[pypy-dev] Alisair Burt on getting EU funding.

[Laura Creighton]

I say polish off our academic credentials, and also make the
'alternative to java for business' pitch and whatever else we
can come up with as a good idea.

Laura

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Return-Path: burt at dfki.de
Sender: burt at dfki.de
To: Laura Creighton <lac at strakt.com>
Cc: lac at strakt.com
Subject: EU Projects and Python
From: Alastair Burt <burt at dfki.de>
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 18:10:34 +0200

Laura Creighton <lac at strakt.com> (2003-03-31):

> I am interested in acquiring EU funding for Python in general, and the
> PyPy project in particular.  I realise that it is a long, involved, slow
> process which takes years.  (I've worked on EU projects before, just
> never on the funding it end).  I am here for the duration, but I need to
> get taught what to do.  Is this something that you would be willing to
> teach me?  If this teaching is something that you do professionally, I
> would be most interested in taking a course, tutorial, or whatever else
> it is that you do.  I have some funding now, and matching funding is
> something I want to investigate.  Also I would be interested in doing
> this via the Python Business Forum, where I am the Treasurer.

I am not sure that I am the fountain of information that Nicolas thinks I
am, and, to a large extent, I benefit from the infrastructure here at the
DFKI.

Here are some general points:

  - There are far more sources of EU funding than I know about. The main
    one for computing is the current IST call:

      http://fp6.cordis.lu/fp6/call_details.cfm?CALL_ID=1

    You are probably too late for the April deadline but another one in
    October should be fine.

    There are other sources of funding for e-learning, cross border
    cooperation between neighbours (Interreg), e-content generation,
    e-government (from IDA). But I do not have more exact pointers to hand,
    or much experience in submission to them.

  - The EU is not going to fund simple application development per se. So
    somehow you are going to have to show that you innovating in the
    direction that the EU is explicitly funding, and you will probably want
    to work with a consortium whose goals are more general than language
    implementation. I think if were trying to get PyPy funded, I would try
    to build some bridges with academic research, and I would make it clear
    how PyPy fits in with the big ideas that the EU is funding, such as
    ambient computing. In as much as PyPy would seem to make Python more
    portable and implementable on small devices, I think you could make a
    good case here.

  - I guess having EU project administration experience in the consortium
    would not hurt. The DFKI could do this, but there are actually many
    small firms these days that specialise in this. You could use one of
    them and let them handle the paper work.

  - Whatever you do, having a trustworthy, balanced consortium is the key
    to a good proposal and successful execution.

  - The EU themselves are helpful. If you see an EU call that looks
    fruitful, email the project officer. They will give you pointers.

I would like to see Python be advanced by EU funding. I am not sure how
much help I can be, but if you have specific questions, just ask.

- --- Alastair

- ---
- ----
Alastair Burt
German Centre for AI (DFKI), Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3
Saarbrücken 66123, Germany 						
Email: burt at dfki.de
Tel: +49 681 302 2565
Fax: +49 681 302 2235
http://www.aswad-project.org/


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