1. Experience from H2020 Proposals (a personal assessment)

2. General Situation Generous funding vs. a little bit of bureaucracy A proposal must fully comply with its Call Successful proposals have to be excellent or outstanding Only a small fraction of the submitted proposals will be funded The management of an H2020 project needs professional administrative support In the following, you can find my personal suggestions

3. 1. Analyze Open H2020 Calls Look for promising Calls Try to understand each Call - goal and desired results - academia vs. industry - available funding - formal aspects (e.g., number of partners) Offer and demand: Look at available statistics Try to find excellent ideas Assess your chances

4. 2. Submit a Proposal Look for partners to field a qualified team, identify their potential tasks and roles, define a coordinator and the participants Prepare your home institution Contact your National Point of Contact: Can they help you? Be prepared for dozens of teleconferences with your partners Compile and write a convincing proposal Submit the proposal on time Analyze the review results

5. 3a. Understand the Reviewers

6. 3b: Understand the Reviewers Criterion 1 - Excellence Score: n.nn (Threshold: 3/5.00, Weight: 100.00%) Note: The following aspects will be taken into account, to the extent that the proposed work corresponds to the topic description in the work programme. If a proposal is partly out of scope, this must be reflected in the scoring, and explained in the comments. Clarity and pertinence of the objectives Credibility of the proposed approach Soundness of the concept, including trans-disciplinary considerations, where relevant Extent that proposed work is ambitious, has innovation potential, and is beyond the state of the art (e.g. ground-breaking objectives, novel concepts and approaches) [Followed by comments made by the reviewers]

7. 3c: Understand the Reviewers Criterion 2 - Impact Score: n.nn (Threshold: 3/5.00, Weight: 100.00%) Note: The following aspects will be taken into account, to the extent to which the outputs of the project should contribute at the European and/or International level: The expected impacts listed in the work programme under the relevant topic Enhancing innovation capacity and integration of new knowledge Strengthening the competitiveness and growth of companies by developing innovations meeting the needs of European and global markets, and where relevant, by delivering such innovations to the markets Any other environmental and socially important impacts (not already covered above) Effectiveness of the proposed measures to exploit and disseminate the project results (including management of IPR), to communicate the project, and to manage research data where relevant [Followed by comments made by the reviewers]

8. 3d: Understand the Reviewers Criterion 3 - Quality and efficiency of the implementation Score: n.nn (Threshold: 3/5.00, Weight: 100.00%) Note: The following aspects will be taken into account: Coherence and effectiveness of the work plan, including appropriateness of the allocation of tasks and resources Complementarity of the participants within the consortium (when relevant) Appropriateness of the management structures and procedures, including risk and innovation management [Typical comments made by the reviewers] The consortium is well balanced including commercial companies that use big data from space, partners in foundational research in spatiotemporal big data management, software development, and the Earth Observation community… The management structure and procedures proposed are sound. Risk management is adequate… The proposal is well aligned with the topic description in the work programme. The detailed objectives are pertinent. The three use cases are described in relevant detail…

9. 4. After Approval Be prepared for negotiations - consider de-scoping - think of each partner Care for administrative infrastructure - you need qualified administrative staff - professional management (budget, reporting) Keep your partners motivated - regular teleconferences - publications - discuss about potential successor projects