Our services

How 1st Mile helps you secure funding.

Step by step process

First, we get an understanding of your project idea in a dialogue with you.

Second, we evaluate the fit of your idea to the funding programme, or help you narrow down which programmes would fit your idea.

Third, if we believe we can find funding for your idea, we give you an offer for our assistance (typically a writing fee plus a success fee).

Fourth, we put together the optimal 1st Mile team for the task, have a kick-off-meeting with you to define roles, responsibilities and time schedule.

Then we scope, develop, write and submit the application. This part of the process is highly individual; some prefer to outsource the writing as much as possible, others prefer a deep involvement, as the work with the application sometimes includes a lot of business development and strategy for the applicant.

When the grant is awarded we can help you manage the project. We do this as a service ranging from a few hours for reviewing the grant agreement and get you off to a good start, to effectively managing your project.

Getting started

Contact us if you have an innovative project or an idea that you’re trying to bring to the market or if you already have a business embarking on a new project that needs funding.

There are many funding programmes to choose amongst, but the competition is always fierce. Before choosing a grant to apply for, it is essential that there is a match between the funding programme and your project, ie. that the project fulfils the criteria of the selected funding programme. This is why, we screen your project idea to see if it has the potential for receiving funding.

After the screening, you will get a quotation for the application writing and consultancy you may need for a successful project application.

Writing the application

Writing a good application requires cooperation between you and 1st Mile. An initial start-up meeting will be set up to discuss the project, agree on the timeline and get the information needed.

To secure funding in a fiercely competitive environment, it is crucial that your project is crystal clear about the idea, business model, and the specifics of the project, and therefore we challenge you on these if needed.

We put together a 2-4 person team best suited for the program and project from our pool of funding experts, drawing on other 1st Mile consultants if needed. This team begins the writing process, keeping in close contact with you for status updates, additional input requests and feedback. Before the final submission, you can go through the application to revise and approve it.

Working together for a grant application is more than just the application writing itself. It often also includes developing the right consortium, optimizing the grant sum, developing the business case and the go-to-market strategy.

We most often see that our clients gain much more from the collaboration than the grant.

What we need from you

1st Mile writes the application, based on input from you, including:

  • Description of the technology/idea – data, test results, etc. We must demonstrate that the technology or idea is novel and better than current state of the art
  • Your business plan/financials numbers. We must present a compelling plan for your business, if you get the grant
  • The CVs of the team/partners. We must show that if the idea is novel and outstanding, and there is compelling business opportunity awaiting you, that you have or can develop the team that can make it happen.

To achieve the best result, we may also want to have more than the initial meeting to streamline the business plan or other elements and discuss the work packages and budget.

Exactly what we need and who does what we define when we start our collaboration.

Once the application is successful and the project is awarded funding, it is time to deliver on what was promised in the proposal. You need first of all to accept the grant and handle the associate paperwork, then plan the project for execution, and then deliver on deadlines, milestones, and reports.

1st Mile can assist you in managing the funding and the project throughout the entire process to ensure that objectives and deliverables are met.

Our project management service can cover a wide range of tasks, from being on call for very specific questions to taking over all of the project management:

  • Planning for execution: ensure there is full understanding of how to manage and budget the money
  • Ensure compliance with funding guidelines and funding contract
  • Secure maximum grants to meet the needs and find the optimal strategy for execution
  • Ensure payment requests are respected by the Fund
  • Ensure project deliverables are respected within selected criteria and deadlines
  • Ensure the requested reports from the fund are delivered
Even the most perfect application can be rejected, for instance if the funding program decides to allocate the available funding in a different way. If the application is rejected, the first step is to carefully evaluate the reason behind the rejection and whether the proposal should be resubmitted.

In some cases, the reason might be a misunderstanding or lack of information – or a that an evaluator does not have sufficient understanding of the topic. It is also often the case that the project is favourably evaluated, but the programme does simply not have sufficient budget to fund all the projects they believe have potential.

We call such cases “soft” rejections where the project has a good chance of being awarded in the following funding round with some minor changes incorporated. We often recommend resubmitting these proposals and have in our contracts a standard clause on our assistance with that.

If you have tried applying on your own and was rejected, you can also contact us for our perspective on the grounds for rejection and future funding potential.