Introduction

R&D proposals are always made in consortia. One member of the consortium, is designated as the Co-ordinator and it is their job to put together the proposal with the other partners and submit it to the Commission as required. Generally, if the proposal is accepted, the Co-ordinator will be expected to become the Project Co-ordinator and thus be responsible for overall project administration and management. However, this is not a rule and should not be treated as such.

Use of correct forms and instrument:

In FP7, the proposal is split into two parts (see below)

The proposal forms for Part A and the structure of Part B vary according to the different instruments.

·        Check that you have chosen the correct contractual instrument for the type of work you are proposing

·        Check in the Work Programme that the call is actually open for instruments of this type in the particular Strategic objective in which you propose to work.

·        Check on the call page that you are using the version of the Guide for Proposers specific for this instrument and call.

The proposals themselves are in two parts -

·        Part A a set of forms which collect necessary administrative information about the proposal and the proposers e.g. proposal name, proposers' names and addresses, brief description of the work, total funding requested by type of activity etc. This information will be encoded in a structured database for further computer processing to produce statistics, evaluation reports etc., and also to support the evaluators and Commission during the evaluation process.

·        Part B comprises a structure or list of headings which should be followed, rather than a pre-prepared form. It will describe among other things the nature of the proposed work, the participants and their roles in the proposed project. It will also explain the reasons for carrying out the work, and the benefits that would come from it.

We strongly advise that you pre-register your proposal. Pre-registering is only an intention to submit a proposal. This in no way commits you to actually submitting a proposal.

Pre-registration assists the Commission in planning to have available an appropriate number of evaluators with the necessary technical background to carry out the evaluation. Great proposals in the past have failed purely because the commission did not have the correct evaluators.