1 Objectives

B4 Consortium B5 PM B7 Other issuesB3 ImpactB2 Relevance

B6 workplan

WP descriptions, deliverables

PreregisterRegister EPSS

Checked with PO/NCP


Steps 2B6 workplan

“Other costs” per WP per partner

Cost iterations to achieve acceptable costs & distribution

Update tables with man months, deliverables, milestones

B4 add financial plan rationale

Update A3, fine tune, proof, agreement

“Red team”

Initial EPSS

submittal


Agreement on AbstractEnsure you have a single high level objective. Make sure that the reader will immediately see that this proposal clearly related to a topic within the Strategic Objective. Do this by reusing some of the same phrases.

I would estimate that 95% of the proposal drafts I see start off the ab stract with one to three paragraphs of background before getting to the paragraph that starts “The objective of this proposal is ...”.

This will be the abstract for A1 - so it must be limited to 2,000 characters

Validate with SO point of contact or your NCP


Partner InformationA partner should not be considered as “in” unless he -• Signed any MoU you have• Provided you required A2 information• Provided you his cost model FC/FCF/AC• If FC, his overhead rate• Provided you with his man month rate in Euros• Provided paragraph on his organisation• Provided you with two CVs


Working MethodsIssue each partner with some basic rules and guidelines. This should

include the following –

• List of partners, points of contact, short name and partner number

• Copy of project objective, instrument and Strategic Objective

• Call number and closing date

• A pointer to the proposal template or the template itself

• A list of planned preparation activities and completion dates leaving at least a week free prior to deadline

• Setting up a project email list server with project manager in charge

• Simple rules on proposal change control i.e. numbering scheme and how updates and changes to base document are controlled by project manager


Participant Order• This seems rather trivial but it is important for

logistic reasons in writing the proposal.

• The co-ordinator is number 1

• Then number them according to importance and certainty. If you have a doubtful participant, put him last.

• This number appears on each A2 form and in several other places in the proposal and determines some ordering in it


Set up of Part B TemplateThere are three sources -1. From electronic version of Proposers Guide2. From EPSS package for the call/instrument3. I have an annotated draft on our web siteI suggest 2 or 3 (above)• I update mine for each call based on

Proposers Guide for that call• Use Word rtf, A4, English (UK), correct

headers & footers


Workpackage structure• The project manager should decide on an initial breakdown of

work packages. Take WP 1 to be Project Management and either WP2 or the last one to be Dissemination and Exploitation. How to break down the work into packages can be an endless debate as you can essentially approach it in a horizontal or vertical fashion. I have always found that approaching it horizontally (i.e. time based) is best. For a STREP, I would put an overall limit of say eight work packages. So how do we decide on the remaining six?

• It is best to start with the following standard model shown as a PERT chart –


Workpackage leadersA good way to distribute proposal preparation work is to assign initial WP leaders

The Co-ordinator is always WP1 leader (Project Management)

Assign the partner who has the most to contribute in each WP if in doubt.

It is important that someone does take responsibility and is both enthusiastic and available. If the obvious WP leader will not be available during time required substitute someone else temporarily and try and ensure that he reviews drafts.

When this has been done, with the co-ordinator taking up any slack, publicise the list and incorporate it into the proposal.


Standard PERT

Start End

WP2Diss&E

WP1PM

WP3Req&D

WP4Implem

WP5SysInt

WP6Test&V

It is of course normal to enhance the above, you can for example add in application level activities; split between software and hardware design, external research input, etc etc depending on the nature of the project


PERT & GANTT chartsOnce you have produced a draft of the WP breakdown that is agreed by your major partners, build a final PERT chart as above and from it a preliminary Gantt chart that shows the start and dates of the work packages.

A good tip is to ensure that there is a phased start up of the project as, in practice, in usually takes 2 to 3 months for all the resource to become available.

Ensure that in the final month of the project only WP1 and WP2 (as above) run in order to produce final reports etc.

These are normal good management practice and shows the evaluators you are an experienced manager


Spread Sheet Example 1Project WP1 WP2 WP3 WP4 WP5 WP6 WP7 WP8 WP9 WP10 TotalsManagementMan months 17 17Labour cost 85000 85000Travel 15000 15000Equipment 0 0Materials 1000 1000Other 0 0Total 16000 16000Overhead 30050 30050Subtotal 131050 131050Audit cert 18000 18000Sub-contract 5000 5000Subtotal 23000 23000Total Management 154050 154050RTDMan months 25 50 35 125 50 60 30 30 52 125 582Labour cost 125000 250000 175000 625000 250000 300000 150000 150000 260000 625000 2910000Travel 0 25000 0 7500 0 26000 2000 5000 6000 5000 76500Equipment 0 15000 105000 25000 0 0 0 15000 0 0 160000Materials 0 0 25000 23000 0 1000 0 1000 0 0 50000Other 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0Total 0 40000 130000 55500 0 27000 2000 21000 6000 5000 286500Overhead 52500 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 52500Subtotal 177500 290000 305000 680500 250000 327000 152000 171000 266000 630000 3249000Sub-contract 50000 0 0 25000 0 10000 5000 0 0 0 90000Total RTD 227500 290000 305000 705500 250000 337000 157000 171000 266000 630000 3339000Budget Total 381550 290000 305000 705500 250000 337000 157000 171000 266000 630000 3493050Funding 407925 172500 177500 415250 125000 193500 93500 85500 153000 377500 22011757% management 154082.3


