[EuroPython] government money, socialism et al.

[Dinu Gherman]

Nicolas Pettiaux <nicolas.pettiaux@ael.be>:

> > Laura Creighton wrote:
> > > >
> > > I am organising a plan to Get Government Money.  (if I can figure
> > > out how to make a new Wiki Page).  
> 
> very good idea. I have some contacts at the EU and besides I am in
> Brussels. We could coordinate this (publically through the list) and 
> exchange the contacts (privately with the SponsorTeam) 

I'd love to see that happen, but without trying to dampen your
enthusiasm: have you tried before to pull some money out
of these bodies? I know people who did, and I know it is
pretty tough (unless you want a few hundred million euros).

The EU has a huge complex bureaucratic fund application 
system with many sources of money that you're almost un-
able to spot without professional support and it will certainly 
give you only a quarter of what you need and mostly only a 
year *after* you need it. There are forms with deadlines and if
you write one letter outside of some allowed field by mistake 
your application failed!

What is maybe the most annoying of all: there is absolutely 
no way to predict when you will receive something, how much,
or why you didn't get anything as the internal guidelines change
every few months in very intransparent ways.

Hope this doesn't sound too frustrated, but at least you should
know about the challenges ahead... ;-)

Regards,

Dinu