Grant application - the most common mistakes
Entrepreneurs who applied for EU funding know very well how important a stage is to prepare a correct application. Very often, after many hours of work and filling, it turned out that something was overlooked or misinterpreted and the grant application ended up in the bin. Below we present the most common mistakes made in grant applications.
Grant application - problems with filling
You can still use EU funds to start or improve the condition of your own company. The basis for applying for money is the correct application. Very creative and unique projects may not be accepted if they contain irregularities. It should be noted that the requirements regarding the application are very high, and for the people who evaluate them, both the formal criteria and the quality of the application itself play a very important role.
Filling in the application correctly the first time is almost a miracle, if only because of the language used in it, which may turn out to be incomprehensible, especially for a beginner entrepreneur. The scope of information that should be provided at this seemingly initial stage may also be a problem.
Submitting an application for funding is also an obligation to prepare extensive documentation. Despite the introduction of many simplifications, most programs require the submission of additional attachments with the application, which are issued by various offices, and which sometimes take a long time.
Grant application - the most common formal errors
It seems that the procedure of applying for funding is already so complicated that it is better to anticipate and eliminate future problems at the very beginning. Therefore, below we warn you against errors that most often appear when filling in the grant application.
They can be divided into formal and substantive errors. The first of them include:
- failure to attach the electronic version of the application in PDF format,
- signing the application by unauthorized persons (i.e. not in accordance with the company's representation),
- no confirmation of compliance with the original by the person / persons representing the copies of the attachments submitted with the grant application,
- no required attachments to the application,
- failure to complete all required fields in the documentation,
- different checksum of the paper and electronic version,
- a different name and address of the entrepreneur in the application and in the company's registration documents,
- PKD code inconsistent with the nature of the project.
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Grant application - the most common content errors
In turn, the most common substantive errors are:
- non-compliance with the program assumptions,
- accounting errors (including, for example, incorrectly calculated co-financing value, incorrectly calculated costs in the material and financial schedule),
- incorrectly classified costs related to the project (not in accordance with the cost catalog for the support instrument),
- insufficient justification of the necessity to incur expenses indicated in the project.
In addition, special attention should be paid to such basic issues as the applicant's registration data (NIP, KRS number, CEIDG entry number) or the indication of amounts including tax on goods and services.
To sum up - the entrepreneur must reserve a lot of time to prepare the application, including the need to obtain several important documents in various institutions, multiple checks of calculations and basic data. It is a good idea to ask for help from someone you trust who has already dealt with the grant application.
