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.

Does the partnership need to expend 70% of the EU funding (pre-financing) in order to receive the interim payment?

There is a need to demonstrate that 70% of the prefinancing has been consumed. Otherwise, the payment would be calculated subtracting the unused amount. As the Annotated Model Grant Agreement states (Art. 22.3.1), where FSTP is used, commitments entered into by beneficiaries vis-à-vis their third parties receiving financial support can be included in the ‘additional prefinancing report’ for the purpose of calculating the 70% usage threshold, even if no payments have been made, provided it is the usual accounting practice of the beneficiaries to consider the corresponding amounts as committed/used and thus no longer available for other purposes.
Concerning the budget phases of co-funded partnerships, is it possible to shift budgets?

This is only possible in exceptional cases and requires an amendment of the Description of the Action. The Granting Authority needs to agree.
Does the interim payment only take place at the end of the process, and before that are there only pre-financing instalments?

There are the pre-financing and then interim payments, which are connected to the reporting phases. In some cases, where co-funded partnerships have undergone so-called top-up calls and amendments to increase the Union contribution to a GA, there are additional pre-financing arrangements and the first interim payment was prolonged. The top-up amendment triggered the additional prefinancing, which was connected to reduced reporting obligations. The multiple pre-financing approach was used before the European Commission enabled the use of annual instalments for co-funded partnerships, as of the Work Programme 2025. For partnerships launched in Work Programme 2025, a standard approach is foreseen (single pre-financing, interim payments, final payment).
Does the partnership only need to transfer data from the FSTP proposals that have been selected for funding?

No, data from proposals that were not selected for funding also need to be submitted. Data on all proposals are essential to meet the requirements of Horizon Europe's general monitoring framework, otherwise important information may be missing (success rates, impact, etc.).
Who is responsible for sending the data to the European Commission? Is it each partner?

The data needs to be provided to the European Commission at the partnership level, i.e. one entity needs to provide all data to the Commission. How the data is collected internally in the partnership is up to the consortium.
At what point in time did the example partnership start discussions regarding the internal arrangements and did they ever face potential partners dropping out?

Approximately one year before submitting its proposal, the example partnership presented a scenario to its core team. Subsequently, the partnership established the consortium and reached agreements at the country level two months prior to proposal submission. Achieving these agreements was essential, as they formed part of the Consortium Agreement, which needs to be finalised before signing the Grant Agreement. From the partnership’s perspective, it is crucial to address such matters as early as possible. No partners withdrew due to the internal arrangements, as the example partnership had clearly communicated from the outset that there would not be full (e.g., 100%) reimbursement of personnel costs.