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European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA)

Manage and communicate your project (Grants)

Your project is approved - congratulations! What next?

  • First, make sure all documents are completed and signed
  • Get acquainted with your project officer in EISMEA: he/she will be your trustful guide for your whole project journey
  • Organise a kick-off meeting
  • Review project proposal and re-confirm partner commitments, re-confirm deadlines for project input and reporting: make everyone responsible, not only the project manager

Project implementation

  • Secure payments when due, according to agreements
  • Keep documents, invoices for further use (report/audit)
  • Keep regular contact with partners: ask feedback
  • Problems? Do not wait too long to talk about it:
  • With your project adviser: Are the changes needed? Amendments?
  • In your consortium
  • Attend meetings and work actively during the sessions, prepare your input according to your tasks/responsibilities
  • Stick to deadlines for reporting: be realistic and transparent; collect timely all information

10 steps to successful communication

Why communicate?

Communication plays an important role in making sure your project has a lasting impact. It will make it easier to achieve the project's objectives by highlighting your results and encouraging transfer & replication. It will also serve to inform policy-makers at local, regional, and EU level on best practices. In addition to that, SMP/SME Pillar projects have a general obligation to promote the actions and its results, as specified in the grant agreement. 

Use of EU emblem

All European projects shall use the European emblem (flag) to acknowledge the support received under EU programmes.

The emblem shall be associated with a sentence. The most standard one is 'Funded by the European Union'. You will find some guidelines in your grant agreement.

It should look like this

On the left: European flag with text to its right - 'Funded by the European Union.' On the right  - European flag with text placed under - 'Co-funded by the European Union.'

You can download them here.

Revise the updated guide for "The use of EU emblem by in the context of EU programmes" to make sure you know how to put it in practice. 

And don't forget to check out the 10 ways for recipients of EU funding to communicate and ensure EU visibility.

Please do not use the European Commission's logo!

You can use any of the following typefaces in conjunction with the EU emblem: Arial, Calibri, Garamond, Trebuchet, Tahoma, Verdana.

Add the disclaimer

Any information used in your communication or dissemination activity must be factually accurate and it must indicate the following disclaimer (translated into local languages where appropriate - page 44 of the Model Grant Agreement): 

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or [name of the granting authority]. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Stay in touch

Please keep us informed of your communication activities. If we are aware of your plans, we can offer assistance and coordinate joint promotional actions. 

Do you have to promote an event, inform your community about a success story, or communicate an important milestone? We can act as a multiplier and help your social media activities reach wider and different audiences through our channels. 

EISMEA is currently on Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Follow us & tag us in your relevant content, and we will help you spread the word!

You can also contact us with your communication-related requests & questions 

Tips & tricks

Web

Digital content should respond to a clear user need and provide answers to your audience's questions.
Before drafting any content, ask yourself:

  • Is this newsworthy?
  • Who do you want to reach?
  • What is the purpose of publishing the content (e.g., information, call to action)?
  • What is in it for your audience? Why is it relevant, and what will they learn?
  • Has it already been published on another website? If so, do not duplicate this content. Only write new content if you can add value by tailoring it for your audience.
  • Would you read/share this content?
  • Carry the story forward
  • Before you start communicating on your project, think about how you can engage with your audience, and bring value.

Include only what is meaningful to your target audience and follow this checklist:

  • Find an interesting angle to present the project and drive the story.
  • Be human and put people forward.
  • Be concise and keep sentences simple.


Ten tips for delivering clear, concise, and compelling web content

  1. Make sure the language is suitable for your audience – avoid using acronyms and EU jargon. Explain things in plain English, making sure an audience of people outside the institutions can understand easily.
  2. Write from the user’s perspective, with the words they use when they search the internet: by using good keywords, you can improve your article's chances in search results.
  3. Make sure your content is accessible by people with the widest range of capabilities. The advantage is that all users benefit from well-structured, clearly written, standards-compliant content, regardless of their physical and mental abilities and their familiarity with technology.
  4. As a rule, prefer the active voice to the passive – so that the reader knows who is taking the action.
  5. Have descriptive titles and make sure the title includes the most important keyword(s).
  6. Use short sentences in short paragraphs. Reading print is not the same as reading on a screen – you need to make an effort to keep sentences simple and short. This is also important to help people who are not native speakers – this is a big part of our audience!
  7. Help your reader navigate the page: add subheadings and bullet lists to make the text easy to scan.
  8. Don’t duplicate existing content but use hyperlinks to refer to source information.
  9. Provide relevant hyperlinks in the text – use clear, specific link labels, and avoid generic labels such as: click here, read more, etc.
  10. Visuals support and strengthen your messaging. Complement your content and make it stand out by providing good quality, high-resolution pictures. Don’t forget to check copyright compliance and make sure you provide and save this information.
     

Social media

Benefits

Social media offers a cheap & effective way of keeping your stakeholders informed about your activities whilst (potentially) reaching a vast and diverse audience. It can also serve you to receive updated information on your field's latest developments, as a tool for networking and to spark online discussions. 

Choosing your channels

First, you have to identify your target audience and then select the right platform to reach them. 

For example, if you intend to target a professional audience, a good starting point could be LinkedIn; for general audiences, you could use Facebook or Twitter, and if you want to engage younger generations, you can open an account on Instagram. It would help if you also kept in mind the geographical spread of each channel's use to adjust it to your target groups. 

Strategy

What would you like to achieve with your communication? Who would you like to reach? 

Maximise the reach of your project activities and successes by building upfront a social media strategy setting your goals, measurable objectives, and specific outcomes.

Make it work!

  • Plan your social media presence
  • Always include media (images or videos), relevant links, and calls to action in your updates.
  • Engage with other relevant accounts
  • News expire very quickly on social media –make sure what you are posting is still relevant.
  • Create a hashtag for your project and try to use it in all your tweets 
  • Don't forget to mention EASME in your posts on Twitter and LinkedIn – we will help you promote your project or activity!

How do you know if it is working? Measure, adjust & implement

Do not forget to measure your results on social media. This will help you understand if your efforts are working or if you need to make any adjustments before continuing. 

You can opt for external analytics tools or take advantage of the channel’s own. 

You can measure many things, but a good starting point are impressions (The number of times your content is shown in a social media feed) and engagement (likes, comments, clicks… that show your audience is interacting with your content