The document summarizes a presentation given on July 20th in Bristol on writing successful proposals for the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument and Eurostars funding programs. The agenda included an introduction to the Enterprise Europe Network, a discussion of how to write proposals to convince evaluators to invest in a business, and one-on-one meetings between attendees and evaluators/advisers. The presentation then focused on how to describe a business idea in the proposal, emphasizing clear communication of what is offered, market opportunities, value chain, and delivery approach. It stressed the need to tell a coherent story through a proposal and ensure consistency across technology description, objectives, work plan, and other elements.

1. enterprise-europe.co.uk
Horizon2020 SME
Instrument and Eurostars
Proposal Development
20 July Bristol
Layla Burrows R&D Funding
Manager

2. enterprise-europe.co.uk
Agenda
The
13.15 – 13.20: Enterprise Europe Network Introduction
13.20 – 13.50: Horizon 2020 SME Instrument (SMEi) - Writing to convince evaluators to
invest in your business – Evaluators perspective
13.50 – 16.30: 1-2-1 meetings with Evaluators, NCPs & Enterprise Europe Network
Advisers

3. enterprise-europe.co.uk

4. enterprise-europe.co.uk
Thank you

5. How to convince the evaluators
Fabrizio Amarilli
fabrizio.amarilli@polimi.it

6. What is your business idea (1)
▪ After page 1 reader should be aware of what is offered.
Typical mistakes:
▪ Improvement of existing technology, no indication of how it will be
exploited to replace incumbent technology
‘The modern society is driven by the information, being so-called information
society. The tend is now to the Big Data society. For decades researchers and
mangers have based decisions on data collected through traditional approaches
and technologies. We have developed Master Data, the technology aimed to
overcome the limitation and challenges of the state of the art within the sector’
▪ Ambition requires demonstration of capability to maintain promises
‘We developed and innovative BI technology that proved effective in matching
conflicting objectives of volume of data and quick response
Our project aims to disrupt the market of industrial automation through a
highly innovative business concept: the use of Open Source Hardware’
© Fabrizio Amarilli - EEN UK London - 13th July, 2017 6

7. What is your business idea (2)
▪ Whom are you going to sell the solution/innovation
▪ Whenever market is described, use
(and justify) quantifiable measures
(TAM/SAM/SOM)
▪ Benefits from a solution/innovation are
different from ‘willingness to pay’
© Fabrizio Amarilli - EEN UK London - 13th July, 2017 7

8. What is your business idea (3)
▪ Clear value chain and delivery channel
▪ If you replace existing solutions, show capacity to outpace incumbents
(including involvement of stakeholders)
▪ If you create something completely new, how will you make it available
▪ If you intend to exploit the Internet, make it scalable
© Fabrizio Amarilli - EEN UK London - 13th July, 2017 8

9. Are you telling a story?
▪ This is not a novel
▪ Repetiton is allowed and, in
certain points, reasonable to
help understand concepts
▪ Novelty in ‘concept and
methodology’ and in ‘users
market’
▪ Objectives in ‘Objectives’ and
in ‘Measures to Maximize the
impact’
▪ End users in ‘Objectives’ and
in ‘Imact’
▪ But in the end it’s a novel
… that should be readable from
the beginning till the end
© Fabrizio Amarilli - EEN UK London - 13th July, 2017 9

10. Make the story readable
© Fabrizio Amarilli - EEN UK London - 13th July, 2017 10
Do not count on huge Annexes

11. In a limited space
▪ … words make the difference
▪ Ambitious words
‘We intend to disrupt the market’, ‘our solution shows superior performances
against competition in several respects’, ‘there is currently no such a solution
on the market’, ‘we are approaching a blue ocean market’ …
must be justified in a proper and sound manner
▪ Buzzwords/fancy technology keywords
‘Our solution leverages AI techniques’, ‘our application extracts insights from Big
Data’, … Deep Learning, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, Fog
Computing ...
should be reflected in a technological description and in the description of the
SME (clarify capacity of the proposer to master the technology), be
reasonable with the type of product (ML for printer layout management in a
company with 10 printers?)
© Fabrizio Amarilli - EEN UK London - 13th July, 2017 11

12. Consistency, consistency, consistency
© Fabrizio Amarilli - EEN UK London - 13th July, 2017 13
Declared TRL
Commercialisation
actions
Sales
forecasts
Technology
description
Project
objectives
Project
workplan

13. © Fabrizio Amarilli - EEN UK London - 13th July, 2017 14
Thank you for your attention

32. Thank you