EU negotiation, award stage and contract
Negotiation stage
If your project is successful the Coordinator will be contacted by the EC project officer directly (all contact with the Commission is through the Coordinator). They will be requested to fill in an online form with more detailed legal and administrative information concerning the partners, and verify that already provided via EPSS. This online form is called the Negotiation Form (NEF).
The required process is detailed below. Please be aware that it is not possible to make changes to information once it has been submitted via NEF. If changes are required, then we must request that the project officer at the Commission re-opens the NEF session. It is therefore important that all partners check their details before any information is submitted.
- The Commission will notify the Coordinator by email that a NEF session has been opened. The email will include information on how to access the NEF session through the Research Participant Portal. Each partner will need to register with the portal using the email address that was submitted in the EPSS application.
- The Coordinator checks their details and overall budget. The partners should login to check their details. The Pricing Team can assist with this.
- Once all of the partners have verified their details, the Coordinator should download a PDF of the Grant Preparation Forms (GPFs). The GPF contains updated budget information, confirms each institutions commitment to be part of the project, and provides the information needed to prepare the Grant Agreement. It asks for the details of two signatories who are authorised to sign the final Grant Agreement on behalf of the University. This must only be a named authorised University signatory.
- The Coordinator should circulate the GPFs to the partners or ask them to login to NEF and download their own versions. Each partner will need to submit signed hardcopies to the Coordinator. A GPF must only be signed by the named authorised signatory, and therefore must be forwarded to the Pricing Team for signature and final checking.
Consortium agreement
The Coordinator is also required to agree a Consortium Agreement between the partners. This ensures that all parties know how they are expected to work together under the project.
- Where Sheffield is the Coordinator, this will be undertaken by the Pricing & Contracts Team and your faculty Contracts Manager/Officer will be in touch directly.
- Where Sheffield is a partner, you should forward the draft agreement to your faculty Contracts Manager/Officer to check the document and suggest any modifications.
Award stage and contract
If the negotiation process is successful, a Grant Agreement will be issued. The standard Grant Agreement will detail the Coordinator and all the partners.
If Sheffield is the co-ordinator
- The Grant Agreement must be signed by R&IS. EU projects are slightly different to normal grants because they must be signed by the signatory named on the GPF, rather than by any signatory on duty.
- The Grant Agreement will also have an 'Accession Form' for each partner. If Sheffield is the Coordinator then we must ensure that each partner signs and returns three copies. Again the 'Accession Form' must be signed by the named signatory that was detailed in the GPF.
- We have 45 days to have these forms signed and returned to the Commission. If there are a large number of partners in various locations, then this is a tight deadline.
If Sheffield is a partner
- We will receive three copies of the 'Accession form' only. As above, this will need to be signed by the specifically named signatory in R&IS.
- We should also receive a copy of the actual Grant Agreement for reference. If the department receives these forms direct, they should forward them to the Pricing & Contracts Team as soon as possible since the same 45 day deadline applies.
Once the Grant Agreement has been signed by the Commission and the Coordinator, then the project is live and is handed over to Finance.