Horizon Europe – Impact section
Impact section – our tips and tricks in a glance
- The impact section is at least as important as the excellence section.
- Impacts ≠ results; think of the big picture.
- Be market-oriented: show the EU you want to come up with an application in the real world.
- Add KPIs to quantify and measure your impact
Impact section: excellent science is not enough to get your funding!
Why should you write an outstanding impact section?
Have you ever wondered what the European Commission seeks when funding European projects? Of course, being internationally renowned as an excellent scientist is great, but it does not guarantee funding.
The EU expects you to solve a societal challenge. They are looking for projects with a direct and concrete impact on European citizens. This is even more true in Horizon Europe, as the lack of technology transfer from the research world to the real world was deplored in Horizon 2020.
Yet, many applicants focus on the excellence and implementation parts and neglect the impact section.
Competition for EU funding is high: Only a perfect proposal can be funded. Make a difference by writing an outstanding impact section!
Impact ≠ Results
Be sure to avoid a common mistake: a project’s impact is not the project’s results. Of course, they contribute to the impact, but it goes further than that!
The project’s results will impact the scientific community, European citizens, the European economy, your institution, and the companies involved in your consortium… For example, if the result of your project is a new treatment against cancer, the impact could be the cure of xxx million persons in the next ten years and the creation of a new company to commercialize your treatment.
Ask yourself what the value your project will bring to society is.
What does the EU commission expect you to write in your impact section?
The impact section is section 2 in the EU proposal template.
It is constituted of 2 subsections:
1) Expected impacts: description of the value of your project, how it will affect society
2) Measures to maximize impact: description of the concrete actions you are going to put in place to be sure the impact will be as high as possible
To help the reviewers, writing the right things in the right place is essential. Let’s unravel together what you need to register and where.
Do you need general advice on writing your IA/RIA proposal? Check out our dedicated page:
→ How do you write a successful RIA proposal? ←
1) Expected impacts : What is the value of your project?
In this section, you will demonstrate how your project is aligned with the Horizon Europe strategy.
The applicants often list the expected impacts of the call description in a table and explain why their project will address them. You should not limit yourself to that. You have to think of all the potential repercussions of your project in the short term (during the project), medium-term (3 to 5 years after the end of the project), and long-term.
Remember that, unlike the deliverables, this is not a commitment you are making to the EU: the impact you list can be natural or expected, and no one will come to check you achieve the objectives you mention in the impact section. Of course, you have to stay believable to convince the reviewers.
Be exhaustive
To write this section, sit down with your partners and brainstorm about all the possible impacts of your project. Don’t limit yourself to the direct and apparent effects; consider the big picture.
You can base your reflection on this list of impacts:
- Scientific: definition of a new state-of-the-art in your field, scientific publications, better reputation and increased visibility of the institutions involved, new collaborations…
- Societal: how your project will affect the quality of life, health, and safety of the EU citizens, will contribute to the preservation of the environment, will raise awareness of citizens on a specific problem, change their behaviors…
- Socio-economic: job/company creation, company growth, leading position in the European field, increase of European competitiveness…
- Exploitable: new products, new techniques, new services provided by the institutions of the consortium, patents…
Be market-oriented
Identify the end-users (people who will take advantage of your results) and the customers (who will pay to use your results). Show the EU that you have already thought about the future of your research.
Give a brief overview of your target market: current challenges, drivers, size, growth rate, etc.… You should at least provide the following information: the total addressable market, location, and the main barriers to reaching your market (policies, regulations, legal…). If you are a researcher from a public institution, you may not be familiar with these concepts: ask your industrial partner(s) to help you with that.
We strongly advise you to add an end-user or a future customer to your consortium: it will help you orient your research and develop a product or a technology that will meet the market’s expectations. They will also be the best partners to help you write your business plan.
Add KPIs= Key Performance Indicators to measure your impact
The EU and the reviewers will expect you to be precise, concrete, and realistic. For this reason, setting up KPIs in your impact section is essential: they will be a measurable means to evaluate your impact.
For each impact, determine your quantified targets: how many people you will cure, how many products you will sell, how much you will reduce CO2 emissions, etc…
2) Measures to maximise impact: what are you actually going to do?
