LEAR appointment and validation
Parallel to the validation of your organisation, you will be requested by the Central Validation Service to appoint your Legal Entity Appointed Representative (LEAR).
This must be done by a legal representative of your organisation with the necessary legal authority to commit the organisation for this type of decisions (e.g. typically CEOs, rectors, Director-Generals, etc. always in accordance with the statutes of your organisation). 
If such decisions are normally reserved for joint decision-making by several representatives, the appointment must be done together (single signature on LEAR documents, but internally the applicable procedures with joint decision-making must all have been complied with).
The LEAR role, which can be performed by any member of the organisation (typically from the central administration), is key. They are formally nominated to manage your organisation's use of the Portal and thus bear the final responsibility for all your Click the three dots button in the Portal. Once validated, they will be responsible for:
- keeping an overview of all the proposals/projects/contracts your organisation is involved in
- managing all the legal and financial information about your organisation
- managing the access rights at organisation-level (and read-only access at project-level)
- appointing the persons which will be able to electronically sign grants/contracts (Legal Signatories — LSIGNs) and cost claims/invoices (Financial Signatories — FSIGNs).
Applicants that are natural persons do not need to prove their capacity to become a LEAR, but still need to enter their LEAR data and submit supporting documents.
The appointment of the LEAR in the Participant Register is mandatory for all validated participants. Without LEAR it will NOT be possible to update the legal entity data in the Participant Register, nor sign any contracts electronically in the Portal.
Further details about the LEAR's rights and responsibilities are explained in the Roles and access rights section.
Appointing and validation of your LEAR
Please note that registration and validation of your organisation is a prerequisite for the validation of your LEAR.
Identify the person in your organisation who will act as LEAR and the legal representative who will appoint them
The person who initially registered the organisation in the Participant Register (the Self-registrant) will receive the notification from the Central Validation Service to launch the LEAR appointment procedure.
Encode in the Participant Register the name and contact information of the LEAR and the legal representative appointing them
To do so, the Self-registrant must go to My Organisations > Click the three dots button > Modify Organisation.
The Participant Register will, then, generate the necessary documents to be signed:
- LEAR appointment letter (including LEAR roles and duties and declaration of consent to the Portal Terms and Conditions; generated as a single document).
The system will automatically check the existence of an EU Login account for the LEAR (e-mail address, first and last name). In case of inconsistencies, the system alerts the Self-registrant. If no EU Login account exists, the system will start creating one and the LEAR will be requested (via a notification e-mail) to finalise it. The LEAR appointment process will be blocked until this is done.
Get your organisation's legal representative to:
- Date and sign the LEAR appointment letter generated by the system (covers LEAR appointment, LEAR roles and duties and declaration of consent to the Portal Terms and Conditions; all sections must be signed in blue-ink or with qualified electronic signature within the meaning of the eIDAS Regulation (QES))
- read the Portal Terms and Conditions
Upload the following documents in the Participant Register:
- the LEAR appointment letter (dated and signed by the legal representative and the LEAR)
- copies of an official valid proof of identity (ID-card, passport; integral copy with photo and signature) of:
- the legal representative and
- the appointed LEAR
- documents proving the authority of the legal representative; these documents must:
- clearly indicate the person's role/function within the organisation as legal representative
- identify and appoint the individual (by name) as the person covering that specific role/function.
Don't forget that you MUST keep the originals of all documents you uploaded, so that they are available in case of EU controls, checks or audits. Since your registration in the Participant Register is valid for this and any future EU funding and tenders procedures your organisation will ever apply for, the originals must be kept permanently, as long as you are using the Portal (and until the end of the data retention periods that we have defined for controls, checks and audits, etc; for details see retention rules in the Portal Privacy Statement). You should therefore NOT throw them away and ensure that they are maintained also in case of insolvency, takeover or change of control.
Validation of the LEAR appointment by the Central Validation Service
After receiving the above-listed documents and once the corresponding PIC has been validated, the Central Validation Service will also validate the LEAR appointment in the Participant Register.
Activate the LEAR's online user account
After validation, the LEAR account (with the special access rights) can be activated by:
- following the instructions the LEAR receives by e-mail
- using the account activation PIN code which will be sent to the LEAR by SMS if the LEAR's mobile phone number was provided. If you have not received the PIN code or if you need it more urgently, please contact the IT Helpdesk either through the IT Helpdesk contact form or by phone at +32 (0)2 299 2222 (Monday to Friday from 8am to 8pm Central European Time); in the latter case, please call in person using the phone number indicated in your LEAR appointment letter. Always have your organisation's PIC at hand when contacting the helpdesk.
Should you encounter any other problem with the LEAR appointment, please contact the Central Validation Service via the Portal Messaging Facility (My Organisations > Click the three dots button> Modify Organisation).
Data updates — Changing the LEAR
If you need to replace an already validated LEAR, you can designate a new LEAR by making a new appointment (same steps as initial appointment).
If you are a LEAR and your e-mail address has changed, please inform the Central Validation Service via the Portal Messaging Facility (My Organisations > Click the three dots button > Modify Organisation), in order to obtain instructions on how to proceed for the change.
How can you contact the LEAR?
For contacting LEARs of other organisations, go to How to participate > Participant Register > Search a PIC to find the organisation. Then, select Click the three dots button > Contact Organisation. This will launch a contact form that allows you to send a message to the LEAR (and their Account Administrators). The LEAR can then contact you directly.
To contact your own LEAR, log in and then go to My Organisations > Click the three dots button > Contact Organisation.