Grant agreement preparation - negotiate your grant successfully

Negotiate your grant successfully.

The grant preparation is a well structured process with tight deadlines and many administrative tasks. During this period, the funding agency and the successful applicant(s) negotiate the future contract, the grant agreement. For example, in Horizon Europe, this process should take a maximum of 3 months according to the Horizon Europe rules; however, sometimes and in practice this takes a bit longer. Successful applicants are notified within 5 months of the proposal submission in Horizon Europe. This is the start of the grant preparation.

The negotiation process includes several steps – from the preparation of the updated proposal to the signing of the grant agreement – and requires the project coordinator and its project partners to fulfill a range of formal requirements. For example, first-time participants to Horizon Europe need to be registered and validated by the European Commission Services.

We at accelopment have completed many grant preparations successfully, in Horizon Europe and previous EU Framework Programmes, Eurostars and others. Our experts know the process off by heart, can anticipate likely bottlenecks and are able to gather all the necessary information and to complete the required forms within a tight timeframe.

Your benefits

Understand the process of the grant preparation and funding agency`s requirements.
Deliver the required documents and information with our templates and examples.
Accomplish all tasks within the tight schedule with our support and experience.
Reduce your efforts to minimum as we take care of all administrative tasks.

Contact our expert

We speak your language and translate complex matters in a clear and simple way.

Jacqueline Strehler

Administration

Verify the project related details in the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.
Set up all required additional forms.
Advise on the project partners` administrative information, such as consortium contacts, project legal and finance signatories.
Liaise with the project partners` administrative staff to complete formal details of all organisations.
Support first-time participants by preparing registration documents such as the appointment of the Legal Entity Appointed Representative (LEAR).

Online Forms & Documents

Request and coordinate the signature of the Declaration of Honours by all project partners in the EU portal.
Complete all administrative forms (Part A), including updated Work Packages, Deliverables, Milestones and Risks.
Prepare the documents for later upload in the portal, namely the Description of Action (Part B).

Description of Actions (DoA)

Ensure adherence to the grant preparation guidelines of the funding agency.
Separate the narrative part of the proposal from the Work Packages, Deliverables, Milestones and Risks (Part A).
Convert the project proposal into the Description of Action, the Technical Annex to the EU Grant Agreement (Part B).
Address and implement the requested changes in Part A and Part B.
Track the updates in a history of changes.
Check consistencies and finalise the Part B document.
Upload Part B into the portal.

Grant Agreement

Inform the coordinator and all project partners on the signature procedure.
Ensure that all project partners have assigned their so-called PLSIGN, the authorised person to sign contracts.
Organise the timely signature of the Grant Agreement by the project coordinator.
Upon countersignature by the EC, request the timely signature by all project partners.
Download the final Grant Agreement documents and distribute to the project partners.

Consortium Agreement

Draft of the project specific Consortium Agreement using the DESCA or LERU models as a basis.
Distribution of the draft document to all partners and to their legal experts for review.
Compilation of partners’ feedback and support of the consortium throughout the negotiation process.
Initiation and finalisation of the signature process.
Distribution of the final document to all partners.

Project Management

The management of your EU project requires specific skills. From submitting deliverables on the EC portal to coordinating reporting for the entire consortium, an efficient implementation of your project is work. We can support you in this task, either as a project partner (beneficiary), a service provider or a subcontractor.

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After the results of the 2022 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks (DN) call were published, many are now at the grant preparation stage. While this process is well-structured, many consortia may still experience some challenges. We discuss some possible challenges during the DN grant preparation and how to address these.

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