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Grant Agreement Preparation Process

This section details the different steps of the Grant Agreement Preparation (GAP) process.

This process will differ depending on the type of project awarded:

  • MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships: the University of Leeds is the sole beneficiary and is therefore automatically the Project Coordinator
  • ERC fellowships: For sole applicant grants, the University of Leeds is the Project Coordinator. However on some grants there may be additional partners, or we may be a partner on an ERC grant.
  • Consortium-based projects: the process will differ if you are a partner or a Project Coordinator

The Project Coordinator always leads and coordinates the GAP process across the consortium. They act as the single point of contact between the European Commission (EC) and the project participants.

The EU team will manage this process for you, whether you are the Project Coordinator or a partner. We will liaise with you and your Faculty Research and Innovation Office.

Please contact us if you have any queries related to Grant Agreement Preparation.

Step 1: Notification email

The EC will send a notification email to confirm that your project has been successful. This email will ask you to log onto the portal and start preparing for the Grant Agreement.

You will receive e-mail notifications for all the actions that you need to undertake to complete the Grant Agreement Preparation. The EU team will be here to assist you throughout the process.

To access your project:

  • Log in to the Funding and Tenders portal
  • Go to Manage my area
  • Click on My Projects
  • Select your project
  • Click Actions > Manage Project

This will take you to the Grant Management Services online system where you will be able to access:

  • an evaluation summary report with your score and the evaluator’s comments
  • a letter containing instructions on how to proceed with your grant preparation (including a timetable and the specific deadlines for each stage)

Step 2: Get in touch

Our team will contact you to start the process.

If access has not already given at proposal stage, please add our team as a ‘participant contact’. We will then assist you with the entire grant preparation administrative process.

Step 3: Budget information, risk assessment and supporting documents

After receiving the successful notification, we will check that the budget entered on the portal is correct and that you are still committed to the project. We will ask you to complete a risk review dashboard for the project on KRISTAL.

For MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships, the EU team will contact the fellow to request:

  • evidence of their PhD (or letter confirming viva date and outcome for those who have not yet received the certificate)
  • evidence of family obligations such as a birth certificate, a marriage certificate or any other relevant documents (if eligible for the family allowance)

Step 4: Declaration of Honour (DoH)

The EC will email us to request that the University of Leeds signs the Declaration of Honour (DoH). The EU team will ask the University's Legal Representative to sign the DoH. There is a 6 week deadline to sign after receiving notification of the award. Once signed, we will notify you.

For consortium-based projects, all the beneficiaries will also need to sign the DoH within the 6 week deadline.

Step 5: Negotiation phase, consortium/partner agreement

During this negotiation period, you will need to agree a start date with your project partners (or your fellow).

Additionally:

  • For consortium-based projects, a Consortium Agreement will need to be signed between the consortium members
  • For MSCA Postdoctoral Global Fellowships, a partnership agreement will need to be signed between the University of Leeds and the partner organisation located in a third country

Step 6: Grant Agreement Preparation and signature

1. The Project Coordinator and all the project beneficiaries (for consortium-based projects) need to complete beneficiary information, which is used to populate the Grant Agreement. The EU team will help you complete this information (mainly legal, financial and administrative).

For consortium-based projects only: the Project Coordinator will usually contact all beneficiaries to request that they log onto the portal to complete the beneficiary information. If the University of Leeds is the Project Coordinator, our team will contact all the beneficiaries and check that the information they provide is correct.

For all projects (except MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships): the Project Coordinator will also prepare the Description of Action (DoA). This document is based on the original application submitted. The EC may ask for some aspects to be updated or clarified, but it will mostly be the same as your proposal. The EC usually gives 3 weeks to prepare the first version. After assessment, the EC will give an additional two weeks to address any comments and submit the final Grant Agreement. The EU Team will provide support to create this document.

2. Once all the requested information is complete, the EC prepares the Grant Agreement. The EC and the coordinating institution then sign it electronically.

The Grant Agreement must usually be signed within 3 months of receiving the notification of the award, unless stated otherwise.

For consortium-based projects only: following the signature of the Grant Agreement (between the EC and the Coordinating institution), the Project Coordinator will ask each beneficiary to electronically sign the accession form to the Grant Agreement. Project beneficiaries have 30 days to sign it. Affiliated entities do not sign this form.