How to Build a Consortium for DTIF Call 8

DTIF applicants know they need a consortium. But not everyone knows what makes one score well. Call 8 closes at 3pm Irish time on 3 February 2027, and a consortium that meets the minimum rules on paper can still struggle if the partners, roles and agreements behind it haven't been properly thought through. Myriad's grant funding team has supported DTIF applicants since the fund's early calls, and consortium design is where we see the most avoidable problems.

This guide covers how to choose partners, who should lead, what to settle in writing before you submit, and how the assessment panel judges collaboration. For dates, funding rates and the pre-eligibility check, see our Call 8 announcement.

What does DTIF require from a consortium?

The rules set the minimum: your consortium needs at least three independent partners seeking funding, including at least one SME and one other enterprise. All partners must be based in Ireland, and each must be a registered client of Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland or Údarás na Gaeltachta, or a recognised research organisation. The minimum funding request is €1.5 million.

The quality of the collaboration is then assessed in its own right, which is why the structure deserves as much attention as the science.

How do you choose the right partners?

The technical problem you’re facing will lead you to a stronger consortium, not your contacts list. Break the project into work packages, then ask which partner is best placed to own each one. A strong consortium has complementary partners, each with a genuine role that the others couldn't easily fill.

Before you approach anyone, it helps to have clear answers to these questions:

• What does this partner bring that nobody else in the consortium does? Overlapping capabilities weaken the case for including them.
• Are they eligible and registered? Confirm their agency registration, or their status as a research organisation, before you build a budget around them.
• Can they fund their share? Even at the maximum rates, partners fund a material part of their own eligible costs. The DTIF assessors look at financial capacity, so ask for recent accounts early rather than discovering a problem late.
• Do they have the time? A partner with a strong profile but no capacity to contribute to the application is a risk to the proposal and to the project.

Who should be the lead partner?

One partner needs to coordinate the application and act as the main contact with Enterprise Ireland. Choose the lead on practical grounds: project management capacity, financial standing and the ability to keep other partners to a timetable. It doesn't have to be the partner with the largest budget, and it shouldn't simply be whoever started the conversation. A lead who is stretched thin during the final weeks before the deadline puts the whole consortium at risk.

What should the consortium agreement cover?

Enterprise Ireland provides a consortium agreement template with the Call 8 documents. Successful consortia need a signed agreement in place before funding was confirmed, so review the agreement template in advance and confirm it works for your needs.

Don't leave the difficult conversations until after you've been successful. Agree the main terms before you submit, including:

• Ownership of background IP (what each partner brings) and foreground IP (what the project creates).
• Each partner's right to commercialise results in its own field.
• How decisions are made, and what happens if the budget or scope needs to change.
• What happens if a partner leaves or underperforms.
• Confidentiality and publication rights, particularly where a research organisation is involved.

A disagreement over IP is far easier to resolve while every partner still wants the project to go ahead.

How does collaboration affect your score?

Applications are assessed against four criteria: the quality of the disruptive technology, the strength of your approach, economic impact and sustainability, and the strength of the collaboration. You should note that collaboration is a scored criterion.

Here are the key criteria that relate to your consortium:

• Strength and credibility of the partners in the consortium to deliver on project goals.
• Collaborations have a strong lead partner and a strong project management structure.
• Appropriateness of allocation of tasks, ensuring that all participants have a valid role and adequate resources in the project to fulfil that role.
• The SME(s) in a consortium should have an integral role in the project.
• Financial and other resources mobilised across the consortium provides appropriate cofunding against the DTIF contribution.
• Appropriateness of management structures and procedures, including risk and innovation management.
• Complementarity of the participants and extent to which the consortium brings together the necessary expertise

Panels look for clear roles, evidence that the partners genuinely need each other, sensible governance and some sign that the group can work together. A consortium that looks assembled to meet the rules is easy to spot.

Company A, an SME, leads a consortium of four with a combined grant request of €3.2 million. Its partners are a large manufacturer, a software SME and a university. The software SME's analytics work sits in two of the five work packages, and nobody else in the group can deliver it. Six weeks before the deadline, the software SME withdraws.

The funding request still clears the €1.5 million minimum, but the technical plan now has a gap, and the case for collaboration is thinner. Company A has to find a replacement, check its registration and financial capacity, and rewrite two work packages in the time that remains.

Key takeaways

• The rules are a minimum. Meeting the partner requirements gets you eligible; the strength of the collaboration helps decide whether you're funded.
• Build around work packages. Every partner should own something the others can't easily deliver.
• Check capacity as well as eligibility. A partner that can't fund its share or find the time to contribute is a risk to the application.
• Choose the lead for reliability. Project management and financial standing matter more than budget size.
• Settle IP early. Disagreements are easier to resolve before the outcome is known.

Building a consortium takes time, but it's manageable when the steps are taken in order. If you're putting one together for Call 8, or you'd like a second opinion on how your proposal will read to the assessment panel, contact Myriad to discuss your project.