Negotiating Your FP7 Award
Our European Team's factsheets and the official EC guidance documents (see right-hand menu) will help you navigate the Contract preparation stage for FP7 and ERC grants.
Further guidance on FP7 Contracts can be found below.
FP7 Model Grant Agreements with Annexes
FP7 Model Grant Agreements with Annexes
- The European Commission uses for FP7 a body of Model Grant Agreements wherein many of the details are already fixed (non-negotiable standard terms and conditions).
- You can find all Model Grant Agreements described here on the Participant Portal.
- Core Grant Agreements, Annex II and III differ between the Co-operation/Capacities, ERC and Marie Curie programmes. The 'Grant Agreement' as a whole will be made up of the following parts, largely similar in each area:
- Grant Agreement - Core - Adapted to each individual project, confirming beneficiaries, start date, duration, budget and reporting periods. This is the main body of the contract which is signed by the European Commission and the Coordinator. All other partner institutions sign Accession Forms to the Grant Agreement but they are full beneficiaries nonetheless.
- Annex I - aka the Technical Annex or Description of Work - essentially the technical details of performance of the project adapted through negotiation from the original proposal. This is always project-specific and based on the proposal, part B.
- Annex II - General Conditions (standard terms and conditions, non-negotiable) - the same for all projects under Co-operation/Capacities, modified for ERC (single and multi-beneficiary versions), and Marie Curie (single and multi-beneficiary versions). This annex contains important details on financial arrangements, eligible costs, reporting requirements, intellectual property rights, confidentiality, and liability.
- Annex III - Specific Provisions (standard terms and conditions, non-negotiable) - unique to each type of project to provide extra conditions on finance or reporting.
- Annex IV - Form A - Accession of beneficiaries to the Grant Agreement, to be used at the start of all grants
- Annex V - Form B - Request for the accession of a new beneficiary to an existing Grant Agreement, e.g. for a grant which is already up and running
- Annex VI - Form C - Financial Statement per funding scheme - used to report costs claimed at the end of reporting periods
- Annex VII - Form D - Terms of reference of the certificate on the financial statements (known as the Audit Certificate in FP6)
- Annex VII - Form E - Terms of reference for the certificate on the methodology - new to FP7 to be used for beneficiaries who want to get average personnel costs certified and/or for those who are unable to calculate real indirect costs and want to have a simplified method of calculating these certified.
FP7 Consortium Agreements
IMPORTANT: All Consortium Agreements for projects not coordinated by Oxford must be reviewed by Research Services. Please contact ecresearch@admin.ox.ac.uk (ext. 89800), or email any draft agreements you may receive. All Consortium Agreements for projects coordinated by Oxford must be issued by Research Services. Please contact ecresearch@admin.ox.ac.uk as early as possible when you consider coordinating a project, i.e. before proposal submission.
- A Consortium Agreement will consist of clauses covering certain aspects of the project that need further clarification to clauses in the model contract. These clauses vary as they are tailored towards each individual project and subject to negotiation between the members of the consortium. A Consortium Agreement is normally drafted by the Coordinator (i.e. the coordinating institution) and circulated to all partners for discussion and negotiation. The European Commission is not a party to the Consortium Agreement
General Factsheets and Links
European Research Council (ERC) Factsheets and Links
Marie Curie Factsheets and Links
(99kb) 
(63kb)
(90kb)