Proposal services

UCL researchers are encouraged to apply for Horizon Europe, the EU’s research & innovation funding programme for 2021-2027. Find out more about how ERIO's proposal services can help you.

Horizon Europe

UCL is fully eligible to apply for and receive funding from Horizon Europe, both as a project coordinator (lead) and as a partner organisation, due to the UK’s “Associated Country” status.

Our vision

Our goal is to assist UCL in maintaining its position at the forefront of European collaboration in science, technology and innovation, and sustain its position within the top three UK universities in both EU proposal participation and success rates. To help achieve this we offer dedicated Horizon Europe pre-award proposal support services to UCL researchers coordinating collaborative proposals in any topic area. 

Our services are designed to increase funding success rates, increase the success of project implementation, enhance societal impact, and to optimise knowledge transfer, including for possible further commercialisation opportunities. We additionally offer support, on a case-by-case basis, to UCL researchers who are partners in applications led by organisations external to UCL. 

Unfortunately, our services are not available for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) and European Research Council (ERC) proposals. For support with these proposals, or for general financial and contractual support across various other EU funding schemes, please contact ERIO’s Contract Management team.

What we offer

Four levels of pre-award Collaborative Proposal support services are offered:

1. Full pre-award proposal support: we provide direct hands-on support from proposal conception through to proposal submission.  This includes discussing the suitability of project ideas for the chosen EU topic, and assistance with structuring, editing and targeting the Excellence, Impact and Implementation sections on the proposal template. It does, however, not include writing large amounts of novel text. We work closely with ERIO’s Innovation and Project Management services. We also provide the necessary pre-award financial and general administrative support.
2. Proposal Review: a mid-development check of the proposal (for relevance to the work programme, formatting and level of completion, management structure and intellectual property matters, UCL costs and general finance) and a final pre-submission check (completion, UCL costing, submission advice);
3. Hands-on Workshops: targeted assistance on Horizon Europe Cluster Topics and proposal preparation. Workshops will be themed and timed to coincide with key Horizon Europe proposal submission deadlines. These are open to research managers and UCL researchers at any stage of their career. Please contact us to learn the timetable of these events;
4. Funding and Collaborative Proposal Advice: guidance on UCL-led proposals on EU regulations on how to participate in Horizon Europe. We can provide internal Horizon Europe guidance documents, examples of previously successful collaborative proposals, templates and budget calculators, and additional UCL resources relevant to Horizon Europe proposals such as a guidance note on engaging with EU policymaking.

Process

UCL researchers interested in above proposal support services should contact Dr. Juliet A. Ellis.

We suggest the following timeline for completing proposals and contacting the team:

• At least 4 weeks before any Stage 1 deadline (if your call has two stages)
• At least 4 months before any Stage 2 or single deadline

Who we are