No other consulting company has the same level of experience as we do in ERC projects and no other company has the same outstanding record of success.  We have worked in detail now on nearly 500 drafts and trained many more researchers in the principles of how to write successful proposals for these programmes.  Many companies won’t accept ERC project assignments as they not only don’t know the programmes well enough but the very demanding nature of the science and the seniority of the researchers has made it too tough for them to sustain a business in this field.  Some other companies offer general training and we are often engaged on the back of that general overview to work in detail with the individuals and to drive the work much harder and much further towards the completion of a winning proposal.

We don’t apply a general solution to all projects or advise only on matters of conformity or eligibility or of the cv but actually delve into the depths of the work in close dialogue with the researcher to draw out the best ideas for this programme and fit them into a winning logic and rhetoric.  Our only focus is on winning and we work backwards from there to deliver a customised and one-off response to the particular problems of each proposal and, so, at times the process can be quite demanding of time and effort (on both sides).  We will keep unpicking and rebuilding the work until it is in the best shape it can be as we know that it will face a very tough test when it sits in front of the evaluators – in fact, probably, the toughest assessment of any EC programme.

This blog below focuses on ERC work as I have been asked to do so much of it and the ideas around writing for the ERC seemed interesting and quite complex and worth capturing and exploring and publishing.  I’d like to draw attention to the fact that this is only one line of work that we do – we are very active in writing proposals across all areas of EC funding – in all parts of H2020 and beyond for example and would be very happy to discuss possible collaborations on the wider topic of proposal development.  We are also very experienced project planners and managers and have an excellent track record in policy studies and evaluations – please don’t hesitate to get in contact to discuss any aspect of our work beyond that discussed in this blog.