Combine a tool for proposal writing with smarter reference management
A strong Horizon Europe proposal is built on more than compelling ideas. It must demonstrate a solid understanding of the state of the art and support key claims with relevant scientific literature.
By combining Grant Genius with Mendeley, research teams can accelerate proposal writing while continuing to work with their preferred reference manager. Instead of manually searching for publications and copying citations, researchers can rely on their existing bibliography to support AI-assisted writing.
Why Combine Grant Genius and Mendeley?
Grant Genius helps research teams write stronger Horizon Europe proposals.
Mendeley helps researchers organise their scientific literature and bibliographic references.
Together, they allow proposal writers to combine AI-assisted drafting with a well-organised scientific reference library.
Write with Your Existing Scientific Literature
Many Horizon Europe proposals build upon years of previous research.
Rather than searching for publications from scratch every time a proposal is written, researchers can reuse the bibliography they have already curated in Mendeley.
Grant Genius can access this bibliography through a standard BibTeX export, allowing AI to work with the references already selected by the research team.
This approach remains independent of any particular reference management software.
Support Better Scientific Arguments
Grant Genius helps authors draft convincing proposal sections covering:
- Excellence
- State of the Art
- Methodology
- Impact
- Innovation
- Implementation
When developing these sections, the bibliography imported from BibTeX provides an authoritative source of references that researchers can cite where appropriate.
The result is a proposal that is both scientifically stronger and easier to prepare.
A Software-Independent Approach
Instead of connecting directly to a specific reference manager, Grant Genius relies on the widely adopted BibTeX standard.
Most reference management applications—including Mendeley, JabRef, Zotero, Citavi and EndNote—can export bibliographies in BibTeX format.
This means researchers remain free to choose the software that best fits their institution while Grant Genius continues to work with the same imported bibliography.
Because Grant Genius is built around an open standard rather than a proprietary API, organisations avoid becoming dependent on a single software vendor.
Digital Sovereignty Considerations
Mendeley was originally developed in the United Kingdom but is now owned by Elsevier, a global scientific publishing company. While it remains one of the world's most widely used reference managers, organisations pursuing a European digital sovereignty strategy may prefer solutions based on open standards and open-source software.
One notable European alternative is JabRef, an open-source reference manager originally developed in Germany. Built around the BibTeX standard, JabRef gives researchers full control over their bibliographic data and integrates naturally into many scientific workflows.
Because Grant Genius imports references through BibTeX rather than relying on a proprietary Mendeley integration, researchers are free to use Mendeley today and migrate to JabRef—or virtually any other reference manager supporting BibTeX—in the future without changing their workflow inside Grant Genius.
Ideal Use Cases
The Grant Genius and Mendeley workflow is particularly valuable for:
- Universities
- Research institutes
- Horizon Europe coordinators
- Engineering teams
- AI and computer science researchers
- Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs)
- Researchers preparing collaborative grant proposals
It is especially useful for teams maintaining large bibliographic libraries accumulated over multiple research projects.
Benefits at a Glance
By combining Grant Genius with your preferred reference manager through BibTeX, your organisation can:
- Reuse existing scientific bibliographies.
- Support AI-assisted proposal writing with curated references.
- Remain compatible with Mendeley, JabRef, Zotero, Citavi and many other tools.
- Avoid vendor lock-in through the use of the open BibTeX standard.
- Facilitate future migration between reference managers.
- Build stronger, better-supported Horizon Europe proposals.
Final Thoughts
Scientific references are a valuable asset that researchers build over many years.
Grant Genius is designed to make use of that knowledge without forcing organisations into a particular software ecosystem.
Whether your team uses Mendeley today, JabRef tomorrow or another reference manager in the future, the use of the open BibTeX standard ensures that your bibliography remains portable, reusable and fully compatible with AI-assisted proposal writing.