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European Research Council

Guidance Notes for preparing the Grant Agreement
ERC Grant Schemes (Starting Grant ­ Advanced Grant)
24 July 2008

The Guide is published by the ERC on http://erc.europa.eu It can also be downloaded from the CORDIS page on http://cordis.europa.eu ) This guidance1 is provided for information purposes and easing cooperation. These notes do not replace legal sources but aim at assisting participants who are invited for preparation of the Grant Agreement following the evaluation of their proposal. It outlines the information and procedures in the granting process.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION FP7 Specific Programme IDEAS

Disclaimer: Neither the Commission nor any person acting on its behalf can be held responsible for the use made of these guidance notes.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
SUMMARY OF CHANGES COMPARED TO THE PREVIOUS VERSION: ..................................... 3 1. INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................... 4 2. INVITATION TO PREPARE THE GRANT AGREEMENT ............................................................. 4 3. CONTENT OF THE PREPARATION PROCESS ............................................................................... 7 3.1. What documents are needed during preparation of the Grant Agreement? ............................................. 7 3.2. Scientific/Technical preparation ............................................................................................................ 10 3.3. Financial and legal preparation .............................................................................................................. 11 4. COMPLETION OF THE PREPARATION PROCESS AND FURTHER STEPS .......................... 12 4.1. Grant agreement signature ..................................................................................................................... 12 4.2. Start of the project.................................................................................................................................. 13 4.3. Pre-financing .......................................................................................................................................... 13 4.4. What is the Participants' Guarantee Fund (PGF)? ................................................................................. 13 5. THE DESCRIPTION OF WORK ­ ANNEX I TO THE GRANT AGREEMENT ......................... 17 5.1. Starting Grants ....................................................................................................................................... 18 5.2. Advanced Grants.................................................................................................................................... 20 6. PROJECT MONITORING AND FOLLOW-UP ................................................................................ 24 7. APPENDICES ......................................................................................................................................... 25 7.1. Appendix 1 ­ Layout of Grant Agreement specific conditions ............................................................. 26 7.2. Appendix 2 ­Ethical issues .................................................................................................................... 27 7.3. Appendix 3 ­ Template for cover page of Annex I ............................................................................... 29 7.4. Appendix 4 ­ Subcontracting................................................................................................................. 30 7.5. Appendix 5 ­ ERC Grant Agreement Preparation Forms ­ GPFs ......................................................... 33

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SUMMARY

OF CHANGES COMPARED TO THE PREVIOUS VERSION:

As the previous version was addressing the Starting Grants preparation, the main purpose of this new version of the guide is to provide complementary information related to the preparation of the Advanced Grants. However, some of the modifications will also impact the preparation of Starting Grants and therefore the attention of the reader is drawn to the following sections where the most relevant changes were introduced: Section 3.1 Grant Preparation Forms The electronic exchange process is simplified. Once agreement is reached, the final GPF file is sent by e-mail to the Host Institution for printing and signature. Section 3.1 Supplementary Agreement A paper original is no longer required but only electronic versions: a draft version (not necessarily signed) before launching the production of the draft grant agreement and a final signed version (scanned) when returning the signed Grant Agreement. Section 3.1 Bank statement and bank information Host Institutions which, for internal reasons, make the choice of a non-interest bearing account or which confirm that they will not be in a position to identify and report the interest earned by the pre-financing, will be proposed a reduction of the duration of financial reporting periods (typically 9 months instead of 18 months) and consequently a reduced prefinancing. The complete and signed (both by bank and by account holder) bank information form will be requested only when the bank account proposed by the Host Institution happens to be not yet validated in the Commission's accounting system. Section 5.1 (Starting Grants) and 5.2 (Advanced Grants) ­ Clarification of the budget tables requested in the Description of Work The distribution of resources over the duration of the project is to be presented in financial reporting periods (i.e. 18 months periods) and not years. A template table is proposed to this purpose.

