Typically, projects don't just fall down from heaven; it is hard work to get one. No matter if you target a professional career in academia or in industry, project acquisition will be part of your future work.

This issue is a bit neglected in the textbook. Therefore, this section provides guideline.

• How to acquire a project.
• How to write a project proposal.

This section focuses on the environment of universities. However, project acquisition in companies follows similar basic rules.

Project acquisition

The acquisition of projects and funding is essential for each university or institute. For example, the Institute for Geoinformatics in Münster is working with 7-8 staff members regularly paid by the university. But 30-50 additional staff members (students and research assistants) are working at the institute and are paid by projects.

Therefore, some of you will already be involved in project acquisition before finishing your Master thesis. And you will definitely be involved in project acquisition if you go on with an academic career.

Although there are many different types of projects, the basic rules are quite similar. Some general guidelines:
Funding organizations and programs:

Funding opportunities for GI institutes are on different levels:

• The university itself might offer its own funding programs. Usually, their budgets are rather small, e.g., for mobility measures (researchers, teachers).
• On the national level, there are several funding opportunities:
  • Awards for projects and personal achievements, e.g., there will be several opportunities for your Master/Diploma thesis
  • oundations – there are many, most with a very specific target and a rather small budget
  • egional programs, e.g., programs for the city or the state
  • National programs, e.g., in Germany, from the DAAD and DFG for larger projects in research and education
• The international level mostly targets big projects in education and research that involve international partners, e.g., the EC programs “7. Framework Program” for research activities, ALFA/TEMPUS/Asia-Link for cooperation in education, or the “eLearning Programme”, of which the provision of this course is a part.
• Non-funded projects with companies or authorities as employers.

On all levels, project acquisition has this in common: be informed!

An obvious information source is the Internet. However, information retrieval has to be structured:

• Information retrieval requires structured contact and access points, e.g., a list of URLs you regular check (university information desks, funding organizations), your registration for email lists and notification services, which automatically tell you about new opportunities.
• Personal contacts are often the best way of getting information. Talking with university staff members, program officials and partners might provide you with information about funding opportunities you did not even think of before.

Partner acquisition:

Partner acquisition is part of a most useful and often underestimated activity: networking. The most promising method for partner acquisition proves the success of your networking activities: get invited. If you have performed effective marketing for you and your institute and created a large network of personal contacts, the chances are good that somebody will ask you to participate in a project. Apart from avoiding work, you have a good chance to judge the project idea and its potential benefit for you, because an invitation for participation usually goes along with basic concepts and potential partners of the targeted project.

The second best option is that you invite partners for a project. It is more work for you to initiate a project and a project consortium, but you have the chance to select the partners that are the best for you.

The third, but not recommended, option for partner acquisition is to use partner pools. For example, in the larger programs from the European Commission, there are physical and virtual contact platforms. The problem is you have little information about the quality of the potential partners, and, often, only weak partners use this method.

All options have one thing in common: Select your project partners very carefully. You should know very well if a potential partner is capable and willing to work on the content and the organizational challenges of a project. Inappropriate partners, e.g., “found” in a partner pool, can turn a project into a nightmare.

Program evaluation:

The first idea for looking for funded projects might be to screen available funding opportunities. Of course, this is essential, but the better sequence is to think first about your project idea, and then look for appropriate funding opportunities. Looking for the money first, leaves you with options that you do not really want and that do not benefit you very much. Be optimistic, define exactly what you want, and be confident that some program will fit to it.

A general thumb rule is that your project objectives have to match 80-90 % of the program objectives. For the further evaluation of whether the funding program is worth a try.

• Evaluate the resources you need for writing a proposal versus the chances for success in terms of approval rate and targeted amount of funding (e.g., many EC programs have acceptance rates of 10-20 %)
• Evaluate if the funding rules are appropriate for you (e.g., many programs require a network contribution to the project, which, especially for universities, is difficult to provide).
• Evaluate your own capabilities and resources, (e.g., is the required personnel with the required expertise available on the required schedule?)

Proposals

Mostly, universities apply for projects in funding programs provided by local, national, or international organizations. There are some general rules for the submission of a project proposal:

• Read carefully the proposal forms and guidelines for applicants! (E.g., at first glance, the program fits perfectly to your project idea, but you have overlooked “minor” issues like “the deadline is past” or “your country is not allowed in this program”.)
• Obey formal rules! (E.g., even if you might think it ridiculous to send 4 original paper versions, just do it. Each funding program receives many applications, and they will be happy to kick you out for formal reasons – less work for them.)
• Use given proposal structure and key words! (E.g., the reviewers have to evaluate many proposals. First, they are not willing to consider the different structure of your proposal, which you might think much more logical. And reviewers like key words. If the program objective is to “support the Bologna process”, be sure that you wrote “Bologna process” at least five times, and the reviewer will almost be convinced that you addressed this program objective.)
• Address the program’s evaluation criteria! (Most funding programs provide transparent evaluation criteria. After finishing the first draft version of your proposal, re-read it with the eyes of a reviewer and check if you have addressed all evaluation criteria in the best way.)
• Answer ALL questions asked in the proposal form! (All programs explicitly or implicitly formulate questions that the applicant should answer. Screen the proposal forms and guidelines for those questions and be sure that you answered all of them.)
• Before you start writing a proposal, define who is leading the proposal writing and get clear commitments from the project partners for the various tasks for submitting the proposal! (Writing a proposal can be considered as a project itself. It is most important to have a “boss” and to have organized which partner is responsible for what during this process.)
• Set up a schedule with milestones and deadlines for performing the proposal writing process! (An obvious example is that you have to finish the project’s work plan before you can calculate the budget. Typically, budget calculation is a difficult and time-consuming task. If the milestone for the work plan is not scheduled appropriately, and the budget is calculated on the last day, the budget will have mistakes, and the project consortium will loose money. Another example (by own experience) is the provision of an originally signed letter of intent or letter of support from all project partners, which often are required in bigger programs. An early milestone for the provision of these documents is essential. It can happen that the respective decision maker is not willing to sign the document or is currently not available, and, therefore, the proposal has to be re-written for one partner less, or the almost ready proposal has to be canceled.)

