How to write a Winning Proposal with tips and examples.

Are you getting ready to submit an MSCA proposal this year?

Have in mind that during the Horizon Europe implementation, the European Commission aims to achieve an impact-driven programme by maximizing the effect of research and innovation. To achieve this aim, the EC identified key impact pathways as follows (Figure 1):

1. In your proposal, try to address all aspects of the key pathways. The concept of key pathways to impact should be discussed in relation to the research project:

• Expected scientific impact(s): e.g., contributing to specific scientific advances, across and within disciplines, creating new knowledge, reinforcing scientific equipment and instruments, computing systems (i.e., research infrastructures);
• Expected economic/technological impact(s): e.g., bringing new products, services, business processes to the market, increasing efficiency, decreasing costs, increasing profits, contributing to standards’ setting, etc.
• Expected societal impact(s): e.g., decreasing CO2 emissions, decreasing avoidable mortality, improving policies and decision-making, raising consumer awareness, etc.

2. Expand on a link to EU research/policy goals: European Green Deal, EU Missions in Horizon Europe, MSCA Green Charter, UN Sustainable Development Goals.

3. Embed your project into those overarching goals – how do they contribute? On a very small scale is perfectly fine. For the SDGs, when you find the applicable SDG(s), you can indicate a specific target inside the mentioned goal.

4. To illustrate the magnitude/benchmark and importance of the project contribution to outcomes and impacts, you can create a table. For each expected outcome, provide quantified indicators:

• expected revenues from new technologies,
• size of patient groups that will be affected by a new treatment,
• number of new jobs/potential projects/ career opportunities for the staff that will be created after a successful project,
• growth in the number of users of emerging technology, etc.

As I mentioned in my previous Newsletters: “The success rate of the MSCA programme is between 10% to 16% and the required score to receive funding is above 94%. However, most proposals receive a score of 85% and many applicants do not know “how” and “where” to improve their proposals to reach 94% and above”, as illustrated graphically in the Figure 2.

To show how you can receive higher scores under a variety of sub-sections, I created a hypothetical Example-1, which would receive no change of score as the applicant only answers the question:

Example-1: ?Expected societal impacts

X Project is aligned with many of the key European areas of sustainable development, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The technologies developed in the project will be instrumental to develop a new range of products and techniques, which will result in decreased spoilage and a reduction of food waste. Furthermore, the creation of these new technological solutions will contribute to the development of new standards for food conservation and will promote the investment of public and private entities towards the development of new industries based on the development of sustainable, eco-friendly solutions to decrease food waste. Along with the communication and dissemination actions, these technologies will contribute to the development of a more sustainable society.

However, Example-2 (shown below) would receive a higher score, because the proposal is well-linked to the specific SDGs, Green Deal, EU missions as well as it identifies the specific cluster under Horizon Europe Pillar 2: Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness.

Additionally, the Example-2 provides quantified indicators: i) estimated reduction of food waste and ii) reduction of CO2 emission.

Example-2: Expected societal impacts

X Project is aligned with many of the key European areas of sustainable development, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, mainly 2. Zero hunger and 12. Responsible Consumption and Production; the Farm to Fork strategy of the European Green Deal as well as with Horizon Europe – 2.6 Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment aiming to provide opportunities to enhance and balance environmental, social and economic goals and to set human economic activities on a path towards sustainability. The technologies developed in the Project X will be instrumental to develop a new range of products and techniques that will result in a ~15% decrease of food waste, with the associated reduction in CO2 emissions (estimated at 10%). Furthermore, the creation of these new technological solutions will contribute to the development of new standards for food conservation and will promote the investment of public and private entities towards the development of new industries based on the development of sustainable, eco-friendly solutions to decrease food waste. These technologies, along with the communication and dissemination actions, will significantly contribute to the development of a more sustainable society, with increased consumer awareness of the need to reduce the carbon footprint associated with the production of food.

For more information and/or more examples do not hesitate to contact me on: [email protected]