“The advice for other projects would be to pay a lot of attention to the partner consortium. The partnership you can trust on and are motivated, makes project implementation very easy.”

“The implementation of the project showed that it is important to all partners to plan more partner meetings in advance, to keep some more budget reserve for unexpected situations. The overall project budget in the project planning period must be prepared under clear evidence, all costs planned by the partners have been estimated carefully and in a realistic way.”

“Our advice would be to understand that transnational project/cooperation is a very slow process. It is always people behind the plans, visions and strategies and to make people work together in a satisfying way takes time. Especially when you don't speak the same language or have the same culture, can be different just between workplaces within the same country. Don't have too high expectations on what to achieve and surround yourself with positive people if possible, that give ideas and a push instead of only pointing out difficulties and faults. You need all the positive energy you can get. It took us about a year before things started to move a bit on its own, without having the project secretariat to do everything. After the first year something happened and other people in the project started to take initiatives on their own. Don't have too many partners when applying for a project or too high goals, be realistic and remember that all you write in the application will need to be fulfilled. Try also to keep the project secretariat intact for the entire project period and make yourself a team, give some time and resources to team up. It is so much easier to work together if the financial manager knows about activities and the project manager understands the budget flow etc. Try also to get a steering group that is engaged in the issue, mix experts and politicians, be strategic.”

“Advice to plan transnational projects:

1) preparation phase of 1 year before applying for the EU-funding

2) approx. 3 preparation workshops with potential partners to clarify project objectives, partnership, activities, meeting plan, budget

3) consider more face-to-face contacts to partners

4) planning of a smaller number of activities

5) planning of a smaller number of partners

6) external project-, financial-, information manager to reduce the administrational work of partners

7) regular project coordination meetings

advice to solve problems:

1) before having costs on activities - which eligibility are not known - lead beneficiary/ financial manager needs to be contacted

2) component leaders shall provide an overview of done, ongoing and upcoming activities to the lead beneficiary, project manager and steering group every once in a while to monitor if everything is in line with the activity timetable

3) transparency necessary referring budget and activity implementation

4) meeting organization by the respective partner on time assisted by the Lead Beneficiary and project coordinator”

“Before starting of a project it is important to do a good research in the other countries in order to find the best partners.  It is always good either to have experience of working with them before or at least to have recommendations from other organizations/institutions.  It is important to develop a good mechanism for communication and be very clear and precise in discussing the activities and actions with your partners. The best way to plan an international project is to be transparent and invite suggestions and involve your partners in planning and decision making. They should feel integrated in all the activities.  It is also very important to know the overall situation in the other countries  not only the situation related directly to your project but generally the political and social scene including the history of that place and its culture.”