_____.......... How to build a successful partnership

_____..........
How to build a successful partnership
Building and maintaining a partnership in the name of the success
Written by Olga DÁNYI
In the framework of Leonardo da Vinci Mobility Programme
Traineeship 05 Sept – 28 Oct 2011
at la Fundación Comunidad Valenciana-Región Europea, Brussels
_____________..................
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Contents
Why with partners?
3
General rules for running a partnership
3
European added value - consortia
6
Partner request in FP7
8
Best practices of international cooperation
9
International projects and relations in the Jászság Small Region
12
New project ideas, connection possibilities between Valencia and Jászság
14
Summary – individual ideas
16
Annexes
19
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It is worth noting that Jász people are very proud of being Jász and their ability of
making and running cooperation, as it is coming from their history when the whole
nation collected the money together in order to redeem its territory. It is a fact that
they are very stubborn but studious and humble, and moreover, they have a high
respect for labour.
Why with partners?
Developing partnerships for organizations in both the private and public sectors has
been a management trend for the past several years. Particularly in times of tight
budgets but growing demands for services, agencies have looked more and more to
cost sharing and work sharing with groups and organizations.
What can partnerships do for you?
−
Provide cost sharing for construction projects, exhibit projects, marketing
services, staff training and development, and more.
−
Cut costs in marketing and advertising sites or attractions.
−
Provide "credibility" for some projects by having the right "names" associated
with them.
−
Provide external expertise.
−
Help in grant writing or other revenue generation.
−
Help you accomplish your agency or attraction mission more cost effectively.
These are just a few of the benefits of partnerships. But creating a "successful"
partnership is not as easy as it might seem and there are pit falls if the partnership
doesn’t work out.
Here are some things to consider in developing and maintaining successful
partnerships.
General rules for running a partnership
All partners must be equal. While the word "partnership" implies this, I have seen
partnerships where one partner is "more equal" than the other in decision making,
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management, or other issues. This can easily cause friction and the partnership to
break up.
Benefits to each partner should be equal. All partnerships are based on the fact
that each partner is looking to gain some BENEFITS from the partnership. They may
be benefits in marketing or advertising their site or resources, benefits in keeping their
operation costs down, or other related benefits. If one partner seems to benefit more
than the other, but the real "costs" of the partnership are equal, some friction can
develop.
Partners should have some common or shared mission or organizational
purpose. If all partners are after the same end (protecting historical sites, preserving
the environment, wanting visitors to value the shared resource, promoting regional
tourism, etc.), there is a greater chance of the partnership being successful.
All partnerships should have a written "Letter of Agreement" between the
partners to spell out exactly the roles, duties, financial commitments, time
frame commitments, management responsibilities, etc. for the partnership.
This speaks for itself. All partnership agreements should be worked out clearly and in
writing.
Choose your partners carefully – You are known by the company you keep.
Will this partnership help or possibly hurt your agency or organization image? For
example, if you are an environmental organization and have a partnership with an Oil
Company – what will people think?
Talk to each other often. Some types of partnerships succeed or fail because of lack
of communications between the partners. Depending on the kind of partnership you
have, meet often to discuss common goals, strategies, or problems.
If you have a "long term" partnership agreement (covering several years),
have
a
yearly
"updating"
meeting
to
make
any
needed
partnership
adjustments. The key here is that tourists, agency administrators, budgets,
everything – can change over time. Have flexibility built into your partnerships to
make adjustments as needed.
Have a common or shared "look". While you want to maintain your agency or
organization identity, visitors are not really interested in who all the partners are.
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They do not want a quilt work of exhibit design looks, publication mis-matches, or
other visually confusing presentations. Agree on a common or shared look for a
"seamless" presentation of a common or shared story.
Allocate clear deadlines. If your partnership involves developing sites, attractions,
exhibits, marketing materials, or other such joint projects, make sure that all partners
can keep to shared work responsibility deadlines and project time tables. For example,
if you are developing outdoor exhibit panels, and your designer needs graphic material
from your "partner" by a certain deadline, make sure that the partner can meet these
kinds of deadlines.
