Section I

The following minimum conditions shall apply: at least three legal entities shall participate in an action; three legal entities shall each be established in a different Member State or associated country; and the three legal entities referred to in point (b) shall be independent of each other within the meaning of Article 8. For the purposes of paragraph 1, where one of the participants is the JRC, or an international European interest organisation or an entity created under Union law, it shall be deemed to be established in a Member State or associated country other than any Member State or associated country in which another participant in the same action is established. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, the minimum condition shall be the participation of one legal entity established in a Member State or associated country, in the case of: European Research Council (ERC) frontier research actions; the SME instrument, where the action has a clear European added value; programme co-fund actions; and justified cases provided for in the work programme or work plan. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, in the case of coordination and support actions and training and mobility actions, the minimum condition shall be the participation of one legal entity. Where appropriate and duly justified, work programmes or work plans may provide for additional conditions according to specific policy requirements or to the nature and objectives of the action, including inter alia conditions regarding the number of participants, the type of participant and the place of establishment. The following participants are eligible for funding from the Union: any legal entity established in a Member State or associated country, or created under Union law; any international European interest organisation; any legal entity established in a third country identified in the work programme. In the case of a participating international organisation or in the case of a participating legal entity established in a third country, neither of which are eligible for funding according to paragraph 1, funding from the Union may be granted provided that at least one of the following conditions is fulfilled: the participation is deemed essential for carrying out the action by the Commission or the relevant funding body; such funding is provided for under a bilateral scientific and technological agreement or any other arrangement between the Union and the international organisation or, for entities established in third countries, the country in which the legal entity is established. Calls for proposals shall be issued in accordance with Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 and Regulation (EU) No 1268/12, taking account in particular of the need for transparency and non-discrimination, and for flexibility appropriate to the diverse nature of the research and innovation sectors. As an exception and without prejudice to the other cases provided for in Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 and Regulation (EU) No 1268/2012, calls for proposals shall not be issued for coordination and support actions and programme co-fund actions to be carried out by legal entities identified in the work programmes or work plans provided that the action does not fall within the scope of a call for proposals. In accordance with the relevant rules of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 and Regulation (EU) No 1268/2012, sufficient time periods for preparing proposals shall be provided, with reasonable notice of upcoming calls for proposals through the publication of a work programme and a reasonable time period between the publication of a call for proposals and the deadline for submitting a proposal. Joint calls for proposals with third countries or their scientific and technological organisations and agencies or with international organisations may be issued to jointly fund actions in priority areas of common interest and expected mutual benefit where there is a clear added value for the Union. Proposals shall be evaluated and selected through joint evaluation and selection procedures to be agreed upon. Such evaluation and selection procedures shall ensure compliance with the principles set out in Title VI of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 and involve a balanced group of independent experts appointed by each party. Legal entities receiving funding from the Union shall conclude a grant agreement with the Union or the relevant funding body. That grant agreement shall include a description of the work to be done by those participants and by the participating legal entities from the third countries involved. Legal entities receiving funding from the Union shall conclude a coordination agreement with the participating legal entities receiving funding from the relevant third countries or international organisations. Proposals shall include a draft plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results, where provided for in the work programme or work plan. Any proposal for research on human embryonic stem cells shall include, as appropriate, details of licensing and control measures that will be taken by the competent authorities of the Member States concerned as well as details of the ethical approvals that will be provided. As regards the derivation of human embryonic stem cells, institutions, organisations and researchers shall be subject to strict licensing and control in accordance with the legal framework of the Member States concerned. A proposal which contravenes ethical principles or any applicable legislation, or which does not fulfil the conditions set out in Decision No 2013/743/EU, in the work programme, in the work plan or in the call for proposals may be excluded from the evaluation, selection and award procedures at any time. Where relevant and specified in the work programme or the work plan, proposals shall explain how and to what extent gender analysis is relevant to the content of the intended project. The Commission shall systematically carry out ethics reviews for proposals raising ethical issues. That review shall verify the respect of ethical principles and legislation and, in the case of research carried out outside the Union, that the same research would have been allowed in a Member State. The Commission shall make the process of the ethics review as transparent as possible and ensure that it is carried out in a timely manner avoiding, where possible, the resubmission of documents. The proposals submitted shall be evaluated on the basis of the following award criteria: excellence; impact; quality and efficiency of the implementation. Only the criterion referred to in point (a) of paragraph 1 shall apply to proposals for ERC frontier research actions. The criterion referred to in point (b) of paragraph 1 may be given a higher weighting for proposals for innovation actions. The work programme or work plan shall lay down further details of the application of the award criteria laid down in paragraph 1, and specify weightings and thresholds. The Commission shall take into account the possibility of a two-stage submission procedure provided for in Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 and Regulation (EU) No 1268/2012, where appropriate and consistent with the objectives of the call for proposals. Proposals shall be ranked according to the evaluation results. The selection shall be made on the basis of that ranking. The evaluation shall be carried out by independent experts. In the case of a legal entity referred to in Article 11(2) or in other duly justified exceptional circumstances, the