Our story
It was a beautiful spring day in 1984. Lars, Rob and John, friends from their student years, met each other for a beer on the lovely market square in The Hague. Lars mentioned hearing – and not for the first time – that farmers needed help applying for the WIA grant (which enables employers to take on employees who have been unable to work for some time). If it really was so complicated that these farmers couldn’t complete the application themselves, then there might be a greater demand there, an opportunity. The friends agreed: this was something they should investigate. After a long night in the pub, they set to work the next day and took stock of all the possible grants. They were stunned. There was a huge number of them!
The start of PNO Consultants
A new company was born: PNO Consultants.
In the weeks that followed, the friends investigated all the grants that were available to the business community. They visited a large number of companies and time after time, the disparity between the available grants and the knowledge of these companies was huge. By providing clear solid advice, they were able to arrange interesting grants for several of their first clients. It turned out they had discovered the proverbial gap in the market. PNO grew and grew, with the addition of many new colleagues and offices, and the organisation became increasingly professional.
The compliance partner in grant processes
Applying for grants was no longer the only thing they did; supporting innovative grant projects and helping with the implementation of projects became just as important. PNO also became the (compliance) partner for the financial and project management of grant projects. The starting point was to allow innovative ideas to flourish and to give clients room to innovate. What remained constant was the mentality of rolling up your sleeves and getting stuck in. This was evident with the arrival of the GDPR in 2018. PNO thoroughly analysed this new legislation, gathered together all information that could be found on the subject and became the leading expert on the GDPR within grant processes.
ffiqs
The compliance department at PNO recognised that compliance with laws and regulations and working with sensitive personal data is a niche specialism. So they established ffiqs as a unique entity to handle all compliance activities. A new company was born!
Due to privacy regulations, ffiqs has adapted its way of working, but always with the same goal: helping clients to realise their ambitions, innovations and grants. Just like Lars, Rob and John, when they started out, ffiqs knows how to get things done and sees where the opportunities lie.
Yes, grants make ambitions and innovations possible, but unfortunately they are also often complex. With its years of experience with grant regulations, ffiqs knows the ropes and takes the concerns about compliance off our clients’ hands. The trust placed in us by our clients is therefore considerable. They know that the way in which ffiqs handles privacy-sensitive data is in line with the conditions set by the European GDPR legislation. The ISO 27001 certification is the icing on the cake. It demonstrates that ffiqs meets all the requirements of information security.
ffiqs ensure that our clients’ grant processes are 100% GDPR-proof, which provides our clients with the room to focus on innovations. There is no project that we cannot bring to a successful conclusion – we even dare to say: ffiqs ‘ffiqst’ certain grant success!
ffiqs is the top independent brand in the field of grant management and is continuing to grow.
Working at ffiqs
Are you inspired by this story and do you, like our experts, also have the ambition as a grant or finance specialist to ensure that clients remain in control of their grant projects? Then you have come to the right place!
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