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How To Get Funding Through Horizon Europe?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Horizon Europe|How To Get Funding Through Horizon Europe?Horizon Europe is an ideal funding program for startups or SMEs working their way through the innovation ecosystem in Europe. Horizon Europe has a budget of €95.5B for seven years between 2021 and 2027; this budget boosts sustainable development and competitiveness in the EU. Furthermore, the program supports the innovation ecosystem in Europe, and it has pillar III, where startups find vital opportunities.

Between June 23 and 24, the European research and innovation days take place. These days signify the annual flagship event on research and innovation for the European Commission. In the event, there was a policy-related discussion that hints at an upcoming opportunity to learn about the Horizon Europe program for entrepreneurs; the opportunity is slated for info days 2021, which is between June 28 and July 9.

This post further looks into the investment strategy of Horizon Europe and how startups can apply for funding opportunities.

What is Horizon Europe’s Mission and Scope?

The Horizon Europe program strives towards three goals, including strengthening European scientific and tech bases and the European Research Area. Also, the program aims at boosting Europe’s competitiveness, jobs, and innovation capacity. The third target seeks to deliver on the EU’s ambition for a sustainable transition to meet citizens’ priorities.

Horizon Europe has a three-pillar structure; this information is necessary when finding open calls for funding. The three pillars include excellent science, global challenges and European industrial competitiveness, and innovative Europe pillars.

The Excellent Science pillar is in support of frontier research projects to boost scientific competitiveness. In contrast, the global challenges and European industrial competitiveness pillar invests in societal challenges research. On the other hand, the Innovative Europe Pillar through the European Innovation Council aims at making Europe a front-runner in market-driven innovation.

Furthermore, the pillar seeks to develop the EU’s innovation landscape in association with the European Institute of Innovation Technology with research, education, and innovation projects.

Recently, the Horizon Europe program introduced the concept of missions for increasing the funding’s effectiveness further. The mission revolves around commitments for solving global challenges, including climate change, food security, and cancer. In addition, missions operate as a portfolio of actions; they include research projects and policy measures while bringing experts in business, innovation, media, science, and civil society together. By November 2021 latest, the projects should be up and running before engaging business communities and citizens in the implementation.

What Are the Funding Opportunities for Tech Startups and Companies?

As mentioned earlier, Europe’s budget is around €95.5B for 2021 to 2027; the budget includes €5.4B from NextGenerationEU for boosting recovery and future resilience and additional reinforcement of €4.5B. Furthermore, the European Defence Fund implements Horizon Europe while the Euratom Research and Training Program complements it.

The program tackles global challenges and European competitiveness with over half of its budget while innovation projects are about €13.5B. Furthermore, with the European Innovation Council (EIC) addition, the program increases support for breakthrough innovation. EIC is a one-stop shop that leverages private finance to help innovators, especially SMEs, in the space of scaling up, increasing agility, and creating future markets. Due to the program’s novelty, the EIC has a budget of €10B for 2021 to 2027. Also, the funding opportunities will be more than €1.5B in 2021. Also, the program earmarks 70% of its budget for SMEs.

The funding and tenders portal allows access to the calls for proposals. Calls give detailed information on research and innovation issues that proposals applications should address.

The EIC has an open round of €1 billion in the innovation category. Therefore, startups can apply for grants up to €2.5M and receive direct equity investments between €500K and €15M. The EIC Accelerator aims at investing in innovations that have significant Green Deal innovations impacts for economic recovery, strategic digital, and health tech. Furthermore, asides from financing, companies benefit from business acceleration services in the ecosystem, including access to top investors, expertise, and partnership opportunities. The funding’s first deadline already has over 801 complete applications, which is a strong response. Also, the full applications’ next cut-off date is October 6, 2021.

The Energy harvesting and storage technologies grant program is another innovation-focused open call. The program will be open till the end of September 2021. As long as an SME, large company or small consortium has five independent legal entities, they can apply. Proposals should address innovative technologies that combine clean, low cost, and high energy density harvesting and storage. In addition, the proposal should also address innovations for the renewable energies combined harvesting and storage or devices for electrochemical storage and advanced materials.

Horizon Europe also supports partnerships where the EU, member countries, and their private sector commit to developing and implementing research and innovation activities. The European commissions’ partnership with Breakthrough Energy is an example, and they support the catalyst project for making competitive cleantech solutions in Europe

Conclusion

The Horizon Europe program provides funding for startups and SMEs. With the numerous funding opportunities, all you need do is apply for grants. If you need more help with this topic, check out https://www.emdesk.com/horizon-europe and hit the ground running. Whenever there is a call for a proposal, always pay attention to the research and innovation issues your application should address.

Never Run Out of Money! Use Cash Forecasting to Stay Solvent

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Cash Forecasting|Never Run Out of Money! Use Cash Forecasting to Stay SolventWill you have enough to make payroll? It shouldn’t be a mystery.

Don’t run out of money might be the first commandment of any successful small to medium enterprise (SME). You need cash on hand to pay your employees, service your debts, and keep your supplies rolling in on time. In short, you need to cash to keep your business running.

Cash forecasting is the tool you need to make sure you have the cash you need. Instead of looking at accounts payable and receivable (AP and AR), cash forecasting predicts how much actual money you will have on hand to meet your responsibilities. In addition to keeping you solvent from day to day and year to year, cash forecasting has other benefits, too.