At least, try to like your partner. If you don’t really get along with a potential
partner, you will probably have problems along the way with the potential partnership.
Some partnerships fail simply because the partners may have personalities that don’t
work well together.
A successful partnership takes work!
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European added value - consortia
7th Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and
Demonstration activities and the 7th Euratom Framework Programme for
Nuclear Research and Training Activities (FP7) 1
Research
Framework
Programmes
are
the
main
instrument at EU level aimed specifically at supporting
research and development. They have two major
strategic objectives: strengthening the scientific and
technological
base
of
European
industry
and
encouraging its international competitiveness, through
research that supports EU policies.
The 7th Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and
Demonstration Activities (EC FP7) will last from 2007 until 2013 and has a total
budget of over € 50 billion. The money will (for the most part) be spent on grants to
research actors all over Europe and beyond, in order to co-finance research,
technological development and demonstration projects. Grants are determined on the
basis of calls for proposals and a peer review process, which is highly competitive.
Thus, a key characteristic of FP7, and one that differentiates it from the Structural
Funds, is that there are no fixed national or regional allocations.
The 7th Euratom Framework Programme for Nuclear Research and Training Activities
(Euratom FP7) will last from 2007 until 2011 and has a total budget of € 2.75 billion.
There are a number of legal and practical differences between the EC and Euratom
FPs, and these will be highlighted where important for the purposes of the present
guide. In particular, the Euratom fusion activities are implemented largely using
specialised funding schemes and not via calls for proposals.
In order to complement national research programmes, activities funded from FP7
must have a “European added value”. One key aspect of the European added value
is the trans-national nature of many actions: research projects are carried out by
consortia which include participants from different European (and other)
countries while research fellowships in FP7 require mobility over national borders.
Indeed, many research challenges (e.g. major research infrastructures), are so
complex that they can only be addressed at European level. However, there are also
1
PRACTICAL GUIDE TO EU FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR RESEARCH AND INNOVATION, 06-02-2009
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opportunities for individual teams with no obligation for trans-national cooperation. In
this case, the “European added value” lies in raising the competition between
scientists in “frontier” research from the national to the European level.
Given that FP7 covers such a wide range of activities it is not realistic for each
activity to be open for funding at all times. The concrete plans for implementing the
Specific Programmes are announced by the European Commission in annual 'Work
Programmes'. These work programmes include the schedule of 'Calls for Proposals',
commonly known just as 'Calls', to be published during the year. Each Call usually
covers a specific research area. The major building blocks of FP7 are the Specific
Programmes: Cooperation, Ideas, People, Capacities and Euratom.
Cooperation Fostering collaboration in and between industry and academia to
gain leadership in key technology areas.
Ideas
Supporting basic research at the frontiers of science (implemented
by the European Research Council).
People
Supporting mobility and career development for researchers both
within and outside Europe.
Capacities
Helping develop the capacities that Europe needs to be a thriving
knowledge-based economy.
Euratom
Supporting European research in fusion energy and in nuclear
fission and radiation protection.
Necessity of partnership
Cooperation programme is a good example to present the necessity of partnership in
the field of research and development. International cooperation is an integral part
of these programmes and almost all topics are open for participants from the
International Cooperation Partner Countries (ICPC). The strategic approach for
international cooperation of research includes annual identification of major
cooperation countries and/or regions.
For instance in 2012, cooperation with India on water technologies and management
is foreseen as a follow-up of the 6th India-EC Science & Technology Steering
Committee meeting which was held in March 2010.
On the other hand, proposals should be as small and simple as possible (e.g.
avoiding unduly large and complex consortia) and as large as necessary. In other
words, the size of projects – and of consortia – should be the result of the intended
project objectives.