Spread Sheet Example 2Participant 1 Man month Cost model O/Head rate WP1 WP2 WP3 WP4 WP5 WP6 WP7

in Euros AC/FC/FCF 20Labour rate 5,000 ACManagementMan months 10Labour cost 50000Travel 10000Equipment 0Materials 1000Other 0Total 11000Overhead 12200Subtotal 73200Audit cert 8000Sub-contract 5000Subtotal 13000Total Management 86200RTDMan months 5 10 25 10 6Labour cost 25000 50000 0 125000 0 50000 30000Travel 5000Equipment 50000MaterialsOtherTotal 0 5000 50000 0 0 0 0Overhead 5000 0 0 0 0 0 0Subtotal 30000 55000 50000 125000 0 50000 30000Sub-contract 10000Total RTD 40000 55000 50000 125000 0 50000 30000


Overall Guidance• Use A4, minimum 11 point text, no colour

• Avoid “blah, blah” - be specific and quantify and specify where possible

• Dont talk down to evaluators, they are experts

• Make it easy for them to find information

• Do not go excessively over page count - add supplemental information in Annexes

• Read Proposer’s Guide and Call text


B1 Objectives• Do not start with “background” - get right to

the point - “The objective is to ....”

• Do not have multiple objectives - go up a level

• Paraphrase SO topic where possible

• Relate to other work/projects where possible

• Indirectly show how it is beyond the state of the art

• Avoid referring purely to “development” and “product”, must have a “research” component


B2 Relevance to IST Information for this section comes from several main sources -

1. The introductory sections of the Workprogram for IST 2003/4 contains good reference material.

2. Via the Europa web site, http://europa.eu.int there is information on all EU policies and they can be identified and downloaded from there. eg - Policies - Access by subject to legal instruments in force, legislative activity in progress, implementation of common policies, EU grants and loans, statistics and publications.

3. There is also good material under eEurope initiatives and at the ISPO (Information Society Project Office) site.

You must also address where appropriate ERA related issues such as relationships to any Eureka activities, (such as commonality of partners) or relationships to national research program


B3 Potential Impact• Include plans for the dissemination/exploitation of the results by describing the

dissemination/exploitation strategies, the user groups to be involved and how, the tools and/or means to be used to disseminate the results and the strategic impact of the proposed project

• Standards are extremely important to Europe. Be specific. If your work will comply with standards, name them and the body responsible for the standard. Don’t ignore European Standard bodies in favour of American ones like IEEE or ANSI without adequate justification. If your work will lead to a new standard or modify an existing one, reinforce by allocating resource to assist in this work and show which partners are already involved in the relevant committee. Key bodies for Europe are ETSI, CEN and CENELEC as well as ECMA and the industrial standards forums such as the GSM Forum etc. Stating that “the work will comply with the relevant standards” as your only comment, can kill a proposal.

• Exploitation is a vital part of this section. Emphasise the usefulness and range of applications, which might arise from the project. Explain the partners’ capability to exploit the results of the project and detail how in a credible way. Refer to the draft Consortium Agreement with respect to exploitation rights. This is particularly important. Be specific and quantify things.


B4 Consortium resources• Start off with a short one page description of the consortium stating who the participants are,

what their roles and functions in the consortium are, and how they complement each other. It is vital you identify such partners as “end user”, “exploiter or supplier” as well as “research contributor” etc.

• Be very careful of sub-contracts. The Commission does not like them. Do not sub-contract R&D.

• This section should also contain a BRIEF description of each partner, emphasising his relevance to the project. By brief, we mean maximum of a third of a page. You can also include a brief CV of one or two staff per participant. Do not exceed one page per participant and preferably two thirds of a page. Any excess must be relegated to an appendix. (A diplomatic way to handle a Professor who insists on five pages of references.)

• There are important things to say and irrelevant things. The evaluator is interested in a company’s technological capability, not on which stock exchange it is listed. If your company was founded two years ago or if you only have five staff, do not mention it. This can only detract from your creditability. If you have been involved in previous successful projects, name them. The CV of the nominated Project Manager is of particular importance. You have to show that he has experience of successful international project management. Emphasise this.