This is about communication, dissemination, and exploitation. To complete this part, you need to understand the EU’s wording first.
Let’s start with a few definitions:
Communication: The measures you take to communicate about your project (not specifically your results) with the general public and specific stakeholders. Typically, it is your website, your posts on social media, a newsletter, and all the means you use to keep people updated with your project.
Dissemination: The measures you take to promote the project results to ensure they will reach the right stakeholders. It is about the transfer of knowledge between the project partners and the targeted audience to ensure the targeted audience will be able to use the results of your research as a basis for future development.
It can be the publication of an article, the presentation at a conference, the organization of a training or a workshop, the sharing of your data on an online repository, etc…
Finally, exploitation is the use of the results during and after the implementation of the project. It can be patenting, adding a new product to a company portfolio, creating a start-up or new jobs, etc…
Dissemination and exploitation plan: How will you ensure your targeted audiences will use your results?
First, you need to provide a dissemination and exploitation plan. This is an eligibility condition for most of the EU funding programs.
In this dissemination and exploitation plan, you will explain the measures you will take to ensure the proper dissemination and exploitation of the project and how they will help you maximize your project’s impact.
Most of the time, the applicants mentioned that the project’s outcomes would be either published in peer-reviewed papers or protected by patents. This is insufficient! Of course, patenting and publication will be part of your plan, but you must consider other measures and give more detail.
To draft your plan, answer the following questions:
Dissemination:
- Who are the stakeholders that will use the outcomes of our project?
- Which media will you use to reach them (during and after the project)?
- What will be your dissemination activities ( ≠ communication activities!)?
- How will these activities support the impacts listed in the 2.1 subsection?
Exploitation:
- What are your exploitable results (knowledge, know-how, technologies, software, products, services…)?
- What measures will you take to ensure their actual exploitation? (patenting, licensing, registered designs…)? Remember that patenting is excellent and valuable but is not a “must-have”. You should mention it only if it makes sense and you plan to patent your research. For example, you can develop innovations and keep the know-how secret instead of patenting.
- How will you ensure that your results meet the end user’s needs? How will you involve them in your project?
For each aspect, specify the specific roles and responsibilities of each partner.
Using tables to present each aspect in a structured way can be more accessible.
Finally, be sure to ADAPT your dissemination and exploitation plan to YOUR project rather than copy-paste it from your previous applications. The reviewers need to see a clear link between the expected impact you listed in subsection 2.1 and the measures you will take to address them in subsection 2.2.
Data management plan:
If you plan to collect lots of data during the project, it is relevant to draft a data management plan.
You will explain how to collect, treat, and share your projects’ data to respect Europe’s wish to generate FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) resources.
Communication activities: How will you share the consortium’s activities?
Finally, it would be best if you listed your communication activities. They will allow you to promote your project to the scientific community and the general public.
Good communication is a real job. You won’t give money to an advertising agency to cure cancer, right? It is the same for the EU; they expect pros to deal with every aspect of the project, even communication.
It is better to include a partner already experienced in communication or a communication agency in the consortium to be convincing. They will lead the WP dedicated to dissemination and communication and write this subsection.
In this subsection, you have to give answers to the following questions:
- What are your objectives and messages?
- What audience are you targeting? Of course, you can have several targets, but target specific stakeholders consistent with your project; don’t be too general.
- How will you reach your audience (your means of communication = website, social networks, videos, conferences, press releases, etc)?
Remember that the impact section describes how you will maximize the impacts during and after the project. Show the reviewers you have already thought about what will happen at the end of the project: who will be in charge of the communication? Who will update the website? Etc…
Add companies to your Horizon Europe consortium!
Companies are used to conducting market-driven research; they know the market, they are familiar with the different steps of a business plan… Your industrial partners will be the best allies to write an outstanding impact section!
The MIC, as an industrial partner
We will be glad to participate in your project. Visit our dedicated webpage to learn more about our expertise as H2020 and Horizon Europe partner!
Curious about the calls currently open?
We are particularly interested in the following calls but remain open to any collaboration!
- EIC WORK PROGRAMME that supports all stages from R&D to industry for game-changing innovations
- HORIZON EUROPE RIA CALLS, specifically focusing on health and food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture, and environment