The small amount of information required to enter to the form may make the wrong impression that it takes a short time to process your application. In fact, however, this is a very complex process that is not always fully dependent on the applicant's involvement. It is therefore crucial to identify tasks that the institution has no direct influence on, and then to implement them first.
Certainly one of such activities is acquiring partners - it should be implemented immediately after establishing the project concept and monitored on an ongoing basis. When searching for partners from Donor States, it is worth using the instructions on the Programme Operator's website (For project promoters -> Before submission -> Partner search). Each invitation should definitely contain the following information: a brief description of the project, form of cooperation, expected commitment, deadline for answering the invitation (the deadline should be sufficiently distant, but also allowing for possible positive response to be included in the application), contact details , i.e. the need for a special commitment on the part of the partner, financing cooperation (as a rule, the costs of implementing activities are financed from project funds - no financial contribution of the partner is required. Additionally, the partner receives organizational support - its amount depends on the selected activity. It is worth pointing out that amount in the invitation - this may be an argument for cooperation with the potential partner).
At the same time, it should be taken into account that distance is not a key criterium for the speed of acquiring a partner. It often turns out that the final answer from Norway, Liechtenstein or Iceland will come faster than from the same city in Poland. For this reason, all invitations should be sent without undue delay.
After acquiring a Partner, you must obtain an invitation from him (in the case of study visits) or a letter of intent (in the case of institutional cooperation projects). There is no valid template, but an example letter of intent can be found here (also in English).
Then, it is worth asking the appropriate organizational units for substantive input.
Waiting for answers and substantive input, the applicant has enough time to thoroughly familiarize himself with the call documentation, current strategies, relevant guidelines, ordinances, etc. and to start working on the application for the part, which he can complete by himself.
At each stage, it should be borne in mind that the application should be presented in a logical and understandable way, the planned project should be realistic, and its description unequivocal and comprehensive. The schedule of activities and the planned budget should cover the entire project implementation period.