When a Horizon Europe project starts, months — sometimes years — of preparation suddenly become real. Funding is secured, partners are mobilised, and expectations are high. Yet one of the first impressions the outside world receives is often overlooked: the project website.
A good EU project website is not just a communication tool. It is infrastructure. It is where stakeholders look for credibility, journalists look for context, policymakers look for relevance, and evaluators look for evidence of impact. When done well, it becomes the central hub connecting research results, communication activities, and long-term legacy. When done poorly — or too late — opportunities are lost before the project even begins.
Start early or fall behind
Early visibility matters. Without a website, there is no central place to direct attention. There is no place to provide a comprehensive information about the project – a need for such a project, its goal, expected impact, consortium partners and their roles in the project.
Delaying the website means losing discoverability, missing the chance to build early audiences, and appearing less credible to industry and policy actors who expect professional communication from publicly funded initiatives.
A website from day one enables something much more important than visibility — it creates readiness. It becomes the repository for outputs, the anchor for dissemination activities, and the reference point for everyone interacting with the project. It also ensures smoother monitoring and reporting, because results, events, and outputs already have a structured place to live.
Structure for audiences, not for administration
A lot of project websites mirror proposal sections – work packages, tasks and so on. But stakeholders do not navigate information like consortium partners or evaluators do. They look for relevance, results, and opportunities to engage.
This means organising content around results rather than work packages. It also means maintaining an evolving results section that grows throughout the project, showing progress rather than waiting for the final months to communicate outcomes. That is why explaining what each Work Package will do or did is irrelevant. When planning the structure, you have to imagine that you are one of the stakeholders who might be interested in project results and then plan the content structure accordingly.
Depending on the scale and scope of the project, the structure can vary. Here we have listed the most common sections or landing pages that most of the project might have.
- Home
- About project
- Consortium
- Project progress
- Project results
- Public deliverables
- Publications
- Events
- Data sets, demonstrators, policy recommendations, …
- News and Updates
- Upcoming events
- Past events with materials – presentations, videos recorded etc.
- Website articles
- Contact information
Some specific projects might have also:
- Ecosystems
- Test facilities
- Educational materials – videos, presentations, templates etc.
- Other landing pages depending on the project (very project specific)
- Useful resources on specific topic (can be links to other tools etc.)
Activity builds trust
An inactive website sends the wrong signal. Visitors interpret silence as inactivity. Regular updates, even short ones, demonstrate momentum and credibility.
News posts, event participation updates, publications, and milestones all show that the project is alive and progressing. More importantly, they create entry points for stakeholders to connect with the project over time. A website should not be a static archive. It should be a living timeline of the project’s journey.
An active project website also plays an important role in Open Science and the dissemination of results. When publications, outputs, and resources are gathered in one place — even if they link to external scientific journals — the website signals that the project is active, relevant, and focused on a specific topic. Over time, this consistency helps search engines and AI tools recognise the site as a trustworthy source of information, improving its visibility.
This matters because stakeholders often begin their search for answers on Google or through AI tools. A well-maintained website increases the chances that they will discover your project and its results, even if they were not previously aware of it.
Website maintenance
Website maintenance is just as important as the initial launch. If the site is built on WordPress or a similar platform, regular updates of plugins, themes, and security components are essential to ensure stability, performance, and protection against vulnerabilities. At the same time, when multiple team members contribute content, it is important to maintain a consistent look and tone across the website. Agreeing on basic guidelines for formatting, visuals, and writing style helps ensure that new information integrates smoothly and the site remains professional and coherent throughout the project lifecycle.
Checklist: What every good EU project website should have
Strategic elements
- Clear explanation of project impact and relevance
- Structure designed for external audiences, not internal work packages
- Results section that evolves during the project
- Easy access to deliverables, publications, and outputs
- Regular news updates demonstrating activity
- Tools for stakeholder engagement (newsletter, events, downloads, other useful resources)
- Consortium partners with links to their website and their role in a specific project described
- Contact information
- Links to social media
- Link to Zenodo
Technical essentials
- EU funding visibility requirements correctly displayed
- Project ID and good to have a link to CORDIS for extra clarity
- Mobile-friendly design
- Fast loading performance
- SEO basics implemented from launch
- Optimised images and relevant sizes (not too heavy or large)
- Credits for images
- Analytics installed and monitored
- GDPR compliance, Privacy Policy and Cookies
- Maintenance strategy – who updates the website, how etc.
If you need a technical guidance or strategic support…
If you would like to explore how your project website can better support communication, dissemination, and impact, the WIT Berry team is here to help. We provide both strategic guidance and technical support — from planning and launch to maintenance and continuous development throughout the project lifecycle.
Feel free to get in touch to schedule a consultation.
