Stages · 04/10

Partnerships & consortium

Stage 4 of 10 in the grant lifecycle: 4 knowledge base articles on programmes, rules and terms for this step.

Glossary4

Consortium (consortium) A consortium is a group of legal entities that submit a proposal together and sign the grant agreement. Horizon Europe research and innovation actions require at least three independent organisations from three different countries, at least one of them from an EU Member State. Horizon Europe Basic
Consortium Agreement A consortium agreement is an internal written contract between project partners on governance, distribution of funds, liability and intellectual property. The funder neither signs nor reviews it. In EU grants it should be concluded before the grant agreement is signed, so the text has to be read and negotiated during grant preparation, not after the project starts. Intermediate
Coordinator / Project Coordinator The coordinator is the beneficiary chosen by the consortium to manage the project and represent it before the Commission. All payments pass through the coordinator's account, and it is the coordinator who submits the reports and deliverables; the grant agreement expressly forbids delegating these duties to anyone else. Horizon Europe Basic
Partner Search for a Consortium Partner search means finding the organisations you will apply with to a call that requires a consortium. The main free channels are Partner Search on the Funding & Tenders Portal, National Contact Points, the Enterprise Europe Network, brokerage events and the CORDIS project database. For a newcomer, joining a consortium that is already forming is usually more realistic than building one. Basic