Roles and access rights
Roles and access rights restrict the information a user can view and the tasks they can perform (for instance, only a person with the coordinator role can delete a draft application).
Access rights are linked to a user's roles in the Portal personalised area (My Area), which are in turn linked to their functions within their organisation or in relation to a particular project/contract and their nomination by the organisation's LEAR (or other authorised person).
How are access rights managed?
Roles are divided into 2 main sections:
- Organisation roles are linked to the whole organisation and its data (but without any access to the projects/contracts)
- Project/contract roles are defined first in the proposal, and then transferred to the project/contract when you have been invited to sign with the EU. They are managed application by application and project by project, covering all types of access (read/write/submit).
One user can have several roles at the same time.
How are the roles assigned?
Most of these roles can be freely assigned and managed by you or your organisation, according to your needs:
- you can start creating an application yourself
- you can be invited by other users who have created an application to join their application
- persons in your organisation can give you (and revoke) access to roles of your organisation
- the initiator of an application (or persons in your organisation involved in an on-going application) can give you (and revoke) access to roles in the application
- persons involved in on-going projects/contracts can give you (and revoke) access to roles in their projects/contracts.
All access rights are linked to the user's EU Login account.
Exceptions
The EU services intervene in the assignment of the following 2 key roles:
LEAR (Legal Entity Appointed Representative) — organisation role
The LEAR is the person that is officially nominated by an organisation to manage rights and obligations related to the use of the Portal and to act as main administrative and legal contact in case of issues. Usually, LEARs are staff members in the central administration of the organisation. The LEAR handles all the organisation-related data on the Portal and appoints the persons within their organisation that are allowed to electronically sign grants/contracts and cost claims.
There can only be one LEAR per organisation.
LEARs are validated by the Central Validation Service as part of the registration in the Participant Register. Learn more about the detailed procedure for appointing the LEAR.
Primary Coordinator Contact — project role
The Main Contact/Contact Point of the Coordinator/Group Leader in the application will become the PCoCo (Primary Coordinator Contact). This person is by default the one creating the application in the Portal and thereby becomes the main person responsible for the application. As such, they can submit requests, reports and notifications to the EU on behalf of the consortium.
There can only be one PCoCo per project/contract.
During the application phase and before call deadline, the PCoCo may transfer this role to someone else in the application.
Afterwards (i.e. after call submission is closed), a new PCoCo can be assigned only by the EU Project/Procurement Officer. If such a replacement becomes necessary, the Coordinator should send a request to the Officer via the Portal Messaging Service (My Projects/My Contracts > Actions > Manage Project/Contract).
Exceptionally — and only until a LEAR has been appointed — self-registrants have certain roles (that were not assigned to any of the other users listed above).
Roles — Overview
The picture below shows all the roles involved in managing organisations and projects/contracts in the Portal. 