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Partner request in FP7
Via homepage
It
is
available
at
http://cordis.europa.eu/partners/web/guest/home,
CORDIS
homepage. This can be the first step to register your project idea on this website;
then looking forward to interest shown by a potential partner is the only thing to do;
moreover, it is also worth checking other partnership requests, which can be fit for
your idea.
Use of networks
Here are some examples of networks used for finding partners:
-
ERRIN, the European Regions Research and Innovation Network, is a
dynamic network of more than 90 EU regions and their Brussels-based offices.
ERRIN facilitates knowledge exchange, joint action and project partnerships
with the aim to strengthen its member regions' research and innovation
capacities and enhance their success in EU programmes. ERRIN also aspires to
influence EU policies in order to make them respond better to the needs of
European regions and, to this end, engages in debate with EU institutions and
participates in EU policy consultations.
-
2
ERIK (European Regions Knowledge-based Innovation Network) is
formed by 52 regions. ERIK's main aim is to sustain and further develop
networking and good practice exchange between European regions.3
ERIK Network’s objectives include:
-
benchmarking and disseminating good practices of innovation and
knowledge-based policies;
-
supporting inter-regional networking on technological innovation related
topics;
-
co-operating with European regional networks with similar objectives to
create synergies and make networking activities more efficient and
better targeted.
Past partnerships
One of the best ways to find partners for a new project idea is searching in past
partners who have related experience or profile. Knowing your partners is essential.
2
3
http://www.errin.eu
http://www.eriknetwork.net/
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Best practices of international cooperation
Best practices of the Representation of the Valencia Region in Brussels
Pol-PRIMETT4 - Tackling Metal Theft
Pol-PRIMETT Project is a public-private partnership, which aims at stimulating,
promoting and developing horizontal methods and tools necessaries for strategically
preventing and fighting crime and guaranteeing security and public order.
Leader:
Yorkshire and Humber People United Against Crime (PUAC), UK
Type of operation:
Transnational project co-funded by the European Commission
under the Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme
Total budget:
1.2 million €
EU Contribution:
70 %
Duration:
36 months, 01/09/2010 - 01/08/2013
Context:
Metal theft is a transnational problem undertaken by Organised Crime Group´s
(OCG) moving goods across the EU for disposal, which threatens the economies of the
EU countries. Intelligence gaps exist concerning a wide range of issues. Cross border
law enforcement is a barrier to fighting metal theft and criminals will always retain the
edge unless resource is allocated to international efforts, which encourage cross
border and cross sectoral collaboration. Pol-PRIMETT project provides a transnational
perspective on the problem and proposes strategic and operational solutions which
can be applied in partner countries (UK, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria and Greece).
Expected results of the project:
First, law enforcement must catch the thieves and punish them appropriately in order
to deter reoffending; second, law enforcement and environmental agencies that
regulate recyclers should find and close down immediately all non-permitted or nonregistered scrap yards. In order to reach this target, all actions of this project need to
be agreed between those seeking solutions and fighting against metal theft across the
Member States.
According to plan, Pol-PRIMETT will benefit for raising awareness of this crime with
sharing best practices, exchanging experience by its international perspective and
making recommendations to the legislative authorities.
4
http://www.pol-primett.org/
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DIEGO5 – Regional governments against the digital divide
“No citizen left behind”
DIEGO (Digital Inclusive e-government) is a project co-financed by the European
Commission with the objective to deploy a platform of inclusive, accessible and easy
to use electronic administration.
Consortium
DIEGO Consortium consists of 11 European partners in 6 Member States:
Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom.
Investigación y Desarrollo Informático, EIKON, S.L. (IDI EIKON),
Leader:
Spain
Type of operation: CIP Programme, Competitiveness and Innovation Programme.
ICT-PSP.
Objective:
Inclusive e-Government
Budget:
5 million Euros
EU contribution:
50%
Duration:
24 months. April 2010 - March 2012
Context:
DIEGO (Digital Inclusive e-Government) is a project that is co-financed by the
European Commission to provide access to e-Government services for all
citizens, with special attention to the elderly, people with disabilities or people with
lack of user skills.
