Twinning

The definition of the legal entities that can participate in Horizon Europe can be found in the Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity AssessmentPDF.

Yes, this is allowed, provided that the minimum requirements relative to the participating organizations are respected. These are described in the Work ProgrammePDF and in the General AnnexesPDF.

Although there is no legal requirement on the criteria that a legal entity must fulfil to participate in the Twinning actions, it is important to highlight that Widening actions are focussed on actors of the R&I system. The best positioned to maximize the expected impact, as described in the Work ProgrammePDF, as coordinators or internationally-leading partners, are public or private research universities or public or private non-profit research organisations.

The proposal will need to outline how and why the beneficiaries are the best choice to maximize the expected impact as described in the Work ProgrammePDF .

No, to be eligible to participate as beneficiaries (or affiliated entities) in Twinning; legal entities must be established in a Member State or Associated Country, 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 like Twinning as associated partners, unless this is explicitly excluded by the specific call/topic conditions

Yes this is possible. However, it may compromise the credibility of an organisation if it is acting both as a leading institution as well as a coordinator (unless of course the two proposals address different fields of science). Normally institutions that are still in the process of development or modernisation, e.g. those that are still receiving support as coordinators from widening actions under Horizon Europe, are normally not considered leading institutions, unless a proper justification is provided for in the proposal

There are no conditions or ideal ratio with respect to the balance of partners from Widening vi-à-vis non-Widening Countries. The number and characteristics of the beneficiaries described in the proposal are instrumental to the achievement of the proposal’s objectives and impact. The minimum requirements relative to the participating organizations must be respected and these are described in the Work ProgrammePDF and in the General Annexes.PDF

There is no limitation on how many Twinning proposals one institution from a Widening country can coordinate and there there is no limitation for an internationally-leading partner to be involved in several Twinning proposals.

However, entities should demonstrate in the proposal that they possess the operational capacity to carry out the proposed activities.

Additionally, all partners shall ensure that the principle of no double funding is respected. This means that the same costs cannot be financed twice by the EU budget.

Yes, these costs can be included in the budget table of the lump sum application template. It must be ensured that there is no double funding as the same costs cannot be financed twice by the EU budget.

Yes, signing a consortium agreement between all the beneficiaries in the project (i.e. all entities that sign the grant agreement) is a requirement in the Twinning actions. Any other internal agreements/arrangements are voluntary and up to the participants themselves. Costs related to drafting the consortium agreement cannot be included in the Lump Sums because the consortium agreement should be signed before the action starts.

Nothing legally prevents a partner located in a widening country to be an advanced partner in a Twinning call. However, in principle, advanced and established partners are scientific institutions that have developed an outstanding reputation in research and innovation excellence in the chosen scientific domain and are established in a country different to the coordinator Member State or Associated Country. Therefore, institutions that are still in the process of development or modernisation, are normally not considered leading institutions, unless a convincing justification is provided for in the proposal.

Besides, the minimum requirements relative to the participating organizations must be respected. These are described in the Work ProgrammePDF and in the General AnnexesPDF.

The added-value depends on the quality of the partner organisation and its contribution to the achievement of the project objectives rather than on its location. Therefore an internationally-leading partner can be established in a widening country. The qualities of this internationally leading partner should be well elaborated and demonstrated in the proposal.

Horizon Europe uses lump sum funding to reduce administration and financial errors removing the need to report actual costs. Lump sums grants are defined up-front: at proposal stage the beneficiaries will have to present a detailed description of the project costs per each work package. As the lump sum must be an approximation of the costs actually incurred, the costs included in this detailed budget table must comply with the basic eligibility conditions for EU actual cost grants. If the budget table contains ineligible costs, the grants may be reduced (even later on during implementation of the project or after they end).

After evaluation and grant agreement preparation the lump sums are fixed in the grant agreement and will be paid according to the level of completion of each work package at the end of each reporting period. Twinning actions have one reporting period at the end of the project.

More information about the Lump Sums can be found in the lump sum page and in the lump sum model grant agreementPDF.

Applicants should be aware of the specific conditions and limitations relative to the research component explained in the Work ProgrammePDF. Ther is no obligation to include a research component, however if the proposal contains one, it should be presented in Work Package 1 (WP1) entitled ‘Research component’ to be described among the other work packages in (Part B), Table 3.1b “Work package description”.

The project objectives must be in line with the objectives of Twinning which are focused towards strengthening the coordinating institution and its’ staff in the Widening country. It would therefore be understandable if a good part of the resources would be dedicated to the widening countries and if the proposed project contains a research component, 50% of the budget dedicated to this component must be allocated to the the coordinator.

