Data updates

Bank account registration

Complaints about validation

Registration of your organisation

Before submitting an application, all participants involved in the proposal must first be registered in the Portal Participant Register and have their 9-digit Participant Identification Code (PIC number).

You can verify directly on the Portal whether your organisation is already registered and has a PIC. If not, please proceed with the registration following the instructions on the same page (the Registration wizard will help you through the process). Once completed, you get the PIC to be used in your online application form and further correspondence with the EU services.

If you do not have an user account (EU Login), you will first need to create one, before starting the registration process. If you already have a user account (EU Login), you can log in and directly start registration.

Please note that the Participant Register is primarily directed at organisations and that not all of the labels fit for individuals (natural persons). Enter your information as appropriate (e.g. country of residence instead of country of registration, passport number instead of registration number, etc.)

What you need to register your organisation

To register your organisation, you will need to provide basic administrative and legal information, in addition to contact details.

PIC number

After completing a new registration, you will receive the 9-digit Participant Identification Code (PIC) — to be used in your online application form and further correspondence with the EU services.

The newly created PIC will be provisional (declared/non-valid status) until it is formally validated at a later stage.

Nothing else is expected from you after the PIC has been generated, the Central Validation Service will contact you later, to initiate the validation process.

Validation of your organisation

If your proposal is successful, you will be contacted for the validation of your PIC registration data.

Validation is needed only for certain types of participants (grants: Beneficiaries and Affiliated Entities; procurement: Contractors). It is not needed for Associated Partners, Subcontractors or other participants.

It will be done by the Central Validation Service which carries out the validation for all EU services using the Portal.

The Central Validation Service will contact the person who registered the organisation (Self-registrant) and ask them to:

• upload official supporting documents (via the My Organisations page)
• clarify any details.

The documents that are required will be listed in the notification you receive. You will need to fill out a legal entity identification form and provide us with an official VAT document, registration extract, statutes or act of establishment, etc. The detailed list of documents is also explained in the Rules on Legal Entity Validation, LEAR appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment.

The Central Validation Service will check that your organisation is legally recognised (has legal personality). If this is not the case (exceptionally this is allowed), you will have to prove that the representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on the organisation's behalf and that the organisation has financial and operational capacity equivalent to that of legal persons.

The Central Validation Service will also check whether your organisation qualifies for some of the special legal statuses that are required for some funding programmes (private or public body, non-profit, international organisation).

The outcome of this process is the validation of your organisation (validated PIC). The Central Validation Service will send a confirmation message once the process is completed and the PIC is validated.

Please don't forget that all communications with the Central Validation Service must take place through the Participant Register (My Organisations page). Emails and other communications will NOT be accepted.

Please also note that if you apply for a call with specific eligibility criteria that are not validated by the Central Validation Service, these will be checked by the responsible EU service managing the call — in addition to the validation, which means that they may come back to you with additional questions.

Validation of the organisation is a prerequisite for the LEAR appointment.

Data updates

Updates to the registered organisation data must be requested via the Participant Register (My Organisations > Actions > Modify Organisation):

• by the LEAR (or Account Administrators) for validated entities
• by the Self-registrant if your organisation has not been validated yet.

If your organisation has already a validated PIC and a new one is created by mistake, your LEAR or Account Administrator should contact the Central Validation Service via the Portal Messaging Facility (My Organisations > Actions > Modify Organisation). The information will be transferred from the duplicate PIC to the correct PIC and the duplicate flagged.

SME self-assessment

In addition to the standard validation, a SME self-assessment is needed if you apply for a call where SME status is an eligibility criterion (or allows for a higher funding rate or other advantages).

If there is no recent (not older than 2 years) SME self-assessment information available in the Participant Register, the Portal Submission System will automatically prompt you to go through the SME self-assessment wizard to establish your SME status. You will need to enter the financial figures of the last approved accounting period of your organisation and of any other organisation that might be directly or indirectly related to you. If the result confirms your SME status, you will be able to proceed with the application process.

Please note that the SME self-assessment is only needed if the SME-status is an eligibility criterion (or gives special advantages); otherwise, you will simply self-declare your SME status in the Legal Information tab and proceed with the registration. Detailed rules are explained in the Rules on Legal Entity Validation, LEAR appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment.