UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA
Research Service
May 2014

Servei de Recerca Abril 2014

 Having a clear idea of the project results;
 Verify the level of innovation of the idea
 Establish the ideal consortia;
 Obtain support from the institution
 Plan.
specific objectives and expected go beyond the state of the art;
UPF Research Service;
Research Service May 2014

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal//desktop/en/home.html
Research Service May 2014

List of all open calls
Search calls by key words
Research Service May 2014

Pillar to which the call belongs
Deadline of the call
Title of call
Official reference
Research Service
Filter by type of project
May 2014

Topics: available research lines
Research Service
Information on call
May 2014

Research line within call
Title of call
Official reference
Research Service
Keyword
May 2014

Specific challenge
How they want the challenge solved: budget, specific conditions...
What needs to be achieved
Type of project
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May 2014

Research Service May 2014

 Ensure that the project fits within the call;
 Prepare a good synthesis of the project (abstract);
 Define the profile of the necessary partners and look for them;
 Plan;
 START!
Contact the Research Service
Research Service May 2014

 Fundamental tool to “sell” your project;
 Encompasses the project and its area;
 How the project fits in the call specificities;
 Mentions the potential impact of the project;
 It can be used to identify which consortium will be needed.
• Search for partners;
• Check with National Contact Points whether the project fits in the objectives of the call.
Research Service May 2014

Items to consider:
 Experience and technical and scientific know-how;
 Entities: universities, research centres, SMEs, NGOs, institutes, government agencies...
 Geographical distribution: > 3 EU countries should be represented;
 What can each partner provide? Infrastructures, management, knowledge;
Principal consortium
• Core of the project;
• Basic partners to build the project;
• With previous joint work experience (preferred).
Research Service
Global consortium
• Implements the project;
• It has to comply with all requirements of call;
• Representative composition of
EU.
May 2014

 Personal and/or professional contacts;
 National Contact Points (experts for each topic);
 CORDIS:
• Search for partners
• Partners or coordinators from previous projects
 Infodays;
 Specialised websites for each knowledge area:
• Social challenge 1 (Health)
Research Service May 2014

The full submission is online
Research Service May 2014

Contact the
Research
Service
Deadline of call
Acronym and summary of project. They can be modified anytime
Research Service May 2014

Part A:
• A1: general information
• A2: information on partners
• A3: budget (for each partner and total)
• A4: ethical aspects
Part B1:
• Scientific excellence
• Impact
• Implementation of project
Part B2:
• Description of consortium
• Ethical and security aspects
Part B3 (if applicable):
• Ethical annex
Research Service
May 2014

For the coordinador and partners, the data must coincide with Part B.
Research Service May 2014

Clear description of the project objectives, work plan, expected impacte, consortium...
 The template that can be found at the Participant Portal must be followed;
 The idicated format must be respected:
• Size of font: minimum 11;
• A4 page with 15 mm margins;
• Limit of pages in each section.
 Put yourself in the evaluator’s shoes:
• Make an attractive and easy to read proposal: graphs, tables, diagrams;
• Write in standard English (evaluators come from all around the EU).
Research Service May 2014

 1.1 Objectives: define scientific objectives based on the expected impact
 1.2 How it relates to the work programme
 1.3 Concept and scientific approach:
• Describe the global concapt and the most representative ideas;
• Mention interdisciplinary elements;
• Define the global strategy, work plan, methodology... graphs
 1.4 Ambition
• Detail the state of the art and how the project goes beyond it;
• Which innovations does the project provide compared to other projects;
• Mention potential scientific/technological risks related to the project.
Research Service May 2014

 2.1 Expected impact:
• Define how the project will achieve impact established in the work program. The impact must be quantified to the extent possible;
• Describe obstacles and regulations that could diminish impact.
 2.2 Mesures to maximize impact:
• Dissemination and result exploitation:
 Establish a dissemination plan and result exploitation during and at the end of the project: publications, congresses, web, associations...
 Publications must be in Open Access;
 Management of intellectual property: Consortium Agreement.
• Communication strategy: it is important that knowledge will be transferred to non-scientific or academic public.
Research Service May 2014

 It is compulsory that H2020 beneficiaries deposit all scientific
publications within the H2020 financed research in open access
 In the social challenge VI calls, it is compulsory to deposit in open access all research data produced within the project framework.
Research Service May 2014

Beneficiares of Horizon 2020 grants should:
• Ensure open access of all peer-reviewed papers accepted for journal publication
• As soon as possible, within 6 months (or 12 months for SSH)
• At an OpenAire complaint institutional repository 

1
Submit publication to journal of choice
• OA = good! (but not necessary )
• Publishing fees are considered eligible grant expense
2
Deposit open access version in repository
• Almost all publishers allow this!
• Embargo’s are allowed
3
OpenAIRE harvests publications from network
• Makes them visible through OpenAIRE portal
• Researchers use the persistent identifier
(handle URL) for their reports

Before publication
At the paper, ensure the correction of:
- Author’s name
- Affiliation
- Name of the action, acronym and grant number
(Acknowledge / Sponsorship)
Exemple: This work has been supported by the XXXX project, grant agreement number YYYY, funded by the EC Seventh Framework
Programme theme FP7-ENERGY-XXXX.