For some funding programmes (e.g. Horizon Europe ERC and MSCA grants), additional roles are used. More details on this here HOW TO
Organisation roles
| Role | Explanation |
|---|---|
Legal Entity Appointed Representative (LEAR) | The LEAR is the formally nominated main responsible for an organisation use of the Portal and thus bears the final responsibility for all the organisation actions in the Portal. LEARs have system rights to:
|
Self-registrant | The Self-registrant is the person who first registers an organisation in the Portal Participant Register. Before the LEAR is validated, Self-registrants can provide the EU with requested information and documents about their organisation. Once the LEAR has been formally validated (normally after the organisation has been validated by the Central Validation Service), the role of Self-registrant is revoked and replaced by the LEAR. |
Account Administrator | The LEAR may delegate tasks to one or more Account Administrators. Though the LEAR keeps the full responsibility, Account Administrators can fulfill tasks for their LEAR. An organisation can have an unlimited number of Account Administrators. If the organisation nominates a new person as their LEAR, the existing Account Administrators remain, but can be revoked by the new LEAR. |
Legal Signatory (LSIGN) | LSIGNs must be nominated for an organisation by the LEAR or an Account Administrator (see Figure 3). LSIGNs are assigned to a particular project by a Coordinator or Participant Contact (see Figure 3). An organisation can have an unlimited number of LSIGNs. |
Financial Signatory (FSIGN) | FSIGNs must be nominated for an organisation by the LEAR or an Account Administrator (see Figure 3). FSIGNs are assigned to a particular project by a Coordinator or Participant Contact (see Figure 3). An organisation can have an unlimited number of FSIGNs. |
Primary Audit Contact (PAuCo) and Audit Contact (AuCo) | Audit roles can be assigned in the Portal only when the organisation is audited. The LEAR is automatically assigned the Primary Audit Contact (PAuCo), and can nominate other PAuCos in the organisation. The PAuCo(s) must also nominate at least one Audit Contact (AuCo) as main contact for audits on the organisation, and additionally, assign both the AuCo and the audit to an audit team within the organisation. PAuCos have the following system rights for their organisation:
AuCos can nominate other AuCos for the teams to which they are assigned. They can also revoke other AuCos in their team. An AuCo assigned to a team has the following system rights for those audits:
|
Summary organisation roles 
When nominating FSIGNs or LSIGNs, the LEAR can add comments that can help the Participant Contacts to select the right LSIGN/FSIGN for their project (e.g. "Mr Smith can sign for projects run by Department X from 1 February 2014.") Such comments can be useful for defining the scope of responsibilities or duration of FSIGNs or LSIGNs in large organisations with different departments.
Proposal roles
When preparing your proposal, you will need to define the participating organisations and the organisation/proposal contact(s). Both are set in the application online form.
For grants and prizes:
The proposal will contain the following types of participating organisations:
- Coordinator. A proposal can have only one, and you may submit an application with just one Coordinator and no other participating organisations. You need to name a Coordinator immediately to launch your application, but you can change it later on, before submission.
- Partner. A proposal can have none, one or more. The number of Partners in an application (and other aspects such as the country where they are registered, etc.) are subject to the call conditions (i.e. the specific requirements for each call for proposals).
- Partners can also have Affiliated Entities linked to them (through a permanent legal or capital link or as members of an association; former Linked Third Parties). Affiliated Entities are allowed to fully participate in the grant and claim costs. They must comply with all eligibility conditions (same as a Partner).
- Associated Partners. This kind of participating organisation contributes to the project but cannot claim costs. They are normally not linked to any Partner and do not need to comply with the eligibility conditions.
Then, you will need to define the contact persons for each participating organisation. There are two possible types of contacts:
- Main Contact. You need to define one per participating organisation.
- Contact Person. You may define one or more Contact Persons for each Partner. You may further define their kind of access as Coordinator/Participant Contact (full access) or Team Member (read-only access).
The roles in your proposal will afterwards become project roles:
- The Main Contact of the Coordinator will become the Primary Coordinator Contact (PCoCo). This role is automatically assigned to the initiator of the application who submits the proposal to the EU. Other contacts with full access in the coordinator organisation will become Coordinator Contacts (CoCo).
- The Main Contacts of the Partners will become Participant Contacts (PaCo).
- The Contact Persons of the Coordinator/Partners will become Team Members (TeMe) if they had read-only access in the application form.
For tenders:
The tender will contain the following types of participating organisations:
- Group Leader. A submission can have only one, and you may submit a tender with just one Group Leader and no more participating organisations.
- Group Member. A submission can have none, one or more (often none).
In a call for tenders, you need to provide one single contact: Contact Point. One per application. This Contact is always linked to the Group Leader.
During the submission phase, this is the only role which will be defined. The Contact Point will then become the Primary Coordinator Contact (PCoCo).
