Introduction: Why Communication Can Make or Break Your EU Project
At Nexuswelt, we’ve seen it time and again: brilliant research projects with groundbreaking innovations that struggle to gain traction beyond academic circles. The common missing element? Strategic communication.
The truth is, even the most revolutionary ideas need effective communication to create real-world impact. After working with numerous EU-funded consortia across Europe, we’ve learned that communication isn’t just a contractual obligation—it’s the bridge between scientific excellence and societal change.
In this article, we’ll share our insights on how to transform your EU project’s communication strategy from a bureaucratic requirement into a powerful catalyst for impact. Let’s dive in.
Beyond Compliance: Six Compelling Reasons to Invest in Project Communication
The European Research Executive Agency (REA) identifies six key reasons for communicating about your EU-funded project, but our experience shows these benefits go much deeper:
1. Legal Obligation – But Also Opportunity
Yes, communication is a contractual requirement in all Horizon Europe grant agreements. But rather than viewing this as a checkbox exercise, see it as an opportunity to showcase your work to the audiences who matter most to your project’s success.
2. Accountability to Citizens – Building Public Trust
EU funds come from taxpayers’ money, making transparency essential. But effective communication does more than demonstrate fiscal responsibility—it builds public trust in research and innovation. We’ve helped projects translate complex technical concepts into stories that resonate with everyday citizens, showing the real-world value of research investments.
3. Research Impact – From Papers to Practice
Good communication increases the likelihood that your results will be used by others. We’ve seen how strategic dissemination can transform academic papers into practical applications by connecting researchers with the right industry partners, policymakers, or follow-on research opportunities.
4. Knowledge Exchange – Creating Fertile Ground for Innovation
Communication facilitates knowledge exchange with other researchers, industry, policymakers, and society. In our work across diverse sectors, we’ve witnessed how cross-disciplinary conversations sparked by effective communication often lead to unexpected collaborations and breakthrough innovations.
5. Market Opportunities – Paving the Path to Commercialization
Showcasing your innovations helps attract potential business partners, investors, and customers. One of our engineering consortium clients secured venture funding directly as a result of strategic communication that put their technology in front of the right investors—something that might never have happened without targeted dissemination.
6. Visibility and Recognition – Building Your Research Brand
Strategic communication raises the profile of your organization and researchers. In the competitive world of research funding, establishing a strong reputation through effective communication can be the difference between securing future grants and being overlooked.
Understanding the Communication Trio: A Strategic Approach
One common misunderstanding we encounter is the conflation of communication, dissemination, and exploitation. The REA distinguishes between these three interrelated but distinct activities:
Communication: Telling Your Project’s Story
Communication is about informing multiple audiences about the project and its results. It’s the storytelling aspect—making your research accessible and engaging to different stakeholders, from policymakers to the general public.
From our experience: The most successful projects develop a compelling narrative that explains not just what they’re doing, but why it matters. One environmental research consortium we worked with framed their technical air quality monitoring as a story about “helping European cities breathe easier,” immediately making their work relatable to citizens and policymakers alike.
Dissemination: Sharing Knowledge Strategically
Dissemination involves publicly disclosing results through appropriate means. It’s more targeted than general communication, focusing on sharing scientific or technical knowledge with potential users.
From our experience: Effective dissemination requires understanding exactly who might use your results and tailoring your approach accordingly. For one healthcare innovation project, we created different dissemination packages for hospital administrators, medical practitioners, and health technology companies—each addressing their specific interests and needs.
Exploitation: Creating Pathways to Implementation
Exploitation means using results for scientific, societal, or economic purposes—whether commercializing innovations, informing policy decisions, or advancing further research.
From our experience: The best exploitation strategies begin with communication. By identifying potential users early and engaging them throughout the project, you create natural pathways for adoption. We helped a manufacturing technology consortium establish an industry advisory board in the project’s first month, ensuring that eventual exploitation partners were invested from the beginning.
Social Media Strategy: Beyond Basic Posting
Social media can amplify your project’s reach exponentially—but only with a thoughtful strategy behind it. Here’s what we’ve learned from managing social media for dozens of EU projects:
Platform Selection: Strategic Choices, Not Checkbox Exercises
Many projects make the mistake of creating accounts on every platform without considering where their audiences actually engage. Our approach prioritizes quality over quantity:
- LinkedIn: We’ve found this platform generates the highest engagement for most technical projects, especially for reaching industry stakeholders and policymakers. Professional groups related to your field can be goldmines for targeted dissemination.
- Twitter: This works best for projects with policy relevance or public interest angles. The fastest-growing accounts we’ve managed used Twitter to join existing conversations with relevant hashtags rather than simply broadcasting their own messages.
- YouTube: Essential for any project with visual components, but success depends on quality. Our analytics show that professionally produced 2-3 minute explainer videos consistently outperform longer, lower-quality content.
- Instagram/Facebook: These platforms generally yield lower engagement for research projects unless there’s a strong consumer or citizen science angle. One notable exception was an ocean plastics project that built a substantial following by sharing striking visual content.
Content That Actually Engages: Practical Lessons
After analyzing engagement patterns across numerous projects, these content approaches consistently deliver results:
- Behind-the-Scenes Glimpses: Posts showing laboratory work, field research, or team meetings humanize your project and regularly generate 2-3x more engagement than announcements of deliverables.
- The Human Impact Angle: Content that connects research to everyday life receives significantly more attention. For example, a technical post about battery efficiency gained little traction, while the same information framed as “How this technology could double your smartphone’s battery life” saw widespread engagement.
