EU Projects – are they worth while tendering for?
I’m part of a consortium which spent a great deal of time and some expense getting together what we considered to be a really good proposal for a tender. We submitted on time and were encouraged to believe that our proposal stood a chance when we were asked to provide more information.
Lots more documentation…
We did not hear the result and asked a couple of times if a decision had been reached; each time the reply was that they were waiting for a signature. We finally heard from the Commission – many months late.
However, I regret to inform you that the European Commission has abandoned the procurement procedure.
The grounds for our decision are that the objectives of the study do no longer correspond
to the priorities of the Lifelong Learning Programme.
We will continue to tender for projects – after all, they are interesting and we consider that we can contribute positively to those carefully selected projects that we spend time on planning and submitting proposals for.
But, it is my personal opinion (not necessarily that of the Consortium members) that there ought to be some standards that apply so that if a project is cancelled, not through lack of good proposals bidding for the tender, but simply because the Commission changes its mind, compensation for the many hours of work and expenses incurred in obtaining bank stamps etc. should be paid.