Agenda for the Successful Proposal Symposium

Day 1 - October 7th, 2010, 9:00 - 18:00

09:00 Registration desk opens

09:30-10:00 Introduction of participants, speakers and objectives of the workshop

The workshop will open with an opportunity for the participants to introduce themselves and meet the speakers for the two day event. The workshop chair Univ Prof Dr Dieter Fensel (STI Innsbruck) will provide an overview of the objectives of the workshop.

10:00-15:00 Funding Opportunities throughout Europe (with break for lunch 12:00-13:00)

Framework VII

The European Commission's Work Programme 2011/2 (Calls 7, 8 and 9) within the 7th Framework Program once again offers a broad range of calls and funding instruments for innovative proposals. We will provide an overview of the program, highlighting key funding lines through successfully accepted projects.

Capacities - Research for the benefits of SMEs

The objective is to strengthen the 'innovation capacity' of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe and their contribution to the development of new technology based products and markets. €1336 million is available in FP7 for this funding line. We will look at the structure of the funding program and the upcoming calls. (Speaker: Dr Anna Fensel)

Capacities - Research Infrastructures

The objective is to optimise the use and development of the best research infrastructures in Europe as well as to create new research infrastructures of pan-European interest. We will present a successful proposal in this funding line, SEALS. (Speaker: Dr Lyndon Nixon)

Cooperation: Themes 1-7

The different themes of the FP7 Cooperation work program will be introduced. (Speaker: Dr Lyndon Nixon)

Opportunities outside of the 'typical' ICT challenge will be highlighted, in particular, we will look at two successful proposals within other themes: Support (in Theme 10 Security), and e-Freight (in Theme 7 Transport). (Speaker: Davide Cerri)

Theme 3 (ICT)

The Theme 3 - Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) - will be afforded a particular focus. Even within this theme there is a broad range of funding opportunities. We will look particularly at the following:

Challenge 1
We will look at the following objectives within Network and Service Architectures: Internet of Services, Internet-connected objects, Trustworthy ICT and Networked Media. A number of successful projects within this challenge will be presented. (Speakers: Prof John Domingue, Dr Anna Fensel)
Challenge 4
We will look at the following objectives within Technologies for Digital Contents and Languages: Language Technologies and Intelligent Information Management. A number of successful projects within this challenge will be presented. (Speaker: Dr Lyndon Nixon)
Challenge 6
In the challenge on ICT for a low carbon economy, we will highlight a successfully running project in this unit, Envision. (Speaker: Ioan Toma)

Non-Framework VII

While many look only to the EC's Framework Program for funding, there are many opportunities for funding in other European programmes which will be introduced here.

EUREKA - national funding from cross-European research

EUREKA is a pan-European network for encouraging market-oriented, collaborative research and development (R&D) projects. Projects can be in any technological area and there are no restrictions on project size, timing or length. However, EUREKA is not a funding mechanism in itself and there is no central EU budget - rather, accepted projects seek funding in the respective nations of the participating organisations. We will look at the advantages and disadvantages of the EUREKA approach, and see how EUREKA can be used to support cross-European research (Speaker: Prof Juan Miguel Gomez)

COMET - Competence Centers for Excellence Research

COMET funds the building of competence centers of the highest quality. These centers have budget to fund research projects with other international partners, thus facilitating research collaboration with leading organisations in key areas of science and technology (Speaker: Dr Anna Fensel)

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL)

The AAL JP is a joint research and development funding programme implemented by 20 European Member States and 3 Associated States. Its objective is to enhance the quality of life of older people and strengthen the industrial base in Europe through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). We will present a successful proposal in this programme and look at upcoming calls.(Speaker: Dr Anna Fensel).

15:00-15:30 Coffee break

15:30-16:30 Statistics from past calls and best opportunities for new proposals

Time will be taken to look at the success rate of previous calls in the different funding programs and the shifts in focus and intent of those programs, seeking to extract insight on the best opportunities for new proposals. (Speaker: Dr Marco Grobelnik)

16:30-17:00 Coffee break

17:00-18:00 Invited talk: Is Linked Data a hot topic for research?

Following the Semantic Web's peak on the hype curve, it seems the new hype that everyone is talking about is Linked Data. Is there a place for Linked Data in the next wave of research proposals? (Speaker: Prof Soren Auer)

The first day will conclude with a social evening dinner with all the speakers and participants

Day 2 - October 8th, 2010, 10:00 - 16:00

10:00-11:00 How to Submit a Successful Proposal

Our opening talk on day 2 will return to some key aspects of proposal writing that can not be forgotten. Even the best idea may fail to receive funding if the consortium is badly chosen, or the proposal is badly written. The talk will cover the following points:

definition of topic (what, why how, implementation plan)
consortium selection
implementing proposal writing
generic and reusable pieces of proposals

(Speaker: Dr Elena Simperl)

11:00-11:30 The FI-PPP: a new call, a new chance?

The Future Internet is a new European initiative to fund research developing the infrastructure and technology necessary for the Internet of the future. The public-private partnership will fund efforts over 3 phases for providing use cases, a core platform, capacity building and programme management support. We will look at the structure of and opportunities in this programme.

(Speaker: Nuria de Lama)

11:30-12:30 Talks from successful funding raisers

Some leading names in successfully acquiring funding for their ideas will share their experiences and insights on submitting a successful proposal:

Soren Auer (University of Leipzig, a public university)
Marco Grobelnik (Josef Stefan Institute, a private research centre)
Grigoris Antoniou (ICS FORTH, a private research centre)
John Davies (British Telecom, a large company)

12:30-13:30 Lunch break

13:30-15:00 Presentations of proposal ideas

Participants will have time for lightning talks (duration depending on number of ideas being presented) where they can share some of their ideas for proposals in future calls.

15:00-16:00 Matchmaking (speed proposal dating)

One hour is set aside for matchmaking. In this session, participants have already browsed details of other participants using our online matchmaking tool and selected persons with whom they want to have the opportunity for a short meeting. Brief meetings will be scheduled by the tool and participants have received their schedule in the morning. In the matchmaking they have the opportunity to establish the possibility of further collaboration with their partners and exchange contact details or invite to closed meetings in the evening.

16:00-18:00 Closing reception at the hotel bar

The second day will formally close at 16:00 but there will be a closing reception at the bar to continue discussions in an informal atmosphere. In the evening, the participants are free to continue to meet in small groups for closed meetings around proposal preparations.