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1. INTRODUCTION These guidance notes are provided for applicants who are undertaking the preparation of a Grant Agreement following the positive evaluation of proposals for ERC-grants organised under the "Ideas Specific Programme" of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Community2. Due to the particularities of the "Ideas Specific Programme" this preparation process is intended to be mainly administrative, understanding that usually only those proposals that require little or no adjustments to their substance are funded. Therefore, most correspondence will be handled by the official called "Administrative Officer", exception being significant modifications of the content of the project (Description of Work), which prior to the preparation of the ERC Grant Agreement, will be handled by the official called "Project Officer". This document outlines the essentials of the ERC Grant Agreement preparation process set up by the ERC Dedicated Implementation Structure (ERC-DIS). Definition of terms The European Research Council (ERC) is established by the European Commission3 to implement the Specific Programme "Ideas" of the Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration ("Ideas Specific Programme")4. The ERC consists of the ERC-Scientific Council and the ERC Dedicated Implementation Structure; it is accountable to the Commission and operates under conditions of autonomy and integrity guaranteed by the Commission. The term "Rules for Participation" refers to the "Rules for the participation of undertakings, research centres and universities in actions under the Seventh Framework Programme and for the dissemination of research results"5.

2. I

NVITATION TO PREPARE THE

G

RANT

AGREEMENT

Following the positive peer review evaluation of a proposal, including fixing of the maximum Community financial contribution for the work, the Principal Investigator is invited by letter from the ERC DIS to commence the preparation for a grant agreement. A copy of this letter is addressed to the Host Institution. The letter of invitation provides details on any aspects to be considered during the preparation of the Grant Agreement (the layout of a Grant Agreement's specific conditions can be found in Appendix 1).

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Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council (EC) No 1982/2006 of 18 December 2006 concerning the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007-2013) - OJ L412 of 30.12.2006, p1. OJ L57, 24.02.2007, p.14. OJ L400, 30.12.2006, p. 243 corrigendum published in OJ L 54, 22.2.2007, p. 81. OJ L391, 30.12.2006, p.1. 4

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Proposals that have undergone an ethical review also receive an Ethical Review Report (for more details on ethical issues please refer to Appendix 2). Support during the preparation of the Grant Agreement The letter of invitation specifies the name and contact details of the official in preparation of the ERC Grant Agreement. This person will be able to assist questions on the technical, legal and financial issues. Should applicants questions relating to the ERC Model Grant Agreement, or to general legal issues, they are advised to submit these by following http://ec.europa.eu/research/enquiries/ and selecting the option 'Legal/Financial Framework Programme'. charge of the with specific have general and financial the link aspects of the

Furthermore, and because verification of legal status and financial viability of beneficiaries is one of the prerequisites for signing a grant agreement, a Central Validation Team has been created for all activities of the 7th Framework Programme. Contacts with potential beneficiaries may be taken by the Team in order to establish their legal existence and status. The beneficiary (Host Institution) The legal entity will identify one of its staff members as its representative to carry out the actions required of the Host Institution. The representative of the Host Institution is responsible for all contacts between the Host Institution and the ERC DIS.
For multi-beneficiary projects: The principal beneficiary (Host Institution) leads and represents the other beneficiaries with regard the preparation of the ERC Grant Agreement. The beneficiary hosting and engaging the Principal Investigator is the principal beneficiary. That legal entity will identify one of its staff members as its representative to carry out the actions required of the principal beneficiary. The representative of the principal beneficiary is responsible for all contacts between the beneficiaries and the ERC DIS. The choice of the representative of the principal beneficiary should therefore take into account the organisation's management capacities and its legal and financial stability. For a comprehensive description of the role of the principal beneficiary please refer to Article II.2.3 of the ERC Model Grant Agreement.

The letter of invitation and/or the Grant Agreement specific conditions shall indicate: · The deadline by which the beneficiary must provide the first drafts of Annex I (Description of Work) of the ERC Grant Agreement (GA) and the ERC Grant Agreement Preparation Forms (GPFs) including all supporting documents. · The date by which the preparation of the ERC Grant Agreement is expected to be completed.