The main objective is to provide access to e-Government services that are
comfortable, user-friendly and available by means of multiple channels: TV, PC,
mobile phone and even kiosks, specially displayed by the town councils.
Expected results of the project:
DIEGO will bring the administration closer to citizens in easier ways to carry out
procedures
in
town
councils,
health
centres,
municipal
libraries,
and
other
administration services. The user will have the possibility to perform a range of tasks
online, with big, simple and clear icons that will fill the screen of the PC, but also with
the possibility to customise the font size and colour, or the possibility to activate
options by means of voice. DIEGO will contribute to improve citizens’ quality of life
through e-Government by providing information about activities, authenticated access
through Digital ID, the possibility to schedule appointments or perform these
procedures by audio conferences, etc.
5
http://www.diego-project.eu/
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Best practices of the Észak-Alföld Regional Development Agency
Leonardo EXCOOP - EX-PART -- EX-CHANGE – EX-ACT6
In the framework of Leonardo da Vinci Mobility programme the Észak-Alföld Regional
Development Agency has implemented project proposals continuously for exchanging
of experts to improve their mobility.
After EXCOOP, the Leonardo EX-PART project was the second Leonardo da Vinci
Mobility project of the Agency. In this project 21 employees of 4 sending organisation
could spend a four- or 8-week-long internship at the Representations of Valencia
(Spain), Veneto (Italy) or Saxon-Anhalt Region (Germany) in Brussels between
September, 2009 and April, 2011.
In the framework of Leonardo EX-CHANGE the objective was to give the opportunity
to 3 colleagues of the Agency for gaining 4-week work experience at Tameside
Metropolitan Borough Council. The Agency and Tameside MBC were also partners in
an INTERREG IVC project, called "Mini Europe". During this project, partners have
identified some issues and practices (i.e. concerning cluster development) that are
interesting and actual questions for both regions, and can provide challenging topics
for the trainees to work on during their internship. In line with the EX-CHANGE
project, Tameside MBC started a Leonardo Mobility project as well. In this project the
Agency acted as a host organisation.
Leonardo EX-ACT: In EX-ACT, county governments, mayor’s offices, chambers of
commerce and industry, county development agencies, small regional partnerships,
the holding company of Debrecen and the regional innovation agency have been
involved with similar objectives like in the projects above.
Projects in the frame of Leonardo da Vinci Mobility are best practices indeed,
because it is obvious that the experience of previous programmes promoted the
improvement of the latters, and also because the last, Leonardo EX-ACT, extends its
impact on the region as it involves more development organizations.
This project also provided me with the experience at the international level of project
management.
6
http://www.eszakalfold.hu/nemzetkozi-kapcsolatok/nemzetkozi-projektek/leonardo-projektek
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International projects and relations in the Jászság Small Region
The Jászság Small Regional Partnership of Local Governments has participated in an
international project as a partner organization and has helped manage some
international cooperation in the framework of town-twinning projects.
Project supported by INTERREG IIIB CADSES
In our 3-year-project called ‘HERITOUR - Cultural thematic route development in
rural areas’ the Jászság was a partner with Italian, Greek, Slovakian and other
Hungarian organizations.
Our common aims were:
- developing the discussion between the stakeholders of cultural tourism
- collecting and changing information about tourism and culture, data-analysis
- pointing out the cultural values, heritage, historical part of our small-region through
festivals
- elaborating on and achieving a marketing plan
- delivering marketing tools.
Partners:
In order to enhance the role of non EU Member States, the Sapientia University,
Faculty of Business and Humanities and the Local Government of Torockó in Romania
were also involved as non-financing partners.
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Total budget:
2,205,600 €, from which the Jászság budget was 120,000 €
ERDF subsidy:
1,546,700 € (proportion depended on the country; HU -75%)
National co-financing: Jászság - 12,5%
Self-contribution:
Jászság - 12,5%
Duration:
35 months, 07/07/2005 – 01/06/2008
Background:
Jászság boasts of such cultural values, which will strengthen the conservation of the
unique nature of the nations and ethnic groups of the European Union, if it is
presented and handed down to the future generation.
