When and Why to Involve Consultants 
in Your Grant Project

Both startups and established companies share a fundamental reality - transforming vision into action requires liquidity. This is why public and private funding instruments exist. Yet not all grants are created equal, and while some can be applied for in a day, others demand weeks or months of structured work, strategy, and careful positioning.

It is therefore unsurprising that many companies turn to funding consultants—i.e., professionals familiar with programme formats, evaluator expectations, and the unwritten rules that shape success. The real question is not whether consultants can help, but when involving them is truly worth the investment. The honest answer, as with most strategic decisions, is simple: it depends. 

When involving a consultant makes the most sense

Some funding programmes are not only time-consuming, but also highly particular in what they expect from applicants. The European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator  is a prime example: A 20-page core application with multiple annexes, each tailored precisely to the programme’s logic.

Be it that, you create your material from scratch or that you reuse existing company documents, both approaches can become truly challenging. What to say, what not to say, and how to frame it all into a coherent narrative requires two things:
1) A deep knowledge on the programme
2) Expert knowledge on how to craft a compelling story bound within the programme’s rules and expectations. When you are competing against some of the most innovative companies, quality narrative is not cosmetic, but a decisive factor.

Beyond complexity, there are a few recurring trigger moments that often justify bringing in professional funding consultants.

• When eligibility and positioning are unclear. Slight misalignments with programme objectives can invalidate even excellent projects.
• When partners or a consortium are required. Matching the right actors and aligning incentives is a discipline of its own.
• When timelines are tight. Deadlines, internal go/no-go gates, or investor pressure leave little room for trial and error.
• When internal teams are stretched or lack grant-writing depth. Especially common in growing companies where proposal work competes with core operations.

In these situations, waiting too long to involve support can be more costly than the consulting fee itself.  

The impact of AI on funding applications   

In the era of AI, writing a proposal has never felt easier. Following the widespread adoption of generative AI, there has been a steep increase in proposals submitted to several attractive funding schemes. One of the main results of this trend has been a continuous decline in success rates. Part of the reason is simple: No matter how polished the language may appear, experienced evaluators can quickly identify low-insight, generic content.

It is undeniable that AI is a powerful tool. But it is just that: A tool. Without expert guidance on when, how, and why to use it, the illusion of excellence AI can create may become nothing more than a constraint. A proposal filled with elegant but empty wording is like a charismatic speaker who captivates for thirty seconds and disappoints soon after. Without strategic, surgical insight, words become just noise fillers.

Nevertheless, this does not mean every company needs a consultant. But it does mean that quality, insight, and positioning matter more than ever.

So… should you hire a consultant?

Not necessarily.

If budgets are tight and timelines flexible, an exploratory first attempt may be perfectly reasonable. Likewise, well-funded companies sometimes opt to “test the waters” internally before seeking external help.

However, if funding is critical to your roadmap, or timing leaves little margin for failure, professional support becomes a strategic choice rather than a luxury. The same applies when internal resources cannot realistically sustain the level of effort required for a competitive proposal.

In highly selective programmes, excellence alone is not enough. You must be more excellent than your peers. And, just as milliseconds decide Olympic records, small advantages in proposal design, clarity, and positioning can make the difference between success and rejection.  

What consultants actually do? 

Consultants are often mistakenly reduced to ghostwriters, brought into the “get the document done” mentality. But the best funding consultants act as strategic partners, and thus their most valuable contribution goes beyond a nicely put, ready-to-send text. Instead, they become key actors that align ambition with feasibility and translate innovation into a credible funding strategy. It is not what they produce, but how they manage the transversal knowledge necessary to create a proposal that maximizes the project’s intrinsic value and elevates its chances of competing with the very best innovations poised to storm the market.