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The letter of invitation also points to web addresses for: · These Guidance Notes · The ERC Model Grant Agreement and its annexes and any special conditions that could apply (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/calls-grant-agreement_en.html#ideas_ga) · The Guide for ERC Grant Holders http://erc.europa.eu/pdf/ERC_GrantHolders_PartI_June08.pdf http://erc.europa.eu/pdf/ERC_GrantHolders_PartII_June08.pdf · The Rules to ensure consistent verification of the existence and legal status of participants, as well as their operational and financial capacities, in FP7 indirect actions (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/find-doc_en.html) · The template for the Supplementary Agreement (ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/docs/fp7-lga-tsa_en.pdf) · The Guide to Intellectual Property (ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/docs/ipr_en.pdf)
Rules

for
for

ERC
FP7

projects
projects

· For proposals using or generating "Classified information", additional specific procedures should be addressed during the preparation of the Grant Agreement. ERC projects are in principle not subject to the use of classified information. Would such a case occur, the beneficiary is invited to refer to the Standard FP7 Negotiation Guidelines for further details on the procedures to be applied: ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/docs/negotiation_en.pdf The intellectual property helpdesk The IPR-Helpdesk is available to assist potential and current beneficiaries Community funded projects on intellectual property rights (IPR) issues. It helpline offering a first line assistance on IPR related issues. The helpline is French, Italian, German, Spanish and Polish. It can be http://www.iprhelpdesk.org/ Telephone +34 96 590 97 18 Telefax +34 96 590 97 15 taking part in operates a free run in English, contacted at:

E-mail ipr-helpdesk@ua.es

Intellectual properties issues
Applicants will find an overview of the FP7 intellectual property (IPR) provisions in the Guide to Intellectual Property Rules for FP7 projects. Provisions that are specific to the ERC Grant Agreement are described in the ERC Guide for Grant Holders. That document is intended to act as a guide to the various issues and pitfalls that participants may encounter.

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The ERC Model Grant Agreement6
The Grant Agreement ruling the Support to Frontier research by ERC is specific and different from the standard FP7 Model Grant Agreement. Before beginning preparation of the Grant Agreement, applicants are invited to carefully read the ERC Model Grant Agreement and its Annexes (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/calls-grant-agreement_en.html), which establish the legal framework for the project's funding and administration. When reference is made in this document to the "Model Grant Agreement" it is meant to the specific ERC Model Grant Agreement, unless otherwise specified.

The ERC Guide for Grant Holders
Likewise, a specific Guide for ERC Grant Holders is available. It differs from the standard FP7 Guides. It comprises two parts: an introduction (part I) and a reference manual for financial aspects and reporting (part II): http://erc.europa.eu/pdf/ERC_GrantHolders_PartI_June08.pdf http://erc.europa.eu/pdf/ERC_GrantHolders_PartII_June08.pdf

3. CONTENT

OF THE PREPARATION PROCESS

The overall purpose of the process is to finalise the details of the work to be carried out under the Grant Agreement within the associated budget, as well as to establish the legal and financial information needed to establish the Grant Agreement. A series of documents shall be collected in order to constitute the Grant Agreement file. The preparation of the Grant Agreement process comprises two main aspects: (i) Technical (scientific) preparation and (ii) Financial and legal preparation. 3.1. What documents are needed during preparation of the Grant Agreement? The ERC Model Grant Agreement consists of a predefined core contract and annexes. The Description of Work (Annex I to the ERC Grant Agreement) is prepared by the Principal Investigator, on behalf of the beneficiary. At the beginning of the preparation process, applicants are invited to submit a draft Description of Work. This is largely an updated version of part B of the proposal, taking account of the comments made by the peer reviewers and communicated in the Evaluation Report. Likewise applicants need to provide the Grant Agreement Preparation Forms (GPFs), which are used to set the specific conditions in the core contract (such as reporting periods, bank account coordinates, etc.).