• Finally the overall financial plan for the project is critical. It must be brief and answer any obvious questions about the requested budget and financial management


B5 Project Management• This section has to be concise, complete and very well thought out. This

section should describe how the proposed project will be managed, the decision making structures to be applied, the communication flow within the consortium and the quality assurance measures which will be implemented, and how legal and ethical obligations will be met. Emphasise the experience and quality of the management. Make it clear how progress will be monitored and how an effective management structure will be put in place, with agreed lines of communication and responsibility. Describe how corrective actions will be initiated and how conflicts will be resolved. I believe it is vital to include an organisation chart. See previous example

• There should be a brief section on each body in the organisation chart, its composition and function. Each defined role such as Project Manager, Work Package Leader etc should also have a brief description of their role and responsibilities. Reference must be made to the future Consortium Agreement that will expand on the topic and formalise it

• Mention project handbook


B7 Other issuesIt is mandatory to include two aspects here in a positive manner and as appropriate deny impact of the others.

Ethical issues

One of significant impact here and that is data protection acts, both at European and at National level. You should state that the project will comply and it is the responsibility of say the project manager to ensure compliance and mention this in his responsibilities under B5.

Gender issues

Mention how many women you expect to be assigned to the project, assuming there will be some. Assign responsibility to the project manager and mention it in B5. Try the following lines –

“We understand that promoting women does not mean treating them in the same way as men. Men’s characteristics, situations and needs are often taken as the norm, and – to have the same opportunities - women are expected to behave like them. Ensuring gender equality means giving equal consideration to the life patterns, needs and interests of both women and men. Gender mainstreaming thus includes also changing the working culture. In information technologies, gender disparities exist at user level and in the labour market. By assuming that information technology is neutral, biases can enter into technological research and development that can have a negative impact on gender equality.”

You should also state you will comply with all relevant Community regulations and specifically address any conceivable impact on Safety or Conservation concerns


WP Descriptions• Limit them to single page forms. This is only a summary and

should not be too detailed. The details are elsewhere in B6. It could include an initial guestimate of man months per WP participant.

• They should include any mandatory or major deliverables numbered in the form Dx.y. Where “x” is the work package and “y” is a running number, usually chronological. Sometimes work packages are broken down in the proposal into Tasks. Then the numbering would include the task number within the WP and be of the form D.x.y.z

• For every identified activity you must have at least one deliverable


B6 Workplan• B6 does not consist only of the required PERT, GANTT and WP charts

and tables – they are purely summaries. You have up to fifteen pages available. Many proposals I see use perhaps one. That is why they grossly exceed many of the earlier parts of the proposal allocations. This section should include -

• rationale for your implementation method - - alternatives considered - phasing and check points - system design as appropriate - potential technical risks and fall backs - reference to other work - reference to other funded projects and justification

• This is the technical section – it is vital in convincing the evaluators of your “technical excellence. If you have extended background material that is vital, put in an appendix


Completing• Other costs per partner per WP

• Iterate costs to fit via spread sheet

• Update tables with man months,deliverables

• Add financial plan rationale to B4

• Update A3 with costs

• Fine tuning, proofing, spell check

• Final agreement of partners

• Initial submittal via EPSS


Finalising• I believe in using some experts, unfamiliar

with proposal to do a dummy evaluation using manual - so called “Red Teaming”

• This could then lead to some revision and final uploading via EPSS


EPSS• Extremely helpful - especially from periphery

• I recommend using online submittal

• Allows you to submit updated versions

• Last one at call close time is used

• Register early on (different from proposal pre-registration) - do both

• Upload successive drafts


Financial Points• Before choosing FCF, check calculated FC rate

• Overheads on all costs except sub-contract, audit

• Do not sub-contract key aspects

• Justify all sub-contracts

• 7% management at 100% not only for coordinator

• As coordinator, do some due diligence on partners

• Make sure you justify any large or unusual expenditures


Budget breakdown in Proposal• Must be split between types of activity as rates

can vary:– Project Management 100% up to 7%– Research and innovation 50%– (Demonstration 35%)– Training costs 100%

• Do not ever use “Demonstration”

• I have not included “Training” in my spread sheet


LinksFollowing are main links you will require -

• http://www.cordis.lu/ist

• https://www.epss-fp6.org/epss/welcome.jsp

• http://www.cordis.lu/experts/fp6_candidature.htm

• http://www.iserd.org.il/ist/documents/Bookfp6.zip

• http://www.iserd.org.il/ist/documents/Bookfp6.pdf

• http://www.ideal-ist.net

Preparing an IST Proposal Myer W Morron [email protected].

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