By Csilla Zsigri

2009 was a busy year for bidders in the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector in Europe (FP7 ICT call 4 and 5, FP7 Capacities – Research Infrastructures call 1 and 2, Ambient Assisted Living call 2, just to mention a few) and there is more up for 2010. European proposal solicitors and evaluators claim that many proposals lacked passion and enthusiasm which made them one among many.

Most people agree that if we want to be successful at our job, we need to be passionate about our work. Passion, zeal or enthusiasm, call it what you want, is a state of mind, a self-driven attitude about our work that can help lead us down the path to success.

Same rule applies to ICT research and development. It starts at proposal preparation stage when the basic project idea is born, sails through project development and berths at proposal writing. This last bit is crucial as it is the one that is evaluated and makes you succeed (get funding for your project) or not. If you know your subject and you’re passionate about it, this will show in your writing. Passion sells. Share your passion with the readers (evaluators) and they will be hooked. The voice and passion of the people (who will deliver the project) must come through, after all, in raising funding, people give money to people, not projects.

When referring to traditional IT and IT research, you might not relate it to passion in the first place. (This doesn’t mean that IT developers and programmers haven’t always been passionate about their work.) But, marketing –and related sciences such as psychology and sociology- have left their footprint in ICT, as elsewhere. A young and dynamic target market’s preferences and behavior drive the design of ICT products and services. Intrepid solutions that come with smart advertising are the ones which succeed. ICT is becoming passionate (e.g. iPod and iPhone).

But, what do we see on the bidder side? What other emotions may influence their passion?

On the one hand, these past 2 years were hard on most of us: drops in revenues, outstanding invoices, clients dropping out, pressure on sales people, nervous CxOs, layoffs, exponentially increasing interest in public funds accompanied by a great deal of pressure, and so on…I must say that under these circumstances is hard to keep that passion alive and above all.

On the other hand, there was a general confusion about what exactly the expectations were regarding the topics and content of the bids which did not come through so clearly for everyone. Should we address short term goals or long term goals? If it’s too long term, it may fall too far from reality and industry may not be interested in being involved even if we thought the outcomes would have been really disruptive. If it’s short term, it may not be considered research and hence it may not get funded even if we thought the outcomes would have been very useful. And, which objective does our bid belong to? It partly addresses the specifications and goals of topic X, Y and Z too. Which is the most appropriate one? Where do we expect less competition? And, regarding the collaborative nature of these bids, how do we get the best out of each participant? How do we bring the different ideas and point of views together and communicate a single (and sound) voice and passion?

Having said that, neither bidding nor evaluating is easy and the circumstances do not always help either. Nevertheless, my advice would be to keep the passion and creativity as alive as we can.