EU Funding & Tenders Portal

F&T Portal Online Manual

Online Manual

Online Manual

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Who can apply?

To see whether your organisation is eligible for funding, check the call conditions on the Topic page.


In general, most EU funding programmes require that participants (Beneficiaries and Affiliated Entities) are:

  • legal entities (public or private bodies, including international organisations)

and

  • established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
  • EU Member State (including EU overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
  • eligible non-EU countries:
  • EEA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway — if opted-in for the programme)
  • associated countries (countries associated to the funding programme by paying a contribution — list differs for each programme).

(warning) Please be aware, however, that almost all programmes have additional criteria, which widen or narrow the group of entities that can apply. Some programmes are open to participants from the entire world (e.g. Horizon Europe) others are deliberately restricted to EU countries only (e.g. EDF).

In addition, the situation can be different from call to call even within a programme. It is therefore very important to carefully look at the call conditions.

Moreover, participants must be registered in the Participant Register (mandatory for Beneficiaries, Affiliated Entities and Associated Partners) and be validated by the Central Validation Service by the time the grant is signed (mandatory for Beneficiaries and Affiliated Entities).

Multi-participant or mono-participant actions

Most of the calls for EU grants target multi-beneficiary consortia made up of participants from different countries — to enhance the EU added value, promote cooperation between organisations in different countries, reinforce the quality of applications and ensure fair competition and equal opportunities throughout the EU.

Some programmes formalise this, by adding specific requirements for the consortium composition (e.g. Horizon Europe, UCPM, etc.)

To see whether a call requires minimum consortium composition, check the call conditions on the Topic page.

How to find partners for your project ideas?

To find partners for your project ideas, you can:

  • Use the Partner Search function of the Portal. The function allows to:
    • look for organisations which received funding in the past
    • create and check Partner Search requests by call/topic
  • Use other Partner Search tools and services. A list of recommended support sites is offered under the Helpdesks & Support Services page.
  • Participate in conferences, brokerage events organised by the EU or networks in the Member States (National Contact Points or Desks, Enterprise Europe Network, etc.)

If you want to find experienced partners who already have ongoing projects, or if you want to browse in the database of registered organisations, visit the Partner Search page. You can search by keyword/geographical area/funding type, etc. Search results include complete organisation profiles with lists of funded projects and the possibility to contact representatives.

If you have selected your area of interest via the Topic search, you may publish your offer/interest for one or more of the open/forthcoming topics of a call on the Portal. All your published offers/interests will be visible on your organisation's page too.

Enterprise Europe Network Cooperation Opportunities Database — The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) publishes an extensive number of innovation and technology profiles from international companies and research organisations to help identify suitable partners for bilateral business, innovation and technology cooperation. The EEN database is updated with new profiles on a weekly basis. All profiles are published anonymously. Express your interest in collaboration by filling in and sending the Expression of Interest form to your local EEN office, who will establish the contact.

Consortium roles and responsibilities

When setting up your grant consortium, you should think of organisations that help you reach objectives and solve problems.

Beneficiaries — Affiliated Entities — Associated Partners — Subcontractors

The roles should be attributed according to the level of participation in the project. Main participants should participate as Beneficiaries or Affiliated Entities (former Linked Third Parties); other entities can participate as Associated Partners, Subcontractors, Third parties giving in-kind contributions, etc.

Associated Partners and Third parties giving in-kind contributions do not get any part of the grant money and will therefore have to organise other funding sources (bear their own costs, internal reallocation of funding inside the consortium, find investors, etc.)

(warning) Subcontracting should normally constitute a limited part of the project and will need to be justified (give reasons). Tasks may NOT be subcontracted inside the consortium (between Beneficiaries or Affiliated Entities).

Coordinator — Other Beneficiaries

The Coordinator is responsible for managing the project, submitting reports and deliverables and acting as intermediary for all contacts with the EU Granting Authority.

The other Beneficiaries must implement their part of the project and contribute to the grant administration (preparing the grant, reporting, etc.)

The consortium participants will be jointly responsible for implementing the project activities (in accordance with their proposal/description of the action). If a project is not finished (or badly implemented), the grant money may have to be reduced for everyone.