Top tips to build a winning consortium in Horizon Europe

Horizon Europe is the European Union's flagship research and innovation program for the period 2021-2027.

The program aims to support research and innovation activities and it offers a multitude of opportunities for scientists, researchers and innovators to collaborate on groundbreaking projects.

Embarking on a Horizon Europe project is an exciting opportunity to collaborate with experts from various fields and make a significant impact on research and innovation. However, choosing the right partners for your consortium for the success of your research proposal may be challenging.

In this blog post, we will delve into the essential considerations for choosing the perfect partners for your Horizon Europe project.

The features of a good partner

To create a convincing research proposal and ensure its success, it is crucial that each organization within the consortium possesses the necessary competences, skills, access to state-of-the-art facilities, and a supportive research environment to fulfill their assigned tasks and to contribute effectively to the project's objectives.

Without these necessary requirements, the project may lack credibility and struggle to achieve its milestones and objectives.

Look for partners who have a proven track record of successful research projects, publications, and collaborations. This evaluation will provide insights into their capabilities and ability to deliver results.

Effective communication and collaboration are also vital for the smooth functioning of any project. Look for partners who are responsive, proactive, and demonstrate a willingness to work collaboratively towards shared goals.

How to select the right partner

But having the best on board is not enough to guarantee the success of your project. So how do you proceed?

Here below a practical step-by-step guide that will help you to understand what are the elements that you need to consider and the approach you have to follow to operate your selection.

Align your consortium to the requirements of the call

While it may be tempting to rely on familiar colleagues or a trusted network, solely choosing those who have previously invited you to their consortium is not a winning strategy. Rather, it is essential to carefully analyze the call for proposals and align your consortium partners with the specific requirements outlined in the text.

Shift the focus to functions

Many times I have been asked by my coordinators “How many partners should I have in my consortium?”. There is no defined number. It depends on the project objectives and on the activities you have to perform. The key is to have the exact composition of organisations to be able to implement all the project tasks, and not more or less than that. So, the suggerion is to shift the discussion focus from “partners” to “functions”.

Seek complementary (and not overlapping) expertise

In line with the previous point, look for partners who possess skills, knowledge, and experience that complement the ones already available. Having two organisations onboard with the exact same competencies does not add any value to the project, so you should avoid it, unless there is a specific explanation for that (for example: clinical centres recruiting patients in a clinical trial, to reach the expected number of subjects in the cohort).

Foster collaboration and synergy

One crucial aspect of a successful consortium is fostering collaboration and synergy among participants. The consortium should be designed to maximize synergies, ensuring that partners work together, exchange knowledge, and contribute to the project's overall objectives. Each partner must actively collaborate with others, and you should avoid having “isolated” tasks to which one partner only is contributing, without any collaboration of others.

Multidisciplinarity and intersectoriality

Multidusciplinarity and cross-sectoral collaboration are fundamental components of a well-balanced consortium. Ideally, the entire value chain should be represented, spanning various disciplines and sectors. This approach fosters innovation, creativity, and potential breakthroughs, as different perspectives converge to tackle complex challenges. Depending if your project is expected to be a Research and Innovation Action (RIA) or an Innovation Action (IA), you may need to have a different consortium composition: a major representation of universities and research centres in RIAs or of private companies in IAs.

Geographical coverage and balance

A well-balanced geographical distribution within the consortium is crucial. Representation from different countries implies different ethnic, cultural, social and legislative conditions, ensuring that the project is inclusive and reproducible in various contexts. This diversity enhances the project's impact and widens its potential for global applicability. Therefore, try not to involve too many partners from the same country, as this would also result in a polarised distribution of resources over a few countries.

Common pitfalls in partners selection

To better understand what are the pitfalls associated with a wrong choice in your consortium, I would like to tell you some stories that recall some of my past experiences.

Case n. 1 - The “friends of friends” approach

The coordinator felt obligated to involve all peers in his field. He was concerned that some long-time colleagues might take offence at not being included in an initiative on that topic, and that they in turn might decide not to invite him if they decided to propose a project.

This resulted in a very big consortium (over 30 partners) that was difficult to manage, many of them with overlapping competences and from the same country (that of the coordinator).

In an attempt to reduce the number of partners, some of them were given the role of third parties, just trying to get around the obstacle of the number of partners and the unbalance in geographical terms, but without thinking about the specific requirements related to participation as a third party and the complications that would arise later on.

What was the impact of this choice? Immediately after the project started, an amendment to the contract was required to fix the position of these “fake third parties”. This delayed significantly the smooth start of the project activities, trying to solve the legal terms of the collaboration.

Case n. 2 - The partner in its spare time

The coordinator invited a well-known university to participate in its consortium, based on some already existing scientific collaborations, which would be further strengthened by the project, should it be funded. And this would indeed be a good assumption, were it not for the fact that the professor who had been involved did not meet a single deadline for submitting contributions, was constantly chased by the coordinator for scientific feedback, and by the call deadline he had practically not contributed to the writing, except by sending parts of other projects, of which he did not even bother to change the acronym! Not a good premise for future collaboration!

What was the impact of this choice? This organisation was removed from the consortium during the preparation of the Grant Agreement, as they did not provide the necessary feedback on time, and replaced with another one that was ready to jump in and actively and timely contribute.

Case n. 3 - The check-the-box partner

In the call text, it was stated that the participation of patient associations was encouraged. The Coordinator decided to involve a small association of patients operating at the national level, with whom he already had contacts. The association had no experience of European projects, the few volunteers who collaborate did not know English well, so the Coordinator translated every request for information, specifically for them. In the attempt to facilitate the whole process, it offered a very small and vague role in the dissemination Workpackage. The budget allocated to them was amounting just to a few tens of thousands of euros. "Let's start putting your name, then we'll see." the Coordinator said. The impact of this choice? The evaluation of the project highlighted that the added value of this partner was not clear, and that the level of collaboration with the other partners in the different activities was not valued in the proposal. The project was not funded, also because of this lack of vision.

These three examples teach us that it is crucial to devote time to choosing the right partners for the project. Any hasty or inadequate choice has an impact on the evaluation and, in the case of funded projects, on the implementation of the activities.

Conclusion

Building the right consortium for your Horizon Europe research proposal is a critical element in securing funding and successfully accomplishing project objectives. By adhering to the call for proposals, selecting partners with specific roles and competences, and promoting collaboration and synergy, you can build a well-balanced consortium that drives innovation and delivers impactful outcomes. Remember, the size of the consortium should not be the primary focus; rather, it is the effective coordination, complementary expertise, and shared commitment that will ultimately result in a compelling and successful research proposal.

Image by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash