Grant Agreement Preparation process

Introduction

After the submission of your proposal, the European Commission will evaluate your proposal. You will be notified of each step of the proposal management and grant preparation process, starting with the notification of the evaluation results (the evaluation can take up to five months). 

These notifications will be available in Your Notifications in your area in the Funding & Tenders Portal, explaining how to access the Grant Management Services tool. 

Overview of the Grant Agreement Preparation process and its tasks

Grant Agreement Data Preparation and Submission

The Coordinator clicks on Grant Agreement Data preparation to edit and complete the necessary forms. 

For projects under the new MFF 2021-2027: the Declaration of Honour (DoH) and the A-Forms must be signed in both FPA and SGA (like a normal GA). However, the new SGA projects cannot be signed if the related FPA is suspended. But, the existing SGA's that do have a linked FPA suspended will be unaffected.

 Please note that if there are Affiliated Entities (previously called 'Linked Third Parties') in the Consortium, the responsible Beneficiary will have a separate task for the DoH for each Affiliated Entity. The Beneficiary needs to:

• • click on the hyperlink to download the Declaration of Honour, which will be sent to the Affiliated Entity for completion and signature:

• • upload on the Portal the scanned and signed Declaration of Honour received from the Affiliated Entity:

• • click Complete to finalise the uploading process:

The Beneficiary will be informed of any modifications made to the list of Affiliated Entities as a result of an amendment or of any other impacting business process.

Once the Coordinator has clicked the Grant Agreement Data preparation task, he can complete the necessary forms in the Grant Management Services tool, which opens with the Project Summary screen in SyGMa.

SyGMa screens

SyGMa icons 

Clicking on Validate will give you an overview of all information which is missing or incomplete. 

SyGMa documents  

For more information, click here.

Project data screens

Project Summary

Once the grant has been signed, the "start date" and the "end date" will be displayed. 

Beneficiaries screens

The Coordinator and the Beneficiaries are automatically listed after receiving the invitation letter. 

 Please check all missing information () and warnings ().

 Please note that you can change the order of the beneficiaries by dragging and dropping . 

The Coordinator Contact (CoCo) can add a new beneficiary or delete/replace an existing one, as follows:

• To add a new Beneficiary:
  • From the 'Beneficiaries' tab click on 'Add New Beneficiary':

• • Search for the PIC you would like to add:

• • Click on the row with the data of the PIC: 

• • Add the short name and click OK.

• • The newly added Beneficiary is now displayed. Click on Save.

• To replace the (newly added) Beneficiary click on Replace* and repeat the steps above. To delete the (newly added) Beneficiary click on Delete .

*To replace a Beneficiary, the Participant contact from the organisation to be replaced has first to remove all the roles. Should you encounter a delay in the synchronisation between the insertion of the PIC in the Grant Preparation section and the availability of the new Participant in the Consortium screen for managing roles and access rights, please contact the IT Helpdesk .

Partner Summary

The Coordinator/beneficiary Partner Summary is automatically listed after receiving the invitation letter. 

 Please add the department (mandatory for all beneficiaries, except for Affiliated Entities)

Applicable law  

For all Beneficiaries, except from the International Organisations (IOs), the standard applicable law “EU law + law of Belgium” is automatically selected.

Beneficiaries who are International Organisations can choose to:

• apply the Standard regime (EU Law + law of Belgium)
• opt out of any applicable law by selecting 'No applicable law clause' 
• use a different combination of laws by selecting 'Different applicable law clause' and ticking one or several options between the
  • EU Law
  • Law of a Member State or EFTA country 
  • General principles governing the law of International Organisations and the general rules of international law

Dispute settlement 

For all beneficiaries, except from the International Organisations (IOs), a 'Standard' dispute settlement is automatically applied.

The Beneficiaries who are International Organisations, have the option to choose between a 'Standard' or an 'Arbitrary' dispute settlement by clicking on the button

 If applicable, the 'Ownership control status' and the 'Grant certificates' (accreditations) are also displayed under the Partner Summary tab.

Details on the Partner summary screen for the old MFF (MFF2014 - 2020), can be found on this page.

Financial Information

The  Coordinator/beneficiary Financial Information is automatically listed after receiving the invitation letter. 

Please check all information and update, if necessary. 

Details on the Financial Information screen for the old MFF (MFF 2014 -2020), can be found on this page.

Project Representatives

The possible Coordinator/beneficiary Project Representatives are automatically listed after receiving the invitation letter.  

 Please check all information and update, if necessary, in the roles management section of the Funding & Tenders Portal. 

 If no Project Representatives are listed, please complete in the roles management section of the Funding & Tenders Portal. 

 Both Coordinators and beneficiaries should, as soon as they have been invited, nominate in the Funding & Tenders Portal, their Legal Entity Appointed Representative (LEAR) and Project Legal Signatory (PLSIGN). Once this has been done, the PLSIGN who will appear in the Grant Agreement has to be selected in SyGMa. Please note that all other PLSIGNs can sign the Grant Agreement.   

 Bank account

The Coordinator Bank Account is not automatically listed after the submission of your proposal. 

 Please select your bank account in the Grant Management Services tool. For more information about how to register a bank account in the Participant Register, please click here . 

 Enter the last four digits of the IBAN in the pop-up window that appears to select the existing bank account.   

 Click on the "Save" button.

Affiliated Entities ( formerly named Linked Third Parties)

The Coordinator/beneficiary Affiliated Entities are not automatically listed after receiving the invitation letter. 

