European Partnership Help Center

Planning and preparation are usually carried out by a dedicated call secretariat. Appropriate national and regional financial commitments should be secured before launch, and not all partners need to participate in every call. Preparation includes devising a package of call documents and forms, establishing a timeline that allows for proposal submission, evaluation and contracting, and communicating the call conditions to potential applicants. The call must be published on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal and on the partnership’s website, and where possible it should be shared with ERA‑LEARN so that it appears on the ERA‑LEARN portal.

To receive EU co-funding, joint calls must comply with a set of conditions laid down in the grant agreement and the annotated grant agreement. The call must be published on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal. If beneficiaries intend to apply for funding, a firewall must separate those administering the call from those seeking funding to avoid conflicts of interest. Standard Horizon Europe award criteria must be used for the evaluation, and the selection procedure must involve two steps. Projects must be transnational and an independent expert must prepare an observer’s report. Finally, the selection must follow the ranking list based on evaluation scores.

In Horizon Europe ‘in kind contributions’ refers to contributions provided free of charge by third parties that are not part of the consortium. In co-funded European Partnerships the term is sometimes misused to describe additional activities or internally financed work; this should be avoided. Additional activities are funded by the partnership and its members and are not in‑kind contributions under the EU financial rules. Correct terminology helps avoid confusion when reporting costs and claiming the EU contribution.

Where a partnership is funded through successive Horizon Europe work programme cycles, the grant agreement may be amended with additional budget phases. Each phase has its own budget lines, and eligible costs cannot be transferred between phases. The European Commission has introduced annual instalments for partnerships launched from the 2025 work programme onwards, reducing the need for top‑up amendments. Partnerships should carefully manage spending to avoid financial risk and ensure that all projects and costs are completed within the relevant phase.

The consortium agreement defines how the EU contribution will be distributed among beneficiaries. Partnerships may decide to vary the internal funding rates across cost categories or beneficiaries while keeping the overall EU share constant. For example, a consortium may allocate a higher internal rate for coordination tasks and a lower rate for financial support to third parties, thereby requiring higher national contributions to maintain the overall EU share. Partnerships can also agree to use part of the EU contribution to fill funding gaps in selection lists, ensuring that more projects are supported. Internal rules should be kept as simple as possible to avoid misunderstandings.

Eligible costs are defined in the grant agreement and include personnel, subcontracting, purchase costs, financial support to third parties and indirect costs. Indirect costs are reimbursed at a flat rate of twenty five per cent of eligible direct costs, excluding subcontracting and other categories such as financial support to third parties. Only costs foreseen in the Description of the Action and incurred within the project period can generate EU funding.