FAQ about submitting applications to the Horizon Europe Programme

The proposal must comprehensively detail all consortium partners, including a clear articulation of objectives, and delineate both short- and long-term outcomes. It should present practical solutions relevant to the field. Adequate time allocation for preparing a coherent and high-quality project application is crucial. Additionally, sufficient time must be considered for partner interactions, task coordination, and approval of the implementation plan and budget for each partner.

Given the extensive coordination and communication required, it is advisable to allocate 4 to 6 months to prepare a high-quality project proposal at a reasonable pace.

In case you are not serving as the coordinator, the preparation of your materials may be completed in a somewhat shorter timeframe.

The process of submitting a project application under the Horizon Europe Programme can be described as follows:

1. To identify a suitable call for proposals, visit the EU Funding & Tenders Portal and select the field that aligns with your organisation’s expertise and priorities. The Portal provides a user-friendly navigation window and filters to assist in sorting through available options. It is essential to thoroughly review the terms and conditions of each call for proposals.
2. Most projects necessitate the formation of a consortium; therefore, the subsequent step is to identify and engage suitable partners. The Funding & Tenders Portal offers special tools of this purpose. Additionally, it is advisable to utilise other available resources to broaden your search for potential collaborators.
3. Proposals can only be submitted or project writing contributions made through your personal account. If you do not yet have an account, you should create one.
4. Each organisation must possess a PIC (Participant Identification Code) number. If your organisation has not previously participated in EU programmes, registration is required. The PIC number will be generated automatically upon registration.
5. The final step is to submit the project proposal. Each call for proposals provides a specific submission link; therefore, there is no single application portal. Ensure you use the appropriate link provided for the relevant call. For further details, please refer to the information available here.

The EU Funding & Tenders Portal requires two types of registration: a personal account and an organization registration number. The personal account is created following a user account model and involves five straightforward steps (details available here). Subsequently, verify whether your organisation is already registered and possesses a PIC number. If not, follow the provided instructions to complete the registration process.

To register an organisation, you should have information about the date and authority of registration. This information can be obtained from the Certificate of State Registration of a Legal Entity.

For most calls for proposals under Horizon Europe, it is generally not required to attach the organisation’s registration documents when submitting a proposal.

The submission package for a Horizon Europe proposal consists solely of the project application, which includes Part A (Administrative Information) and Part B (Descriptive Part of the Project Application).

For Lump Sum funding, the budget must be uploaded separately. Certain calls may require additional forms, so it is important to review the call description thoroughly.

Note that documents are not uploaded individually by each partner but exclusively by the project coordinator. Partners are involved in preparing Part B and are responsible for providing information and confirming Part A for their organisation.

The optimal consortium composition must ensure the capability to accomplish all tasks and deliver the expected results as outlined in the detailed description of the call for proposals.

Particular attention should be given to the “Expected Outcomes” and “Scope” sections of the topic description. These sections typically specify the types of organisations needed for solution development and the nature of the required collaboration within the project.

Consequently, depending on the project’s objectives and proposed solutions, a consortium may comprise anywhere from 5 to 6 partners or up to 20 or more, especially in the case of Coordination and Support Action (CSA) projects.

Ukrainian organisations are entitled to participate in Horizon Europe Programme calls for proposals under the same conditions and procedures as entities from other countries. As an Associate Member of the Programme, Ukraine’s organisations can be engaged either as consortium partners or as coordinators.

The European Commission does not restrict organisations from Ukraine from serving as project coordinators.

The only requirement is that the organisation must be located within the territory controlled by Ukraine. Therefore, any organisation involved in the project application or serving as a consortium member or coordinator must not be situated in occupied or annexed territories.

Grant applications must be prepared in compliance with the European Commission’s requirements. The Standard Application Form, available in the Templates & Forms section, provides detailed guidance on formatting and mandatory sections to be included in the project application. It outlines the specific requirements for sections, fonts, length, and other criteria that must be adhered to. Note that different project types have their certain application forms.

Additionally, it is important to ensure that when preparing a grant application for a specific call for proposals, you use the form associated with that particular call, rather than the standard template.

The project application must be submitted following the rules set forth by the Horizon Europe Programme. To start the submission process, the project coordinator should navigate to the page of the selected call, specifically to the “Start submission” section.

Once the project title is established and the coordinator’s details are entered, the coordinator can then include all other consortium members. This is achieved by using the PIC number and email address of the contact person from each participating organisation.

Please note that a project proposal generally comprises two parts: Part A (Administrative Form) and Part B (Descriptive Part). For Lump Sum funding, an annex with a detailed budget must also be included.