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The model Grant Agreement mentioned in these Guidance Notes refers to ERC actions for frontier research. 7


The Grant Agreement Preparation Forms (GPFs) The GPFs are standard forms that collect information needed to prepare the Grant Agreement and gather programme-wide statistical information. These forms are compatible with the forms used in the proposal submission, so that much of the proposal information is directly transferred into the GPFs. While final version of the GPFs must be signed, signatures are not required on any draft versions. The Grant Agreement Preparation Forms have to be completed in an IT tool. The details of access to the tool will be given in a separate e-mail to the contact person of the Host Institution. The paper version in Appendix 5 of these Guidance Notes (including a full set of explanatory notes) has been included only for information; the actual layout in the IT tool may be different. The use of the IT tool for completing the GPFs is mandatory. It allows the Principal Investigator / Host Institution to establish a complete set of GPFs and to submit it to the ERC DIS. An on-line manual for the IT Tool is available once the user has logged in.
For multi-beneficiary projects, the forms should be completed by all beneficiaries (including those not requesting any funding). The GPFs have sections for each beneficiary, and also a section to be completed by the principal beneficiary for the project as a whole.

The GPFs have been designed to facilitate the preparation and the production of the Grant Agreement. Essentially, the forms are used to identify the beneficiary that will sign the Grant Agreement and to determine the eligible costs and Community contribution. The forms also include a standard declaration to be signed by each participating organisation. Certain details, principally forms A1 and A2, are used to generate a Project Fact Sheet (see following Chapter). The budget forms and the project summary form will be included in the Grant Agreement as part of Annex I. The GPFs may also be used as a reference base by the ERC DIS when receiving financial statements during the lifetime of the project. Thus, although the GPFs are not part of the ERC Grant Agreement (except for the budget forms and the project summary form, as mentioned above), it is important that the information in the forms is exact. A draft of the GPFs must be completed and sent electronically to the Administrative Officer. Once an agreement has been reached, the Host Institution will receive the final version of the GPF file. This file shall be printed and returned to the Administrative Officer in one unbound copy on white paper with original signatures, and at the same time electronically as a scanned document. Any required supporting documentation should be provided in one copy, if not requested differently by the Administrative Officer. The Description of Work (Annex I of the ERC Grant Agreement) Annex I to ERC GA is the reference document for the work to be executed during the lifetime of the project. It constitutes a firm part of the Grant Agreement. It shall facilitate the implementation and meaningful monitoring of the project for all parties. The concrete goals and expected results must be clearly described (in a measurable way). The first draft of Annex I to GA is submitted by the Principal Investigator (resp. the Host Institution) within the deadline and to the person indicated in the letter of invitation. Upon receipt, the ERC-DIS will indicate changes or improvements which are required and to be responded to in an iterative process until agreement is reached. The entire process should be concluded before the deadline for completion of the preparation. The statement on the Changes
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During the preparation of the DoW it might be necessary to introduce some substantial changes regarding execution of the project because of comments made by the Evaluation Panel (see Evaluation Report). The Statement on the Changes lists these and any other justified changes, which were made as compared to the proposal. Substantial changes, which seem to alter the project beyond recommendation of the Evaluation Panel, will be assessed by the ERC-DIS, if needed with expert assistance. Undeclared substantial changes may lead to a situation where the granting process may be suspended and after further scrutiny, may be terminated. The Supplementary Agreement The Supplementary Agreement provides the legal basis for the details of the internal relationship and responsibilities between the Principal Investigator and the Host Institution, but always consistent with the provisions of the Grant Agreement. The Supplementary Agreement is mandatory for all ERC projects. The beneficiary shall provide the ERC DIS with a copy of the signed Supplementary Agreement together with the signed Grant Agreement. A draft version of the Supplementary Agreement shall be transmitted to the ERC DIS in electronic format together with the other documents requested by the Letter of Invitation. A template with minimum requirement for a Supplementary Agreement is provided at the following address: ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/docs/fp7-lga-tsa_en.pdf The Statement on the interest/non-interest bearing nature of the bank account The beneficiary is invited to provide the details of the bank account and to confirm that this bank account is an interest-bearing account or to present any relevant justification preventing the use of such an account. When resulting from an internal choice of the Host Institution, non-interest bearing accounts will be accepted but might lead to a reduction of the duration of financial reporting periods in order to reduce the amount of pre-financing installed. This statement shall be signed by an authorised representative of the account holder and sent to the ERC DIS electronically as a scanned document. Banking information form In case the proposed bank account is not yet validated in the Commission's accounting system and only upon request of the Administrative Officer: · the beneficiary shall provide a duly filled in banking information form. A template form is available as part of the GPFs, as well as directly from the following address:http://ec.europa.eu/budget/execution/ftiers_en.htm · this form shall be signed by an authorised representative of the account holder on the one hand and of the bank on the other hand. It shall be provided as a signed paper original but shall also be sent electronically (scan of the signed document) as an advance copy.

