Simplifying grant management solutions for the Eureka network
Transforming the funding and coordination of research and development for an intergovernmental organisation
Overview
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Challenge
Eureka helps startups, SMEs, large enterprises, research organisations and universities all across the world get access to public research and development funds.
It is this research and development work that stimulates the economy of a country through technological advancement and advances our society as a whole. The Eureka network currently operates across 45 different countries, but they recognised that their internal processes and current legacy technology were slowing them down. They embarked on a digital transformation to:
Create greater efficiency in the management of end-to-end funding programmes
Improve the experience and delivery of services for funding applicants, project coordinators, assessors and system administrators
Enable greater agility in the business through the development of a modular platform that they would be able to customise and develop themselves in the future
WORTH’s experience of developing grant management funding programmes, combined with our approach to upskilling and building alongside client teams made us an ideal project partner.
“There was a lot of grant management software out there, and we looked around, but we didn’t think off the shelf would match our requirements. We wanted something built by us, owned by us, and that we could develop and adapt ourselves in the future, without being dependent on, or constricted by licensing.”
Filipa Gomes, Project Manager
The approach
Meeting users’ needs
The WORTH design approach focuses a team on becoming user-centred and translating jobs to be done, into an actionable technology roadmap. We worked with the Eureka team to prioritise business objectives, carry out user research, prototype architecture, and eventually launch and test the initial funding platform.
Using the right technology
A key requirement from the start was a system that could be owned, managed and modified by Eureka in the future as their needs changed. We therefore worked alongside them to define a tech stack that was suited to modular design, was underpinned by common microservices and could be connected via shared APIs and single-sign on data models.
Embedded expertise
From day one, the WORTH goal is always to leave behind a self-sustaining environment and team, and we achieve this through working in blended teams alongside our clients. We worked with the Eureka team to build up their confidence in managing the system, to develop clear ways of working that could be carried forwards, and to knowledge share and enhance their own digital capabilities.
Developing technology and talent
Results
A simplified user journey
The new grant management system allows for a simplified user experience, optimised configuration, deployment and operational processes, meaning grants can be processed more efficiently.
A system built for the future
The development of this new grant management system has given Eureka a platform on which they can continue to expand and evolve the grant management process as a whole.
New digital capabilities
Internally, WORTH championed the value of the ‘learn by doing’ approach, helping Eureka expand and improve their IT delivery model.
Developing exceptional products goes hand-in-hand with developing the capabilities and talent of the teams that need to use them. To support Eureka in training up their development team to take on ownership and development of the new platform, we used the following approaches:
Embedded the WORTH ‘learn by doing’ approach - encouraging teams to work in small continuous iterations, allowing for feedback and new data to be continually fed back into the strategy.
Introduced team guilds to share best practice, transfer knowledge and model a culture of continuous improvement.
Initiated a phased transfer of ownership over 6 months, from blended teams to solely Eureka teams, helping to build their team’s confidence in their ability to own and evolve the platform.