Search Disabled |
|
|
|
Search Options | Help | Site Map | Cultivate Web Site | ||||
|
|
|||||
| Home | Current Issue | Index of Back Issues |
| Issue 4 Home | Editorial | Features | Regular Columns | News & Events | Misc. | ||
By Peter Walters - May 2001
Peter Walters introduces UK Information Society Help (UKISHELP) [1]. UKISHELP is a UK Department of Trade and Industry initiative set up to help newcomers understand and evaluate Information Society European programme's funding opportunities in the context of their business. Although UKISHELP is specifically aimed towards encouraging interest in the UK there are many lessons that can be learnt from its work for the rest of Europe.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
UKISHELP was established early in
1999 by the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as an
information resource for organisations bidding for IST funding.
More than 5,000 calls to the support line later, the level of
interest continues to look good for UK involvement.
To date the UK has been particularly successful in recruiting academic participants, which is important because of the vital role academic institutions fulfil in the research of developing technology. UKISHELP are now working hard to match UK academic success with commercial involvement and product development. "It’s about turning the economic mill in the country and that’s about products, services, applications, industry and commerce".
For organisations with an innovative idea who would benefit from working with other like-minded European organisations, the IST Programme is worth serious consideration. There are European funds allocated to help at every stage of product development from the very first research to user trials and marketing.
January 2001 saw the announcement of newly released funds in the Sixth Call of the IST Programme. Currently £700 million of funding is still to be awarded to participating organisations.
The European Commission has allocated some £10 billion for its current research and development programme designed to promote industrial competitiveness and improve quality of life in Europe. Prospective applicants are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of IST Programme funding. It can support company growth and fund innovative and risky development projects. IST Programme funding should be readily considered alongside other forms of longer-term finance.
There are many benefits of using EC money for research: If you go to the bank you borrow the money; if you go to the European Commission they will give you the money. They won’t give you all the money, but they will give you the money and not charge you interest. You can apply for 100% of your manpower costs where you are just starting to appraise your market and undertake trials. If you go further down the development line you can get into a funding programme called Ten Telecom [2] which offers half the cost of your business plan and some trial marketing. You can then take your results to a bank and if you’re successful in securing a bank loan, you can even get help with the interest.
There have been many successful EU-funded projects based in the UK.
A recent project examined how IT affected the way we work. In a world of laptops, modem links and advanced telecommunications, more and more people are choosing to work remotely (away from the office), whether as employees or self-employed. This steady release of office-bound ‘battery hens’ to the freedom of the ‘teleworker’, as they are known, has brought with it a new agenda of issues. In Europe there are around 2 million teleworkers and the number is increasing, but finding work is not always easy. In response, research by the EU-funded project TeleMart has helped to establish an online brokerage service enabling organisations to quickly locate the services and teleworkers they need. The project ended in March of 1999 and TeleMart co-ordinator David Horne, of Middlesborough based Tradezone International Ltd., has licensed the software developed and businesses can now visit a virtual market place and locate suppliers of teleworked services at the Web site [3]. Telemart’s evolution will now focus on broadening the range of services available whilst improving the quality of life of teleworkers throughout the continent.
Another EU-funded project, TAPPE, based in Northern Ireland, has examined the relationship between suppliers and purchasers. The resulting software is now helping both private and public sector purchasing departments to make objective decisions about suppliers. About 60p in every £1 earned in Northern Ireland is accounted for by the public sector, so it has had a significant influence on the economy.
In November 2000 the Northern Ireland company MINEit Software Limited [4] scooped a Grand Prize (one of only three available) at the European Information Society Technologies (IST) Awards held in Nice. The Web analytics company were the first based in Northern Ireland (NI) to win the prestigious award (referred to as the Oscars of IT Europe) which carries the greatest possible recognition for information and technology companies across the continent.
The Grand Prize was awarded for MINEit’s Easyminer software product, which takes the guesswork out of e-business marketing by analysing and building predictive models of visitor behaviour at Internet sites. Their product was selected from a total of over 200 submissions from 26 countries and reached the finals, competing against 20 other companies for a prestigious Grand Prize.
It’s success stories like these that the DTI believes will inspire even more organisations to apply. And whilst there are certain procedures, acronyms and terminologies which applicants should master, UKISHELP can assist.
The procedures are there for a good reason. The Commission allocates huge amounts of money, so it’s careful not to award funds for the same project twice or projects with conflicting goals.It achieves this using administrative procedures such as invitations to apply for the money, or Calls, that happen regularly. This means that you can’t go to the Commission on any day and say, for example, ‘I’d like to work on intelligent houses!’ There are certain times during the Programme when funds for your area of interest will be allocated. Part of the UKISHELP service is to ensure that applicants know when the Calls are likely to happen, and which organisations will have most to gain from applying when they do.
The Commission fosters a greater understanding of European markets by encouraging you to work with partners from other countries. If working with a European partner is already part of your business plan this is good news. If not, you don’t have to worry about finding partners on your own. Partner search services exist in the form of SingleImage [5] and UKISHELP can put you in touch. Once you establish the right partnership, the joint venture or consortium approach presents many important benefits. You can network with partners, use them to reach new markets and exchange ideas of best practice.
Each consortium’s funding proposal is read by Independent evaluators with knowledge of the area that you are working in. They establish a concerted view of its value, and rank it alongside the others. The proposals that receive the most marks get the money. Once funding has been secured and the project is underway you should always remain clearly focussed on your project’s end results.
To maximise the benefits of involvement you should understand, even before you start, how the output is going to help you and your business, and how you are going to exploit it. This will enable you to show your partners why you’re in the business and what you want to achieve. If you understand the exploitation route you’ll increase your chances of a successful proposal and your project will flourish.
UKISHELP aims to help people put in successful bids for Projects. They have recently published a free guide for those interested. It is called 'Fast Track Guide to Successful Proposals’ and you can obtain your copy by visiting the Web site. European Funding success just involves following a number of serious do’s and don’t. Here is a few of the most important ones!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Peter Walters
UK’s National Contact Point for the IST Programme
UKISHELP
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For citation purposes:
Walters, P. "UKISHELP: helping the UK understand the IST Programme", Cultivate Interactive, issue
4, 7 May 2001
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue4/ukishelp/>
|
|
