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.

One of the options that the guidelines identify is to use EU funding programmes other than Horizon Europe. Some of these depend on other DGs. Are other DGs open to this option?

Exploring feasibility is part of the scenario development. Partnerships may indeed identify opportunities in other EU programmes, if relevant and realistic. The exercise does not imply prior commitment from those programmes but aims to identify promising pathways to be further explored.
If the EU budget is cut, European synergies are likely to be affected first. Should we elaborate on how individual Member States will react to this “EU budget cut”?

European Partnership have a defined and limited duration. Not renewing a partnership does not constitute a budget cut to the currently existing partnership. Phasing-out strategies are not about describing reactions to non-renewal, but about identifying proactive, solution-oriented ways to preserve what has been achieved: how to make the most of what was built together. It is a strategic exercise to define how the partnership can evolve beyond FP funding, maintain collaboration, and secure its legacy and impact.
What is the actual rationale of the creation of the phasing-out strategies? How can we carry on what we do with no more budget to do it?

Not with no budget, but with no Framework Programme budget. This exercise prepares partnerships for the eventuality of not receiving further funding from future Framework Programmes. There are finite resources and evolving priorities, no continuation can be guaranteed. The purpose is to ensure that valuable assets, knowledge, and collaborations built over time are not lost. For activities and results identified as essential, there should be interest in maintaining and developing them beyond Framework Programme support.
In some calls, there is a widening phase between the first and second stages, meaning that consortia can add partners at the full proposal stage. Therefore, the consortia at the pre-proposal stage may differ from those that are funded. Could the difference in composition of the consortia at the pre-proposal stage cause a problem in the system? If so, how should the data be handled?

In the event of any modifications, partnerships may upload an updated version of the file containing the latest data. For instance, a new partner can be added into the participants' sequence, without changing the order numbers of those already involved.
Is it possible to have a testing and validation tool for XML files before submission?

There are many readily available tools that allow XML vs XSD validation (e.g. notepad++) and that have proved to be effective for partnerships
Will the reporting template be available soon? What are the requirements and what kind of data do we need to request from the projects?

The new template will be fully aligned with regular Horizon Europe reporting e.g. the periodic reporting template. It is being designed so that many fields will be optional to make the process as easy as possible for partnerships, particularly those already addressing this requirement. Some work is still being done within the Commission to finalise the template, and no specific date can, as yet, be provided regarding its release. Efforts will be made to communicate clearly and as early as possible to allow adjustments to be made as necessary. The Commission acknowledges that some partnerships have already started to prepare the internal reporting templates and would be happy to receive copies of these to help ensure the new template is comprehensive but easy to work with.