The Aim

Ideal-ist reduces the barriers faced by organisations wishing to participate in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) programme by offering transnational partner search.

• joining ICT projects
• finding partners for your project idea
• finding services to support you in your ICT project

within the Seventh European Framework Programme.

It has been noted that the most successful proposers are those with previous project experience. There is a high initial obstacle to participation that is a combination of lack of experience and a lack of contacts and awareness. Once this threshold is crossed and an organisation paricipates in a funded project, many of the barriers to future participation are considerably reduced. It is addressing this threshold that is in essence the main objective of Ideal-ist.

 

Ideal-ist is the first quality-labelled international ICT partner search network, basing on the well established NCPs in the EU27 and Associated States and part-funded by the European Commission.

Today the Ideal-ist network consists of 63 ICT national partners from EU and Non-EU Countries, such as Associated States, Eastern European Partner Countries (EEPC) and Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPC) and emerging countries like China, Brazil, India, and South Africa in line with the international cooperation strategy of the European Commission

    Partner Search 

Newcomers need partners or have to identify forming consortia in order to take part in ICT calls. Idealist addresses this problem by a proven partner search mechanism. The Idealist online partner search, originally developed during Framework Program (FP) 4 and continually enhanced, is based on a number of key elements:

• It operates with specific vetted proposal ideas, rather than generally advertising research capability.
• It is tightly supervised in that each proposed search is reviewed prior to being published by the National expert and the Quality team and checked for applicability and basic correctness.
• It is proactive in seeking out potential partners, rather than simply storing them in a database, waiting to be discovered by an online user.
• It targets the Strategic Objectives of the ICT Theme and is call-specific.
• It is supported locally by Idealist representative who can help formulate the search and ensure that searches reach the correct types of organisations.

In addition Ideal-ist provides a Face2Face Brokerage Online Tool, which enables registered proposers to promote their know-how and skills, their research interests and business needs.
Face2Face Brokerage Tool is offered to all registered proposers with the partner search system and vice versa, registered Face2Face members also have full access to all other Ideal-ist services.
In particular Face2Face brokerage offers the following possibilities:

• to promote profile and collaboration offers and requests
• to get in touch with other proposers
• to book meetings with potential project partners on-line
• to actively participate in a Face2Face event. To present, discuss and develop new project ideas for ICT in a cross-border environment as well as pursue business opportunities

 Additionally, the Face2Face Brokerage Tool will be used to plan Face2Face meetings in advance at specific events.