Funding programs, projects and, consequently, project proposals differ widely. However, proposals have basic elements, which are also applicable for non-funded projects, e.g., offers to and contracts with companies:

• Abstract (or executive summary)
• Consortium
• Objectives
• Relevance of the project
• Project description
• Activities
• Results
• Budget.

1. Abstract

Most of the program guidelines require an abstract or summary of the project. Typically, there are a specified number of words or characters, e.g., 100 words in the EC program ALFA.

An abstract cannot provide all the project details you think important. An abstract can be considered as an advertisement for reading and appreciating the rest. Therefore, an abstract can only provide some key ideas or the “killer idea” or “unique selling points” by emphasizing the underlying important problem and its solution.

Invest time – it is worth the effort! An abstract is the most important part of the proposal. After reading the abstract, a major part of the decision process of the reviewer for approval or denial is over.

In informal proposals, an abstract or summary might not be required officially. However, the provision of an executive summary is essential. As a rule of thumb, it should not exceed one page. The emphasis is on the (expected) results.

2. Consortium

A reviewer wants to know if the project consortium will be capable of fulfilling the promised tasks and achieving the expected results. Therefore, a proposal has to

• Include information about the expertise and know-how of each partner and the staff members
• Show that the consortium is coherent – each partner contributes with his core competences to the common goal.

3. Objectives

Objectives are high-level. For example, an objective is NOT to exchange students, but enhance the cooperation of two partners in GI education.

The project objectives have to match the objectives of the targeted funding program.

4. Relevance of the project

Relevance has several aspects:

1. The project is relevant for achieving the overall goals of the funding program.
2. The project has the potential to solve a relevant problem.
3. The project consortium is relevant for the project: Due to previous work, the consortium is appropriate to perform the project.
4. The project does something new. Previous work of the consortium and of others have to be described; the “new” has to be argued.

A project always addresses certain needs. Make this your “unique selling point”.

5. Project description

The project description provides details about organizational aspects and contents of the project. Although this part of a proposal is the largest, no further guidelines can be provided: It differs too widely from proposal to proposal. But mostly, strict rules and structures are given for describing a project.

6. Activities

Performing activities can be considered as part of the method to achieve the project objectives. The underlying question is “Why (do you perform this activity)?”

Of course, each activity has to be described carefully in order to show “What (is it)?”

The next question is “How?” Each activity has as a defined person who is responsible. And activities have certain starting and ending dates.

However, the most important aspect is: each activity leads to a physical and measurable result!

Even if not required, activities should be illustrated in terms of an overview figure or table. Typically, activities are hierarchical with top- and low-level activities.

7. Results

Results are directly produced from activities. As stated for the activities, results are part of the method to achieve the project objectives. Each result has specifications, what it looks like, a responsible person and a deadline.

Results have to be physical and measurable!!! For example.

• A project result is NOT “students’ mobility measures” but two-page students’ mobility reports and transcripts of records, documenting four three-month mobility measures of partner A and B in 2006.
• A project result is NOT a “project meeting” but the meeting minutes.
• A project result is NOT a “prototype” but the test report certifying that the prototype fulfills the required specification.

The definition of results also forms a basis for risk management. Typically, a result is an input for the next activity, and a clear definition of the output of the first activity facilitates the analysis of the risk, if a result is not available for the second activity.

Results should be illustrated in terms of overview figures. Typically, activities and results are commonly described in the same figure/table.

8. Budget

The most appropriate guideline is: Read the respective program rules. Budget calculations differ widely from program to program. Most important is to evaluate the eligible costs versus the non-eligible costs. “Popular mistakes” are thinking costs eligible, when they are not; neglecting maximum amounts, lump sums, and, especially, non-eligibility of VAT. If applicable, network contributions to the project costs are a severe problem.

Typical budget items in a project are:

• Personnel
• Travel costs
• Consumables
• Durable equipment
• Sub-contracting
• Other costs
• Overhead.

Overall project logic

The overall logic of a project proposal rests on the following sequence:

Objectives → Activities → Results

After writing a first version of a proposal, re-read it carefully and make a VERY strict examination, if

• Each objective is addressed by appropriate activities, and, vice-versa, if each activity addresses a pre-defined objective
• Each activity ends with a physical, measurable result!!!!