Preparation EU projects
Proposal preparation
It is the responsibility of the Coordinator to take charge of the preparation and submission of the proposal. In most cases, and in particular for large Collaborative Projects, Design Studies and Integrating Activities, the preparation of the proposal is a difficult enterprise necessitating many months of dedicated work with input from the other participants. The project structure – e.g. work packages and WP leaders – is usually set up in advance, and the WP leaders provide essential input and feedback to the Project Coordinator, who has to assemble the different contributions in one coherent proposal.
The structure of proposals depends on the Specific Programme the proposal will be submitted to. Proposals submitted to all H2020 programmes (except for ERC) consist of three main sections – Excellence, Impact and Implementation, and the evaluation criteria are based upon these sections. The precise content of these sections, including some mandatory tables and useful instructions, are specified in the proposal templates on the call description page.
The degree of involvement of CERN staff in the preparation of EU projects depends on the nature of the tasks CERN will have in the project. In projects where CERN has an important role (but is not a Coordinator), CERN staff may be asked to become WP Coordinators and/or members of the Management Board (Executive Committee) of the project, and as such they will be expected to provide some input to the technical content and/or review of the proposal. It may also happen that CERN has a small participation in a given project, or that the Organization is asked to join a project towards the end of the preparation, so in such cases CERN will have very little or no contribution to the proposal writing.
| All EU proposals, coordinated or not by CERN, will need to undergo an internal approval process at CERN before submission to the EC, via EDH. |
The submission of all H2020 projects is done in electronic format via the Participant Portal. Apart from the proposal document, referred to as “Part B” of the proposal (that needs to be uploaded on the Participant Portal), there is a set of forms (Part A) with legal, administrative and financial information about each participant, that need to be filled out directly on the Participant Portal.
| It is important that a copy of the administrative and budget forms is sent for verification to the EU Projects Office prior to the submission, as well as a copy of the final version of the submitted proposal. |
E-training on EU project funding demystified is available on the CERN Training Catalogue.
More useful information related to the preparation of proposals at CERN can be found below: