#3 Signing the Grant Agreement
If the assessment of an application is positive, the Grant Agreement preparation procedure will be initiated, during which the applicant will be asked to update the submitted application considering experts’ comments (provided in the Assessment Summary Report), as well as to provide the requested documents for financial capacity assessment.
The Grant Agreement preparation has the following aims:
- to gather financial information and verify applicant’s financial capacity
- to set the framework for the grant and its terms and conditions, in particular concerning deliverables, reporting, and payments
- to assure that an application has been adjusted considering recommendations of the experts and the Project Selection Committee
- to verify that the Description of project (Annex 1 to the Grant Agreement) and the Detailed project budget table (Annex 2 to the Grant Agreement) correspond to the information provided in the application and its annexes.
For consortium-based projects, the coordinator always leads and coordinates the Grant Agreement preparation process across the consortium. They act as the single point of contact between the Granting Authority and the project participants.
By signing the Grant Agreement and the accession forms (the beneficiaries other than the coordinator will have to accede to the Grant Agreement by signing the accession form), the beneficiaries accept the grant and agree to implement the project under their own responsibility and in accordance with the Grant Agreement, with all the obligations and terms and conditions it sets out.
Financial capacity assessment
An applicant shall have the financial capacity to complete the activities for which funding is requested. Only legal entities with stable, sufficient, and solid financial resources will be considered eligible to receive a grant.
Principally, the financial capacity concerns only certain types of applicants, other participants will be check in exceptional cases. Call Conditions will specify whose financial capacity will be assessed under a certain call and will provide a list of supporting documents for conducting this assessment. The supporting documents will have to be provided by an applicant prior to signing the Grant Agreement or during the assessment of the application.
Generally, the verification of financial capacity does not apply to public bodies. Entities falling under the category of public body will have to substantiate their legal standing by providing the following documents:
- signed Legal Entity Identification form (Public Legal Entity form)
- official VAT (Value Added Tax) certificate or the proof of VAT exemption
- copy of the act, law, decree, or decision that established the legal entity as a public body (or, in case of absence thereof, any other official legal document that proves this)
The financial capacity assessment is based on financial indicators (assets, liabilities, revenue), but other aspects, such as composition of project’s costs, coordinator’s experience in EU funding, coordination of transnational consortia, etc. in previous years will also be considered to ensure applicant’s credibility.If the financial capacity of the applicant is perceived as weak, the Granting Authority may request to submit additional documents (for instance, guarantee) or take additional measures, such as splitting payment of the prefinancing into several instalments or setting a ceiling for the pre-financing in the Grant Agreement.