Martel to run ORCA H2020 Open Calls!

Team Martel has been in action over the past weeks, working hard to ensure a smooth launch for the first ORCA Open Call for Extensions. Funded by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Commission, ORCA offers experimentation facilities to promote wireless innovation in a variety of market segments, including healthcare, ambient assisted living, public events and automotive industry.

The Open Calls are an important part of the programme, with funding to be invested on attracting researchers from the wireless innovation community. As Coordinator of the ORCA Open Calls, Martel worked intensively in the weeks prior to ensure that this first call would open successfully. Together with the ORCA consortium, Martel identified the technical details of the calls, the most appropriate deadlines, the budget distribution and the criteria for the evaluation process. Martel developed the overall process that potential proposers will follow, prepared templates and dedicated web site facilities for submission of the proposals, including creation and distribution of promo materials (flyers and videos) to advertise the call on the most appropriate channels.

“We are very happy and proud to announce that the first ORCA open call is now open.” said Alessandra Scicchitano, Martel’s Project Manager and Coordinator of the ORCA Open Calls. “We worked hard to define the overall process, and our experience makes us confident that the Open Calls will be successful. Now that the call is open, we’re already working on the evaluation phase, and will be ready to carry out the evaluation process by mid-November after the submission deadline.”  

A vital part of many H2020 programmes, Open Calls are an essential means to attracting and financing third party stakeholders via the Horizon 2020 Cascade Granting mechanism. This importance makes managing the process both complex and delicate, and the experience brought to the role of Coordinator of the Open Calls essential to the success of the calls themselves.

“Here at Martel, we are well aware of their importance,” said Scicchitano. “We have extensive experience and manage the entire process from organization and management to promotion and advertisement. We pay attention to each detail of the process to ensure the best results.”

Having a tailored approach that takes into account every detail is a vital part of the process, and to achieve this Martel first analyses the project’s needs, defines the overall management structure required, then plans the detailed launch strategy to ensure the call to action reaches the correct stakeholders.

Following the launch, the Martel team continues to manage the evolution of the Open Calls, working with the experts, evaluators and proposers to ensure a smooth process and help achieve the best results.

To ensure that ORCA’s Open Calls attracted the right stakeholders, Martel created a customised communication strategy and multimedia campaign to promote the project and its first Open Call. The key pillars of the campaign were:

• A website page dedicated to the first open call, complete with the detailed information and submission documents and an FAQ section
• A comprehensive social media campaign that started in late August, teasing the upcoming open call on the ‪@ORCA_Project_ twitter ‬‬‬‬‬and the LinkedIn channels
• An ORCA open call flyer was designed and distributed in Lisbon at CROWNCOM 2017 (20-21st September) and Dresden 5G Week (19th-20th September), and is available online
• The production of a dedicated video to promote the open call featuring Dr. Ingrid Moerman, the Project Coordinator presenting ORCA and Dr. Alessandra Scicchitano, Martel Project Manager, introducing the open call

The multi-phase campaign targets researchers and SMEs active in the 5G arena, with a focus on the major academic events such as MobiCom17 taking place in Utah, USA in October.

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