Stakeholders & partnerships
Only build partnerships that add real capability.
Effective partnership building is repeatedly identified as a success factor. Partners should fill a capability gap, provide access to a target group or territory, contribute technical expertise, or strengthen implementation capacity. Avoid adding partners only to make the proposal look broader; unnecessary partners increase coordination burden and can weaken credibility if roles are vague.
Choose partners you trust and can work with.
Partnership and consortium challenges are a recurring barrier in practice. Select partners based not only on reputation, but on responsiveness, clarity of contribution, administrative reliability, and willingness to meet deadlines. A technically strong partner can become a risk if it delays inputs, does not understand funding rules, or requires excessive coordination from a small lead team.
Use networks to access the right partners.
Access to opportunities often comes through project networks and intermediary ecosystems. Chambers, regional bodies, destination organisations, clusters, previous beneficiaries, and sector associations can help identify partners with relevant experience and complementary roles. Use these networks early, because good partnerships require time to agree scope, responsibilities, evidence, budget shares, and governance.
Don’t underestimate coordination load.
SMEs repeatedly face time/resource constraints that partnerships can intensify. Every partner adds communication, alignment, document collection, budget negotiation, risk management, and reporting tasks. If a consortium is needed, define simple governance: one lead, clear work package owners, internal deadlines, decision rules, and a single evidence repository.
Partner only when the funding route needs it.
Some opportunities are structurally easier for SMEs when not partnership dependent. If the call allows individual applicants and the project can be delivered credibly alone, avoid creating unnecessary consortium complexity. If partnership is required, make sure each partner is essential to the intervention logic and not just included to satisfy a perceived preference for collaboration.
Museumsverein Klostertal built a transnational consortium with partners from Austria, Serbia, Slovenia, and Portugal, ensuring each partner contributed complementary expertise and clearly defined roles, which strengthened both the proposal’s credibility and the feasibility of cross-border implementation.