Clearly as a provider of advice from small and large firms applying for R&D funding from organisations such as Innovate UK and EU, we believe so!
But what do other people say? We aren't aware of any official statistics showing success rates of applications compiled with/without specialist help, but over the last few months we've heard a number of reasonably authoritative and public testimonies. The most striking was in a panel session at an Innovate UK's Annual Conference entitled 'What support is on offer to help your innovative business grow', where a speaker (apparently an application assessor) made the point that big companies often have access to bid writers (internal or external), while SMEs are more likely to try to write the bid themselves and end up missing out details that would be easy to supply but which they thought unnecessary. This can be the reason they don't get funding, and the discussion outcome was a strong suggestion from the panel that buying in bid writing services could improve a company's chances of making a successful bid.
From our experience leaving out details is part of the problem; putting in too many details in one area at the expense of another can be equally dangerous, and hence the benefit of accessing the knowledge of people who can stand back, be objective, pull out the important detail from the client and think like the assessor. (Nick)
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Black Kite® Ltd. is a technology business consultancy that has been helping small and large organisations grow since it was founded in 2007. We bridge the gap between R&D and business development to provide expertise that you may not have in-house.
www.black-kite.co.uk