A large consortium of more than 100 partners, including leading businesses, universities, and research institutes from 22 European Union (EU) Member States sought to become the largest and strongest consortium in the raw materials field globally. The mission of the consortium is boost the competitiveness, growth and attractiveness of the European raw materials sector via radical innovation and entrepreneurship.
The consortium sought funding from the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), an independent body of the EU set up in 2008 to spur innovation and entrepreneurship across Europe to overcome some of its greatest challenges. This consortium was in the process of developing an application for EIT Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) funding and realized it required expert guidance. LNE Group was retained to perform a review of the KIC Raw Materials application focusing on the proposed business model.
Approach
When consortia choose to coordinate and write funding applications on their own, LNE Group is often engaged to review these application drafts. Early stage reviews provide guidance for the proposal drafting, while late stage reviews aim to identify gaps and weaknesses to overcome prior to submission. “Red Teaming” is LNE Group’s late stage, intensive proposal review service.
The proposed business model is an essential part of a KIC and is therefore a significant factor during proposal evaluation. The consortium called upon LNE Group to: (1) evaluate the business model from the perspective of industry with recommendations for improvement; and (2) identify weaknesses and redundancies in the business model and propose changes to make it more compelling and responsive.
LNE Group consultants from the U.S. and Europe led an extensive two round Red Team review of the consortium’s KIC Raw Materials business model. LNE Group also consulted with an external expert with deep knowledge of the specific funding call to maximize results.
Result
The project secured a start-up grant of €4 million to build-up the KIC in 2015 (plus cost share). In 2016, the EIT Raw Materials KIC was operational and the total KIC budget increased to €113 million (€26 million grant). The budget increases year after year with total requested grant funding of €410 million through 2022. Visit EIT RawMaterials for more information
ExpertiseEU Public Affairs Strategy Development Innovation Strategy & Design Proposal Development & Grant Writing
