Tips for Horizon Europe Writing and Coordinating - Cordis, Cordis, Cordis

For the latter part of last year and this January, I’ve been busy with Horizon Europe grant writing – namely for a call involving the European Heritage Cloud (The Cultural Heritage Cloud - European Commission), an initiative established to enhance the digitisation and analysis of dynamic heritage processes, objects or data.

For those unfamiliar, Horizon acts as the funding-arm of the EU and, between its initiatives, finances everything from COVID-19 vaccines to archaeological digs, through distinct Clusters and Pillars (Excellent Science, Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness and Innovative Europe). The European Heritage Cloud calls fell under Cluster 2: Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society and Pillar 2. The UK, after post-Brexit negotiations, is a Horizon Affiliate country – like many European nations outside of the EU and, for some bids - Canada (which feels a bit like Australia being invited to Eurovision – even if they do provide belters). This means, that while a UK institution can coordinate a bid (as we did at the Digital Humanities Institute (DHI)), involvement from – at least – an EU member partner is needed to achieve eligibility. In actuality, you’ll need a broad consortium of multiple EU nations and affiliates to write a strong bid.

Horizon Europe - EU Grants and Funding

Although we’re now entering a long review period, which stops me from talking about the DHI’s particular response, I thought it was worth jotting down some pointers for anybody thinking of engaging with these – frankly – unwieldly calls. Horizon Europe demands transnational consortium building and, as universities, GLAM institutions; SMEs and creatives pivot to other forms of funding as UK-funders reach capacity, such pointers seem timely.

Here, then, are some tips, as we reflect on our (not always correct approach) – from simple time saving steps to more conceptual help:

1.     Create a Separate PDF for the Particular Call

Horizon calls are long (c. 140 pages). Instead of endlessly scrolling as you write and return to the call document, create a more manageable PDF. Sounds like common sense, but we could’ve saved a lot of time and our eyesight by not always scrolling to pg. 89 (see I remember the pg.!)

2.     Think about Your Management Approach to Bid Writing

Will you invite consortium partners to help write the narrative sections (Part B)? Or ask them for more technical work packages (WPs) and take on this work yourself? Taking a more top-down approach, where the coordinator completes the writing bulk is advisable when you’ve less time, but inviting partners into more aspects of the call response can foster greater connections.

3.     Everything can be Repurposed (Ideas, Consortia)

Form a consortium with the mind that, if your Horizon 2020 bid is unsuccessful, you can always go again and – likely – use your WPs for other smaller grants (whether domestic or international). A bid aimed at a Pillar 2/Cluster 2 call for 6mil euros lump sum, if taking a case study / WP approach, could easily be parcelled out.

4.     Do I Want to Work with these People?

Let’s take a more positive stance – your Horizon 2020 bid is accepted! Now – you must work with your consortium, either closely in a WP or through regular consortium meetings. Of course, working relationships are strengthened over time but approaching partners you know are trustworthy, reliable and that hold similar values and approaches will save potential headaches later. While we didn’t get everything right, we did prioritise this and will now morn the lost chance to work with some fantastic people and institutions if not accepted.

5.     Balance (a lot of Twining’s ‘Balance’ tea was consumed while bid writing)

Horizon is a fiddle – the actual call, its wording, the EU Funding and Tenders Portal, the budget process, institutional processes and the uploading of biographic information. For some institutions, this is a breeze since they have Horizon experience; for others, it can remain daunting. Having a balance of partners who can happily complete their tasks and those who need more instruction is vital. The EU Cordis Database proved invaluable in locating those with prior EU funding experience.

6.     Cordis, Cordis, Cordis

The EU Commission advice and webinars will cite Cordis a lot – listen to them, it’s your best tool in locating consortium partners, past work and institutional involvement in projects. The filter for ‘archived content’ is mostly down to preference, but with our response developing state-of-the-art digitisation tools – we found ourselves unselecting and focusing on either currently funded projects or those that had recently wrapped up. We largely avoided the online ‘speed dating’ or profile exchanges, instead opting to cold email those we had located in Cordis. The worse thing they can say is no! And that rarely happened.

7.     Read Horizon Advice

Again, like common sense, but especially for the impact sections – the EU Horizon advice is a great first call. Things like Horizon defining ‘impact’ as ‘value’ ensures you remain on track.

8.     Bookmarking

When you’re well into writing, you’ll need to bookmark sections to conform with the Horizon style guide. Instead of copying/pasting section-by-section from a Google Doc into the bookmarked template, how about copying/pasting the bookmarks? Clever – eh?

9.     A Calm Submission

It goes without saying but submitting on the day of the deadline should be avoided – eek, give yourself time for your own sanity. The EU Funding and Tenders Portal allows for rolling submission, so you can always edit as you go with project partner input. We submitted on a Friday and edited until the next Wednesday.

10.  Successful or Not – Don’t Put It in a Drawer

For most DH, or strict humanities, departments – Horizon bids are currently not the norm. At Sheffield, we sit on reams of AHRC and British Academy examples, but our Horizon bid is the first as a coordinator from our Arts and Humanities School. Ensure that it’s in whatever institutional repository and remains findable, like point 3. says you rarely start from scratch after submission.

Here’s hoping the review process is rosy and good luck to anybody submitting Horizon bids for the next round of calls - the drafts for Cluster 2 are out now. Likewise, if you want an institution that has Horizon experience – hard fought, drop us a line.