Tips and tricks on how to prepare a project proposal for FRACTALS grant for developing applications for agrifood sector. FRACTALS will distribute a total grant support of 5,52m € to 50‐60 SMEs and Web entrepreneurs from all over Europe to develop Future Internet based applications for the Agricultural Sector. The FRACTALS Open Call has been launched on 30 November 2014, while the Call will remain open until the 28 of February 2015.

1. Preparing a succesful
proposal
for FRACTALS Open Call
Grigoris Chatzikostas
BioSense Center
Ljubljana, 05.12.2014. 1

2. Purpose of this
presentation
2

3. 3
General principles for the
proposal
The actual idea, the
work, choice of
people, etc.
The document that
describes the idea, work,
people, etc.
The required sections are explained in the Guide for Applicants for the call.
Generating a proposal is an iterative process.
Plan key points before you write the full text - this helps in providing the structure.
1. FIWARE Usage
2. Relevance with the Call
3. Market potential

4. Proposal structure
4
Part A
Part B
• Administrative
details
• Applicant
description and details
• Personnel
description
• Experience in
projects and FIWARE
• Summary
• Technical
excellence
• FIWARE usage
• Market readiness
Part C
Pitch - might be a
link (in case of video,
podcast) or a pdf (in
case of power point
presentation)
No longer
than 10 pages
No longer than
5 minutes
No longer
than 4 pages

5. 5
Part A – Administrative details and experience

6. Applicant description
6
Short description of
the legal entity
Write about its size
and activities
Include all relevant
information for the
project
ALL applicants have EQUAL
TREATMENT, regardless of
size, country of origin, etc.
StartUps are
particularly
welcome!

7. Applicant details
7
Eligibility
Make sure you are eligible in terms of your SME or Web
entrepreneur status according to the Commission
Recommendation 2003/361/EC.
Financial
data
You need to provide precise information from your last
closed financial year about your headcount, annual turnover
and annual balance sheet.
Linked
company?
If you are linked or a partner to another enterprise make
sure you are taking in account their financial numbers
Note: These information will be checked during evaluation/contracting phase

8. Personnel description
Given the nature of this Call you
should focus on their:
1) Professional experience in ICT,
entrepreneurship or Agrifood
2) Academic qualifications in ICT, Agriculture,
Business administration or relevant
8
Complementarity
Your team
must be 3 to
5 persons
Write relevant
information
about all team
members
Mr. X. is an expert in Business Management, with 8 years of
experience in leading roles. Ms. Y. is an expert in software
development with 9 years in X Company as a senior
software architect. Mr. Z is an agronomist with 5 years of
experience in technologies for horticultural crops.

9. Earlier projects
9
Write about your experience in EU funded or other projects (if any)
You may consider making a list of your past projects with their links
and relevant details, focusing on your role in the project
These information gives indication that you have experience to
accomplish this project, BUT first-time applicants are more than
welcome!

10. Experience in FIWARE
Indicate (if any) experience in FIWARE of all or any of the
When writing about experience, you should stress individual roles for
example: coordinator, senior or junior stuff, relevant training in FIWARE
10
team members
Previous experience in FIWARE is positive, but it is NOT a
must. The call is open to ALL good teams, even if they are
going to be working on FIWARE for the very first time…

11. 11
Part B – Technical excellence

12. Background and concept
12
Is your concept relevant to the call?
This is a call for SOFTWARE
solutions, we are NOT funding
the development of hardware

13. Objectives
13
What is the
project for?
What are
we doing in
the project?
Make sure your objectives are:
1) Clear
2) Coherent with the concept
3) Measurable
4) Achievable
5) Realistic
Measurable:
Provide numbers!
We will reduce the use of
pesticides by 15%
We will increase farm
profitability by 10%
We will develop an app
for optimizing the use of
pesticides

14. Innovation
14
Do you know the
market and
already existing
solutions?
Knowing the existing
solutions will help you
explain why yours is
going to be better.
Is your solution
totally new or
improvement
of an existing
solution?
Your project
idea
It is OK to deliver an
improvement of an
existing solution…
…just make sure you
explain the
improvements

15. Technical description
Consider making the work plan with work packages and tasks
Timetable should be achievable and realistic
15
What work will be done?
How will the work will be organized?
How will it be reported and verified?
What are the risks that something goes wrong?

16. Organization of work
16
All work, including management, must be part of a work package.
Work packages do not usually exactly match the proposal objectives.
The work packages can be divided into tasks.
Work
Package 1
Task 1.1
...
Task 1.n
Work
Package 2
Task 2.1
...
Task 2.n
...

17. Deliverables list
17
Normally each WP
should finish with a
deliverable. If it does
not, the reason should
be explained
For each work package
there should be
deliverables
Deliverables should
have meaning and
content
Deliverables are often
reports, but they can be
other items (prototype,
software, pilot, etc.)
If your project exceeds 5 months and you are planning an interim report please ensure that
you list an adequate number of deliverables that should be achieved during the first period.
Name 1-3 of these deliverables as “milestones” for the first reporting period
No Deliverable Name/Description Type Delivery Date
1 R M01
2 …
For the Type of deliverable use one of the following codes:
R: Document, report (excluding the periodic and
final reports)
DEM: Demonstrator, pilot, prototype, plan designs
DEC: Websites, patents filing, press & media actions,
videos, etc.
OTHER: Software, technical diagram, etc.

