FP7 negotiation
July 22nd, 2008 — shak gohirDear all,
I am in the process of negotiations for a FP7 project: Research for SMEs.
I have previously negotiated three other FP6 proposals
I would very much well comments and advice from people on a good checklist for items for negotiations on FP7.
Thanks in advance,
Shak
July 26th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Shak, The Negotiation Guidance Notes contains a checklist (Appx 5), yet not specific to Research for the Benefit of SMEs.
Research for SMEs (everybody still calls it CRAFT I think) is normally not the quickest with Guides, etc. To me, the critical issue is to get all the paperwork done to prove the status of the SMEs. They need to provide P&L, balance sheet, #of employees for their own entity PLUS (believe it or not!) for all their upstream and downstream companies (ie where they have a controlling share or >25% of the shares). Talking about reduced paperwork! For instance, in NL it is for tax reasons very common that owners of SMEs have their own management/holding companies. We found that many SMEs simply dont like to provide their financial details (they keep their holdings very private!) and they may well opt to get out, especially with barely any money to them anyway.
It again demonstrates the unfriendliness of the Commission towards SMEs. I once asked the Commission rhetorically “what is the differecnce between an SME and someone taken to Court for an alleged crime? Answer: the alleged person is presumed innocent…
GL, Henk