The Grant Registration Team (GRT) in UCD Research & Innovation manage the review of funders' award documentation, Terms and Conditions and industry agreements. If the award documentation and Terms and Conditions are non-standard, or if no award documentation is available, the GRT will liaise with the relevant support units (UCD Legal, NovaUCD and the Research Finance Office) on behalf of the Principal Investigator, in relation to the documentation that needs to be put in place.

The contract review process can take some time, depending on the complexity of the award documentation to be put in place. Types of agreements include:

• Research Agreement
• Contract for Services
• Consortium Agreements
• Intellectual Property (IP) Agreements

Several versions of the document(s) may be reviewed before agreement is reached.

All contracts must be signed by the authorised legal signatory in UCD. The GRT will organise this on behalf of the PI. A PI signature is not legally binding and may delay the process. Further information on the Contract Review Process can be found here: Contract review process managed by the Grant Registration Team (GRT)  

EU Horizon Europe Grant Preparation
All stages of the grant preparation for your Horizon Europe project are now carried out on the EU Research Participant Portal.  Support is available for the completion of the EU Portal data.

Steps involved in the Grant Preparation stage of EU Horizon Europe projects:

1. The Commission sends an email to the coordinator with an "invitation to grant preparation phase" which is then followed by an email with a "request for additional data required to prepare your grant agreement".
2. The coordinator logs into the Research Participant Portal and inputs the requested data.
3. All partners in the consortium assign Legal and Financial signatories (called a PLSIGN and PFSIGN) to the project on the Portal.
   UCD partner add PLSIGN  
   UCD partner add PFSIGN  
4. Once all the data has been inputted onto the Research Participant Portal, the Legal signatory (PLSIGN) of all partners and the coordinator are required to electronically sign the "Declaration of Honour" on the Portal.
5. The coordinator then submits the grant preparation data on the Portal.
6. After data checks by the EU Project Officer, the PLSIGN of coordinator receives an email requesting them to sign the grant agreement electronically on the Portal.
7. The Commission then signs the grant agreement electronically on the Portal.
8. The PLSIGNs of each of the partners are then requested to sign the 'accession to the grant agreement' electronically on the Portal. This process is displayed in the Infographic.

EU Consortium Agreement
The EU 'Consortium Agreement (CA)' is an internal agreement between members of the consortium, to set out their internal arrangements for implementing the grant. In Horizon Europe projects, the partners must prepare a Consortium Agreement (CA), unless otherwise stipulated in the call for proposals. The DESCA Consortium Agreement template is recommended for use in all UCD Horizon Europe projects. The Horizon Europe Guide for establishing a Consortium Agreement can be found here.

1. Where UCD is leading (coordinating) a project, the Grant Registration Team will prompt you to fill in a template agreement and organise internal review by UCD Legal, NovaUCD and Research Finance Offices. Liaising with project partners is the responsibility of the PI.
2. Where UCD is a partner in a project, a Consortium Agreement will be drafted by the lead organisation and the UCD Grant Registration Team will organise the internal review by UCD Legal, NovaUCD and Research Finance Offices. Liaising with the lead organisation is the responsibility of the PI.

Further information on this process can be found here.

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