1- or 2-step submission procedures

The overall time frame depends on the choice between a 1-step procedure (only full proposals submitted) or a 2-step procedure (pre-proposal and full proposal).

Apart from being a legal requirement for many national/regional programmes, a 2-stage submission procedure provides the funding organisations with a tool to filter/limit the number of full proposals and to increase the overall proposal quality. A 2-step procedure also facilitates input from the national/regional programmes at an early stage in the overall workflow. A 1-step-procedure however will probably reduce time frame and costs.

1st step of 2-step procedure (pre-proposals)

A pre-proposal phase is usually introduced to control the number of full proposals in order to keep efforts low for both applicants and funding agencies. All agencies agree on a list of consortia that are invited to submit full proposals. Depending on the size of the committed budgets the number of the invited full proposals should be limited to a certain extent (such as a factor of 3.0) in order to balance the committed and the requested funding.

2nd of 2-step procedure (full proposals) or the only step (1-step-procedure)

The full proposals (and national/regional funding applications, if necessary) are submitted by the applicants. Proposals are evaluated against the published criteria according to the agreed evaluation procedures.

Advice for Co-funded European Partnerships: Please consider that the calls must remain open for at least 2 months and you have to make the selection through a two-step procedure:

  • Step 1: review at national or transnational level (including national eligibility checks)
  • Step 2: single international peer review
    • proposals must be evaluated with the assistance of at least three independent experts
    • proposals must be ranked according to the evaluation results and the selection must be made on the basis of this ranking
    • the selection procedure must be followed by an independent expert observer, who must make a report.