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.
We speak your language and translate complex matters in a clear and simple way.
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.
Our project managers have been involved in several Horizon EU projects already and gathered extensive insights into the Grant Agreement Preparation process. With the hope of easing the process for other successful EU project coordinators and partners, summarised below are our team’s latest tips to navigate through a hopefully smooth GAP process.
Dr. Marco Cavallaro