A guide to understand calls for applications23 May 2012
This crash-course glossary is meant to provide you an insight into the tender system and to help anyone who wants to know more about the opportunities offered by the New Széchenyi Plan, if only for a single application.
How do I begin writing my application?
Everybody knows, even a junior school pupil, that things start with a good idea. Then you find a call for bids and write your application. For example, if you want to buy a car, but don’t know what make, how big, how strong, what colour, etc., that’s not enough for a start. You need to plan a bit further, because your “hunting range” is too big in the market. Exactly the same applies to tendering, so you need to find a call for bids to mach your ideas. The idea “money from anywhere” is not really realistic in today’s world.
Imagine that you go out of your wits to persuade a potential applicant to buy a dream forklift when his implicit interest is completely different. You need to think the other way round. The applicant should know first what he wants so as to find the button for the coat rather than the coat that for the button!
• You should have an idea of what you really want to develop. Gather information. Don’t let anyone persuade you to use solutions that you can’t achieve or to write an ungrounded application.
You shouldn’t let yourself persuaded to develop something that you can’t complete, especially if you don’t really want to do so in the first place just because of a good salesperson. Otherwise, the story will always leave a bad taste in your mouth and you will never want to apply again, however intensive was your interest, and will not receive assistance.
Calm bidding goes hand in hand with careful and accurate administration, responsibility, patience, energy and money which you can rely on. Thus, if you know your capacities and what you want, no matter how roughly, then you can get precise answers on chances and possibilities; this is the only way and time for a start, not before.
A guide to bidding
It is very important to start off by asking and gathering basic information from definitely reliable sources. The simplest way of getting oriented is browsing the Authority’s websites. Once there, read very carefully the guide to the selected tender, because this will provide the answers to your questions, including the criteria you must meet, grounds for exclusion, what you should perform /undertake for your application, the obligation to provide security, if any, and if so, what kind, etc.
• The assessment of your application will only cover whatever is included in the guide.
Basic rules of assessment
In essence, there are two basic rules in the assessment of applications. You should spend time checking them item by item. These are the formal and professional requirements. Formal compliance is the first step of assessment; an application can only undergo professional assessment if everything is perfect at that stage. Therefore, you should make sure that no stamp is missing, no part remains unfilled on the data sheet, no signature or attachment is missing, otherwise you will have wasted plenty of work and after the rejection you will only be sad and say: “Damn, I failed! It would have been so good, and I worked so hard to win”. At this point, you should remember to only supply data and numbers that are not overstated and precise; in other words, your calculations should be error free. You can only post and submit your application to the Authority in the required format and number of copies and strictly within the deadline. You should write the professional part in a way as to convince the evaluators that you are worthy of winning the support and that the awarded support will be put to good use and it is really intended to develop an enterprise. The aim is to develop Hungarian enterprises through support available by tendering.
• In sum, a well-written application meets the Authority’s requirements laid down in the guide, in terms of layout, content, wording and annexes.
What is a project data sheet?
It is a document that has to be filled in and submitted to the targeted Principal, Intermediate Body or Project Selection Authority. It contains the details of the applicant, the project idea described in detail and the compulsory annexes. You can only fill in this document electronically using dedicated software that can be downloaded from the official website. Afterwards, you can print or save it to a data storage device. According to the new rule and to the “save the trees” principle, the method of submission has been simplified and almost all applications only have to be submitted on CD, which minimises the amount of paper used (e.g. declaration).
• The Authority’s website contains software which can fill in all applications, including expired ones. Please make sure to use the current and valid software related to your application. If you use the wrong fill-in software, you risk the rejection of your bid!
This year still offers opportunities and support funds. Think about the future of your enterprise, apply and win! Competent staff, modern machinery, a technically well-equipped site, great progress, well-planned development: you have a chance to achieve any. Your tender success may also be supported by the free pre-qualification process. This enables you to assess your tender chances and find out about the opportunities.
