Financial roadmap – the right way to innovation

Are you considering applying for external funding for support and risk minimization in a project? With IMCG’s financial roadmap, you pinpoint the right financial instruments at the right time.

Has your organization found an opportunity for funding to develop a service or an innovation? A call from an authority or the EU? Great! You are well on your way, but what if you had a plan for the coming years with funding opportunities for every step from creation to rollout? That is what a financial roadmap means.

We can help the customer achieve success in a call or a program that really leads the innovation project in the right direction”, says Johan Emanuel at IMCG.

“If we get to be involved in such an early stage that we get the opportunity to develop a financial roadmap for the customer before choosing which funding to apply for, then we can help the customer achieve success in a call or a program that really leads the innovation project in the right direction”, says Johan Emanuel at IMCG.

THE INNOVATION IDEA AS A STARTING POINT

The aim of the financial roadmap is to set a starting point based on the applicant organization’s innovation idea, overall strategy, and its resources and network of contacts, and then to apply for funding programs and calls that comply with these parameters.

MOST IMPORTANT INDICATORS

It is not necessarily a long process; it can be done in a few weeks. IMCG starts with interviewing several key people in the organization. In this way, we can identify the most important indicators for the company which then form the basis of the roadmap.

“We try to find the most important issues for the organization. Is it the size of the funding or is it to take a position within the EU? Is it about support for investments or project management, and so on. The fact that we can identify the overall indicators makes it easier to move forward”, says Johan Emanuel.

PLAN THE ROAD TO FINANCING

Next step is to decide in which order to apply for the various available calls and programs, on a scale from smaller to larger. You can apply locally / regionally, which usually means less funding and shorter projects. National programs are often larger both in terms of amount of funding and time. They also often overlap with smaller EU projects. Next level is the major EU programs, such as Horizon Europe, LIFE and European Innovation Fund. These are made for large, long-term projects that need large investments.

More than just winning

But IMCG does not drop the customer off when the application is granted.

“The application process is not just about winning the application itself. Once you have got there within an EU-program, a negotiation process starts with the EU”, says Johan Emanuel.

This means being able to set aside time and resources to take the project all the way to a final agreement with the European Commission and to be able to put together a consortium agreement with other project participants. This too is something that IMCG can help you with. If the customer then needs support in preparing their project operations and reporting, IMCG can also support in this.

Don’t wait too long

The risks of waiting to design a financial roadmap are several.

“If you just follow the money, so to speak, you as a company risk losing sight of where you are going and how you want to develop your company and your idea. With a financial roadmap, the company, on the contrary, has a greater opportunity to shape its own way forward”, Johan Emanuel explains.