18. Milestones
18
GOAL
Milestones represent key
achievements in the
project as a whole
There should be a milestone when a
particular stage is complete, or a
target has been reached
Together with deliverables
they help to assess whether
a project is on schedule
There should be milestones in
each periods of the project, so
that reviews can be effective

19. Budget
RTD Dissemination Management
1. Personnel costs
2. Other direct costs (travel, equipment,
software, services, etc.)
3. Total direct costs (Sum of row 1 and 2)
4. Indirect costs 60% of direct costs 60% of direct costs 60% of direct costs
5. Total costs (Sum of row 3 and 4)
6. Requested EC contribution 75% 100% 100%
19
Are your resources allocation and budget realistic?

20. Cost justification
20
Justify all your costs by filling in the following table
Budget Justification
Personnel Cost (N° of man months / cost per man month)
Travel Cost Where? Why?
Equipment Cost What? Why?
Software & services What? Why?
Budget Justification
Personnel Cost 16 man months for development/ 2000€ each
Travel Cost Murska Sobota – interaction with the end-user
Equipment Cost 2 sensors for app testing, 1500€
Software & services S-W lisence, 1500€

21. Risk management
21
All projects carry both
technical and
non-technical risks
• Research projects carry
particularly high risk
Risks may be
internal (problem
with the project)
or external
(change in outside
world, for example
a new technology).
Internal risks may
relate to one
WP or to
Interdependencies
Good risk management
• Be able to recognize the risks
• Assess how likely they
are to occur and
how severe their effect
would be
• Have a plan for dealing with it –
mitigation measures and a pivot
strategy

22. FIWARE usage
How will the FIWARE technologies be used in your project?
22
NO FIWARE
=
NO FUNDING

23. Architecture
23
Use a diagram to explain architecture of your solution
Indicate all the GEs/SEs you are planning to use

24. FIWARE technologies to
be utilized
Are you using the
most appropriate
GEs/SEs for your
solution?
24
Indicate all the GEs/SEs you are going to use
explaining how and why you are going to
use these particular technologies
How are you planning to integrate GEs/SEs
with the rest of the components of your
solution?
Do you have a plan for testing and validation
of your solution using the FIWARE Lab?

25. Target groups
Who is your target group?
25
Why are you addressing your
solution to them?
What are their needs?

26. Problem and solution
26
Identify the problem you are aiming to solve
Are the improvements
measurable?
How are you addressing
the problem?
Is this problem significant
to the target group?
Does your solution solve the problem
or just provides some improvements?

27. Economic and other (i.e.
environmental, social)
benefits
27
Quantified Justified
Substantial By increasing the quality of
the product, we will enable
farmers to sell their products
with a 10% premium
Our solution will reduce
the need for irrigation by
20%, thus saving
valuable water resources
The app will directly
connect farmers with end
customers and will increase
employment opportunities
in rural areas

28. Validation from end-users
28
Have you planned to engage end-users in validation?
Identify the measures, motives and procedures to engage end-users
Measures: bi-weekly communication with end-user to receive
feedback and suggestions
Motives: One free product license to the farmer that engages in
validation activities
Procedures: Communication will be handled through a Redmine
application, with provision of mockups and access to demos.

29. Market
• Market size
• Geographical coverage
• Do you know the market you are addressing?
• Who is your competition?
• Quantitative data
29
Have you done your research?
DO NOT write that there is no
competition, explain why you are better
than competitors

30. Sustainability plan
30
Positioning and
unique selling
points
Market
penetration
strategy
Business and
growth model
Estimation of
your sales
BOTH
achievable and
ambitious
• Business Model Canvas
• Talk with numbers

31. 31
Part C - Pitch

32. Prepare the pitch
Pitch might be sent as a link (in case of video, podcast) or a
32
pdf (in case of power point presentation)
It should not be longer than 5 minutes
To craft a great pitch, follow these steps:
• Identify your goal.
• Explain what you do.
• Explain your project idea.
• Engage with a question.
• Put it all together.
• Practice.

33. A few hints and tips for
the pitch
1. Keep it simple and non-technical, no complicated jargon or
scientific terms needed.
2. This is a pitch towards an imaginary customer, not a pitch
towards an investor, so try to think like a salesman, NOT like a
CEO.
3. Focus on your solution and its benefits to the customer.
Demonstrate full confidence and show that you really know
what you are talking about.
4. Show them the money. How much money can they make?
How much money can they save? Why should they buy?
33

34. 34
Some additional practical information

35. Formatting your proposal
Respect the length for the
sections. Excess contents
will not be evaluated!
The page size is A4, and all margins (top, bottom, left and right)
should be at least 15 mm (not including any footers or headers)
35
The minimum allowed font size is 11 points
The paragraph spacing 6pt and the line spacing single

36. Evaluators
36
For most
evaluators,
English is not
their first
language.
Evaluators are
human! They
can get bored,
tired, ill,
confused...
The proposal
must be easy
to follow,
even by a
non-expert.
It must be easy
for the evaluators
to find the key
points relevant to
the Call and to
the evaluation
criteria.
Evaluators
might not have
time to read
every word of
your proposal.

37. Respect the page limits –
Write only what is
essential!
37

38. Thank you for your
attention!
38
http://fractals-fp7.com
About eligibility, budget, proposal writing etc: administrative@fractals-fp7.com
About FIWARE: tech@fractals-fp7.com