The related economic sectors could also benefit from the projects, because the
expansions have an effect on tourism of the Jászság.
The research of the unique history of the Jász nation and the attendance of its cultural
traditions is not new, because there are organizations organizing and managing
programs and festivals (The World Meeting of the Jász people) every year. The idea of
the cooperation of the Jász people came into existence because we would like to
introduce the Jászság to the European Union by taking part as a partner in the
program of the CADSES.
Town-twinning
Town-twinning is one of the most popular ways to have an official international
relationship between towns in order to cultivate the cultural heritage of the partner
regions or countries. The civilian organizations, institutions, individuals and local
governments in the Small Region are working together on these projects.
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New project ideas, connection possibilities between Valencia
and Jászság
Turning into cash this traineeship, the next step is to search for new project ideas and
proposals in which Valencia Region and Jászság Small Region can cooperate with each
other in order to improve our regions.
In some cases, these ideas can be developed not only with a support of the European
Commission, but also only with self-contribution, such as expending time on it. PolPRIMETT could be a good example, because studying experience and results of the
project cost nothing aside from the time spent on it.
On the other hand, our organization needs new project ideas, which can help to run
civil services as well as regional development. This kind of project proposal can be the
IPP [Interregional Partnership Platform], an international project with the aim of the
internationalization of regions in different Member States: Latvia, Germany and Spain
beside Hungary. In the framework of INTERREG IVC this project supports to get to
know each other deeper in order to identify best practices, which can have a positive
effect on the improvement of regional development and people working in this field,
because studying others’ experience is one of the best methods to study about
ourselves.
As I arrived home, I got a mail from the Észak-Alföld Regional Development Agency,
in which a new cooperation possibility with the Spanish Valencia regional foundation
was offered. Thus, the Pilot Project II in the frame of IPP gives a chance for Jászság
Small Region to develop an internationalization strategy together with some local
authorities in the four countries. In this pilot project we can look into our regions /
small regions and local governments thoroughly so that our regions are able to
cooperate with each other more effectively in the future.
If I know well, administration is changing in Spain nowadays as well as in Hungary. In
this case, we face similar a situation: nothing is granted; there is no firm decision,
because it can be changed tomorrow; also, employees are changing, so somebody can
start running a project, but somebody else will implement it in the best scenario, while
in the worst, there will not be anybody to finish it.
When you are in the middle of something it is difficult to see things objectively. For
example, when you know your office will be closed soon, it is not easy to do your job
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with enthusiasm. However, that is the point. You must still be enthusiastic to find new
ideas, new ways to advance your knowledge and to put an emphasis on, for example,
projects, which can support the subsistence. If the right human resources (a leader
and at least some workers), who think the expansion of the international cooperation
is essential, are there, partners will continue to work together despite of the fact that
change will definitely come. It is very logical, since they can strengthen the continuity.
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Summary – individual ideas
Firstly, my programme concept described three professional areas, such as best
practices of partnerships, implementation of international projects and regulation
practice of regional development, in which I am interested.
I wanted to compare the partnership between local governments and other
organizations, such as non-governmental organizations in order to see positive
practice coming from the past experience of a member country.
The possibilities of the international project implementation was the second
area in which I wanted to be involved because of my previous experience in the
INTERREG IIIB CADSES program.
Last but not least, the regulation practice of the regional development in the
member states was an area that I wanted to receive more information about. As I
have been working in small-regional development area for the past 10 years, I have
got a lot of experience about continuous changes in this system in Hungary.
Unfortunately, it seems that these changes achieved more bad results than good in
the small-regional development. For example, the small-regional information points of
Hungarian development plan were changed four times in a 10-year-period. This is why
I am quite interested in the practice of this area in other countries.
