Enterprise Ireland’s meeting spaces in Brussels: an opportunity to develop new opportunities and stronger funding applications

The importance face‑to‑face meetings in winning Horizon Europe funding.

In Horizon Europe, the quality of the consortium and the strength of the collaboration are as important as the research excellence of the proposal itself. Consortium meetings, especially face‑to‑face ones, play a critical role in building the trust, alignment, and shared ambition needed to craft a winning application.

Face‑to‑face meetings accelerate relationship‑building between partners, helping coordinators and work package leaders better understand each other’s strengths, expectations, and working styles. This leads to stronger role definitions, more credible implementation plans and a clearer distribution of responsibilities, all of which are elements that evaluators consistently look for when judging the feasibility of a proposal.

In‑person sessions also enable deeper technical discussion and faster problem‑solving. Complex issues such as data governance, ethics or multi‑actor engagement are often resolved more efficiently when partners can engage directly, sketch solutions, and negotiate compromises ‘in the room’ in real time. The result is a more cohesive narrative, tighter work plan, and clearer integration across work packages.

Crucially, consortium meetings foster the sense of unity and shared purpose that evaluators associate with high impact projects. A well‑functioning coordinated consortium signals to evaluators that the project is not only scientifically sound but also operationally robust, thus reducing perceived risk and increasing the project's credibility.

Strong interpersonal relationships, clear communication and aligned expectations are key differentiators in Horizon Europe. In-person meetings transform a disparate collection of partners into a coherent, convincing team capable of delivering real impact.

Why consortium meetings matter even more in the age of AI and rising Horizon Europe competition

As AI tools become widespread in proposal writing, Horizon Europe applications are becoming more polished, technically coherent and professionally structured. But this surge in AI‑assisted quality also means everyone’s written proposals are starting to look similarly strong. Evaluators increasingly look beyond well‑phrased text to signs of authentic collaboration, genuine integration, and clear evidence of a functioning, committed consortium. These are elements that AI cannot fabricate and which only emerge through real human interaction.

This is where consortium meetings, especially in-person, have become more critical than ever. AI can assist in drafting a narrative, but it cannot: 

·       build trust between partners

·       resolve real‑world tensions or overlaps in roles

·       negotiate complex trade-offs

·       create shared ownership of the concept

·       identify more opaque synergies between work packages

Face‑to‑face consortium meetings enable partners to co-create rather than just co-write. They reveal leadership strength, partner commitment levels, and the project’s internal logic all of which directly shape the credibility of the proposal.

In a funding environment where competition is rising and acceptance rates in some calls are below 5%, evaluators are increasingly attuned to whether partners genuinely know each other, whether the project is operationally realistic and whether the consortium is truly ‘greater than the sum of its parts’. 

These signals appear, not in the simple wording of the proposal, but in the coherence, consistency and coordination that come only from active, engaged, human collaboration. AI makes proposals easier to draft but harder to differentiate, as such strong consortium relationships become the real competitive advantage. 

Enterprise Ireland’s Brussels office 

Enterprise Ireland has always prized the importance of face-to-face collaboration and has made its Brussels office available to Irish Enterprise and research teams since Framework Programme 7.  However, since the COVID pandemic, usage of these facilities has dropped off significantly in favour of remote collaboration. 

We now have a new office in the centre of Brussels and close to the EU Quarter. We provide you with the opportunity to be the host, with meeting rooms of various sizes (from 4 to 40) which can meet the needs of your consortium (with accompanying lunch and refreshments!). Please contact Kevin Flynn and we can discuss how we can help you to achieve in-person collaborative meetings in the heart of Europe. The resulting open discussion, alignment and trust can create the depth, authenticity and operational credibility that evaluators reward and that no AI can replicate.

Meeting Spaces:

Enterprise Ireland, Chancelier Building, Place Sainte-Gudule 14, 1000 Bruxelles