evaluation may be carried out in a manner derogating from paragraph 7. In each case of such evaluation the Commission shall provide the Member States with detailed information on the evaluation procedure used and its outcome. In cases where the requested funding from the Union for the action is equal or superior to EUR 500000, the Commission or the relevant funding body shall, by means compatible with national law, verify in advance the financial capacity of only the coordinators. Furthermore, whenever there are grounds to doubt the financial capacity of the coordinator or other participants on the basis of available information, the Commission or the relevant funding body shall verify their financial capacity. The financial capacity shall not be verified either in respect of legal entities whose viability is guaranteed by a Member State or an associated country or in respect of higher and secondary education establishments. Financial capacity may be guaranteed by any other legal entity, whose financial capacity shall in turn be verified in accordance with paragraph 9. The Commission or the relevant funding body shall provide a transparent evaluation review procedure for applicants which consider that the evaluation of their proposal has not been carried out in accordance with the procedures set out in this Regulation, the relevant work programme, work plan or the call for proposals. A request for review shall relate to a specific proposal, and shall be submitted by the coordinator of the proposal within 30 days of the date on which the Commission or the relevant funding body informs the coordinator of the evaluation results. The Commission or the relevant funding body shall be responsible for the examination of the request referred to in paragraph 2. The examination shall cover only the procedural aspects of the evaluation, and not the merits of the proposal. An evaluation review committee composed of Commission staff or of staff of the relevant funding body shall provide an opinion on the procedural aspects of the evaluation process. It shall be chaired by an official of the Commission or of the relevant funding body, from a department other than that responsible for the call for proposals. The committee may recommend one of the following: re-evaluation of the proposal primarily by evaluators not involved in the previous evaluation; confirmation of the initial evaluation. On the basis of the recommendation referred to in paragraph 4, a decision shall be taken by the Commission or the relevant funding body and notified to the coordinator of the proposal. The Commission or the relevant funding body shall take such decision without undue delay. The review procedure shall not delay the selection process of proposals which are not the subject of requests for review. The review procedure shall not preclude any other actions the participant may take in accordance with Union law. The Commission shall ensure the existence of a procedure for participants to make enquiries or complaints about their involvement in Horizon 2020. The Commission shall ensure that information on how to register concerns, enquiries or complaints is made available to all participants and is published on-line. The Commission shall, in close cooperation with the Member States, draw up model grant agreements between the Commission or the relevant funding body and the participants in accordance with this Regulation. If a significant modification of a model grant agreement is required, the Commission shall, in close cooperation with the Member States, revise it as appropriate. The Commission or the relevant funding body shall enter into a grant agreement with the participants. The removal or substitution of an entity before signature of the grant agreement shall be duly justified. The grant agreement shall establish the rights and obligations of the participants and of either the Commission or the relevant funding body in compliance with this Regulation. It shall also establish the rights and obligations of legal entities which become participants during the implementation of the action, as well as the role and tasks of a consortium coordinator. On the basis of a requirement in a work programme or work plan, the grant agreement may establish rights and obligations of the participants with regard to access rights, exploitation and dissemination, in addition to those laid down in this Regulation. The grant agreement shall, where appropriate and to the extent possible, reflect the general principles laid down in the Commission Recommendation on the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers, principles of research integrity, the Commission Recommendation on the management of intellectual property in knowledge transfer activities, the Code of Practice for universities and other public research institutions as well as the gender equality principle laid down in Article 16 of Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013. The grant agreement shall, where appropriate, contain provisions ensuring the respect of ethical principles, including the establishment of an independent ethics board and the right of the Commission to carry out an ethics audit by independent experts. In duly justified cases, specific grants for actions may form part of a framework partnership in accordance with Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 and Regulation (EU) No 1268/2012. Where appropriate, and in duly justified cases, the Commission, in accordance with Article 121(1) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012, or the relevant funding body, may notify grant decisions instead of entering into grant agreements. The provisions of this Regulation referring to grant agreements shall apply mutatis mutandis. In accordance with Article 128(2) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012, calls for proposals shall specify the planned date by which all applicants shall be informed of the outcome of the evaluation of their application and the indicative date for the signature of grant agreements or the notification of grant decisions. The dates referred to in paragraph 1 shall be based on the following periods: for informing all applicants of the outcome of the scientific evaluation of their application, a maximum period of five months from the final date for submission of complete proposals; for signing grant agreements with applicants or notifying grant decisions to them, a maximum period of three months from the date of informing applicants they have been successful. The periods referred to in paragraph 2 may be exceeded for actions of the ERC and in exceptional, duly justified cases, in particular where actions are complex, where there is a large number of proposals or where requested by the applicants. Participants shall be given reasonable time to submit the information and documentation required for the signature of the grant agreement. The Commission shall make decisions and requests for information as promptly as possible. Where possible, resubmission of documents shall be avoided. Participants shall be paid in a timely manner in accordance with Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012. When a payment has been made to the coordinator, the Commission or the relevant funding body shall notify the participants thereof. All exchanges with participants, including the conclusion of grant agreements, the notification of grant decisions and any amendments thereto, may be made through an electronic exchange system set up by the Commission or by the relevant funding body, as stipulated in Article 179 of Regulation (EU) No 1268/2012.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.