A lot of professionals and organisations active in exploiting funding in Erasmus+ are struggling years to get winning proposals and even so they don’t receive the value, the income and the appreciation they believe they deserve. In more than 19 years of working as consultant and European Commission expert with people and organisations active in European funding, I have come in contact with individuals that face a lot of struggles. I suspect some of their struggles may be familiar to you:

It takes so much of my energy and personal time to write a good proposal for funding and it is so disappointing when I receive the results and it is not retained for funding. I want to change my job.

 My organisation is very desperate for more money for supporting its growth and operation. I need to find some new channels of financing but I don’t dare examining the European funding opportunities. The whole system is very bureaucratic and full of risks.

 It is not only so difficult to write a good proposal but also the chances of succeeding in receiving funding are so little. I have written and I have involved my organization in many proposals but almost none was accepted for funding. What a waste of time, energy, resources and money!

 I wish I could write winning proposals for funding on behalf of my school/educational institute. In this way, my role in the school will significantly improved.

 These are some of the painful struggles that I was facing also especially at the beginning of my involvement in writing successful proposals that were requesting some financial supportI wish when I started 19 years ago my career in planning and managing european projects to have someone or something to guide me, mentor me and boost my professional development and overcome quicker many of the problems above. I would have saved at least 10 years of struggling almost on my own to become an established funding expert since I was mainly trying to learn from my mistakes and the mistakes of others as well as figuring out what is correct and what is not. Nevertheless, with the years passing, I have managed to become a well established funding expert in Europe with a high portfolio of successful proposals and projects in many different European funding programmes and most importantly I have started to enjoy it also. As a senior funding consultant and European Commission expert on evaluating proposals and projects I was invited to give lectures and trainings on how individuals and organisations can exploit successfully European funding and at that stage I had one of those “Aha” moments. While I was preparing the training material, I have realized two main points

There are seven myths on writing winning proposals and individuals (including me) and organisations that exploit successfully European funded projects and submit winning proposals for funding, follow some specific and common rituals and habits repeatedly!

Eureka!

At last, people can overcome those myths and get taught and master those rituals and habits and get successful much faster in exploiting European funding programmes without the need to go through the same struggle and pain that me and other experts in the same profession had to suffer before becoming established professionals in the area. The basic findings from my ‘Aha’ and Eureka comments follow next and I hope they will be valuable to you and make you much faster and of higher value an established funding expert.

Finally, as a final note, I would like to highlight that my My ‘Aha’ and ‘Eureka’ moment lead me to found the Funding Expert Academy that is open to anyone that wishes to transcend their career and become an established expert in proposal writing and leverage their business and personal lifestyle.  It is suitable to all those that wish to invest in their personal and professional development and build a bright future as funding experts across Europe and beyond.

• The main engine in my academy is the Funding Expert Tansformation Process (FETP)™ that conglomerates
• 19 years of experience in funding (European funding, state funding, private funding, etc),
• proposal evaluations since 2003 as EC expert,
• input from personal interviews and interactions with successful proposal developers and
• 8 years of training experience.

The Funding Expert Transformation process (FETP) depicts a specific pattern that can make any individual a well established funding expert.

Individuals that wish to work or increase their income quickly as highly skilled consultants and experts in funding or support their organisation to exploit successfully funding opportunities at national, european or international level should exploit the Funding Experts Academy suit of products .

By participating in the Funding Expert Academy individuals will

1. Behave based on the seven habits as a B.U.N.D.L.E.R. ™ manager until these habits become their second nature
2. Master techniques for navigating through the EU funding labyrinth and identify the most suitable and promising funding opportunities for their organization in order to implement its mission and vision with the Five Fingers Technique™
3. Apply a set of specific rituals (steps) that will lead to the successful submission of their proposal for funding with the I.C.R.E.A.T.E.S. System™.
4. Follow a specific methodology and exploit set of practices for convincing their potential funders on the excellence, impact and implementation strategy of their proposal with the C.R.I.T.E.R.I.A. Formula™

For more information and full details as well as free resources on exploiting successfully European funding, you can have a look on my website www.NikolaosFloratos.com

Enjoy reading and never stop learning! As Stephen Covey said “Remember, to learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know”.

Sincerely

Mr. Nikolaos Floratos

Founder of Funding Expert Academy

Knowledge Entrepreneur

Nikolaos Floratos after his undergraduate and postgraduate studies as engineer in London, UK, has been working for a number of consultancy and Information Technology companies as consultant and project manager across Europe. He completed also an MBA (Master in Business Administration) and the last 19 years he is involved in planning, managing and evaluating large and small projects in the area of research, education, ICT (Information Communication Technologies), social inclusion, entrepreneurship, standardization and consumer issues.  As a personal trainer and coach, he has supported hundreds of individuals and organisations mainly from Europe but also from all over the world on managing state funding (e.g.  from European Commission, National Funds, etc) and receive support for deploying their business idea or mission and he has proved that anyone can become a great proposal writer or project manager of european funded projects through proper guidance, training and coaching. He is an expert on behalf of the European Commission on evaluating and reviewing projects and proposals since 2003 and  currently, he researches through a PhD how eLearning courses can increase students’ engagement and motivation.
He is the creator of the Funding Expert Transformation Process™ that can transform anyone to a great proposal writer and project manager of european funded projects.