Commission to publish long-awaited explainer of its grant terms

The European Commission is about to publish the full Horizon Europe Annotated Grant Agreement (AGA) this month, after several years of delay.

“The (re)publication of a fully-fledged corporate AGA is imminent,” a Commission spokeswoman told Science|Business, confirming it is expected this month.

The AGA is an explainer of the complexities of the Model Grant Agreement that beneficiaries of all EU programmes sign when they start a project. It is an essential reference that provides explanations and examples of how to deal with various situations that may arise when dealing with the myriad reporting rules.

The Commission published a draft version in 2021, when EU programmes funded by the current long term budget got underway. The draft includes many sections that are relevant to the Horizon Europe research programme, such as intellectual property rights, ethics, gender and open access policy.

But sections on reporting and checks, reviews and audits, are still missing. Information in the chapter concerning personnel costs, a very important issue that all beneficiaries have to deal with, is missing too. Researchers have been frustrated.

Sebastian Claus, team leader for EU project management at the EU Liaison Office of the German Research Organisations (KoWi), has been waiting for the full version to be able to help grantees with a variety of pressing questions.

“Many projects have been running for some time, some projects have already been completed, and there are no reliable explanations how to interpret the rules. I find this very difficult for the beneficiaries, because there is no certainty: How to calculate costs correctly? How to keep records? Which documents do you need in case of audits and checks?” Claus said

Universities have also been awaiting publication. Laura Keustermans, senior policy officer at the League of European Research Universities (LERU), says, “Even now in the third year of Horizon Europe, the AGA would be a useful tool, contributing to legal certainty and to a uniform handling of processes by the various EU agencies.”

Streamlining complications

The blame for the delay is put down to what the Commission calls ‘a corporate approach.’ In this latest EU budget cycle, which started in 2021, the Commission decided to simplify its grants and apply the same model to all funding programmes, such as Horizon Europe, Digital Europe, Erasmus+ and many others.

A great idea on paper, it has proved a little more difficult to implement. A joint approach means numerous directorates in the Commission get a say, prolonging discussions and holding up publication of AGA, which covers not just Horizon Europe, but most EU funding.

“It needs to be understood that the AGA is a corporate document which applies to the large majority of directly managed grants and, as such, its drafting and any (re)publication decision-making process represent a corporate internal exercise involving several services of the Commission and led by the Commission’s central services,” the Commission spokeswoman said. “With that in mind, Commission services have been working on drafting and finalising the parts related to reporting and payments aspects.”

But those receiving grants from Horizon Europe have been frustrated with the delay, which has not been officially justified.

Mattias Björnmalm, secretary general of the university association CESAER, says the issue has created ongoing frustration.

“It is a reasonable expectation that such a key guidance document is available at the roll out of a new programme, or failing that, that it is made available swiftly afterwards,” he says. “We know that those leading on this topic in the European Commission have done heroic efforts to try to get the AGA adopted as soon as possible, but have been running into issues from other parts of the Commission for years now.”

Thomas Estermann, director at the European University Association (EUA), echoes the sentiment.  “From an overall funding perspective good practice would entail helping beneficiaries in understanding complex rules and details at the start of a programme,” he tells Science|Business. “And the AGA has always been an important document for beneficiaries and auditors alike. A draft document is not really helpful for ensuring clarity.”

And there’s still little tangible benefit from the promised simplification for the beneficiaries, beyond universities benefitting from closer links between the student mobility programme Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe.

“For universities, it’s nice to have similar rules and documents for Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe. But in reality, researchers are less involved in other programmes. Maybe Digital Europe, maybe some other programmes, but the biggest part is the research programme for universities. I’m not seeing this as a simplification for them,” says Claus.

For Claus, who also co-chairs the implementation working group at IGLO, an informal network of Horizon Europe liaison offices, where they come together for open exchange on all things Horizon, the big issue is constantly changing rules.

“Very important is stability for the institutions. With every programme, they have to reinvent themselves, they have to re-establish inner rules and processes. If there was a continuity in the rules, especially when it comes to the calculation of personnel costs, this would be very helpful,” Claus said.