 Please add Affiliated Entities by following the steps described below.

Click on "Add new Affiliated Entity" to add a new affiliated entity:

Search for the PIC you would like to add:

Click the row with the data of the PIC: 

Add the short name and click OK:

Click Save.

The newly added affiliated entity is now displayed:

• in the Affiliated Entities tab:

• in the Beneficiary tab (under the main beneficiary to which the entity is affiliated): 

To further modify the Affiliated Entity, you can either:

• delete the newly added Affiliated Entity by clicking Delete:
  
  

• to replace the newly added Affiliated Entity by clicking Replace and, after that, repeating the steps you followed for adding an Affiliated Entity:

When the session is submitted to the EU, a validation request will be sent out automatically. 

Affiliated Entities - Financial information

The Coordinator/beneficiary Affiliated Entities (formerly named Linked Third Parties) Financial Information is not automatically listed after receiving the invitation letter. 

        Please enter all necessary information. 

Details on the Affiliated Entities - Financial Information, Specific Legal Data, Partner Membership (FCH only), Linked International Partner screens for the old MFF (MFF 2014 -2020), can be found on this page.

General Information 

The Project General Information is automatically listed after receiving the invitation letter.  

 The start date needs to be completed. In case it's a specific date, a justification needs to be completed.

More information regarding Security Constraints will be displayed in the corresponding tab if Security data is imported in SyGMa from the Security Evaluation.

Reporting Periods

The Project Reporting Periods will be available.

GA Information

The Project GA Information will be available and is read-only.

Any missing fields will be completed by the EU officer.

GA Options

The Project GA Options will be available and are read-only.

 Any missing fields will be completed by the EU officer. 

Financial Information 

The Project Financial Information is automatically listed after receiving the invitation letter. 

 Check whether the budget table is correct and whether all cost categories are present. 

LF Overview

The Project LF Overview will be available and is read-only () for everybody.

Associated Partners

The Associated Partners are automatically listed after receiving the invitation letter. 

  The Coordinator can add/remove Associated Partners and link then to Beneficiaries by following the steps described below. The Associated Partner(s) can be linked to only one Beneficiary or to none (depending on the programme allowing it or not).

Projects of Common Interest

The Projects of Common Interest (PCI) tab is displayed for Connecting Europe Facilities (CEF) grants. Every few years the European Commission determines a list of PCIs.

If the list of PCIs apply to your project, the Beneficiary/Affiliated Entity will have the possibility to add/delete a new PCI from the list:

Select one or more Projects of Common Interest from the applicable list (click on the arrow to expand the list under each section). Then click OK to finalise your action. 

Work Packages

The Project Work Packages are not automatically listed after receiving the invitation letter. 

 Complete all necessary work packages.

 Please note that you can change the order of the work packages by dragging and dropping . 

For more information about the management of work packages, please click here . 

Deliverables

The Project Deliverables are not automatically listed after receiving the invitation letter. 

 Complete all necessary deliverables.

 Please note that you can change the order of the deliverables by dragging and dropping . 

Select the Lead Beneficiaries from the drop down list

Affiliated Entities can be set as Lead Beneficiaries for Project Deliverables

Select the deliverable type from the drop down list

Please note that the dissemination levels for deliverables are the following:

• PU — Public (fully open ( automatically posted online on the Project Results platforms))
• SEN — Sensitive (limited under the conditions of the Grant Agreement)
• R-UE/EU-R — EU Classified (RESTREINT-UE/EU-RESTRICTED)
• C-UE/EU-C — EU Classified (CONFIDENTIEL-UE/EU-CONFIDENTIAL)
• S-UE/EU-S — EU Classified (SECRET-UE/EU-SECRET)

Click OK to finalise. Before you submit the Grant Agreement data, you are still able to edit (by clicking on the corresponding deliverable row) or delete the deliverable.

Milestones

The Project Milestones are not automatically listed after receiving the invitation letter. 

Complete all necessary milestones.

Associated Partners and Affiliated Entities can be set as Lead Beneficiaries for Milestones

Critical Risks

The Project Critical Risks are not automatically listed after receiving the invitation letter. 

 Complete all necessary critical risks.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

The data in the Key Performance Indicators tab is imported automatically from the Proposal Submission tool (SEP).

The Coordinator is able to fill in the Key Performance Indicators, by accessing the link  Then, (s)he will be redirected to the Dynamic Form in the Funding and Tenders Portal, where (s)he can edit it. 

After Saving the data in the Dynamic Form, the document is generated and can be downloaded from the Documents section:

• as a draft .pdf document, if the SyGMa session is still open
• as a final .pdf document, if the SyGMa session has been closed 

Horizon Europe special screens

For more information, click here. 

Summary of editable screens

Please click here for more information. 

Grant Agreement Preparation termination

Please click  here for more information. 

Grant Certification (CERT)

As a higher education institution (HEI) you may participate to a call for proposals under the Erasmus+ programme in order to obtain the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE) certificate.

After the submission of your proposal, the European Union will evaluate it and publish their final decision in your area, in the Funding & Tenders Portal, under a new Proposal Management and Grant Preparation process, as well as in the Project Document Library.

The evaluation result can only be one of the following:

• Positive: in this case the Certificate Award Letter is made available to you the Portal, together with the Evaluation Summary and the Evaluation Result Letter

• Negative: for the rejected proposals the Rejection Decision Award Letter is made available with the Evaluation Summary and Evaluation Result Letter on the Portal