1. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu Proposal Writing ICEG European Center

2. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu Structure of the presentation Proposal writing = cooking a meal for your guests You have to choose the right recipe You have to optimise your inputs You have to meet your guests’ expectations, taste I.Ingredients of a proposal II.Instructions for the cooking

3. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu Different proposals 1.Made for your own purposes 2.Made for a scientific paper, for education, PhD programme 3.For a grant call 4.For a tender call 5....

4. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu Ingredients I. „Scientific” II. Managerial, operative III. Budget IV. Administrative I. + II.: „Technical proposal”

5. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu Introduction 1.Who prepares for this proposal 2.For what reason 3.Date, signature 4.If it is an answer for a call: cite all details of the call 5.Any declarations (Consortium, validity, etc)

6. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu Background 1.Summarises the knowledge already available in the field 2.Shows your competence 3.Gives a literature review 4.If it is an answer for a call: reflect on the Terms of Reference (ToR) / Request for Proposal (RFP)

7. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu Research questions 1.Which are the most important research questions/challenges that need to be answered? 2.What are YOUR questions for this work? 3.How will your project add value to the existing? (Scientificly, policy-wise, etc) You have to SELL your idea!!!! WHY is your work of crucial importance?

8. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu Methodology How do you want to answer the research questions? Literature review (National and international, theoretic and other empirical, best practices, etc) Empirical (questionnaires, surveys, databases, statistical and econometrical analyses)

9. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu Proposed structure 1. What will be the outcome of the project? One report? One paper? Several? In what structure? 2. Give a detailed (2 or 3 levels) planned Table of Contents (the titles of the chapters and subchapters) 3. You may also want to describe in 1-2 paragraphs the planned content of those chapters

10. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu List of deliverables If it is an answer for a call, please list out the main deliverables of the project. Reports, papers 2. Workshops, events 3. Managerial and financial reports 4.... Anything else the ToR / RFP requires as deliverables

11. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu Timetable A planned timetable for the project, including all deliverables and main phases of the work. (e.g. When do you do the literature review, surveys, submission of drafts.. Etc) Time indication: t0+1, t0+2... t0: start of the program (signature of contract in case of grants or tenders) You might want to give a graphical representation

12. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu Who does what If it is a work carried out by several people with different competencies or carried out by several institution, specify the exact roles, responsibilities ! If it is a big project with many deliverables and details, give a managerial overview anout how you plan to conduct it.

13. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu Who is who You have to submit: Institutional description and references CVs of experts 2 choices: Put here the full versions Use here only a paragraph-long, short CVs and descriptions, and put the big ones into an Annex

14. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu Budget 1.If you have client/donor, they might give you a special table to fill out 2.Nevertheless, it is advisable to do a bottom- up budget for your own 3. Pay attention to making it credible 4. ? VAT reclaiming – not always possible! 5. If it is a grant, you might have special conditions: e.g. Overhead cannot be more than 7% of the total budget

15. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu Now we cook: 1.You need a different share of the ingredients for various proposals. You need less of the managerial stuff if it is a strictly scientific proposal 2.If it is a tender or a grant: you have to promise a lot in order to win, on the other hand it will be a part of your contract!!! Then you really have to carry it out 3. If it is a tender or a grant: you might have to meet a special format requirement, otherwise you have more freedom in using the ingredients 4. Pay attention to the format-wise issues: headings, language, spell-check, cover pages, etc

16. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu Planning the proposal preparation 1.Check eligiblity! 2.Read the ToR / RFP at least 4 times. 3. Does it worth? Efforts and results. 4. Do I need partners? Experts or institutions? 5. Make your own proposal preparation team – for admin things might need an assistant 4. You might ask questions from the client/donor UP TO a couple of days before submission – ask if you have any doubts

17. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu The most important thing What does the client/donor/reader REALLY want? In what kind of scientific framework they use? What are the hot topics, keywords for them? Make sure that it is clear from the proposal that you understand this framework. Do not hesitate to „cite” from their ToR/RFP Prove that you do not only understand their problems but you can add real value to their interests. Do not lie, but don’t be shy.

18. ICEG European Center 6/B Dayka Gabor Street, Budapest Tel/Fax: +36 1 248-1160 e-mail: office@icegec.hu website:www.icegec.hu Thank you!