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Copy of Principal Investigator's passport A copy of the PI's passport or ID card or any identity document recognized by the national authorities shall be provided.
NB: Principal Investigators who were invited to interviews during the evaluations of the proposal, e.g. in case of the ERC-2007-StG call, already provided a copy of their identity document. In such cases, no further copy is required at the preparation stage, unless the identity document has been modified or renewed.

Proof of residence in a Member State or Associated State The ERC-2007-StG Call text stipulates that the Principal Investigator shall establish his/her residence in one of the Member States or Associated States for the duration of the project. Therefore, a proof of this residence is to be provided during the preparation of the Grant Agreement and at the latest before the signature of the Grant Agreement by the ERC-DIS. A proof of residence will also be requested from Principal Investigators selected in the ERC2008-AdG call in order to document the fact that the project must be carried out in a Member State or an Associated State. Additional legal and financial documentation If not already registered in the Unique Registration Facility, beneficiaries will have to provide supporting documents enabling the verification of their legal existence and status. In such cases, the verification will be handled by a central service of the Commission in parallel with the granting process and the beneficiaries concerned shall receive separate detailed instructions. In addition, non-public Host Institutions which are not higher education institutions have to provide copies of certified profit and loss account and balance sheet corresponding to the last two financial years for financial viability checking. The same applies to any other beneficiary requesting more than EUR 500,000 EC contribution in a multi-beneficiary project. Extensive information about these verifications is compiled in the document "Rules on verification of existence, legal status, operational and financial capacity" available from the CORDIS website in English, French and German on the following page: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/find-doc_en.html Where paper copies are requested, as is the case for the GPFs, these should be unbound, on white paper, with original signatures. 3.2. Scientific/Technical preparation The aim of the technical preparation is to agree on the final content of Annex I (Description of Work) to the Grant Agreement. NB: This part of the preparation is intended to be mainly handled by the Principal Investigator. During this part of the preparation process: · The proposal may need to be adapted to meet the recommendations of the evaluation, as described in the Evaluation Report.

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· The work to be carried out by the Host Institution (or by each of the beneficiaries, in case of multi-beneficiary projects) taking into consideration the specific role of the Principal Investigator will need to be defined in sufficient detail. · The scientific reporting periods will be established. Although other reporting schemes may be considered for scientific reasons, a standard reporting scheme will foresee scientific reports at mid-term and at the end of the project. 3.3. Financial and legal preparation Financial preparation shall mainly focus on reaching agreement on budgetary matters such as the budget breakdown for the different financial management reporting periods, as well as issues related to subcontracting and third parties. They will also cover the establishment of the amount of the initial pre-financing and the timing of financial management reporting periods. Legal preparation includes the analysis and review of the legal status of each applicant, any special clauses required for the project, and other aspects such as the project start date. NB: This part of the preparation is intended to be mainly handled by the administration of the Host Institution. If this is not the case, the Host Institution is expected to provide all necessary and extensive administrative support to the Principal Investigator in handling this matter. During this part of the preparation process: · The total costs and total eligible costs will be determined. Special attention should be given to the methodology to calculate the personnel costs. · A table of the estimated breakdown of budget and Community financial contribution per categories (personnel, equipment, infrastructure, consumables, travel, publication costs, subcontracting) will be established. · The amount of pre-financing will be established. · The start date and the duration of the project will be agreed upon. Unless a specific (e.g. fixed) starting date is duly justified and agreed during the preparation of the Grant Agreement, the ERC project will start on the first day of the month following the entry into force of the Grant Agreement (entry into force = signature by the ERC DIS).
NB: The Model Grant Agreement also foresees a third option for the starting date (operational start date notified by the beneficiary) but this option will not be used for ERC projects for the sake of simplification of the granting process. Beneficiaries are invited not to consider this option.

