Your project love story: old friends & blind dates
Last month we asked project partners to share their love story; How did they meet and how did they build their partnership? As we get ready for the new programme we wanted to hear who is the best matchmaker and how we can improve our support. A love story survey gave us good insight in blind dates and how old friends got together.
Matchmaking
As with every new programme we want to help matching the right partners to develop successful projects. Also, we would like to atract newcomers to the programme. This is especially important now we welcome nine new regions.
Looking at the responses to our survey, in 80% of the projects, the events we organised played a role in the formation of the partnership. The respondents ask for matchmaking events early on in the programme, possibly per theme or sector, to encourage meeting new partners. A partner search facility, in the form of an online database is mentioned several times to make it is easier to find project that are in development and search for partners. To encourage new partners to join, the role of the National Contact Points with their local contacts is mentioned.
Working on the relationship
Looking back at the start of their relationship, several projects mention that they would have spend more time finding the right partners and on developing the partnership. In the case of an extension, they would have spend more time integrating new partners in the existing partnership. This provides some useful learnings for future programme adventures, but also for projects that currently have an extension request outstanding under Call 12.
Next steps
The survey results help us shape the introduction of the new programme. We will soon open registration for an introduction & match-making event and we are also gearing up for a partner search facility as part of the new website.
Thank you to the nineteen project partners that took the time to answer our survey. Answers were given by a mix of experienced and first-timers. When starting the project adventure, 9 respondents did not know the other partners and 6 did only know half of them or less.