Victor Sabaldashov@Tortuga

Experienced Grant Operations and Program Manager with a strong record of leading complete grant application cycles - from strategic concept design and budgeting to legal compliance, media presentation, and submission management. Combines analytical precision, creative storytelling, and process leadership to deliver high-quality proposals under tight deadlines.

Extensive experience across media, green economy, higher education, civil society, digital transformation, IT, consulting, and agriculture sectors. Recognized for building clear, efficient workflows, coordinating multidisciplinary teams, and aligning complex requirements with donor expectations. Passionate about connecting ideas, technology, and funding to create measurable impact and sustainable growth.

Currently, I work at the intersection of EU defence funding, military innovation and international cooperation.

My core focus is helping defence-oriented teams (including Ukrainian, EU/NATO SMEs) and technologies navigate European funding programs (EDF, Horizon, Dual Use, EIC), build strong applications, and position their projects within the EU defence ecosystem.

I have hands-on experience with grant preparation, consortium coordination, call analysis and project structuring in the defence and security domain. I value clarity, realism and long-term strategy over short-term wins.

I am especially interested in:

• Proposal writing;
• Cobnsortium building;
• Policy advising;
• International partnerships
• Additional consultancy competencies

I believe that strong defence technologies need not only engineering excellence, but also proper financial, strategic and institutional alignment.

Open to dialogue, cooperation and knowledge exchange within the EU defence and innovation ecosystem.