However, there is no ideal ratio regarding the allocation of funding between the advanced institutions and the coordinator in the Widening country. The allocation of funding and other resources is instrumental to the achievement of the project objectives and must be distributed in a way that it maximized the expected impact. Also, resources should be matched and reflect the effort described in the proposal. The participating entities should ensure that the remuneration complies with the applicable national law on taxes, labour and social security (see Charter and Code).

A Twinning proposal must outline one defined area of research that can be multidisciplinary. There is no restriction on the choice of the area of research.

Twinning is not aimed at hiring new researchers of any category, solely for the duration of the project, as one of the Twinning’s main objectives is to focus on raising the research profile of the existing staff of the coordinating institution from the widening country. Coordinating institutes should consider the benefits to their institute beyond the duration of the project.

Yes, that is possible, however double funding is not allowed, so it should be clear which costs will be covered by which project and the complementarity between the actions needs to be clearly outlined in the Twinning proposal.

Twinning does not aim to fund Master or PhD programmes and should not be used as a vehicle for increasing the population of Master or PhD students. However, while costs linked to master students will be considered ineligible, PhD students’ participation in Twinning is possible. Costs of PhD students that work for the beneficiary can be accepted, if the agreement is work-oriented (not training-oriented, i.e. not aimed at helping the student to acquire professional skills). PhD agreements will be considered work-oriented. However, time for training, if any, may NOT be charged to the action. Fellowships/scholarships/stipends can be charged to the action (as personnel costs), if they fulfil the conditions set out in Article 6 of the AGA, and in particular:

the remuneration complies with the applicable national law on taxes, labour and social security;

the assignment of tasks respects the laws in force in the country of the beneficiary;

the students have the necessary qualifications to carry out the tasks allocated to them under the action.

Yes, it is possible. It is expected that the consortium possesses the operational capacity to carry out the activities described in the proposal. However, there is the possibility of inviting other professionals to carry out some specific activities described in the proposal. This could take the form of e.g. subcontracting, seconded personnel, a service or an in kind contribution. Therefore, the reason why this expertise cannot be provided by the internationally-leading (advanced) partners should be well justified in the proposal.

Under Horizon Europe, a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) is mandatory for all Twinning calls and represents an eligibility criterion. Participants that are public bodies, research organisations or higher education establishments from Members States (MS) and Associated countries (AC), must have a GEP, covering minimum process-related requirements. A self-declaration will be requested at proposal stage (for all types of participants) by ticking a box in the proposal submission tool . The self-declaration will be included in the entity validation process. This is not required at the proposal submission stage, but a GEP is required before the grant signature and during the duration of the grant. Entities which fail to have a GEP in place are not eligible for funding and will need to be removed from the consortium. Further information can be found in the General AnnexesPDF; support to draft the gender equality plan can be requested at: European Institute for Gender Equality.

Entities that are NOT required to have a GEP are private-for-profit organisations, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), or non-governmental organisations (NGOs) ,civil society organisations (CSOs), international organisations, including international (European) research organisations (IERO), organisations located in non-associated third countries and associated partners,.

If a research component has been included in the proposal and gender is relevant to the scientific topic of the research, the integration of the gender dimension is a requirement and will be evaluated under the Excellence criteria.

As gender aspects/gender equality objectives are closely linked to the adoption of the gender action plan of the organisation and these action plans are not part of the proposals, the evaluators are not expected to evaluate the gender equality policy objectives and proposals should not be penalized for the absence of these aspects. If however, a proposal contains an explanation on these gender aspects/gender equality objectives, they can be taken into account if their evaluation is positive.

There is no pre-defined duration for short-term staff exchanges or expert visits. They should, however, add value to the project and be instrumental to the achievement of the objectives of the Work ProgrammePDF. They should last for a reasonable timeframe of a few weeks or a few months.

Yes, this is highly likely and perfectly normal. The Evaluation Summary Report includes a collation of the comments from at least four assessment reports drawn up individually by different evaluators. As evaluators may express differing views, comments may vary across assessment reports. Consequently, differences in views and opinions between evaluators may be found in the Evaluation Summery Report. The evaluation and award procedure is set out in the Work ProgrammePDF.

The Evaluation Summary Report includes a collation of the comments from at least four assessment reports drawn up individually by different evaluators. The score for each criterion is calculated as the median of the evaluators’ individual scores. As evaluators may express divergent views, the resulting score will likely not fully correspond to all the individual comments. The evaluation and award procedure is set out in the Work ProgrammePDF.