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Contract Negotiations, Including Grant and Consortium Agreement

A Grant from Horizon Europe implies that the beneficiaries sign a Grant Agreement with the EU and that the participants in the project sign a Consortium Agreement before the project starts. Read about the Grant Agreement, including the Description of the Action (DoA) and the Consortium Agreement.

Grant Agreement

The Grant Agreement is a contract between the beneficiaries and the European Commission. The Grant Agreement defines the rights and obligations of the beneficiaries. These include the eligible costs, requirements for the exploitation and dissemination of project results, and requirements for the use of the EU logo.

To prepare the Grant Agreement, follow these three steps:

  1. Enter data in Funding & Tenders Portal
  2. Prepare Description of the Action, DoA
  3. Sign the Grant Agreement.

Step 1: Enter Data in Funding & Tenders Portal

The first step in preparing the Grant Agreement is to enter a number of legal, administrative and financial data in ‘My Projects page/My Area’ on the Funding & Tenders Portal. The Grant Agreement is drawn up primarily by the coordinator or the administrative coordinator, but all project beneficiaries must access and sign the agreement.

Three roles must be assigned:

Once the legal, administrative and financial information has been entered into the Funding & Tenders Portal, the EU will indicate how much the project will receive in pre-funding.

Step 2: Preparing Description of the Action, DoA

The next step in preparing the Grant Agreement is to prepare the DoA (Annex 1). The DoA is the application itself – corrected for any errors detected after submission.

DoA is a very central document because you have to comply with the deadlines and deliverables listed here. Only costs related to the activities mentioned in the DoA are eligible. In addition, you must ensure that you clearly specify if certain project tasks are carried out by other parties than the consortium (e.g. Subcontractors or Affiliated Entities).

Step 3: Sign the Grant Agreement

The final step is for the coordinator and the EU to sign the Grant Agreement electronically. Additionally, the other project participants in the consortium must sign the so-called Accession Form (Annex 3).

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Consortium Agreement

In parallel with the contract negotiation, the participants must prepare a Consortium Agreement among themselves, which describes the terms of cooperation in the project. A Consortium Agreement may be mandatory. However, it is an unequivocal recommendation to always ensure rights and expectations with a Consortium Agreement.

The Consortium Agreement describes how different topics are handled during and after the project. This applies to topics such as:

  • Project management, division of labour and decision-making
  • Financial provisions, including distribution of EU Grants
  • Access rights to knowledge, both during and after the project
  • Exploitation of results, including distribution of rights
  • Dissemination of results, including deadlines
  • Confidentiality Agreements
  • Liability/Liability Agreements.

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Consortium Agreement Template

The European Commission does not refer to a concrete template for the consortium agreement. An example of a template that can be useful is:

The template is made by DESCA, which consists of representatives from European universities, research institutions, industry associations and companies.

 

 

FAQ

Find Frequently Asked Questions about Horizon Europe at:

Danish handbook

Handbook in Danish with introduction to rules about financial issues - budgettering and reporting.

Document Actions

Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science
last modified March 25, 2025