Signature steps
The Grant Agreement signature happens in several steps
- All beneficiaries (the Coordinator included) sign the Declaration of Honour
Cofund type of action has an additional Declaration of Honour 
If applicable: Upload the affiliated entity (third party) declaration - The Coordinator signs the Grant Agreement
- The European Commission signs the Grant Agreement
- All beneficiaries sign the accession to the Grant Agreement (Accession Forms)
= paper signature
= electronic signature (eSignature)
Note: A Grant Agreement is legally binding when it has been signed by both the Coordinator and the European Commission.
For example: the Coordinator has to sign the Grant Agreement
The Legal Authorised Signatory of the Coordinator has a task "Grant Agreement signature". He can verify the relevant document in the task itself.
Once he's ready to sign, he clicks the 
button.
Use the GMS sign button only
The grant is only signed when clicking the button! Once signed, you will not need to upload anything.
So, please don't use the signature feature of Adobe Reader for this purpose.
Once you have clicked the button, please provide the EU Login password (the comment field is optional) and click the 
button again.
Please note that the Project Officers and their back-ups are also among the recipients of the PNS messages sent to the participants - Coordinator Contacts (CoCos) and Participant Contacts (PaCos), informing everyone about the electronic signature of the Grant Agreement by the Coordinator.
Once the Coordinator has clicked the button, the task "Grant Agreement signature" has disappeared because the task has been completed.
A green banner appears in the Grant Management Services screen, indicating that the document is being processed. After a while the signed document will be available in the documents section.
Alternatively, click on Decline to refuse the signature of the Grant Agreement:
A justification is required before validating your refusal.
If the grant needs to be terminated or updated, the Legal Authorised Signatory of the Coordinator will then 
the signature of the Grant Agreement. By declining it the project will be sent back to the EU Officer, who will re-open the Grant Preparation for the Consortium. Then, the Coordinator will decide either to terminate the Grant or update it and send it back to the EU Officer for validation.
Additional information about the eSignature process
See Online Manual for more information of the eSignature process.
What is eSignature?