The Consortium Agreement (CA) specifies the rights and obligations of the project partners. For example, it contains provisions about organisation and decision-making, financial questions and the handling of intellectual property rights within the consortium. A CA is obligatory for most projects and should be signed prior to the Grant Agreement (GA).
The consortium is solely responsible for the preparation of the CA and is a contract under private law, where the EU Commission is under no circumstances involved. The beneficiaries can use the CA to complement and, where expressly provided by the "default rules", modify the regulations of the GA. However, the CA must not contradict the GA. Therefore, the information provided by the beneficiaries in the "Description of the Action" (Annex 1 of the GA) are binding for the CA.
CAs typically specify the following topics:
- General provisions: definitions, entry into force, duration, applicable law (often: Belgian law) etc.
- Obligations of beneficiaries: compliance with deadlines for deliverables and reports, information obligations, participation in meetings etc. and consequences of non-compliance
- Internal organisation and decision-making: composition and duties of bodies (corresponding to the size of the consortium), meetings, voting rules etc.
- Financial provisions: allocation of funding and transfer to the partners (e.g. payment of pre-financing in instalments), handling of receipts and financial losses etc.
- Provisions on the handling of intellectual property rights
- Other issues: liability, non-disclosure, dispute resolution etc.
The CA is usually drafted on the basis of a model agreement (e.g. DESCA, MCARD-HEU, EUCAR) and adapted to the relevant project.
The DESCA Core Group has published a version with focus on "associated partners".
While costs incurred for preparing a CA are not eligible for funding, any costs incurred in revising the CA during the project period are eligible for funding.
More information can be found ...
- on the homepage of the DESCA Core Group
- on the homepage of DIGITALEUROPE
- on the homepage of EUCAR
- in the guide of the EU Commission "How to draw up your H2020 consortium agreement"
- in the Online Manual of the EU Commission
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