The Twinning Call Is Back: How to Build a Fundable Proposal in 2026
The Twinning Call Is Back: How to Build a Fundable Proposal in 2026
A Step-by-Step Guide to building successful Twinning/widenning Horizon Europe proposals Live
via Zoom on 18th Feb 09:30 – 16:30
Course Purpose: To provide researchers and support staff with detailed, hands-on guidance for writing compelling, evaluator-friendly Twinning/Widenning proposals. The course first deals with the essentials for success in this competitive call and then breaks down the three main sections—Excellence, Impact, and Implementation—highlighting their specific purpose, interdependence, and the most effective structuring and content strategies.
Learning Objectives (You Will Be Able To):
- Master the essentials and intelligence behind the success of Twinning/Widenning projects
- Understand the distinct purpose and logic of the Excellence, Impact, and Implementation sections for a twinning/widenning proposal.
- Align the content and structure of each section with Twinning/Widenning Horizon Europe’s official evaluation criteria.
- Develop each section step by step using practical tips, examples, and proven practices.
- Integrate essential elements such as problem definition, methodology, impact pathways, work packages, and risk management.
- Avoid common mistakes that lead to low proposal scores.
- Confidently apply the knowledge to draft or improve actual Twinning/Widenning proposal(s).
Structure in Modules:
- Module 1: The Essentials for Success in Twinning/Widenning and Overview of the Proposal Architecture – Understand how each section contributes to the overall logic and success of the proposal.
- Module 2: Excellence and Implementation Section Step-by-Step – How to present the problem, project objectives, relation to the call, and the soundness of the methodology, including the workplan, tasks, resources, roles, milestones, deliverables, risk assessment, the consortium value, and the budget distribution.
- Module 3: Impact Section in Practice – Guidance on outlining expected impacts, credible pathways, target groups, communication, dissemination, and exploitation strategies.
- The training involves, during its whole duration, a live demonstration – See live how the trainer confidently applies the knowledge to draft or improve actual twinning proposal(s) with the use of AI.
Seven Unique Bonuses:
- Bonus 1: Structured consortium-building support for Twinning proposals.
Participants will be guided to identify their role (coordinator, leading partner, associated partner) and to connect with other participants based on scientific fit, widening eligibility, and evaluator expectations, not random networking. - Bonus 2: Priority access to Twinning consortia initiated by OpenCosmos / Funding Expert Academy.
Selected participants will be considered for inclusion in Twinning proposals actively prepared and submitted by the organiser, based on role fit, institutional profile, and commitment. - Bonus 3: Full access to the recording and all training materials.
Participants receive lifetime access to the full recording and all templates and tools used during the live training. - Bonus 4: Live follow-up Q&A focused on real Twinning drafts.
A live session on 4 March 2026 (10:30–11:30 CET) to address concrete questions arising during proposal structuring, partner role definition, and work package design. - Bonus 5: 100% Satisfaction guarantee. That confident we are in the value that you will get from this training, that if you are not 100% satisfied, we will reimburse the training fee
- Bonus 6: Free Consultancy Support to ALL course participants who initiate a Twinning/Widenning proposal under the OpenCosmos Proposal Lab service
- Bonus 7: Certificate of successful completion. All Participants that attend the full training, either the live or the recorded one will be eligible to receive a certificate of successful attendance.
Training Fee and Value
The participation fee for the training is just EUR 350 (Early bird). Based on the depth of content, practical material, follow-up support, and access to Twinning-specific expertise, the estimated market value of this particular training exceeds EUR 1,500.
Expected Financial Value: Twinning projects are funded at 100% under the lump sum model, with a typical EU contribution ranging between EUR 0.8 and 1.5 million per project and around 210 projects are expected to get funded. You cannot afford to fail! Compared to this potential funding level, the cost of participating in the training is minimal.
What Makes Us Unique:
- Fully aligned with official EC templates, structure, and evaluation criteria, with no improvisation.
- Built from the perspective of a Horizon Europe Twinning evaluator, focusing on how proposals are actually read and scored.
- Explicitly addresses common Twinning failure patterns (over-researching, weak impact logic, vague management capacity claims).
- Goes beyond writing skills to cover institutional change and research management capacity, in line with the European Competence Framework for Research Managers.
- Uses real examples, annotated extracts, and concrete do’s and don’ts from evaluated proposals.
- Strong focus on practical application: participants work on real Twinning concepts, roles, and structures.
- Careful and responsible use of AI to support clarity, structure, and consistency, without compromising proposal ownership or quality.
Core Course values
Value 1: No previous expertise is needed on AI or on proposal writing. We will provide the full recipe; no prior knowledge is needed. Participants will learn not only how to write a winning proposal with the support of AI or how to get involved as a partner but also how to do it with a fraction of the effort and time normally needed.
Value 2: Training will be based on a specific call topic to ensure immediate full applicability of all the knowledge shared
Bonuses
- Bonus 1: A live Q&A session will follow after around one month, where you have practised what you learned in the class
- Bonus 2: Access to the recording of the live session
Trainers
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Nikolaos Floratos: Nikolaos has a multidisciplinary education with a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering from City University London, a Bachelor of Humanities in Greek Civilisation from Open Hellenic University, a master of science in Telecommunications and Signal Processing from Imperial College, London and he is recently awarded his PhD in Humanities on student engagement in massive open online courses from Open University of Catalonia. After his undergraduate and postgraduate studies with distinction as an engineer in London (Imperial College, City University), UK, has been working for a number of consultancy and Information Technology companies as a consultant and project manager across Europe. He has also an MBA (Master in Business Administration from the National Technical University of Athens and Athens University of Economics and Business) and the last 25 years he is involved in planning, managing and evaluating large and small projects in the area of research, education, ICT (Information Communication Technologies), social inclusion, entrepreneurship, standardization and consumer issues. As a funding expert, personal trainer and coach, he has supported thousands of individuals and organisations mainly from Europe but also from all over the world in managing state funding (e.g. from the European Commission, National Funds, etc) and receiving support for deploying their business idea or mission. Recently, he came across of AI in proposal writing and he became thrilled with it. He considers that AI will bring the same revolution as PC (Personal Computers). PCs changed the way that business is conducted and today is the only norm and in the same way, he believes that AI will do so and no one should stay behind. |
