European Partnership Help Center

Welcome to the ERA-LEARN Help Center for European Partnerships. Here you will find a collection of frequently asked questions and answers from our webinars and events. More questions and answers will be added over time. If you have any partnership related questions, please send them to office@era-learn.eu and we will add them to the Help Center.

Do in-kind contributions generate EU co-funding or are only own resources co-funded?

Under co-funded partnership, in-kind contributions "free of charge" (within the meaning of Article 2(38) of the EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, i.e. non-financial resources made available free of charge by third parties) can also be charged to the project and contribute to the total cost of the project, based on which reimbursement rate applies. In-kind contributions provided by third parties free-of charge may be declared as eligible direct costs by the beneficiaries that use them (under the same conditions as if they were their own), provided that they concern only direct costs and that the third parties and their in-kind contributions are set out in Annex 1 (or approved ex-post in the periodic report, if their use does not entail changes to the Agreement, which would call into question the decision awarding the grant or breach the principle of equal treatment of applicants; ‘simplified approval procedure’). Further guidance on FSTP in EU grants is available here. However, in the context of co-funded European Partnerships, the term “in-kind contributions” is sometimes (wrongly) used to refer to additional, non-call activities. Such additional activities are eligible for funding as well, provided that they comply with the eligible cost categories laid out in the Model Grant Agreement, contribute to the objectives of the partnership, and are included in work plans.
EU Grant Agreements include obligations such as “giving visibility to EU funding as appropriate”. Is it mandatory that contracts from beneficiaries to third parties have such obligations expressed in writing?

The safest approach is to include these obligations in a written agreement with the final recipients of EU funding. An audit may check that the obligations are extended to final recipients. If a final recipient does not comply with these obligations, the final responsibility will fall on the coordinator of the partnership. Therefore, it is recommended that such obligations are included in the Financial Agreement with the final beneficiaries.
How can partnerships deal with the issue of multiple national authorities in international collaboration projects when the underlying data model only allows one funding agency to be identified per project?

The Commission acknowledges this issue and is working on updating the template to allow participants to submit more than one funding agency. The updated template will be released soon.
How should participant EU contributions for co-funded partnerships be reported, given that funded projects don't directly receive EC funding?

Participant EU Contribution: This is the exact amount of EU funding formally allocated to each participant directly within the grant agreement. Net EU Contribution: This represents a participant's share of EU funding minus any amounts that are forwarded or assigned to their linked third parties, as per the Commission’s official definitions. The Beneficiary/Third-Party Relationship: Both "Net EU Contribution" and "EU Contribution (contractual)" are directly tied to the relationship between a Beneficiary and one or more Third Party: Beneficiaries are the entities that sign the grant agreement with the Commission and are formally assigned an EU Contribution. Linked third parties, conversely, do not sign the agreement and therefore have an official EU Contribution of zero. Project EU Contribution should equal the sum of all Participant (i.e., beneficiaries + third parties) NET EU Contributions, which should also equal the sum of all Participant EU Contributions without any unintended multiplications. A full explanation can be found in the slides and within the webinar.
Can keys be generated by participants themselves for secure file transfer (SFTP) to avoid sharing private keys?

Partnerships generating their own keys and sharing only public keys is not possible under the current setup. This raises concerns about key security and so partnerships should discuss their specific requirements with the Commission if an alternative approach is needed.
During the submission process, can mistakenly submitted XML files be deleted?

Yes, it is possible. Mistakes can be corrected upon request via email (functional mailbox: rtd-egdr-dataimport@ec.europa.eu ).