Your Horizon Europe project has passed the evaluation stage and you have received the grant preparation invitation letter from the European Commission. Congratulations, you are entering the final phase before the official launch of your project! This last step can present some issues and challenges.

The challenges of the grant preparation stage in Horizon Europe

What is meant by grant preparation? This is the process of signing the Grant Agreement. This document is a contract between the project’s beneficiaries and the European Commission.

Why can this process be complicated? Between the requirements of the funder to transform your proposal into a technical annex to the contract, the large number of partners, and the time constraints, this phase can be particularly demanding for the coordinator. It requires rigorous organisation and smooth coordination between all actors. The main challenges of this phase are:

• Time: The grant preparation phrase is subject to a time-to-grant rule representing a maximum period of three months between notification and signature of the agreement (Article 31 of the Horizon Europe Regulation). There is a strong pressure to conclude the negociations and finalise the documents, whether they are technical (description of action), legal (Declaration of Honours), administrative (validation of the PIC, LEAR, financial and legal signatories) or financial (estimated budget) within a limited period of time.
• Supporting the partners: The coordinator must manage relations with a large number of partners, whose experience in European projects can vary considerably. This disparity can make task management more complex, requiring additional efforts in terms of monitoring, coaching and communication.
• Requests from the European Commission: The coordinator must consider the shortcomings and requests for clarifications (technical and/or financial) highlighted by the evaluators in the evaluation report. The consortium must respond and/or update the content of the project based on these comments.
• Tools: The grant preparation is dematerialised via the F&T Portal (the one where you submitted your project). This requires a perfect command of the Grant Management Services (SyGMa) of the F&T Portal to complete all administrative actions within the allotted time.

Best practices to follow until the Grant Agreement is signed:

To meet these challenges, Euronovia recommends the following actions:

• Establishing a dedicated and experienced contracting team;
• Creating a detailed retroactive schedule, assigning specific tasks with strict deadlines until the Grant Agreement is signed;
• Maintaining proactive communication with all partners, ensuring that they respect internal deadlines;
• Providing close support for partners with little or no experience in participating in collaborative projects funded by Horizon Europe; 
• Maintaining a permanent contact with the Project Officer to report progress or alert quickly to possible delays.

We invite you to read the Annotated Grant Agreement for further information.

Do you need support for this grant preparation phase? Get in touch with us at contact@euronovia.eu. We’ll be glad to help you take on this challenge and launch your project in the best conditions!