Go student entrepreneurs!

I had the chance to attend NACUE’s Student Enterprise Conference (SEC) at UCL on the weekend of February 20th-21st, which has been organised in partnership with our MY-WAY project. As some of you might remember, MY-WAY is about supporting young adults in becoming successful web entrepreneurs.

The SEC was full of inspiring talks, practical workshops and networking opportunities. The talks for young people were encouraging and answered many questions they had in mind as well as had many tips how to deal with the next steps ahead. You should have felt the energy coming from these young people! It was inspiring for all of us.

During a panel session held on Sunday the experts talked about “Reaching your true target market” a thought could not leave my head: this is tough! I would not do it now! For me, a project manager with more than 12 years of experience, a managing director of a small enterprise, some of the talks were kind of frightening. A young entrepreneur nowadays has to be prepared to face many challenges and has to have skills to cope with many unexpected problems. Especially on the market of ICT and telecommunications the life of a start-up might be extremely short.

 

MY-WAY is about them. We can help these people to be successful implementing their own ideas. Help with contacts, help with networking, access to information they need etc. And by giving access to many other European initiatives they have no idea about.

The MY-WAY team had 8 sessions on the conference, including workshops on pitching your idea, panel on how to learn from failure, etc. Read here more about our sessions.

But the main conclusion of the conference for us was: students and other young adults do not know how they can benefit from the support given by the European Commission through direct funds or through the initiatives the EU supports.

Here I am sharing our prezi about EU funding opportunities for young startups

Please share, forward. The information about available EU funding and the links to the Startup Europe initiatives could provide the next valuable step for many of these students.

By: Gabriella Lovasz

More about Europa Media

EU Project Manager Traineeship programme by Europa Media Trainings

Europa Media Trainings is now launching its traineeship programme on EU project development and management. Successful trainees with an ambition to escalate their practical know-how and skills in developing and managing projects under the EU’s research and innovation programmes will have the chance to work on real projects of Europa Media Non-profit Ltd. (www.europamedia.org/projects) and/or Geonardo Ltd. (www.geonardo.com/references.php), and will develop innovative project concepts in response to real calls for proposals published under the Horizon 2020 and ERASMUS+ programmes.

The traineeship will last 3-4 months and run from May 2016 until August 2016. A mentor, an experienced project manager, will be assigned to each trainee. A maximum of five trainees will be accepted to the programme.

Europa Media Trainings is Europe’s leading provider of practical training courses and advisory services on EU funds and EU project development and management. Since its establishment, Europa Media Trainings has strived to provide and present the dispersed and technical information on EU policies, funding opportunities and programmes in a streamlined and simplified way to potential stakeholders in Europe and worldwide. To this aim, we have developed, launched and publicised a variety of information sources and tools including web platforms, publications and events. Our multidisciplinary team of experts has several years of hands-on experience in developing and implementing EU-funded projects. We have been involved in over 50 EU projects over the past 16 years as coordinator or partner. Read more about us at www.eutrainingsite.com

Target group: Recent graduates, PhD students, junior project managers with a maximum of 1-2 years of experience.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Assisting in developing and submitting project proposals under the EU’s research and innovation programmes
• Liaising with international clients and project partners
• Providing support to project managers in their day-to-day operations
• Contributing to drafting project reports and other material
• Contributing to communication activities and social media campaigns

Required Skills and Qualifications

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English
• Excellent analytical and drafting skills to produce proposals and reports
• Ability to work autonomously and as part of a team
• General understanding of EU policies, EU institutions and EU funding
• Experience in project proposal development and/or management is an advantage

Knowledge, skills and competences to be acquired by the end of the traineeship (expected Learning Outcomes):

• Sound knowledge of the EU funding system and the EU programmes
• Hands-on experience in developing proposals and implementing EU funded projects
• A good understanding of the project lifecycle and how EU funded research and innovation projects in the energy and environmental fields are implemented

Monitoring plan:

• The mentor will on a weekly basis monitor the activities of the trainee. The trainee will have the opportunity to consult with her/his mentor and/or project managers on a daily basis.

Evaluation plan:

• Evaluation will be continuous during the activities of the trainee. In addition, a more comprehensive evaluation will be conducted on a monthly basis.

Number of working hours per week: 40

As this is a full-time traineeship programme based in Budapest, Hungary, the candidates shall be ideally based in Budapest or willing to invest in the necessary move to Budapest for the traineeship period. Europa Media will compensate the trainees with a monthly contribution to their living arrangements.

If you are confident that your skills match the above requirements and you are ready to turn your theoretical knowledge into practice, then please send a Motivation Letter, and your Curriculum Vitae to hr@europamedia.org.

Shortlisted candidates will be informed and invited to a Skype interview before the final selection.

Get your FP7/H2020 project mock audited and test yourself and your procedures

Are you wondering how you would do in case of a financial audit on one or more of your FP7/H2020 projects? Do you have doubts on whether your administrative and financial management procedures comply fully with the requirements of FP7/H2020?

Try our brand new service: Mock Audit by Europa Media

Our experts will simulate a pilot-scale EC financial audit for one or more of your FP7/H2020 projects, in which your organisation is involved as a beneficiary. The goal of this exercise is to verify the compliance of the administrative and financial procedures at your organisation with the requirements of the Grant Agreements of your project(s) funded under FP7 and/or Horizon 2020, and propose recommendations for improvement, if necessary.

To this aim, financial statements of one or more projects of your choice for their closed periods will be analysed with a view to verifying the eligibility of the costs claimed. Bookkeeping and timekeeping procedures will be carefully checked with special attention on potential systematic errors.

For more information and queries, please feel free to contact us.

Anita Ihász, our Key Account Manager, will be happy to answer your questions.