Part A should be completed directly within the system through the personal account on the Funding & Tenders Portal page. Some information is pre-filled automatically based on data entered during the organization’s registration and PIC number acquisition, including details such as the organization’s name, registration address, and legal form.

Part A of the project proposal includes information on relevant publications, patents, previously completed projects, and other details pertinent to the project’s subject. It also requires the completion of a section addressing ethical aspects. Once all required information is entered and necessary boxes are checked, Part A must be reviewed and approved.

Part B represents the descriptive component of the project proposal and should be completed separately and uploaded in PDF format. Each project type has specific page limits for Part B; any pages exceeding this limit are automatically removed by the system and will not be available for expert evaluation.

After inputting all necessary information from all partners and uploading Part B, the project coordinator can then submit the project proposal.

The main stages of the project implementation are as follows:

1. Upon successful approval and funding of the project proposal, the process of signing the Grant Agreement between the European Commission and the project coordinator begins. Consortium members must complete and sign the Accession Form, which requires the organisation to have a valid LEAR (Legal Entity Appointed Representative). The LEAR either signs the documents electronically or designates another individual to do so.
   At the same time, the Consortium Agreement is finalised and signed, outlining the detailed rights and responsibilities of each consortium member. Following the signing of the Grant Agreement, the coordinator receives an initial payment, which is then distributed among the consortium partners.
2. Project implementation must adhere to the approved plan, and both reports and deliverables should be uploaded through the personal account to the designated project account. The project typically involves multiple descriptive reports and usually two or three financial reporting periods. Upon successful completion of the reporting phases, the consortium is entitled to receive the second payment. Please note that at least 10 percent of the project budget is retained until the final financial report is submitted and closed.
3. The final reporting includes both substantive and financial components. The descriptive part should be uploaded as separate PDF documents to the system, while the financial part is submitted directly through the system.

Comprehensive information and guidance on all aspects of project management, from the signing of the Grant Agreement to project completion, are available on the Online Manual page in the Grants section.

In accordance with the Grant Agreement, participants are required to provide open and unrestricted access to peer-reviewed scientific publications that present the scientific outcomes of the projects.

This obligation must be fulfilled immediately upon publication.

The tool for such provision is a Creative Commons Attribution International Public License – CC BY – or equivalent licenses (CC BY-NC / CC BY-ND / CC BY-NC-ND).

As this obligation is established upon signing the Grant Agreement, it takes precedence over any later publishing agreements that beneficiaries may enter into with scientific publishers. Such agreements must not conflict with this requirement.

For further details on the scope of this obligation, please refer to the Annotated Grant Agreement (Article 17).

Open science practices are integral to the “excellence” criterion used in evaluating submitted projects. Open access to generated information and scientific publications facilitates the broad dissemination of knowledge, fosters the acquisition of new insights, and advances the research field.

Ensuring open access to peer-reviewed scientific publications is a mandatory requirement under the Horizon Europe Programme.

Be aware that some publishing agreements might conflict with the obligation to provide open access to scientific publications and could potentially breach this requirement. In such instances, the granting authority may implement appropriate measures, such as reducing the grant amount.

For both the final peer-reviewed manuscript accepted for publication and the published peer-reviewed version, publishing agreement clauses that do not comply with open access requirements include, but are not limited to, those that:

• impose embargo periods, thereby preventing immediate open access upon publication;
• apply licenses that are not equivalent to the Creative Commons Attribution International Public License (CC BY), or for long-text formats, CC BY-NC/ CC BY-ND / CC BY-NC-ND , or their equivalents;
• mandate the assignment of exclusive rights or licenses to publishers, thereby hindering the deposition of the work in a trusted repository in accordance with Horizon Europe open access requirements.

Publishing fees are eligible when incurred in fully open-access publishing venues, where all scholarly content is freely accessible to the public.

For open-access books, publishing fees may be considered eligible if they cover the initial digital open-access edition of the book. This edition may be available in various formats, such as PDF, ePub, or HTML.

The following costs are ineligible:

• costs associated with publications in hybrid venues, such as hybrid journals or books that are not fully open access. This applies regardless of whether they are considered 'transformative journals’ committed to transitioning to fully open access or are covered by “transformative agreements” between institutions and publishers.
• any fees related to printing (for monographs, other books, or articles).

This implies that if a decision is made to publish in hybrid venues, alternative funding must be secured to cover publishing fees, including open access Article Processing Charges.

Beneficiaries should be aware that they have the option to publish free of charge on Open Research Europe, the EU’s open access platform.