On the road in Romania.....
Half of this week has gone and it is only now that we can say we have finally recovered from our endeavours from the past week; what a journey it was! It has been indeed an intense week for team RedKnight, as our Directors went all the way down to Romania, in order to deliver two sessions of training on the behalf of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). The training, which was on Proposal Writing for European Structural & Investment Funding (ESIF), whit a focus on the Regional Operational Programme (ROP) for Romania launched in 2014, was organised in cooperation with the European Academy and the local Regional Development Authorities (RDA) in Cluj and Iasi, and it was aimed to train local businesses and universities who applied to the Priority Axis1 of the Programme and wanted to know more on the features and characteristics of this large €6.7billion-worth programme, as well as how to successfully apply for it.
The whole week was organised in two different sessions of 1,5 days of training each, which brought our team to some of the most suggestive regions of Romania, the North-Western Region of Cluj-Napoca and the North Eastern Region of Iași. During both session, our team taught the delegates about the funding requirements specific to the ROP PA1, as well as the tips and trick for writing a good proposal and effectively managing a project. Furthermore, the team had the opportunity to show the quality of the RedKnight method and put few of the tips into practice, when were asked by the delegate to assess and review their preliminary proposals. This final activity was useful not only to the applicants, who could experience first-hand the way RedKnight works, but also the whole training was useful for our business, as we had the opportunity to engage with representatives from the Institutions, academia and the leading sectors of the growing Romanian productive network: a great chance for RedKnight to make a name for ourselves in a land so far from Wales.
The turnout was really outstanding in both venues and the audience was surprisingly various: from fashion industry and textile, to plastic and recycling. Our Director and co-founder, Dayne Hodgson, described the week: “We are so happy we managed to deliver such a successful training. All the delegates were enthusiastic to discuss the requirements of the ROP and to learn methods of bid writing and project management that are new and innovative for the Romanian landscape: we are proud to be one of the very first to share this know-how there.” Furthermore, he added that “it was very interesting to discover the very high level of activity and innovation that is developing within the two regions we visited” and it was surprised to remark that “Romania hides an environment that is still to be discovered, which hides excellent opportunities for cooperation and investment”.
We had a great experience in Romania, such a beautiful country with still a lot to explore, and we hope we will have the chance in future to go back there and explore some more! But now we are back in our headquarters in Abercynon, ready to do what we do best: make our clients succeed.
RedKnight starring at the Mediwales Showcase: a great event!
Yesterday, the RedKnight team took part in the last edition of the Mediwales Showcase, a prestigious event that took place at the Novotel in Cardiff.
The event was attended by new and important members who showed the public involved their business and their new projects, among which stood out IMSPEX, who also presented the BreathSpec project, displaying a functioning device at their stand.
Being a long term Mediwales member, it is always a pleasure to be an active part at these very engaging events and to meet new potential partners and clients.
Especially on this occasion, a lot of members invited approached us at our stand and it was incredible to see that there are so many innovative realities in Wales, eager and willing to take on big funding opportunities, and we are happy to having met you all and we enjoyed talking to all of you who stopped by and asked about RedKnight and how we can help you growing your business!
We wanted to thank you MediWales for organising the event and we look forward to meeting again all the fantastic people we met yesterday and we hope to meet even more in the future!
Dr Anthony Turley - Clinical Director - Cardiff & Vale University Health Board
Working with Redknight has been a completely positive experience. It was our first venture into applying for Horizon 2020 funding and we were successful - a combination of a good idea and Redknight’s relentless support in navigating through the various processes and programmes. Their advice and direction was invaluable and we would gladly work with them again.
Prof. Rob Field - Founder & CEO - Iceni Diagnostics
It has been a pleasure working with the Redknight team. At a time of intense set-up in our SME, having reliable and proactive consultants who keep us on top of funding opportunities and who contribute substantially to the preparation and submission of applications has been invaluable
Prof Duncan M. Baird - Chief Technology Officer - TeloNostiX Ltd
It was a pleasure to work with RedKnight, their professionalism and expertise has been hugely beneficial to our company. We had previously made several unsuccessful applications to lnnovateUK, before contacting Red Knight. Their understanding of the requirements for business orientated funding streams has made the all difference, as evidenced by our successful application for a lnnovateUK Investment Accelerator award
Ms Tiiina Heinikainen - Project Coordinator - Kouvola Innovation Ltd
It was our best funding training so far. Clear, efficient and full of detailed information, as well as sharing experiences. We are hoping to collaborate with RedKnight soon.
Mr Ildefonso Martins - Strategy and Marketing - Aveleda, SA
We had already submitted our project 3 times to the SME Instrument before I attended RedKnight' SME Instrument Masterclass, and in the last submission our score was almost there, but not enough. In the Masterclass I heard some helpful tips that our team used in the revision we made for our 4th submission and finally this time we reached the goal: Approval!