Don’t Start with the Call. Start with the Idea.

This interview with Marjeta Maurer explores how ideation helps companies turn promising ideas into the right EU funding opportunities.

With a new season of EU funding opportunities ahead, it is also a good time for companies to look at their development plans and ask an important question: which ideas are truly worth pursuing?

For our October edition, we spoke with Marjeta Maurer, EU Project Expert at Tiko Pro, about an important step that comes before preparing an EU funding proposal: ideation.

Having a promising innovation, investment idea or development plan is a great starting point. But how do you know whether it has EU funding potential? Which programme is the right fit? What partners might you need? And is it worth investing time and resources into preparing a proposal?

In our conversation, Marjeta explains how ideation helps companies answer these questions, identify the right funding direction and make an informed GO or NO-GO decision before committing significant resources to proposal preparation.

Marjeta, let’s start with the basics. What exactly is ideation, how is it connected to EU funding, and what can a company achieve through it?

Ideation is essentially the step that comes before preparing an EU funding proposal. A company may have a promising innovation, an investment idea or a development plan, but that does not automatically mean it knows which EU funding opportunity is the right one or whether the idea is ready for funding at all.

This is where ideation comes in. We take the company’s idea and look at it from the perspective of EU funding. We explore its innovation potential, ambition, capacity and relevance, and translate these into the language and priorities of European funding programmes. The aim is to answer some very practical questions: Does this idea have EU funding potential? Which programme or call could be the best fit? What kind of partners would be needed? And, ultimately, does it make sense to move forward with a proposal?

So, ideation turns an initial idea into a much clearer funding direction before the company commits significant time, money and internal resources to an application.

When is the right time for a company to consider ideation? Does it already need to have a clearly developed project idea?

Not necessarily. In fact, companies come to us at very different stages. Some have a promising technology or innovation but have never applied for EU funding and simply do not know where to start. Others already have a well-developed project or investment in mind but are unsure which funding route would be most suitable.

There is also a third situation that we see quite often. A company may have several innovations or projects in its pipeline but limited resources to pursue them all. In that case, ideation can help determine which ideas have the strongest potential for EU funding and should therefore be prioritised.

What matters is that there is something concrete to explore, whether that is an innovation, an investment, a technology or a broader development ambition. The idea does not have to be transformed into a fully developed EU project before the ideation process begins. That is precisely part of what the process helps clarify.

Companies can search for EU calls themselves. Why is finding a call that appears to match their idea often not enough?

Because a good match is about much more than keywords. A call may look relevant at first glance because it mentions your sector, technology or type of investment, but that does not necessarily mean your project will fit into what the programme is actually trying to achieve.

We therefore look beyond the title and basic eligibility criteria. We consider what the programme expects, how the idea contributes to its objectives, whether the company has the necessary capacity, what type of consortium may be required and where the company could realistically position itself.

That distinction is important. Ideation is not simply about finding an open call. It is about identifying a funding opportunity where the project makes sense and where there is a solid basis for moving forward. Sometimes the result is also that the right opportunity is not available yet, which is useful information in itself.

What does the ideation process actually look like in practice, from the initial idea to a clear direction for the company?

We start by understanding the company and the idea behind the potential project. We look at the innovation, its objectives, the company’s ambitions and capacities, previous experience and the broader context in which the idea could be developed.

Once we understand that, we map the idea against relevant EU programmes and funding opportunities. The goal is to identify and shortlist the options where there is a genuine fit, rather than simply producing a long list of potentially relevant calls.

We then look at what would be needed to turn the idea into a viable project. This may include identifying the types of partners required and considering how a potential consortium could be structured. Through our European network, we can also propose concrete organisations that could complement the project.

At the end of the process, the company has a much clearer picture of which opportunity to target, what would be required to pursue it and whether it makes sense to proceed.

You mentioned the GO or NO-GO decision. Companies probably prefer to hear “GO”, but why can a NO-GO decision also be a valuable outcome of ideation?

Because preparing a competitive EU proposal requires a considerable investment of time and resources. Moving forward simply because a call looks interesting can become very costly if there is no strong fit between the project, the company and the funding opportunity.

A NO-GO does not necessarily mean that the idea itself is not good. It may mean that the timing is not right, that the available programme is not suitable, that important elements are still missing or that another funding route would make more sense.

Knowing this before starting proposal preparation can be extremely valuable. Instead of spending weeks or months developing an application with limited potential, the company can refine the idea, wait for a more suitable opportunity or redirect its resources elsewhere. A well-argued NO-GO can therefore be just as useful as a GO.

Ultimately, companies also want to understand the business value. How can well-executed ideation save them time and money and help them direct their resources towards the right opportunities?

The main value is clarity before commitment. EU funding can offer significant opportunities, but preparing proposals also requires internal experts, management attention, external support and, in many cases, a consortium of partners. These are resources that companies should invest strategically.

Ideation allows them to make that decision based on analysis rather than assumptions. Before committing to a full proposal, they understand how well their idea fits the funding landscape, which opportunity makes the most sense, what gaps still need to be addressed and what would be required to move forward.

This is particularly important for companies with several development projects or innovations. Not every idea needs to become an EU proposal. By identifying where the strongest potential lies, companies can focus their people, time and budget on the opportunities that make the most sense for their development plans.

As our conversation with Marjeta shows, successful EU funding does not start with writing a proposal. It starts much earlier, with understanding whether an idea has real funding potential, where it fits and whether the opportunity is worth pursuing.

A well-structured ideation process can provide this clarity before significant time and resources are invested. And sometimes, knowing when not to proceed can be just as valuable as identifying the right opportunity.

At Tiko Pro, we help companies turn promising ideas into clear EU funding directions, from the initial assessment to an informed GO or NO-GO decision. Because when it comes to EU funding, the goal is not to apply for every opportunity, but to focus on the right one.