More specifically, the best consultants can take action in four different action fields:

• Strategic scoping and decision-making. Assessing not only eligibility, but real strategic fit: Is this the right programme? Is the timing right? Is the project mature enough to compete? Knowing when not to apply is often as valuable as knowing how to apply.
• Positioning and narrative strategy. Shaping how the project is framed in relation to programme priorities, market dynamics, and evaluator expectations. It is more than storytelling: it is clarity, focus, and strategic restraint.
• Structured proposal development. Designing both the framework and the building blocks of the proposal. Funding proposals are multi-faceted, comprehensive documents where it is crucial to ensure coherence between technical ambition, impact claims, implementation logic, and budget. Writing is part of the process, but never the final objective.
• Execution and continuity. Supporting the transition from awarded proposal to funded project. Work does not necessarily stop once the funding is granted. Consultants can also help ensuring that commitments made on paper remain realistic, compliant, and auditable during implementation.

In collaborative or consortium-based projects, they also play a catalytic role. By facilitating alignment between partners, managing expectations, and mediating trade-offs between ambition, risk, and resources, they help transform complex collaborations into fundable, credible projects.

For growing companies in particular, this strategic partnership also enables internal teams to stay focused on execution and innovation, while simultaneously ensuring that funding efforts are guided by experience, judgement, and a clear sense of direction.      

What value do consultants create?   

While outcomes are never guaranteed, the value of consulting support is often visible in concrete ways:

• Less internal time spent on proposal development.
• Stronger project design and clearer impact logic.
• Higher consistency across technical, financial, and narrative elements.
• Access to partner networks and programme-specific insight.
• Lower risk of ineligible or weakly positioned submission attempts.

Even in unsuccessful applications, there is value to be extracted, as companies frequently reuse the resulting materials for investor decks, follow-up calls, or future funding rounds. This way, even “failure” can become strategic groundwork.

As Louis Pasteur famously put it: Luck favours the prepared.    

How to choose the right consulting partner    

Choosing poorly can be more damaging than not choosing at all. In the same way, not all companies share their funding needs, and not all consultants are equal in their work and value. Before engaging one, there are a few items you might want to consider:

• Experience and project fit. It is important that consultants not only understand your target programme but also are knowledgeable in your field.
• Success, track-record, and testimonials. Personal experiences might be more telling than good marketing.
• A collaborative approach between the applicant and the consultant. Black-box services usually hide unstructured work and false promises.
• Clear expectations on scope, roles, and fees. In case of pitfalls, you want to be covered and understand what the consequences are.
• Personal fit. The basis of good collaborative work is understanding. A good fit between you and your consultant is key to an excellent proposal.

Also, be wary of suspiciously attractive deals. Preparing a funding proposal is inherently resource-intensive, and even if external support can ease the most burdensome tasks, the applicant must still remain actively involved—ultimately, no one understands a company as well as its own founders and employees. Offers that are implausibly cheap or that promise to “take care of everything” with minimal or no input from you, may conceal inadequate quality, a superficial understanding of your project, or even unethical practices that can jeopardize your credibility with evaluators.    

How Nordic Innovators works

Nordic Innovators focuses strongly on excellence. Our company is structured into specialised units, each bringing together experts in different technological fields and European funding programmes at both the EU and national levels.
By combining scientific background with deep programme expertise, we ensure that the match between each applicant and our consultants is optimised to maximise the chances of success.

We are consistently honest about project–programme fit and transparent about expectations, workload, and timelines. Because we value both your time and ours, we do not hesitate to discourage participation in programmes that are not suitable and to recommend alternative opportunities when these better align with your company’s strategy and positioning.

Thanks to our broad experience across multiple funding schemes, we can systematically identify complementary calls, facilitate “crossed” opportunities, and actively support consortium building. Our extensive network and long-standing matchmaking experience in European funding programmes enable us to connect you with the right partners and increase the overall impact of your applications.   

What to do next?

If you are considering a funding opportunity and are unsure whether it is worth pursuing, a short, focused discussion can already save significant time and effort.
Contact us and book a short, non-binding meeting with one of our Business Developers, who can help guide you through the funding landscape!