Source: Piac&Profit; Brussels Center Hungarian Tender Consulting Centre
Everybody knows, even a junior school pupil, that things start with a good idea. Then you find a call for bids and write your application. For example, if you want to buy a car, but don’t know what make, how big, how strong, what colour, etc., that’s not enough for a start. You need to plan a bit further, because your “hunting range” is too big in the market. Exactly the same applies to tendering, so you need to find a call for bids to mach your ideas. The idea “money from anywhere” is not really realistic in today’s world.
Imagine that you go out of your wits to persuade a potential applicant to buy a dream forklift when his implicit interest is completely different. You need to think the other way round. The applicant should know first what he wants so as to find the button for the coat rather than the coat that for the button!
• You should have an idea of what you really want to develop. Gather information. Don’t let anyone persuade you to use solutions that you can’t achieve or to write an ungrounded application.
You shouldn’t let yourself persuaded to develop something that you can’t complete, especially if you don’t really want to do so in the first place just because of a good salesperson. Otherwise, the story will always leave a bad taste in your mouth and you will never want to apply again, however intensive was your interest, and will not receive assistance.
Calm bidding goes hand in hand with careful and accurate administration, responsibility, patience, energy and money which you can rely on. Thus, if you know your capacities and what you want, no matter how roughly, then you can get precise answers on chances and possibilities; this is the only way and time for a start, not before.
A guide to bidding
It is very important to start off by asking and gathering basic information from definitely reliable sources. The simplest way of getting oriented is browsing the Authority’s websites. Once there, read very carefully the guide to the selected tender, because this will provide the answers to your questions, including the criteria you must meet, grounds for exclusion, what you should perform /undertake for your application, the obligation to provide security, if any, and if so, what kind, etc.
• The assessment of your application will only cover whatever is included in the guide.
Basic rules of assessment
In essence, there are two basic rules in the assessment of applications. You should spend time checking them item by item. These are the formal and professional requirements. Formal compliance is the first step of assessment; an application can only undergo professional assessment if everything is perfect at that stage. Therefore, you should make sure that no stamp is missing, no part remains unfilled on the data sheet, no signature or attachment is missing, otherwise you will have wasted plenty of work and after the rejection you will only be sad and say: “Damn, I failed! It would have been so good, and I worked so hard to win”. At this point, you should remember to only supply data and numbers that are not overstated and precise; in other words, your calculations should be error free. You can only post and submit your application to the Authority in the required format and number of copies and strictly within the deadline. You should write the professional part in a way as to convince the evaluators that you are worthy of winning the support and that the awarded support will be put to good use and it is really intended to develop an enterprise. The aim is to develop Hungarian enterprises through support available by tendering.
• In sum, a well-written application meets the Authority’s requirements laid down in the guide, in terms of layout, content, wording and annexes.
What is a project data sheet?
It is a document that has to be filled in and submitted to the targeted Principal, Intermediate Body or Project Selection Authority. It contains the details of the applicant, the project idea described in detail and the compulsory annexes. You can only fill in this document electronically using dedicated software that can be downloaded from the official website. Afterwards, you can print or save it to a data storage device. According to the new rule and to the “save the trees” principle, the method of submission has been simplified and almost all applications only have to be submitted on CD, which minimises the amount of paper used (e.g. declaration).
• The Authority’s website contains software which can fill in all applications, including expired ones. Please make sure to use the current and valid software related to your application. If you use the wrong fill-in software, you risk the rejection of your bid!
This year still offers opportunities and support funds. Think about the future of your enterprise, apply and win! Competent staff, modern machinery, a technically well-equipped site, great progress, well-planned development: you have a chance to achieve any. Your tender success may also be supported by the free pre-qualification process. This enables you to assess your tender chances and find out about the opportunities.
Source: Piac&Profit; Brussels Center Hungarian Tender Consulting Centre