Communicating your project — Acknowledgement of EU funding

Since the EU grants are financed by public funds, EU Beneficiaries are generally expected to actively engage in communication activities, to promote the projects and to publicly acknowledge the EU support.

Communicating and promoting the project

What does communication involve?

The communication activities must already be part of the proposal (either as a specific work package for communication or by including them in another work package). Communication will be taken into consideration as part of the award criteria.

A good communication plan should define clear objectives (adapted to various relevant target audiences) and set out a description and timing for each activity.

With your communication activities you should draw the attention (general and specialised audiences) to the EU policy area addressed by the call.

Regarding typical communication activities (and indictors to measure them), you can refer to the communication network indicators we use for our own communication activities.

In addition, some programmes (e.g. Horizon Europe) may have more targeted communication guidance (see Horizon Europe Programme Guide).

Good communication

• Starts at the outset of the action and continues throughout its entire lifetime
• Is strategically planned and not just ad-hoc efforts
• Identifies and sets clear communication objectives (e.g. have final and intermediate communication aims been specified? what impact is intended? what reaction or change is expected from the target audience?)
• Is targeted and adapted to audiences that go beyond the project's own community, including the media and the public
• Chooses relevant messages (e.g. how does the action's work relate to our everyday lives? why does the target audience need to know about the action?)
• Uses the right medium and means (e.g. working at the right level — local, regional, national, EU-wide; using the right ways to communicate — >one-way exchange (website, press release, brochure, etc.) or two-way exchange (exhibition, school visit, internet debate, etc.); where relevant, include measures for public/societal engagement on issues related to the action)
• Is proportionate to the scale of the action.

Acknowledgement of EU funding

Beneficiaries of EU funding must display the EU flag and funding statement ("Funded by the European Union" or "Co-funded by the European Union") in all their communication and dissemination activities and any infrastructure, equipment, vehicles, supplies or major result results funded by the grant.

The EU flag and funding statement must be displayed in a way that is easily visible for the public and with sufficient prominence.

EU funding must moreover be acknowledged in all types of public outputs (including patent applications, EU standardisation of results), media contacts and other public statements.

The EU flag and funding statement are available in the Grant Agreement and on the Europa website.