HIRING AN EU FUNDING CONSULTANT: WHAT TO LOOK FOR?

Hiring an EU Funding Consultant requires careful planning. Clients must consider how they will work with the Consultant and other project collaborators to make the most of the time invested in their application for funding. It helps to understand that Funding Consultants cannot do all the work themselves. Clients need to set aside time to discuss their goals, answer technical questions about their work, evaluate suggestions from the Consultant and produce and execute a strategy based on those discussions.

Clients can ask for references from Consultants' previous Clients, but should treat them with caution. There are no obvious ways of comparing one company's claimed success rate with another's, because they have no reporting requirements and different disciplines have different funding constraints, which could affect success. However, it is possible to compare companies' years of experience and the number of applications they have facilitated, as well as the types of funding and collaborations.

Key Evaluation Criteria

1. Proven track records in drafting, managing and assessing EU funded projects.
2. Experience with current funding programmes and successful EU applications
3. Network of experts and collaborating partners as well as the knowledge of specialists
4. In-depth knowledge of EU Commission procedures, requirements and a large network of contacts among funders and grant authorities.
5. Linguistic, geographical and cultural proximity to the EU decision makers
6. Capacity to monitor EU funding opportunities and advice on how to draft applications and create partnerships.
7. Capacity to connect project developers with potential investors either at the exploitation phase of a running project or prior to the proposal submission, securing external co-financing​.
8. Experience in EU funding programmes: CIP Eco-Innovation; Intelligent Energy Europe; Ten-E;  Europe Aid; Interreg; ENPI; Erasmus +; Life+; European Regional Development Fund; European Social Fund; Eurostars; NER 300; Urbact; Horizon 2020; COST Actions; COSME; EIB Loans; KICs; Creative Europe; Connecting Europe Facility; European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development; Instruments of Pre-Accession Assistance; Nuclear Safety Cooperation Instrument; Internal Security Fund; Europe for Citizens; EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation.
9. Capacity to act in support or as work package leader in charge of exploitation of those project deliverables which can have an impact on the market and can be exploitable.
10. Capacity to establish measures to avoid financial and administrative bottlenecks
11. Compensation Scheme

 It is very important to have a good Consultant to advise you from the beginning until the end of the project on needed documentation. The decision should be based on the proven experience of the Consultant on the specific funding where you plan to submit your project. Accessing EU funds requires a long time partnership with the Consultant.