Social housing, public transport networks, the launch of an energy efficiency scheme… All the major infrastructure, services and products that make a difference to our daily lives started off as a project. But what are the main stages of a project, and how can the European Investment Advisory support you in each stage?

A standard project typically has the following five major stages: programming, identification, formulation, implementation, and evaluation and audit. Taken together, these stages represent the path a project takes from the beginning to its end.

Discover in the infographic below the objectives, deliverables and support you can get from the Hub in each project stage, whether you are a private or public project promoter.

Project Stages

A project typically has five major stages:

• Programming
• Identification
• Formulation
• Implementation
• Evaluation & audit
• Programming

The purpose of this initial stage is to identify the vision, strategy and objectives that a public authority or private promoter has over a specific timeframe, and thus to provide a framework within which projects can be identified and prepared.

The programming stage develops an initial idea and creates an outline of the business case and its implementation schedule.

What are the public promoter’s development priorities?

Policies and strategies define the vision that a public authority (national, regional or local government) has for the development of a sector.

The Climate Change Agreement in Paris, an EC Directive on Circular Economy, the vision of a government to introduce e-cars in 20 years from now… Policies and strategies cover a wide range of themes. But they all have something in common: they set a vision for the future under which projects or programmes are established to achieve the strategic goal.

On a national level, the programming stage is typically the result of a bilateral negotiation between the European Commission and the respective Member State to cater for sector investment needs during a seven-year programming period. The resulting operational programme (in the case of European structural and investment funds) allows for sector-specific developments and projects to align with the relevant EU Directives.

What are the private promoter's development priorities?

Business Development Strategy is a combination of ideas, initiatives and activities aimed towards making a business better. This includes increasing revenues, growth in terms of business expansion, increasing profitability, building strategic partnerships, and making strategic business decisions.

Business development deals with the establishment of long term value factors for an organization from the point of view of markets, customers and their interrelationships.

Business development strategies are used to formulate a company’s future vision and longer-term plan.