Choosing a journal
Devon Greyson, University of British Columbia 26

How to achieve open access
University of Essex http://www.essex.ac.uk/reo/research_community/university_of
_essex_research_repository/open_access/

1. Identifying Gold/Green journals
1. Sherpa/Romeo
2. Journal websites (“for authors” section)
3. Ask the library
2. Navigating Copyright
Ask about options, most publishers will grant some rights (via APCs payments)
3. Deposit at institutional repository
Send your postprint to repositori@upf.edu

http://repositori.upf.edu/

Publication version
Submitted
• Preprint
• Before peer-review
Accepted
• Postprint
• After peerreview
Published
• PDF
• Editor version

It’s very important that you keep a copy of your work

• Pay attention to the publisher’s agreements
• Use SHERPA/RoMEO website to know about publishers policies http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/
• Save a copy of your pre-prints and postprints
• License your works with when possible
• Ask the library!

• EC Guidelines on Open Access in H2020 https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/sites/horizon2020/files/F actSheet_Open_Access.pdf
• Open Access Guidelines for researchers funded by the ERC http://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document/file/ERC_Open_Access
_Guidelines-revised_2013.pdf
• Open Access in Horizon 2020 https://www.openaire.eu/openaccess-in-horizon-2020

 3.1 Work plan:
• Global strategy of the work plan;
• Work packages (WP), tasks, deliverables, milestones and Gantt chart;
• Exhaustive description of each WP following the template;
• Interrelation of different components through a Perth diagram.
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 3.2 Administration:
• Describe the consortium and the decision making system: Consortium
Agreement;
• Risk analysis and contingency plans.
 3.3 The consortium:
• Describe the global consortium, how the common work will be carried out, control and management mechanisms...
• Capacity of the consortium to achieve objectives;
• Complementarity among participants.
Research Service May 2014

 Each partner of the consortium describes what they contribute with and that their presence is essential:
• Description of the institution and the main tasks that will carry out, detailing how these relate to their profile;
• Detail the profit that the project generates the scientific team;
• Curriculum Vitae or description of the main members of the team;
• A maximum of 5 publications related to the project objective;
• A maximum of 5 participations in other projects related with this one;
• Detail available infrastructure that might be essential for the objectives.
 There is no page limit.
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 3.4 Resources:
• Detail the work and capital effort contact with the R.S.
ALWAYS contact the Research Service to prepare the budget, both for partners and coordinators.
 Calculate the budget based in total costs.
 Always check that:
• The resources have to fit the real needs of the project;
• Personnel costs (work and capital) reflect the task distribution by partner;
• The cost breakdown has to be well structured for activities and participants;
• The equipment acquisition and subcontracting must be justified;
• The inclusion of every partner in the project is well justified.
Research Service May 2014

 Which expenses are eligible?
• Own and contracted personnel (PI + team);
• Equipment;
• Travel, research stays, assistance to congresses, conferences...
• Organization of conferences, congresses...
• Publications (Open Access)
 Compulsory expense: whenever the EC funds over 325.000€ there must be a financial audit. Its cost is paid by the project;
 Proposals with an “inflated” budget will be poorly evaluated.
Research Service
ALWAYS contact the Research Service
May 2014

 Mention any ethical aspect that there might be:
• Use of personal data, either collected within the project or re-using previous data;
• Studies involving children;
• Animal research;
• Participation of countries outside the EU;
• Military potential;
• Others.
 There is no page limit.
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Research Service May 2014

 Excellence:
• Clarity of objectives;
• Soundness of concepts, bearing in mind the interdisciplinary nature;
• Credibility of approach;
• Go beyond the state of the art.
 Impact:
• The expected impact for each topic, depending on the work program;
• Improvement of the innovation capacity and integration of new knowledge;
• Efficacy of proposals and dissemination of the project and results exploitation.
 Quality and efficiency of implementation
• Coherence and efficacy of the work plan, including the distribution of tasks and resources;
• Quality, experience and complementarity among participants and of global consortium;
• Quality of management of the project and risk control.
Research Service May 2014

 Proposals are evaluated by at least 3 experts, although in most cases there will be more than 5.
 Experts have strict guidelines:
• Ignore pages beyond the limit;
• Evaluate the proposal as is presented, without considering the potential it might have if some small changes were made.
 In H2020 there will not be a lot of margin for evaluators to make recommendations to improve the proposals, even regarding the budget.
Research Service May 2014

Research Service May 2014

 Notification of the result of the evaluation: up to 5 months after the call closure;
 Negotiation with the EC: up to 3 more months;
 Beginning of the project: up to 12 months after the signature of the contract.
Research Service May 2014

 The objectives must be described clearly and understandably;
 The objectives must fit within the topic;
 The consortium must be strong and balanced;
 The work plan must be realistic and complete;
 Try to quantify the expected impact;
 A realistic and feasible result exploitation strategy must be included;
 Use clear and simple language;
 Use visual tools (graphs, diagrams...) to facilitate the evaluators’ work;
 Plan your work: the elaboration of a proposal takes time!
 The abstract is the essence of the project: it must attract the evaluator;
 Use the Research Service and the National Contact Points.
Research Service May 2014

UPF RESEARCH SERVICE projectes.recerca@upf.edu
Research Service May 2014