European funding boosts sustainable growth of European companies by supporting innovative projects with positive impact on environment and society. Projects that are creating global disruption and changing global markets. Becoming an EU funding beneficiary represents a great honor, but even a greater challenge.

The Tiko Pro story started 2010 in Slovenia, when Kristina Kočet Hudrap, back then a student, and today the founder and owner of Tiko Pro, had a passion and vision to start a company that would support stakeholders of all profiles in EU funds` acquisition. Tiko Pro partnership network quickly spanned throughout Europe.

In company`s history, the year 2013 represents a great milestone. Because of her exceptional business idea and exponential growth of Tiko Pro, Kristina was named a Slovenian Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013.

Later that year, an office of Tiko Pro in Croatia was opened to provide expertise on Croatian national funding schemes and to support Slovenian companies, wishing to enter Croatian market, with in depth analysis of relevant market conditions.

EU funding acquisition – theory and practice

Today, Tiko Pro is a well-known and an accomplished EU funding partner for companies from all across Europe. Many entrepreneurs are persuaded that, by hiring a consultancy company, their work on the proposal writing is completed. Innovation funding project management seems to be one of the most enigmatic and intriguing business branches. “Despite a clear definition of project manager work duties, there are still some misconceptions as far as the scope of responsibilities is concerned. We wish to make one thing straight, namely what an innovation funding project manager is not, but is often mistaken to be. First of all, it’s not about gathering information from our clients, simply inserting their inputs in the relevant proposal template chapters without them being subject of sharp and constructive revision. On the other hand, we are not here to write down the entire proposal on our own either. Instead, it has always been about collaboration between our clients, who must have a deep understanding of their business ideas and us, the project managers, mastering the criteria and needs of a high-quality project proposal.” continues the Tiko pro team.

Storytelling method

Companies have great ideas, but often they fail in creating stories around them. In Tiko Pro, with storytelling and creative thinking approach, we help our clients to transform their innovative project concepts into real-life success stories. Stories that matter and have a positive impact on circular economy, sustainable development, industry, mobility, digitalization, bioeconomy, tourism and energetics. Within the Slovenian funding schemes, 94 % of Tiko Pro clients’ projects get approved for funding.

“When a project is approved, this is when the next level of hard work starts,” points out Tiko Pro. The next steps are project management and dissemination. “During the project implementation phase, we provide full support for our clients to assure they get the money they applied for. We assure that projects remain within the planned time and financial frame. We support our clients in solving technical challenges, we communicate with ministries and European Commission on our clients’ behalf and we make sure that their project keeps its focus. In depth planning and constant project lifecycle monitoring assure smooth implementation of planned activities and guarantee cost eligibility,” explains Tiko Pro.

Brussels applications

In Tiko Pro, they support the application processes for Slovenian and Croatian national calls as well as  EU calls for direct submission in Brussels. “When an opportunity of acting as a project management support for one international project presented itself, we grabbed it with both hands. So, beside successfully managing EU project proposals applications, we are a proud partner of an international project CODOBIO (co-funded through Maria Skłodowska-Curie Actions program) that placed us alongside biotechnology researchers. We are the only Slovenian partner in the consortium,” states Tiko Pro.

Croatian market entry – market analysis and showroom

Every project needs a market analysis and a number of Tiko Pro clients, engaging us in market analysis preparations, is on a rise. “The most interesting country for expansion for our Slovenian clients represents Croatia and that is why we support our clients and business partners when entering Croatian market,” says Tiko Pro. They also provide assistance with clients’ first promotional activities on this market within the program called “showroom”. Both services, market analysis and showroom, are eligible for companies from the East Slovenian cohesion region. “We want our partners to become even more competitive in the international business environment. Therefore, we support them in facilitation of their business ideas by being their reliable partner in EU funding acquisition and project management,” stresses Tiko Pro.