During project implementation, effective communication, both internally and externally, is crucial to showcase the project results, achieve the project objectives and maximise the project impact. Without communication, even the most significant achievements can go unnoticed.
A Communication and Dissemination Plan (CDP) ensures that the right target groups receive adapted and specialised information at the right time. This includes addressing external communication to engage stakeholders, the general public and relevant organisations, and internal communication to foster collaboration among the consortium members.
External communication
Communicating the project externally ensures that the project results do not go unnoticed and can have an impact beyond the project’s completion. To implement a successful communication and dissemination plan focused on sharing the results outside the project consortium, you can use the following six guiding questions.
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Why?
Determine the objectives for the project communication and what you hope to achieve by sharing the project results. Define the role that communication can have in supporting the project’s mission. Keep in mind that the objectives of your communication must be different from the project/research objectives. These objectives should be achievable, taking into account the time and resources allocated.
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To Who?
It is essential to identify the target audiences. Define the different stakeholder groups and learn their knowledge gaps and position on the topic, goals, interests and the project relevance to them. The messaging, the communication method, style and channels must be individually tailored to each group.
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By who?
Define the communication team and other relevant stakeholders who might be interested in sharing your work. Appoint a communication manager or the communication team responsible for creating and disseminating content.
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What?
Identify the events, milestones and results that you plan to communicate during the lifetime of the project.
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When?
Establish a clear timeline for the communication and dissemination activities and what you will communicate in the different phases of the project, ensuring updates at strategic phases of the project.
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How?
After identifying the right channels and tools to communicate with the target groups, define the outreach strategy and metrics that you want to achieve to monitor and evaluate whether the project’s communication is reaching the target audience and being effective. Predict the resources (operational, technical and financial) that will be needed to support the dissemination strategy.
Internal communication
While external communication focuses on disseminating the project’s results to a wider audience, internal communication ensures the successful execution of the project. Thus, it is essential to define a structured internal communication strategy to foster collaboration, streamline the workflow, and ensure the efficient implementation of the project. The internal communication strategy can also follow a set of guiding questions.
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Who?
Define roles and responsibilities within the consortium to ensure accountability and efficient implementation.
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When?
Define how often the working groups meet to provide updates on the work progress, action plan and risks.
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How?
Implement collaboration tools such as email, project management software and collaborative platforms to foster teamwork. Ensure access to the project’s documentation, which should be kept organised and updated with project decisions, milestones and timelines. Create templates based on the branding for different types of documents to standardise project communication.
Key performance indicators
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are measurable metrics that track the project’s progress and how effective the implemented actions are. Consider defining the communication and dissemination plan objectives using the SMART strategy (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Bound). This will help to identify the KPIs for each of the SMART objectives. The following KPIs can be used to measure the success of your CDP:
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Audience engagement: define specific metrics that you want to achieve for website traffic, social media interaction or event attendance, e.g. registering 100 participants in a series of workshops.
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Reach and visibility: specify the number of scientific publications, social media posts, media news and interviews, or citations, e.g. reaching an average of 500 views per post on LinkedIn.
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Stakeholder involvement: set a number for participants in project events, new collaborations or partnerships outside of the consortium, e.g. engage with 3 or more policy makers during the execution,
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Impact assessment: define the number of citations in official documents or policy discussions, number of new regulations or legislation amendments, number of organisations that have adopted the findings, e.g. the adoption of a developed protocol by 2 industries.
Note: Although these topics apply to any type of project, in EU-funded projects, you must include the European Union emblem and funding disclaimer in all promotional and communication materials. For more information, visit the EC webpage guidelines.
At Syntropie, we can support you in developing an effective communication and dissemination plan. Don’t hesitate to contact us at contact@syntropie.eu.