Good practices for developing successful multi-actor project proposals: Focusing on contextual factors
The context in which partners collaborate strongly shapes the quality and success of multi-actor project proposals. Even strong ideas may fail if differences in partners’ capacities, resources, and working conditions are overlooked. The relevant context covers the economic, organisational, sectoral, and cultural environments that affect partners’ contribution. Thus, the diverse partner experiences form a unique background against which the project proposal needs to be co-developed. A successful consortium depends not only on the idea, but on partners’ capacities and mutual balance. A study conducted in the PREMIERE project shows that actors engaged in Horizon Europe multi-actor projects believe that key contextual factors with particularly strong impact on the success of the proposal include (1) administrative, financial, and staff capacity, (2) prior experience with international projects, (3) national regulatory framework, (4) organisational profiles and work cultures, (5) organisation-specific budget setting, and (6) consortium size. Understanding of and willingness to adapt to different national and organisational contexts allows fair workload sharing and avoids misunderstandings, while sensitivity to diverse institutional cultures ensures that each partner’s strengths are used effectively. Proposals should adjust coordination, communication, and budgeting to align with partners’ motivation, capacities, and expectations. For a well-balanced multi-actor proposal, partners need to recognise the variations in organisational capabilities and available resources and find a way to empower others actors who are invited to join the consortium. For more see 10.5281/zenodo.16778405
Preparing multi-actor projects in a co-creative way
Ongoing | 2023-2027
- Main funding source
- Horizon Europe (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
- Geographical location
- Germany, Estonia, France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Poland, Slovenia, EU member states