From Project Results to Follow-up Funding and Capitalisation: Building Your Funding Pathway

Target audience: widerAdvance Facility Clients, Horizon Europe beneficiaries and project teams from Widening Countries and Outermost Regions, including researchers, research managers, project managers, innovation managers and other professionals responsible for exploitation, sustainability and follow-up funding.

Background

The widerAdvance Facility supports beneficiaries in Widening Countries and Outermost Regions to strengthen the dissemination, exploitation and long-term impact of research and innovation results. 0Within the Synergies activities, particular attention is given to connecting project results with follow-up funding and investment opportunities, complementary EU, national and regional programmes, and relevant innovation ecosystems.

The Coaching Service on Follow-up Funding and Capitalisation Issues provides practical guidance to beneficiaries seeking to move beyond the implementation of their EU-funded project and identify realistic pathways for further development, uptake, scale-up, market deployment or broader societal impact.

The Group Coaching format provides an opportunity to address common challenges faced by beneficiaries, share experiences and introduce practical approaches and tools that participants can subsequently apply to their own projects.

Purpose of the session

The first Group Coaching session will introduce participants to a structured approach for developing a follow-up funding and capitalisation pathway for their project results.

Rather than focusing solely on available funding programmes, the session will encourage participants to start from the result, its maturity, its intended use and the resources required to move it towards the next stage.

The session will demonstrate how to:

• assess whether a project result is ready for follow-up funding or capitalisation;
• identify the next development, validation, demonstration, deployment or market step;
• distinguish between different types of follow-up needs;
• identify appropriate EU, national, regional and private funding/investment pathways;
• consider combinations of funding instruments and other forms of support;
• identify key gaps that need to be addressed before applying for follow-up funding; and
• develop an initial roadmap towards a suitable follow-up opportunity.

Key message

The central message of the session will be:

“Do not start with the funding programme. Start with the result, the next step and the financing need.”

Participants will be introduced to a simple pathway:

Project result → Maturity & needs → Next step → Funding/investment need → Potential instruments → Funding pathway → Capitalisation

The approach will also introduce the widerAdvance Funding Matrix as a practical tool for exploring complementary funding opportunities across EU, national and regional levels.

Expected outcomes

By the end of the session, participants should:

1. Understand the difference between follow-up funding, capitalisation, scale-up and exploitation.
2. Be able to identify the immediate next step required to advance their project result.
3. Understand the main categories of funding and financing that may be relevant to different project needs.
4. Recognise the importance of matching the maturity and needs of a result with the appropriate funding instrument.
5. Have a preliminary understanding of how to use the widerAdvance Funding Matrix.
6. Identify the key information they need to prepare a more detailed funding pathway.
7. Understand when individual Coaching on Follow-up Funding and Capitalisation Issues may be appropriate.

Proposed practical exercise

Participants will be invited to select one project result and answer five questions:

1. What is the result?
What have you developed or achieved?

2. Where are you now?
What is its current maturity/readiness?

3. What is the next step?
What needs to happen to move the result forward?

4. What resources are needed?
What type and scale of funding, investment, expertise or partnership is required?

5. Where could this support come from?
Which EU, national, regional or private funding/investment mechanisms could potentially support the next step?

This exercise will provide the basis for further individual coaching where appropriate.

Expected added value

The Group Coaching session will provide participants with a practical framework that can be applied to their own project results and will help them move from a broad search for “funding opportunities” towards a more structured funding and capitalisation strategy.

The session will also help identify beneficiaries with more advanced or specific needs who could benefit from subsequent individual coaching and tailored expert support.

Agenda

Group Coaching on Follow-up Funding and Capitalisation

13 October 2026 | Online | 120 minutes