6 ms·

My company applied for an EU innovation grant last year. The way you do it, apparently, is you contact one of a handful of companies who specialize in helping w

by rvense 4y ago

My company applied for an EU innovation grant last year. The way you do it, apparently, is you contact one of a handful of companies who specialize in helping with these applications and you promise them a cut of what you might get. It's growth, Jim, but not as we (thought we) knew it...

paganel 4y ago
Unfortunately that has always been the case when it comes to applying for EU funds, unless you're a very big company and you have a dedicated department for that (and even then I'd say in some cases it makes more sense to outsource this process to companies which do that for a living).
- japanuspus 4y ago
  Nevertheless tenured academics are expected to handle this themselves in parallel with teaching and research...
  - dr_dshiv 4y ago
    My university has “valorization” staff to help.
  - blitzar 4y ago
    A skilled academic who knows how to write those things will have a strike rate orders of magnitude better than a medicore one. That is why there are professionals ... they do it better.
dimitar 4y ago
These companies are not doing any lobbying though, they are helping with the huge amount of paperwork and compliance work that needs to be done.
- LilBytes 4y ago
  They're helping you navigate regulation capture. We're not talking about stopping water contamination here, we're talking about funding. It's balmy.
- andromeduck 4y ago
  Who do you think lobbies for the compliance and paperwork?
  - difosfor 4y ago
    Voters that seem to care more about who did what wrong than actually getting stuff done ;)
blitzar 4y ago
I applied for planning permission; The way you do it, apparently, is you contact one of a handful of companies who specialize in architecting things and you promise to pay them. I needed a contract for employees; The way you do it, apparently, is you contact one of a handful of companies who specialize in doing these legal things and you promise to pay them. I needed a set up an IT system; The way you do it, apparently, is you contact one of a handful of companies who specialize in doing IT systems and you promise to pay them. It's doing shit, Jim, but the exact same way it has always been.
- rvense 4y ago
  I see the point you're trying to make, but we've applied for many other grants without requiring help.
  - kevviiinn 4y ago
    Suppose you've already done it before and know how to do it, I bet you wouldn't need help
- andromeduck 4y ago
  In some places like San Francisco, it's effectively impossible to get a permit without making several "donations" to the local "nonprofits" & electeds office. You'll hear about how they know the problem is so hard and how much they hate the beauracracy and that's why they set up a small office to help small business or homeowners just like you but we're so busy and it's so hard to keep something like that staffed...
  - Wowfunhappy 4y ago
    Has this been reported in any media outlets? That is very blatant corruption and I'd expect it to be of interest to many journalists. If this is indeed happening and there has not been any reporting, you should reach out to some news organizations.
    - 4y ago

by rvense 4y ago

paganel 4y ago

Unfortunately that has always been the case when it comes to applying for EU funds, unless you're a very big company and you have a dedicated department for that (and even then I'd say in some cases it makes more sense to outsource this process to companies which do that for a living).

japanuspus 4y ago
Nevertheless tenured academics are expected to handle this themselves in parallel with teaching and research...
- dr_dshiv 4y ago
  My university has “valorization” staff to help.
- blitzar 4y ago
  A skilled academic who knows how to write those things will have a strike rate orders of magnitude better than a medicore one. That is why there are professionals ... they do it better.

dimitar 4y ago

These companies are not doing any lobbying though, they are helping with the huge amount of paperwork and compliance work that needs to be done.

LilBytes 4y ago
They're helping you navigate regulation capture. We're not talking about stopping water contamination here, we're talking about funding. It's balmy.
andromeduck 4y ago
Who do you think lobbies for the compliance and paperwork?
- difosfor 4y ago
  Voters that seem to care more about who did what wrong than actually getting stuff done ;)

blitzar 4y ago

I applied for planning permission; The way you do it, apparently, is you contact one of a handful of companies who specialize in architecting things and you promise to pay them. I needed a contract for employees; The way you do it, apparently, is you contact one of a handful of companies who specialize in doing these legal things and you promise to pay them. I needed a set up an IT system; The way you do it, apparently, is you contact one of a handful of companies who specialize in doing IT systems and you promise to pay them. It's doing shit, Jim, but the exact same way it has always been.

rvense 4y ago
I see the point you're trying to make, but we've applied for many other grants without requiring help.
- kevviiinn 4y ago
  Suppose you've already done it before and know how to do it, I bet you wouldn't need help
andromeduck 4y ago
In some places like San Francisco, it's effectively impossible to get a permit without making several "donations" to the local "nonprofits" & electeds office. You'll hear about how they know the problem is so hard and how much they hate the beauracracy and that's why they set up a small office to help small business or homeowners just like you but we're so busy and it's so hard to keep something like that staffed...
- Wowfunhappy 4y ago
  Has this been reported in any media outlets? That is very blatant corruption and I'd expect it to be of interest to many journalists. If this is indeed happening and there has not been any reporting, you should reach out to some news organizations.
  - 4y ago