- Researcher Spotlights: Brief profiles of team members sharing their motivations and the challenges they’re tackling personalize your project and build audience connection. Videos in this format consistently rank among our highest-performing content.
- Visual Data Storytelling: Complex findings translated into clear infographics typically receive 4-5x more shares than text-only explanations of the same information.
Media Engagement: From Press Releases to Published Stories
Securing media coverage remains one of the most powerful ways to amplify your project’s visibility. Our media relations work has taught us several valuable lessons:
Beyond the Basic Press Release
Standard press releases often fail to capture journalists’ attention in today’s fast-paced media environment. These approaches have proven more effective:
- The Exclusive Angle: Offering one high-profile outlet first access to a significant development before wider release. This approach secured national coverage for several projects that might otherwise have received only specialized mention.
- The Human Story: Finding the researchers or potential beneficiaries behind the science. A quantum computing project gained mainstream coverage by profiling a researcher’s unusual career journey from music to mathematics to quantum research.
- The Trend Connection: Linking your project to current events or emerging trends. One agricultural technology project multiplied its media coverage by connecting their innovations to breaking news about food security challenges.
- The Visual Package: Providing high-quality videos, animations, or infographics that make complex concepts accessible. Media outlets increasingly favor stories with ready-to-use visual elements.
Event Strategy: Creating Memorable Interactions
Events offer unparalleled opportunities for direct stakeholder engagement, but require careful planning to maximize impact. Based on organizing over 100 events for EU projects, here are our key insights:
Format Selection: Matching Events to Objectives
Different event formats serve different communication goals. Our experience shows these matches work best:
- Interactive Workshops: Ideal for gathering input from key stakeholders early in the project. The most productive workshops we’ve facilitated limited presentations to 25% of the agenda, dedicating the majority of time to structured interaction.
- Demonstration Days: Perfect for showcasing tangible innovations to potential users. The most successful demos we’ve organized created “experience stations” where participants could interact directly with technologies rather than watching passive demonstrations.
- Policy Roundtables: Effective for influencing decision-makers. The most impactful format we’ve used involves pairing researchers with real-world practitioners or beneficiaries to present complementary perspectives on the same issues.
- Hybrid Conferences: Best for disseminating final results to broad audiences. The most engaging hybrid events in our experience use technology not just to broadcast to remote participants but to actively involve them in discussions and feedback.
Beyond Logistics: Creating Meaningful Experiences
The difference between forgettable and influential events often lies in these details:
- Pre-Event Engagement: Building anticipation through teaser content, preliminary discussions, or challenges that participants can reflect on before attending. This approach increased attendance by an average of 23% across multiple projects.
- Session Design for Interaction: Moving beyond lecture-style presentations to formats that encourage dialogue. One technique that consistently receives positive feedback is the “expert reaction panel,” where practitioners respond to research presentations with real-world perspectives.
- Follow-up Pathways: Creating clear next steps for different participant groups. Events that include specific calls to action and follow-up materials result in measurably higher post-event engagement.
From Communication to Exploitation: Closing the Loop
Effective communication creates natural pathways toward exploitation—the ultimate goal of EU project funding. These strategies have proven effective in bridging communication and exploitation:
Targeted Communication for Specific Exploitation Paths
Different exploitation routes require different communication approaches:
- For Commercial Exploitation: We’ve found that creating application-specific materials addressing business problems (rather than highlighting technological features) significantly increases industry interest. Case studies focused on return on investment and implementation requirements are particularly effective.
- For Policy Impact: Policy briefs that begin with clear, actionable recommendations (followed by supporting evidence) receive demonstrably more attention from policymakers than traditional academic formats. One environmental project’s policy recommendations were adopted almost verbatim into regional regulations after using this approach.
- For Further Research: Openly sharing methodological details, tools, and intermediate findings creates fertile ground for academic exploitation. Projects that created dedicated resource repositories for fellow researchers saw their approaches adopted and cited more frequently than those publishing only through traditional academic channels.
Building Communities Around Your Research
Some of the most successful long-term exploitation outcomes we’ve observed came from projects that built engaged communities during their funding period:
- Champion Networks: Identifying and nurturing relationships with early adopters who become advocates for your innovation. One healthcare project created a “clinical innovators network” that became instrumental in driving adoption after the project ended.
- Implementation Support Communities: Creating forums where potential users can discuss implementation challenges and solutions. These peer-to-peer support structures have proven more effective for driving adoption than top-down dissemination alone.
- Cross-Project Clusters: Forming strategic alliances with related projects to create larger ecosystems around common themes. These collaborations often unlock exploitation opportunities beyond what individual projects could achieve alone.
Conclusion: From Obligation to Strategic Asset
As we’ve seen throughout this article, communication in EU projects is far more than a contractual requirement—it’s a strategic asset that can dramatically amplify your impact. By thoughtfully planning your communication, dissemination, and exploitation activities as an integrated strategy, you transform the potential of your research into tangible benefits for science, society, and the economy.
At Nexuswelt, we’re passionate about helping EU projects make this transition from seeing communication as an obligation to embracing it as a catalyst for impact. Our team across Europe combines deep understanding of EU funding mechanisms with strategic communication expertise, creating tailored approaches that maximize the return on Europe’s research investment.
Ready to Transform Your Project’s Communication Strategy?
Whether you’re preparing a Horizon Europe proposal or implementing an existing EU-funded project, strategic communication can significantly amplify your research impact.
Contact our team at sales@nexuswelt.com to discuss how we can help your consortium achieve communication excellence and maximize the impact of your EU project.
