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For selected projects, Eligibility and Admissibility Checks are carried out during the evaluation and/or award procedure, and consortium members will need to pass these checks in order for any grant to be awarded. Therefore, it is important for consortium members to meet requirements in order not to jeopardise the grant for selected projects.

According to the rules for legal entity validationPDF, International Organisation (IO) means an intergovernmental organisation (other than the EU) established under international public law, including specialised entities — with or without legal personality — set up by international organisations. If the Central Validation Services consider that an entity meets the criteria described in the validation rules, it will be validated as “public” body.

It is important to consider that there is a distinction between entities eligible to participate and entities eligible for funding, and that only entities eligible for funding can become Beneficiaries in the Grant Agreement. The eligibility conditions applicable for Call HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-DEMOCRACY-12 are described in General Annex BPDF, quoted here:

• Entities eligible to participate: Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations ) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation(Regulation (EU) 2021/695 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 April 2021 establishing Horizon Europe (OJ L 170 , 12.5.2021, p. 1) have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call/topic. Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register before submitting their application, in order to get a participant identification code (PIC) and be validated by the Central Validation Service before signing the grant agreement.
• Entities eligible for funding: To become a beneficiary, legal entities must be eligible for funding […]. [Regarding] international organisations — International European research organisations are eligible to receive funding [...]. Other international organisations are not eligible to receive funding, unless provided for in the specific call/topic conditions, or if their participation is considered essential for implementing the action by the granting authority.
• International European research organisation’ means an international organisation, the majority of whose members are Member States or Associated Countries, and whose principal objective is to promote scientific and technological cooperation in Europe.
• Coordination and Support Actions – To be eligible to participate as beneficiaries (or affiliated entities) in ‘Coordination and support’ actions, legal entities must be established in a Member State or Associated Country, unless the specific call/topic conditions provide otherwise (in which case the general rules for eligibility for funding apply). Legal entities established in a non-associated third country may, however, participate in ‘Coordination and support’ actions as associated partners, unless this is explicitly excluded by the specific call/topic conditions.

Furthermore, the call HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-DEMOCRACY-12PDF adds a specific eligibility and admissibility condition: In order to achieve the expected outcomes, consortia must include, as beneficiaries or affiliated entities,(i) at least one public body with a policy-making role, and (ii) at least one civil society organization.

If an entity is validated as an IO and therefore considered as public body, and if it is eligible for funding following the rules mentioned above, it can participate as Beneficiary; regarding the second part of the eligibility criteria “policy-making role” it will with be assessed on a case-by-case at award eligibility and admissibility stage as the mandate of each IO is defined in their Act of creation and/or in their internal regulations.

In order to make sure applicants fulfil the additional eligibility criteria that applies to the call topic under “Other eligible conditions”, applicants are encouraged to provide the relevant information about the consortium and any participants in the Part B of the proposal.

This is a competitive call, open to all consortia wishing to apply. The selection of the winning project will be made by an external panel of independent experts, as per Horizon Europe rules. This is a call for a CSA, conducting coordination and support actions, rather than a RIA, conducting one-off research. The current ongoing project is also a CSA, with a lifecycle of 3 years. Coordination and support work as set out in the topic scope is still deemed necessary after existing ongoing project's end. This coordination and support work can be conducted by any consortium that is the most highly graded by the external panel of independent experts tasked with the evaluation of proposals.

For beneficiaries receiving an operating grant, indirect costs are not eligible. However, the shares calculated by the Excel table contain indirect costs, and there is no function to remove indirect costs for individual beneficiaries in the Excel table. In this situation, the applicant with an operating grant should adjust the amount entered in the Part A budget table by subtracting the indirect costs. Applicants are expected to explain this in the comments tab of the Excel detailed budget table. If the proposal is selected for funding, the lump sum shares calculated by the Excel detailed budget table must be adjusted during grant preparation to the Part A requested amount (i.e. subtract the amounts corresponding to indirect costs).

The page dedicated to lump sum funding in Horizon provides different levels of guidance for applicants and beneficiaries. The latest guide related to managing a lump sum grantPDF also contains information for applicants.

The event Lump Sum Funding in Horizon Europe: How does it work? How to write a proposal? (27th March 2025) with its presentations provide the main overview as well as the beneficiaries` insights on lump sum funding.