From idea to a ready education or research project — with AI
Several grants at once, partners in different countries, project work alongside teaching and every funder's reporting deadline at a different time — how do you keep track of where things stand? Projektiassistent brings the projects of a university, school or research group into one workspace: a plan with work packages, schedule, budget and owners is ready in minutes, the application comes from the same plan, and leadership sees every project's status in one view.
Projects are run alongside teaching and research — and it shows
Education and research projects are often led by people whose main job is teaching or research. The plan is in the application, the budget in the finance office's spreadsheet and partner agreements in email. Projektiassistent brings them under one project so that project management doesn't eat into research time.
Project management happens in the evenings
The principal investigator or teacher is also the project manager. Schedule, budget and reports get left until the last minute.
Every funder wants its own format
ETAG, Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ ask for different application structures, cost categories and reports — the same information gets written several times.
Partners are spread out
A consortium has institutions in several countries. Who delivers what and when is in an annex to the application and dozens of emails.
Leadership can't see the whole picture
The vice-rector or head teacher doesn't know which projects' deliverables are at risk or where co-financing is uncovered — projects live in individual people's heads.
Before applying and launching: is the project really ready?
A well-written application and a deliverable project are not the same thing. Before launch, goals, work packages, owners, budget, partner confirmations and approvals have to be consistent. Approval checkpoints, the budget warning and attention signals show what is still missing.
- Approval checkpoints before launch
Record partner confirmation, ethics approval and co-financing as milestones for an approver to confirm — the system saves who approved and when. The project stays in Draft status until you decide to launch it.
- Workload matched to people
Every task has planned and actual hours; resource planning in the Business plan shows the workload percentage of the principal investigator and team — overload is visible before deadlines start slipping.
- Budget by cost category
Staff costs, travel, equipment and other costs by category, VAT calculated separately for every cost line — Reserved, Spent and Free balance in real time.
What education and research institutions use Projektiassistent for
You get a plan built for the specific project, not an empty template. The AI accounts for the field's specifics — the research question, work packages and deliverables, partner roles, the academic calendar and the funder's conditions.
Research projects & grants
Grant-funded projects from stages to deliverables — work packages, owners, budget by cost category and reporting deadlines.
Horizon Europe consortia
Projects with partners in several countries — work packages, deliverables, partner roles and dependencies in one plan.
Erasmus+ cooperation projects
School and higher-education partnerships and learning mobility — activities, partners, deadlines and reporting in one place.
Curriculum & teaching development
Developing a new curriculum or module from idea to the first academic year — working group, approvals and checkpoints.
Digital learning & edtech
Building online courses and adopting learning technology — stages, teacher training and a pilot before wider rollout.
School development
School development-plan activities, reorganisation and improvements — timed so that teaching doesn't suffer.
Industry cooperation & applied research
Contract research and development projects with companies — deliverables, deadlines and agreements clearly written down.
Research infrastructure & labs
Acquiring, installing and commissioning equipment — dependencies, budget and owners in one schedule.
Conferences & public engagement
Conferences, summer schools and public events — programme, speakers, budget and team tasks.
How a research project moves from idea to report
Example: a university research group is preparing a Horizon Europe project with two foreign partners. The same project goes through every stage in one workspace — nobody has to copy information from the application into a spreadsheet and from the spreadsheet into a report.
Idea
“Together with our partners, we'll study climate adaptation solutions for cities.” You describe the project in a couple of sentences and the AI turns it into a draft plan with goals, work packages and risks.
Groundwork
Work packages, deliverables, partner roles, team workload and budget by cost category are thought through before the application is written.
Decision
The head of institute or vice-rector sees what the project costs, how much co-financing and staff time it needs, and what is still missing.
Application
From the same plan, the AI drafts an English application for the chosen programme — work packages, budget and risk analysis are already there.
Delivery
Work packages in the Gantt view, deliverables as milestones, partners invited to the project with their own permissions. When one deliverable slips, the impact on the next ones is visible immediately.
Reporting
Progress, budget use, decisions and risks — an AI status summary and a PDF or DOCX project document as input for the funder's periodic report, and an overview for leadership from the same data.
