TEKES Guide to Agreements (FIN)

http://www.tekes.fi/eu/fin/julkaisut/7po_sopimusopas/7po_sopimusopas.pdf
The Finnish National Technology and Innovation Agency TEKES has published a guide to the various agreements that are a part of the EU project world. The guide introduces all the important agreements and provides insight into dealing with them (in Finnish).

Model Grant Agreement

http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/calls-grant-agreement_en.html
The Grant Agreement (GA) is the principal agreement that guides and regulates the work and practices in an EU project. Formally signed between the Project Coordinator and the European Commission, it—throught is numerous Annexes—provides the framework for the project and all the partners. The Project Proposal is developed into Annex 1, Description of Work during the negotiation phase (see below). Annex 2, General Condition, stipulates the various conditions that direct the various procedures the project needs to follow. Annex 2 is useful reading to those wishing to get an introduction to the nature of EU projects.

Consortium Agreement

The Consortium Agreement (CA) is an agreement between the partners in the Project Consortium. The rights, responsibilities and regulations that guide the relations between the partners are stipulated in the CA, including the IPR issues (see also below). On the CORDIS webportal there is an EC Checklist on the Consortium Agreement, providing an overview of issues that the partners should consider. The DESCA project has produced a Model Consortium Agreement (MCA) that provides a useful template for most purposes.

Consortium Agreement Checklist
ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/docs/checklist_en.pdf
DESCA website
http://www.desca-fp7.eu
Direct link to MCA version 1.0
http://www.desca-fp7.eu/DESCA/Version1/Intro.htm
(Check the DESCA website for updates)

IPR issues

ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/docs/ipr_en.pdf
Intellectual Property Rights and their importance differ from one project to the next, but each project proposal needs to make clear how the project is dealing with IPR issues. The guide here presents the IPR principles against which each project must organise its IPR issues management procedures and agreements (such as sections on IPRs in the Consortium Agreement, see below).

Negotiations with the EC

The Project Proposal is just a proposal. After it has been submitted, it is first evaluated by independent experts. From among the proposals that pass the evaluation, the EC will choose projects that will be offered funding (the EC expression is to “retain” a proposal). Those projects will be invited to Negotiations during which the project proposal may undergo some changes to fit better with the EC expectations. During the negotiation phase, the Project Proposal is developed into a Description of Work that will become the Annex 1 of the Grant Agreement (see above). The EC has published Negotiation Guidance Notes to help project proposers prepare for the negotiations. There is also a template for the Description of Work (DoW). A well prepared proposal resembles the DoW very closely.

Negotiation Guidance Notes
ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/docs/negotiation_en.pdf

Template DoW
ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/docs/negotiation_en.doc