Generally, I wanted to do research into these topics in order to find some good
practices with which can help the Jászság Small-Region to develop its relevant fields.
All in all, during my traineeship in Brussels in the autumn of 2011 studying a planned
area was really successful, which has greatly supported my present job since that
time, moreover it has a strong impact on the other professional areas, such as
improving an international project idea. Sometimes I have to remind myself of what I
learned from my Spanish colleagues’ experience, but fortunately, the effect of the two
months is strong enough to recall the ’Lecture of Partnership’. This international
experience greatly advanced the improvement of my cooperation skills, which reveals
itself also in the common job with my colleagues.
As an office-manager one of the biggest tasks is to harmonize the role of being
employer and co-worker at the same time. As a fellow-worker I am responsible
for concrete activities, while as an employer also for the achievement of fellow-
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workers all together. For that very reason and the subservient relation, working with
co-workers as partners is not as easy as I thought. According to my experience, it is
only possible if they, both employees and employer, reckon one another as partner.
The main point of the partnership is that partners act for the sake of common and
clear, unambiguous goals; they know their rights and liabilities; they basically respect
each other. Just as it works in a family or a personal relationship.
Returning to professional partnerships, I was curious about the opinion / experience
of my Spanish colleagues with the supporting elements and the barriers of a
partnership, but surprisingly everybody gave different answers. I got the expected
answer only once, which is basically the steady financial background is the most
important part of a project proposal and activities based on a partnership, in my
opinion.
An answer came that sharing the risk of the project implementation is the base of a
good relation, with which the project can be more effective. For example, an
infrastructural development in the frame of PPP [public-private-partnership] is a
good practice. Although, PPP does not have a regulation in every Member States or
they are not harmonized like the law of public procurement, which causes some
problems and makes barriers in the discussion between the public authorities and the
private companies.
A common opinion was that interest on both sides and synergies are very
important as well as the human resources, while time needed for public
administration can mean the biggest barrier. I would think that nowadays the lack
of appropriate language knowledge cannot cause a problem, but different nations
mean different pronunciations and people working on international projects have
different level of language knowledge.
A project coordinator has a very important role; it is quite difficult and a big
responsibility because, generally speaking, keeping the deadline is one of the main
responsibilities of the Lead Partner, which means not only to keep the deadline, but
also to make partners keep the deadline. Personal relationship with our partners
can greatly support this activity.
In my opinion, joint interest is the basis but not without the intention to find common
solutions with the ability to make compromise. Partners need similar professional
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knowledge and also personal sympathy and attitude, so the personal features
seem more important than material things. On the other hand, the makings of
partners, such as technical level, financial background, external conditions /
circumstances, can discourage a partnership from being long-term and successful.
Concluding the report, I would like to put an emphasis on people in cooperation
with the help of Schumacher’s thoughts, which is quite relevant these days.
“Development does not start with goods; it starts with people and their
education, organisation, and discipline. Without these three, all resources
remain latent, untapped potential. There are prosperous societies but with the
scantiest basis of natural wealth and we have had plenty of opportunity to observe the
primacy of the invisible factors after the war. Every country, no matter how
devastated, which had a high level of education, organisation, and discipline, produced
an 'economic miracle'. In fact these were miracles only for people whose attention is
focused on the tip of the iceberg. The tip had been smashed to pieces, but the base,
which is education, organisation, and discipline, was still there.” – said by E. F.
Schumacher in his book ‘Small is Beautiful’, in Part Three ’The Third World’.
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Annexes
Conferences, workshops, meetings in Brussels during the two months
Bibliography
Practical guide to EU funding opportunities for research and innovation, 06-02-2009
Small is Beautiful, E. F. Schumacher
http://www.errin.eu
http://www.eriknetwork.net
http://www.pol-primett.org/
http://www.diego-project.eu/
http://www.eszakalfold.hu/nemzetkozi-kapcsolatok/nemzetkozi-projektek/leonardo-projektek
http://www.i-p-p.eu/
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