Identify Potential Problems Ahead of Time

Cash forecasting can be like a check engine light with premonition for your finances. You can spot trouble spots months ahead of time and plan your way around them. In doing your first-quarter forecast, you might discover that you will have additional expenses in March, or perhaps you will have shipped sales or provided services that aren’t due to be paid until April. Your sales will show up in your AR report, but you probably won’t actually see the cash until April. By predicting this sort of shortfall in March, you can reduce expenditures in February or secure a line of credit with your bank to prevent problems before they happen.

Plan ahead to keep problems from ever occurring.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Cash Forecasting|Never Run Out of Money! Use Cash Forecasting to Stay SolventCreate Strong Relationships with Employees and Suppliers

Your employees depend on you to provide them with a reliable paycheck. They count on that money to meet their household expenses, pay rent or a mortgage, and buy groceries. Your suppliers are in business just like you. They need your payments to meet their own expenses. Neither employees nor suppliers will want to do business with you if they can’t depend on you. Being a reliable partner will establish trust and goodwill that is invaluable in running your business.

Long-Term Planning

You need to make larger expenditures sometimes to keep your business running. Maybe it is time to upgrade all your laptops or invest in that software you need to manage your growth. Be careful. Longer-term forecasts may not be as accurate as short term ones. Nevertheless, your cash forecasting can help you be strategic about when to make more significant investments, how to spread the expense if necessary, and when it might be a good idea to delay a more substantial purchase. Forecasting also helps you put some of your revenue aside for a rainy day, because there will always be rainy days, and expenses or slumps you can’t predict.

Cash forecasting is one of the basics of business. In 2018, CB Investments did an analysis of 101 failed startup businesses. Of those 101, the second most common reason they failed was that they ran out of cash. Cash forecasting is essential for avoiding disaster.

A solid cash forecast is also something your investors will need and something a bank will want to consider before doing business with you. It should be a living, breathing part of your business, updated continually, and consulted often. Cash is king, don’t be caught without it!

Identifying Your Weaknesses As A Business

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StrategyDriven Business Performance Assessment Program (BPAP) Article |Business Weaknesses|Identifying Your Weaknesses As A BusinessSmall businesses do a lot of things better than the competition. As an SME, for example, you’ll have tighter links with the local community, allowing you to strengthen brand loyalty. Also, having a limited budget means that you understand how and where to cut costs to maximize your funds.

On the flip side, you will struggle to perform some tasks to the same standard as everyone else. While there is nothing wrong with having weaknesses, it’s essential to turn them into strengths if you want to stay afloat. After all, your rivals will leave you in their dust if you don’t adapt and thrive.

First, you must figure out what the company’s weaknesses are as it will allow you to focus on the most important ones. Here are four common pitfalls that SMEs suffer regularly. It might come as a surprise how basic the following steps are.

Ask Others

Most posts will start by saying that you need to conduct a SWOT analysis. Working out your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is a great place to start, but it doesn’t help you figure out what they are. With that in mind, it’s wise to ask other people for their opinions.

Employees will always be happy to help in this department because they are never satisfied! Bear that in mind when analyzing whether they are weak points or not as they could be little gripes that do not affect the business. Clients and customers are excellent research sources, too. All you need to do is ask them whether you can improve on the customer experience.

You should be open to constructive criticism. Some of the things you’ll hear will be out of the blue, and it’s easy to react poorly. Instead, write it down and move onto the next potential weakness. That way, you can review them in more detail later.

Perform Tests

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, it’s possible to test various elements of your business to check for weak spots. A performance assessment of your server and internet connection is the best place to begin because the company relies on the Web. Professional network solutions are often necessary as they ensure the business is never offline and website upload speeds are high. Plus, quality services come with an assessment included.

Next, it’s time to test which areas of the site are getting traction from browsers and which ones are lagging behind. A/B testing is a fantastic tool for companies that can narrow the weaknesses down to a handful of features. If you don’t fall into this category, you should opt for multivariate testing instead. MV tests analyze several elements of your site simultaneously, helping you to figure out what is useful.

You should always perform assessments as they encourage growth and improvement.

Keep Tabs On Complaints

The first paragraph said you should ask customers for their opinions. Well, the good news is that you don’t have to – they’ll come to you if they think the standard is low. One in twenty-five shoppers will complain directly to you, whereas an additional 13% will tell up to five people about the experience. Thanks to the internet, you can find these complaints with ease.

Again, it’s about striking the perfect balance. Yes, some people like to complain, and they will do it regardless. However, there could be a couple of nuggets of information that will transform your processes and practices. The trick is to watch out for criticisms that pop-up more than once. If several complaints focus on the same point, the odds are high that they are right.

Responding to complaints and asking for feedback is a smart way to show you care and want to change.

StrategyDriven Business Performance Assessment Program (BPAP) Article |Business Weaknesses|Identifying Your Weaknesses As A BusinessCompare Yourself To The Competition

Comparing yourself to anyone is risky because there could be differing variables. As a result, the conclusions you draw will be flawed. Although that is true, it’s never bad to evaluate your business against the rest of the market. By doing this, you’ll figure out which areas you excel at, and which ones need some work.

A good tip is to keep it general. Check their website and see whether it’s more navigable than yours, or gauge whether they go the extra mile for customers for the sake of their experience. Doing this should provide perspective and encourage you to up your game to compete with your rivals.

Do you understand your business’ weaknesses? Hopefully, this post will help you address the imbalance.