The Landscape of European Funding: opportunities and proposal writing methodologies

Course unit for PhD students

Aim

The training aims to present the main funding opportunities offered by the European Commission, providing an overview of key programs—particularly Horizon Europe—for research and innovation activities and for the career development of young researchers. The course will offer useful tools to navigate calls for proposals and identify relevant opportunities, with the goal of submitting competitive project proposals.

Learning objectives

  • Understand the landscape of European funding and be able to identify relevant opportunities, especially those aimed at researcher career development.
  • Be able to analyze the characteristics of a call for proposals.
  • Understand the Project Cycle Management and Logical Framework approaches, and be able to structure a project into work packages, outputs, outcomes, deliverables, and indicators.
  • Be able to develop a preliminary project idea aligned with the selected call.

Course contents

Module 1 “Understanding European funding opportunities and approaching relevant calls”

  • Course introduction – structure and objectives.
  • Overview of major European funding opportunities, with a focus on those supporting researcher career development.
  • Reading the call and using the tools to identify relevant opportunities.

Module 2 "Techniques and Methodologies for Writing European Projects”

  • Project design methodology, Project Cycle Management, and Logical Framework.
  • Structuring a project into work packages, outputs, outcomes, deliverables, and indicators.
  • Evaluation criteria analysis.
  • Cross-cutting aspects (integration of social sciences, gender issues, AI, multi-actor approach).
  • Focus on individual projects (ERC, MSCA).

Module 3 “Practical Exercises”

  • Evaluating the coherence of a project idea with the call: presentation of a case study.
  • Group exercise on call analysis.
  • Preliminary development of the project idea.

Assessment method: Multiple-choice questionnaire

Teaching modes: online

Duration: 10 hours

Available places: 100

Period: June 9 and 11, from 10.00 to 13.00; June 19, from 9.30 to 13:30 

Language of the course: English

Trainers: ARIC - Settore Research development

Doctoral Credits: 1.