One institution, dozens of projects and grants — all in one view
Projektiassistent isn't just for running a single project. In the Business plan, research grants, international cooperation projects, teaching development and internal initiatives come together in a portfolio where every project carries a health score.
The vice-rector, dean, head teacher or head of research office gets the answers at a glance:
- Which projects and grants are running right now?
- Which ones have deliverable or reporting deadlines coming up?
- Where is budget use behind or ahead of plan?
- Who is overloaded between several projects and teaching?
- Which projects need my intervention?
What happens when the project shifts?
Something always moves in a multi-year project: the grant is awarded at a lower amount, a partner runs late or a key person leaves. The what-if simulation in the Business plan shows the impact on the project end before the decision is made — not while you're writing the report.
Critical path
See which tasks determine the final deadline and how much slack each task has — where a delay is dangerous and where it isn't.
A partner's deliverable is late
Pick the partner's deliverable task, enter a delay in days and see how far it pushes the project end and whether a reporting deadline is at risk. Simulations are kept in the history.
A key person leaves
When a postdoc or coordinator leaves, resource planning shows each person's open tasks, hours and workload percentage — so you see who actually has the time to take on the work.
From research question to the funder's report
A deliverable promised in the application won't happen unless it reaches a concrete work package, budget line and owner. In Projektiassistent that chain lives in one place — so when someone asks “where are we with this deliverable?”, the answer is there even in the project's third year.
- Research question
- Objectives
- Work packages
- Activities
- Owners
- Budget
- Deliverables
- Impact
- Report to funder
- Summary for the funder and leadership
The AI status summary gives the project's current state in moments. The project document exports as PDF or DOCX in one of five design templates — as input for a periodic or final report.
- Cost overview by category
Total budget, Reserved, Spent and Free balance, with VAT on every cost line — the cost overview you need for reporting comes from the data, not by hand.
- Decisions and versions
Work-plan amendments and their rationale are in the decision log; on the Business plan, earlier plan versions can be restored — later you can see what shifted and why.
Education and research funding — an application from the same plan
The AI gathers your goals, work packages, budget, risks and team into a structured application for the chosen funding programme. Create several applications per project — 3 a month on Standard, unlimited on Business.
Estonian Research Council (ETAG)
Research grants such as team and starting grants — goals, team and budget taken from your plan, not a blank page.
Horizon Europe
Applications for international research and innovation funding in English — work packages, deliverables and partner roles in a structured form.
Erasmus+
Education, training and cooperation projects, administered in Estonia by Harno — activities, partners and budget from one plan.
You can enter the programme's web address when drafting the plan and the AI takes its content into account, so you can check compliance before submitting. Funding decisions and cost eligibility are always decided by the funder, such as ETAG, Harno or the European Commission.
Excel is fine for a table. A grant project needs a system.
Excel isn't a bad tool — it just wasn't built to manage work packages, partners, cost categories and reporting to several funders. Here's where it stops being enough.
| Projektiassistent | Excel | |
|---|---|---|
| Project status | A live project that updates as work happens | A static table updated by hand |
| Work packages and dependencies | Deliverables, milestones and impact on what follows | Limited or none |
| Partners | In the same project, each with their own permissions | Files sent by email, versions drift apart |
| Budget | Cost categories, net/VAT on every line and free balance | Formulas that break with the first copy |
| Reporting | AI status summary from the same data | Written up by hand |
| Staff workload | Resource planning: workload % per person (Business) | Each project separately, nobody adds it up |
| Multiple projects | Portfolio view for the whole institution (Business) | One file at a time |
Partners see their project — not everything
In education and research projects, people from different institutions work together and the team turns over during the project. Access is checked on every request and a share can be removed immediately. Permission levels and the decision log come with every plan; the audit log, versions and workspaces are in the Business plan.
Role-based permissions
Three permission levels: Viewer, Editor and Admin. An external partner only sees the project they were invited to; leadership can be Viewers — they see and comment but can't change anything.
Workspaces
Institutes, faculties or schools in separate workspaces; a role profile sets which modules a user can see or edit.
Invitations and revocation
Partners are invited by email. When the cooperation ends or someone leaves, their share can be removed immediately.
