The Grant

Coordinating Innovation in Bioeconomy – Beyond Project Management with Anna Franciosini from PNO Innovation Italy

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In this second episode of the PNO Innovation Series, produced in paid collaboration with PNO Innovation, I’m joined by Anna Franciosini to talk about coordination in bioeconomy and agri-food innovation projects. Anna explains why project coordination is not just administration, reporting and timelines. In a field like bioeconomy, coordination also means understanding the sector, the policy context, the innovation bottlenecks and the different actors across the value chain — and then translating all of that into a project vision that makes sense for both the consortium and the European Commission.
We use the C4B project as a concrete case. The project focuses on circular bio-based business models and on creating fairer value distribution for primary producers and other actors in the bioeconomy. From there, we talk about stakeholder alignment, replication, cascade funding, open calls and why coordination is such a strategic function when projects aim to create real change in complex innovation ecosystems. Anna also shows how PNO’s cross-border teams work together in practice, combining sector expertise, communication, digital tools and innovation support across the life of the project.

Time codes:
01:47 Guest introduction fly in
03:27 Why PNO Is More Than a Coordinator
14:42 Case Example – The C4B Project
21:29 From Project to Market Impact
27:24 Reflections and Advice

Four Years of The Grant – Reflections on EU Funding
A solo anniversary episode on pressure, change, community and what I’ve learned

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In this four-year anniversary episode, I take a step back from the usual guest format and reflect on what The Grant has shown me about the EU funding world. Over more than 200 episodes, I’ve spoken with grant consultants, research managers, researchers, NGOs, innovation actors and policy people from all over Europe and some of the same themes keep returning. Solitude. Hidden work. Stress. Rejection. Deadline pressure. Burnout. The emotional cost of a sector that often presents itself as technical and rational, but is in reality full of deeply human effort and vulnerability. In this episode, I talk openly about those patterns and about why I have insisted on making space for them in the podcast.
I also reflect on what has changed in the ecosystem during these four years: the rise of AI and its impact on proposal pressure, the growing professionalisation of the sector, the shift in funding priorities around security and dual-use, and the continued inequality in access to strong funding networks and support structures. At the same time, I share what I think strong organisations do differently: they work strategically, they understand their role, they build long-term partnerships, and they take care of the people carrying the funding work. This is an anniversary episode, but also a positioning episode: a reminder of what The Grant is for, and why I intend to keep building this space for the full reality of EU funding.

Time codes:
02:12 Introduction
04:03 Why This Episode Now
08:31 What Surprised Me Most
15:21 The Ecosystem Has Changed
27:42 What Strong Organisations do differently
31:51 Things People Still Don’t Talk Honestly About
42:05 What Changed My Own Thinking
47:40 Closing remarks

The Hidden Work of Research Managers w/Isabel from RISE Processum
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In this episode I’m joined by Isabel Burdallo from RISE Processum to talk about the hidden work of research managers. We start from a simple but important gap: what many people think research management is, and what it actually is in practice. From the outside, the role is often reduced to administration, paperwork, budgets and compliance. Isabel explains why that is only part of the picture. In reality, research management is also about translation: translating research ideas into fundable structures, funding rules into workable decisions, and institutional constraints into something project teams can live with.

From there we go deeper into the invisible tasks that make projects hold together. Isabel shares how this role often means stepping into complex situations, spotting risks early, smoothing communication between very different people, and handling the kinds of coordination, timing and compliance issues that nobody notices when they go well. We also talk about why this work is still so often misunderstood inside research organisations, how the role differs across countries and institutions, and why research managers need to make themselves more visible — not out of ego, but because the profession deserves clearer recognition for the value it creates.

Time codes:
02:03 Guest introduction and fly in
05:45 What People Think vs Reality
12:52 The Hidden Tasks – What Actually Happens Behind the Scenes
25:21 Why It’s Invisible and the Human Side
36:47 Navigating and Owning the Role
42:28 Advice
44:08 The toughest challenge

A Novel MSCA PF Training Model – The MSCA Catalyst Approach w/Rita Gil Mata from FUNDamentally SCIENCE

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In this new episode of The Grant Collaboration, produced in paid collaboration with FUNDamentally SCIENCE, I’m joined by Rita Gil Mata to talk about a structural problem in MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships: Europe has talent, but too often the preparation system around applicants is not strong enough. Rita brings more than 20 years of experience supporting researchers in European funding, and she explains why the sharp rise in MSCA PF submissions and the drop in success rates should be read as a warning sign. In her view, the issue is not a lack of excellent researchers, but the fact that applicants, supervisors and institutions are often not prepared in a sufficiently aligned and strategic way.

That is exactly why she created the MSCA Catalyst training model. We unpack how it works in practice: a structured applicant training built around the real template, supervisor mentoring so the academic side is fully engaged, and expert review for the strongest proposals selected by the institution. What I like in this conversation is that it goes beyond “another training offer” and instead treats MSCA preparation as an ecosystem challenge. If Europe wants to keep strong young research talent in the system, then programmes like this matter — not only for better proposals, but for the long-term health of the research landscape itself.

Time codes:
02:05 Guest introduction and fly in
05:44 Motivation - A Spark to Build Something New
10:31 Why Traditional Support Is Not Enough
16:48 The Training Concept
25: 47 Why This Matters

Life Cycle Assessment in EU Projects – Sustainability by Design w/Mirko Busto from ENCO Consulting
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In this final episode of The ENCO Series produced in paid collaboration with ENCO Consulting, I’m joined by Mirko Busto to talk about life cycle assessment and why it has become such an important part of EU-funded research and innovation.

Mirko explains that sustainability is not something you can judge from one isolated number or one nice-looking innovation claim. A solution may reduce emissions in one place while creating problems somewhere else. That is why life cycle thinking matters: it forces you to look at the whole picture — from materials and manufacturing to use, disposal and possible recycling — and ask whether the innovation really improves the system overall.
We also go into the practical side of the work. Mirko explains the three connected methodologies used in sustainability assessment: life cycle assessment, life cycle costing and social life cycle assessment. We talk about how they enter both proposal writing and project implementation, why data collection and benchmarking are so difficult in innovative projects, and how these methods help technical teams avoid hidden trade-offs.

Using the SEEDS project as a case, Mirko shows how this plays out in practice when comparing agricultural systems in different MENA contexts and trying to assess future sustainability under climate and resource pressure.

Time codes:
01:56 Guest introduction and fly in
04:05 Why sustainability assessment matters
08:12 Sustainability methodologies in EU projects
10:48 Integrating sustainability in innovation projects
17:14 Practical challenges
25:12 Success Story – The SEEDS project