Horizon Europe Consortium Agreement – what future applicants need to know

A Consortium Agreement (hereinafter referred to as the CA) is a binding contract signed between the partners of a Horizon Europe collaborative project. The Horizon Europe Grant Agreement (article 7) specifies that: “The beneficiaries must have internal arrangements regarding their operation and coordination, to ensure that the action is implemented properly”.

It should be noted that the drafting of the CA is mandatory, however it is important to know some aspects set out below 👇

• The CA is not submitted together with the project application, but the main provisions on interaction in the project are discussed by the consortium participants at the stage of project application preparation.
• The CA is concluded after the project is selected for financing and signed:
  • before the signing of the Grant Agreement with the European Commission, if the consortium wishes to fix internal arrangements in advance;
  • after signing the Grant Agreement, but before the start of project implementation (that is, before the start date of the project or immediately after it). During audits (audit, review), the EC or the Executive Agency may check the existence of a valid CA, but not the date of its signing in relation to the Grant Agreement – is the most common practice.
• The CA is not submitted to the EC and is not signed by the European Commission, but cannot contradict the Grant Agreement. In the event of a conflict of provisions, the Grant Agreement shall take precedence. The CA details exactly how the partners implement the project within the rules of the Programme.
• DESCA (Development of a Simplified Consortium Agreement) is the most popular out of several Horizon Europe Model Consortium Agreements. Its output is a model consortium agreement that anybody can use as the basis for a specific consortium agreement for a specific project. While it is not mandatory, we do recommend referring to the DESCA structure and guidelines when drafting a consortium agreement.
• The CA supplements the Horizon Europe Grant Agreement. While the Grant Agreement establishes the binding legal relations between the European Commission and the project’s partners, the CA establishes and governs the relations between the partners themselves. Unlike the Grant Agreement (which is fixed and cannot be modified), the HE CA is essentially a commercial agreement between the partners. A typical HE CA can address various aspects, including (but not limited to):
  • Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
  • Future use and commercialisation of the project’s results
  • Knowledge transfer processes between project partners
  • Internal management processes
  • Reporting processes within the project consortium
  • Conflict resolution processes

and more…

We also draw your attention to the projects that use the lump sum financing model Projects that apply the Lump Sum model may require to pay special attention to the Consortium Agreement.