Submission system
The submission system is used to prepare and submit your proposal.
You can use the system to submit a proposal for a particular topic multiple times before the call deadline specified in the information package of the call, available from the Funding & Tenders Portal. Calls deadlines are fixed and will normally not be extended. Only the most recently submitted version will be evaluated, and each newly submitted version overwrites the previous one. After the call deadline, the proposal can no longer be modified and no further participants can be invited. After the deadline, the proposal remains available in read-only mode and can be accessed by the coordinator and the proposal participants.
In this section will summarize the different buttons that you have in each of the screens of the system as well as the minimum technical requirements to use it.
For information on the process of submitting a proposal, please consult Submit a proposal and for information about the different roles involved in a submission see Roles and access rights.
The Funding & Tenders Portal: screens and access to submission tasks
The Funding & Tenders Portal is your entry point to the Online Submission Service. It allows you to carry out the following actions:
- Familiarize yourself with the overall research and innovation grant process by first consulting the How to participate tab on the Portal.
- Decide on the funding opportunity that you want to apply for.
- Select your Partners – check Partner information in the Participant register section.
- Register as a user for the EU Services by creating an EU Login.
- Register your organisation and your Partner organisations in the Participant register section.
- Log into the Funding & Tenders Portal and select your topic to access the Online Submission Service.
- Use the left-side navigation menu, My Proposal(s) and My Organisation(s) pages to access your draft and submitted proposals.
Funding & Tenders Portal: before you log in
Create an EU Login or, if you already have an account, sign in with your registered email address. Before logging in, familiarize yourself with the grant process, the funding opportunities and check the Partner information:
Funding & Tenders Portal: the EU Sign in screen
When you click Sign in, you will be prompted to log in through the EU login screen, as shown in the picture below. This screen appears in the same window. After entering your credentials and logging in, you will be redirected to the homepage of the Funding & Tenders Portal:
Funding & Tenders Portal: the EU Login and the-left side navigation menu
Once logged in, your personalised area displays on the left, under the left-side navigation menu. Here you can access your Organisations, Proposals, Projects, Notifications, etc. Please note, the left-side navigation menu shows only the section for which there is existing data. For instance, if you do not have any proposals yet, you will not see My Proposal(s) on the left:
Funding & Tenders Portal: the How to participate page
Select Guidance & documents / How to participate from the upper menu. This page is your main source of information as you prepare for submitting your proposal:
From this page, you may:
- Have an overview of the submission process by clicking on Key steps.
- Access the Reference documents for each funding programme by selecting Guidance & documents / Reference documents. Then select a funding programme and the different available reference documents will be displayed::
- Register an organisation via the Participant register section, by selecting Participant register under Guidance & documents / How to participate.
- Look for potential partners using the Partner Search functionality, by selecting Funding / Partner search.
The Online Submission Wizard: available actions per screen
The electronic submission system screen is composed of different elements. See below to get familiar with them:
Progress bar
A progress bar banner, which shows the proposal completion progress. It shows in which step of the process you are right now, marked with a red indicator. The previous steps are colored in green once you have completed them, taking into account that the first two steps are performed in the Funding and Tenders Portal prior to accessing the submission wizard.
Proposal information panel
Displayed on the left hand side of the screen, it is the ID card of your proposal. The information displayed there is completed as the user progresses. It also shows useful information such as the submission deadline for the corresponding call.
Configuration status check tool
It is displayed at the bottom left part of the screen. In this visual example, the configuration complies with the minimum requirements.
This part also allows downloading the Part B templates in RTF format, and it includes links to the help wiki site and the Online Manual.
Action buttons
Buttons for the available actions. They will be different depending on the step in which you are. The ones in this example, corresponding to the Proposal forms screen, are connected to editing the administrative form Part A and uploading the Part B documentation. In the Participants screen, they will consist of actions to add/remove partners, etc.
Proposal navigation buttons
Available at the bottom right corner, they allow you to go from one step to another, validate the content of the proposal and to submit your proposal.
Create proposal screen
This is the Create proposal screen of the wizard, first screen when launching the submission system. 7 actions are available here, each one indicated below with a number shown in the image that follows:
- Enter your organisation search criteria.
- Alternatively, select a previously associated organisation.
- Click on the Search button to start the organisation search procedure.
- Select your role, either Main Contact or Contact person.
