Nikolaos Floratos and his company Key Innovations Ltd has partnered with COBAI GLOBAL RESOURCES and their RICHAFRICA WebTV brand for opening new horizons for universities and research organisations based in West Africa countries via the Horizon 2020 - the European Union funding for Research & Innovation.
Horizon 2020 is the largest European Union funding programme that supports universities and other organisations based in Europe but also in countries outside European Union to form consortia and request full financial support for their research and innovation activities. Specifically, universities and non-profit organisations based in West Africa that participate in Horizon 2020 projects receive 100% funding for their personnel, equipment, overhead and other costs that are necessary for implementing their research & innovation actions under the funded project.
Around €30 billion are available from 2018 to 2020 to organisations that will get involved in Horizon 2020 projects and this an opportunity not-to-be-missed by universities and research organisations based in West Africa. Do you know that 27,7 billion EUR of European funds has been distributed so far to more than 22.400 organisations from all over the world under the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme. However, it is a pity that only a handful of organisations from West Africa have been active in this attractive programme that advances research, innovation and social impact. For example, from Nigeria only 6 organisations (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Institute of Human Virology Nigeria, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion Act, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Kwara State University and University of Lagos-Unilag) have been participating with total european funding of just 742,4 KEUR since 2014.
In this respect, Nikolaos Floratos one of the most recognised and successful Horizon 2020 trainers will be delivering a full one day workshop in person to different universities and events in west-Africa during the whole 2018 year.
Approach
Our training workshop consists of a full day f2f training session that focuses on a step-by-step guide on developing successful Horizon 2020 grant applications and a detailed handbook and other resources material. The workshop is very intense and suitable for beginners in Horizon 2020 that expects to transform them into confident and competitive Horizon 2020 actors in a few hours and a clear vision of what they have to do for excelling in EU funds.
Our challenge was to prepare one full day workshop fully considering the needs of West African universities (e.g. no knowledge of Horizon 2020, no resources and expertise to develop from scratch an Horizon 2020 project, need for immediate results and strong interest to achieve instead mastery in participating as partners in highly competitive Horizon 2020 proposals).
There is no limitation on the number of participants (e.g. from 5 to 5000 participants) that can join our workshop as long as they can hear (with a lavalier microphone) and see the instructor and his slides (via a projector wall) as well as have access to our workshop handbook (100 slides) that we make available for all participants.
In addition, after the f2f morning training session, we have planned discussion in groups (e.g. per research team or faculty) for formulating the action plan for each group to get involved in Horizon 2020 proposals according to their resources, capacities and scientific focus.
The suggested structure of the workshop follows below but changes may apply in order to address more adequately the participants’ needs :
Horizon 2020 is the largest European Union funding programme that supports universities and other organisations based in Europe but also in countries outside European Union to form consortia and request full financial support for their research and innovation activities. Specifically, universities and non-profit organisations based in West Africa that participate in Horizon 2020 projects receive 100% funding for their personnel, equipment, overhead and other costs that are necessary for implementing their research & innovation actions under the funded project.
Around €30 billion are available from 2018 to 2020 to organisations that will get involved in Horizon 2020 projects and this an opportunity not-to-be-missed by universities and research organisations based in West Africa. Do you know that 27,7 billion EUR of European funds has been distributed so far to more than 22.400 organisations from all over the world under the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme. However, it is a pity that only a handful of organisations from West Africa have been active in this attractive programme that advances research, innovation and social impact. For example, from Nigeria only 6 organisations (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Institute of Human Virology Nigeria, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion Act, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Kwara State University and University of Lagos-Unilag) have been participating with total european funding of just 742,4 KEUR since 2014.
In this respect, Nikolaos Floratos one of the most recognised and successful Horizon 2020 trainers will be delivering a full one day workshop in person to different universities and events in west-Africa during the whole 2018 year.
Approach
Our training workshop consists of a full day f2f training session that focuses on a step-by-step guide on developing successful Horizon 2020 grant applications and a detailed handbook and other resources material. The workshop is very intense and suitable for beginners in Horizon 2020 that expects to transform them into confident and competitive Horizon 2020 actors in a few hours and a clear vision of what they have to do for excelling in EU funds.
Our challenge was to prepare one full day workshop fully considering the needs of West African universities (e.g. no knowledge of Horizon 2020, no resources and expertise to develop from scratch an Horizon 2020 project, need for immediate results and strong interest to achieve instead mastery in participating as partners in highly competitive Horizon 2020 proposals).
There is no limitation on the number of participants (e.g. from 5 to 5000 participants) that can join our workshop as long as they can hear (with a lavalier microphone) and see the instructor and his slides (via a projector wall) as well as have access to our workshop handbook (100 slides) that we make available for all participants.
In addition, after the f2f morning training session, we have planned discussion in groups (e.g. per research team or faculty) for formulating the action plan for each group to get involved in Horizon 2020 proposals according to their resources, capacities and scientific focus.
The suggested structure of the workshop follows below but changes may apply in order to address more adequately the participants’ needs :
Workshop Structure for organisations based in West Africa to exploit Horizon 2020
09:30 - 13:00 Face-to-face Morning Training Session
Module 1:
- Why you cannot afford to fail in Horizon 2020
- How to think and act like a leader in H2020
- Step-by-step guidance on developing a successful H2020 grant application
- Resources for developing easier a winning H2020 grant application
- How to impress the evaluators with your H2020 grant application
Tips to specific challenges in Horizon 2020
- How to increase significantly your success rate in H2020
- How to motivate your team to exploit more successfully H2020
- How a beginner in Horizon 2020 programme can become a valuable asset as partner in Horizon 2020 proposals
Informal or formal group sessions (e.g. per research group or per faculty, etc) between the trainer/instructor and the event participants will be arranged so that each group to formulate its own strategy and actions (Whom & how to approach for participating in potentially winning Horizon 2020 proposals) according to their resources, weaknesses and strengths.
Workshop fee
The workshop fee can be arranged as a fixed price or according to the number of expected participants but in any case we personally guarantee that it will be one of the best investments you have ever made.
About the instructor: Nikolaos FLORATOS
Who is Nikolaos Floratos: Nikolaos is ranked by Google and Linkedin in the top three positions as funding expert. The last 9 years, he has transformed thousands of individuals from more than forty countries into successful grant application developers through outstanding training and coaching practices. He is the author also of the ebook "Who are the champions in Horizon 2020 and what you can learn from them" and he is also the host and organiser of the Horizon 2020 Virtual Summit the largest annual virtual training event with more than 35 top experts in Horizon 2020 as trainers and more than 2500 participants. He is an expert on behalf of the European Commission on evaluating and reviewing projects and proposals since 2003 and currently, through his research, he focuses on student engagement and he has proved that anyone can master even complicated subjects very fast by receiving training and support in an engaging way and with the proper instruction strategy. He delivers all his courses and seminars based on continuous interactions with his audience and based on “recipes” and practical steps that allow them to absorb easily what they should master and achieve extraordinary results very quickly. He has received more than 70 recommendations at his linkedin profile as a funding expert, coach and trainer. Recently, he has founded the Funding Expert Academy for transforming individuals into great grant application developers. He has delivered Horizon 2020 workshops also at SARIMA (www.sarima.co.za/ ) and WARIMA (https://www.facebook.com/warimaoffice/ ) conferences.