The Grant Agreement (GA) is the funding agreement concluded between the European Commission/funding agency and the project participants and specifies the rights and obligations of the contracting parties. It contains important provisions for the implementation of the project such as criteria for the eligibility of costs and provisions for handling intellectual property rights.
Horizon 2020 provides a General Model Grant Agreement (General MGA) for Research and Innovation Actions (RIA), Innovation Actions (IA) and Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) as well as specific Model Grant Agreements for particular project types such as ERC, MSCA and the SME Instrument. Differences from the General MGA are indicated at the beginning of the relevant GA.
The majority of the provisions of the GA cannot be altered. Individual details may however be individually agreed with the European Commission/funding agency during the grant preparation phase, such as the start of the project and the amount of pre-financing.
The MGA also includes different options and special provisions that do not apply to all projects. The options applicable to the relevant project are printed in italics in the GA.
The MGA also contains "default rules" which may be modified by the consortium in the Consortium Agreement (CA). The project partners may in particular modify the provisions applicable to intellectual property.
Structure and key points of the General Model Grant Agreement
- Preamble – Participants
- Chapter 1 – General
- Chapter 2 – Action (name, acronym, start and duration of project etc.)
- Chapter 3 – Grant (max. amount and calculation of grant, funding rate(s), eligible costs)
- Chapter 4 – Rights and obligations of the parties (e.g. third party costs, documentation obligations, reporting and payments, checks/reviews/audits and management of intellectual property)
- Chapter 5 – Division of roles and responsibilities (within the consortium)
- Chapter 6 – Rejection of costs, reduction of the grant etc.
- Chapter 7 – Final provisions
The Grant Agreement includes the following Annexes:
- Annex 1 – Description of the action (DoA)
- Annex 2 – Estimated budget
- Annex 3 – Accession Forms
- Annex 4 – Model for the financial statements
- Annex 5 – Model for the certificate on the financial statements (CFS)
- Annex 6 – Model for the certificate on the methodology (CoMUC)
Information about "amendments" can be found under amendments.
The Annotated Grant Agreement (AGA) provides explanations and examples of all provisions of the GA and also has the same structure. Please note that important detailed information, in particular about eligible costs, can often only be found in these annotations and is not included in the text of the GA.
JTIs and Article 185 Initiatives
Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs): IMI, Clean Sky 2, Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 (FCH), Bio-Based Industries (BBI), EPoSS, ECSEL, Shift2Rail, SESAR
Article 185 Initiatives: AAL, EUREKA-Eurostars, EMRP, EDCTP, Bonus
If you have questions concerning JTIs or Article 185 Initiatives, please contact your relevant thematic NCP.
The FFG has compiled a comparison document highlighting the differences between the Model Grant Agreements for the individual initiatives and the H2020 General MGA (in German language). The document as well as further information is available under "downloads" (see below).
Detailed informationen can be found …
- in the information graph of the European Commission "H2020 Grant Lifecycle"
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