Audit log
Major changes, decisions, risks and approvals on one timeline, with who and when.
Encrypted connection
All traffic over HTTPS with HSTS; every request checks that the data belongs to an environment the user has access to.
Data export and GDPR
“Export my data” downloads a copy of your personal data, “Delete my account” removes the account; the project document exports as PDF or DOCX.
Projektiassistent is for managing the project, not for storing research data — study participants' data stays in the environment set out in your institution's data management plan. If you'd like to go through data protection requirements before adoption, write to us — we'll answer question by question. Contact →
The right methodology for an education or research project
A phased Waterfall or hybrid with work packages and milestones for multi-year research and consortium projects; Kanban for ongoing teaching and content development; Simple project for smaller initiatives with minimal overhead. Switching methodology never alters the project's substance.
Start with one real project, not the whole institution
New software doesn't have to be rolled out across the whole university or school at once. The fastest way to see the value is to take one running grant or your next application and run it through Projektiassistent.
One project
Pick your next application or a running project and build its plan. The trial lasts 14 days (up to 3 projects) and no credit card is required.
Pilot with the group
Invite the principal investigator, coordinator, finance specialist and partners — each with their own permissions. The first status summary shows whether it saves time.
Whole institution
If the pilot works, bring the remaining projects into the portfolio on the Business plan and separate institutes or schools into workspaces.
Frequently asked questions from education and research institutions
Is Projektiassistent suitable for a small school or a single research group?
Yes. You can start with one project and a couple of users — the Standard plan includes Gantt, Kanban, the risk register, budget and AI for up to 20 active projects. When there are more institutes, faculties or schools, the Business plan adds the portfolio view, workspaces, role profiles, resource planning and up to 100 active projects.
Can we manage all of the institution's grants and projects in one workspace?
Yes. The Business plan's portfolio view shows research grants, cooperation projects and teaching development on one screen: each project carries a health score (on track, monitoring, at risk, blocked), and overdue tasks and risks show up as signals. Resource planning shows who is overloaded across several projects before deadlines start slipping.
Does it help with ETAG, Horizon Europe or Erasmus+ applications and reporting?
Yes. From the same project plan, the AI drafts a structured application for the chosen programme — in Estonian or English (3 a month on Standard, unlimited on Business) — and the budget is kept by category, with VAT calculated separately for every cost line. The AI status summary and budget overview are input for the funder's periodic or final report, not a replacement for it. Funding decisions and cost eligibility are always decided by the funder.
Can the vice-rector, head teacher or funder get an overview without learning the system?
Yes. Leadership can be given Viewer access to see and comment on a project without changing anything; on the Business plan they also get the portfolio view. For the funder, the university council or a school's board of trustees, the AI drafts a status summary and the project document can be shared as PDF or DOCX.
Can foreign partners be brought into the project?
Yes. A partner's representative is invited to the project by email and given the right permission level — Viewer, Editor or Admin. An external partner only sees the project shared with them, not your institution's other projects. When the cooperation ends or someone leaves, the share can be removed immediately.
Does Projektiassistent replace a study information system or a research data repository?
No. It is a workspace for planning and managing projects — plan, work packages, budget, risks, decisions and reports; the study information system, accounting and research data stay in the systems intended for them. It isn't designed for storing study participants' data. On the Business plan, Projektiassistent connects to existing systems through API tokens and webhooks, sends notifications to Slack or Teams and puts deadlines in your calendar via a calendar feed.
How is our data protected?
All traffic is encrypted (HTTPS and HSTS) and access is checked on every request; on the Business plan, changes are recorded in the audit log with who and when. Users can download a copy of their personal data and delete their account. Data processing is described in detail in the privacy policy.
Can we start with a single grant or application?
Yes — and that's the most sensible way. The trial lasts 14 days, includes up to 3 projects and 20 AI requests and requires no credit card. Business plan features (portfolio, what-if, workspaces) are not part of the trial — if you'd like to see them and your own project first, request a demo through the contact page.
Let's make your next research or education project decision-ready
Try 14 days free — 3 projects and 20 AI requests, no credit card required. Want to see how it looks with your own project first? Request a demo.