- Enter a proposal acronym.
- Enter a proposal short summary.
- Click the Save and go to next step button.
Participants screen
The second screen after having saved your proposal is Participants. It is used to set up the consortium in the proposal. You will be able to perform these 8 actions, indicated on the picture via a number:
- Click on the Add Partner button to add a new Partner.
- Click to display guidance on the Participants section of proposals
- Warning on the required number of participants. It will be different from call to call.
- Add contact: it will allow you to specify a contact for that organisation.
- Displays information about Main contacts, access rights and invitation sent by the system.
- Edit contact, allowing you to modify the contact details (i.e. name, access right and project role) or remove it.
- Displays the email address and access rights in the project for a given contact.
- Save and go to next step button, allowing you to move into the Proposal forms screen.
- Edit participant name within the project.
Additionally, you can perform the following actions for an existing partner organisation using these buttons:
- Delete participant
Click this button to delete any participant except the coordinator. Clicking this button for a given participant will remove the organisation from the partner list. This includes any contacts which were provided. Therefore, those contacts will lose their access to the proposal.
2. Info
Click this button to display a help window explaining how you can manage the contact person(s) and what the Main Contact person role means, as well as what kind of access rights the contacts you provide will receive.
3. Add contact
Click this button to add a new contact to an existing partner company.
4. Edit existing contact
Click this button to edit an existing contact.
5. Delete existing contact
Click this button to delete an existing contact.
Note: You cannot delete a contact when this user is currently logged in.
6. Contact information
Click this button to see more information about that specific contact. The name field will expand showing the email address and access level of the contact within the proposal.
7. Change organisation
Click this button to replace the existing organisation (PIC). Upon clicking on this button, accept the message; you will get the PIC search window.
Coordinator contacts with full access rights can change the contacts for the new selected partner if needed.
8. Contact organisation
Click this button to contact the LEAR or/and the Account administrator of an organisation.
Proposal Forms screen
The Edit proposal screen is the main screen where you prepare and upload the supporting documents for your proposal:
- Click to open guidance on editing the proposal forms.
- Click to open guidance on editing the Administrative forms (Part A).
- Action buttons for the Administrative forms in Part A.
- Click to open guidance on annexes and Part B forms.
- Click to upload required Part B document.
- PDF Navigation buttons.
Submit screen
The final screen, the Submit screen, is available after submitting the proposal:
- Update proposal: allowing you to change the content of your proposal. Please note that you will need to submit again for the changes to be reflected. Also, this action is available only until the call closure date/time is reached.
- Download: allowing you to download a digitally signed copy of your proposal. This will not be available immediately after submission. If the copy is not available yet, you will get a message asking you to wait a bit longer.
- Withdraw proposal: this allows you to withdraw your proposal so that it does not go to the validation phase.
If the call is still open when withdrawing, the entered data will be available and you will able to edit and submit again. The button Update proposal will be again active for such an aim.
If withdrawn, a message in red will appear on the screen, informing that the proposal will not be considered for evaluation.
Recommended system configuration
The electronic submission system of the European Commission is a web application. Therefore, a working Internet connection is needed in order to use it. Although the system has been tested with a set of typical reference configurations, it is not guaranteed that the application will be fully functional on your computer. The system provides a diagnostic window that will warn you about some possible incompatibilities.
To use the electronic submission system, ensure that your computer configuration complies with the following mandatory system requirements:
Component | Recommended configuration |
Internet connection | DSL Line, 2.0 Mb/s or faster |
Memory | RAM – 4 GB or more |
Screen resolution | Minimum 1680 x 1050 of higher |
JavaScript | JavaScript must be enabled |
Cookies | Cookies must be enabled |
Pop-up blocker | Website should be white-listed in the pop-up blocker |
User ID | A valid EU Login account |
PDF Reader | A PDF reader application will be needed in order to use the functionality of print preview, as well as being able to check the annexes in Part B, since they have to be uploaded in PDF format. |
Recommended browsers
The following table shows the operating systems and browsers actively supported by the system. This configuration will provide you with a fully enhanced experience:
Operating system | Internet browser (as from version) |
Windows 7, 8 & 10 | Chrome 120 or newer |
Mac OS X from 10.10 (laptops and desktops) | Chrome 120 or newer |
Mac iOS (iPhone, iPad and iPod) | Safari 17.2 or newer |