Project/contract roles
Depending on your project roles you can have read-only, read-write or read-write-submit rights to information, documents and online forms.
| Role | Explanation |
|---|---|
(Primary) Coordinator Contact (PCoCo/CoCo) | The Primary Coordinator Contact is for each project the main contact between the consortium and the EU for a particular project/contract. By default, it is the person that creates the application in the Portal. The PCoCo can nominate/revoke a Coordinator Contact (CoCo) for the project/contract (unlimited number possible), who will then have the same rights — except the right to revoke the PCoCo. All Coordinator Contacts can:
|
Participant Contact (PaCo) | The PaCo is a representative of an organisation in the consortium that is not the coordinating organisation. An organisation can have an unlimited number of PaCos per project, and each will be able to:
|
Task Manager (TaMa) | TaMas can perform some restricted actions: creating, updating and uploading documents about their organisation's participation and completing, modifying or deleting project/contract information. An organisation can have an unlimited number of TaMas per project. They cannot nominate or revoke anybody, nor submit information to the Coordinator or EU. This role is not used during the application phase. |
Team Member (TeMe) | TeMes have limited access rights: search and read-only functions. |
Project Legal Signatory (PLSIGN) | The PLSIGN has the right to sign the grant/contract (and amendments) for a specific project on behalf of the organisation. The LEAR (or Account Administrators) must first appoint LSIGNs; the Coordinator and each participant (PCoCo/CoCos/PaCos) can then assign PLSIGNs for a given project to act as legal signatory for the participant in the project. An organisation can have an unlimited number PLSIGNs per project. They have the same rights as CoCos/PaCos for project/contract information. They cannot assign/revoke any roles. |
Project Financial Signatory (PFSIGN) | The PFSIGN has the right to sign cost claims/invoices on behalf of the organisation. The LEAR (or Account Administrators) must first appoint FSIGNs; the Coordinator and each participant (PCoCo/CoCos/PaCos) can then assign PFSIGNs for a given project to act as legal signatory for the participant in the project. An organisation can have an unlimited number of PFSIGNs per project. They have the same rights as CoCos/PaCos for project/contract information. They cannot assign/revoke any roles. |
Summary project/contract roles
Rights associated with roles
Nomination process
Some roles are automatically given based on the information in your application:
- The proposal initiator will become the Primary Coordinator Contact (PCoCo).
- The main contact persons in the participating organisations will become Participant Contacts (PaCos).
- Persons with read-only access to the proposal will become Team Members (TeMes).
Once your organisation is validated by the Central Validation Service, it is important that you appoint a LEAR to make sure that you can manage the access rights to the Portal.
How to nominate/revoke someone
To grant a role, the LEAR (or other authorised person) must enter the user's e-mail address. It must be the same as the address the person used to open their EU Login account.
If the person does not already have an EU Login account, they will automatically receive an invitation to create one.
Organisation roles — to grant/revoke, go to My Organisations > Actions > Edit Organisation Roles > Add Roles.
Project/contract roles — to grant/revoke, go to My Projects > Actions > Manage Consortium > Edit Roles.
How many different roles are needed in a consortium?
A user's EU Login account can carry any combination of roles, this depends on the participants. Thus, a user can acquire a differentiated set of access rights to different functions for managing projects, contracts or organisation data.
For small organisations or beneficiaries who are individuals (natural persons), this means that one single person can combine all the access rights needed to manage their projects/contracts (i.e. LEAR, CoCo/PaCo, PLSIGN and PFSIGN).
The minimum configuration for a consortium in any given project is:
- 1 Primary Coordinator Contact (PCoCo)
- 1 Participant Contact (PaCo) per beneficiary
- 1 LEAR per organisation
- 1 Project Legal Signatory (PLSIGN) per organisation
- 1 Project Financial Signatory (PFSIGN) per organisation.
One person can have several roles at the same time.
Organisations that participate as Affiliated Entities (or other type of participant — Associated Partner, Subcontractor, etc.) do NOT need any access roles in the Portal, since they are not allowed to use it. All actions in the Portal are handled for them by the Coordinator/Beneficiary they are linked to.