· The need for the inclusion in the Grant Agreement of any special clauses will be established. · The timing of the financial management reporting periods will be established. As an indication, a standard reporting period of 18 months will be considered, thus resulting in a "18-18-18-6" scheme for a 5-year project, "18-18-12" for a 4-year project and "18-18" for a 3-year project. · Any subcontracting or third-party issues will be clarified. · The existence and legal status of the Host Institution will be verified. · The financial viability of the non-public Host Institution (and any other non-public beneficiary with an EC contribution exceeding EUR 500,000) will be assessed, as outlined

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in the "Rules to ensure consistent verification of the existence and legal status of participants", as well as their financial capacity. · At this stage, the beneficiary (or the principal beneficiary for multi-beneficiaries projects) has to provide the details of the bank account on which the prefinancing shall be installed. This prefinancing will remain Community's property until the end of the project and therefore, in order to ensure a sound management of the Community's funds, this bank account shall bear interests. Non interest-bearing accounts will be the exception, and the ERC-DIS may in such cases propose a reduction of the duration of financial reporting periods and a subsequent reduction of the pre-financing for securing the financial interests of the Community. Projects also have the opportunity, during preparation of the Grant Agreement, to consider any gender aspect that might be relevant to the project and include it explicitly into the Description of Work. The Commission Recommendation of 11 March 2005 on the European Charter for Researchers and a Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers should be applied as a reference framework for recruitment (http://ec.europa.eu/eracareers/index_en.cfm).

4. COMPLETION

OF THE PREPARATION PROCESS AND FURTHER STEPS

At the end of the preparation process, agreement should be reached on all technical, financial and legal issues related to the ERC Grant Agreement and the Host Institution should be in the position to prepare and send a final version of the relevant documents to the person indicated in the invitation letter. When all the necessary legal and financial information required has been received and validated by the ERC DIS, a Grant Agreement is drafted and sent to the Host Institution for signature. 4.1. Grant agreement signature Upon receipt of the Grant Agreement, the authorised representative of the Host Institution signs two originals on behalf of its organisation and returns them to the ERC DIS. The ERC DIS will sign these once all its internal procedures have been successfully completed and will return one duly signed original to the Host Institution. For multi-beneficiary projects, the Host Institution must distribute in parallel a copy of the Grant Agreement to the other beneficiaries, along with the accession form ­ the form for the other beneficiaries to accede to the Grant Agreement and which constitutes the Annex III to the ERC Model Grant Agreement. All beneficiaries must sign the accession form to accede to the Grant Agreement. Three duly completed originals of the accession form are signed by each beneficiary and returned to the principal beneficiary for its signature. When the principal beneficiary has signed all the accession forms, he/she sends one original of the accession form to each beneficiary and one original to the ERC DIS, keeping one for its records. The ERC Grant Agreement covers the project as a whole and binds each individual beneficiary that has acceded to it. This has a number of important consequences: · If one potential beneficiary fails to accede to the Grant Agreement, it is up to those beneficiaries who have acceded to the Grant Agreement to propose an acceptable solution to the ERC DIS; either by reallocating the work of the missing beneficiary among them or
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by the accession to the Grant Agreement of a new beneficiary. The ERC DIS may terminate the Grant Agreement if it considers that due to this change the project is no longer viable or has been fundamentally changed, compared to the evaluated proposal. · If a bene