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European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency

Managing an EMFAF grant

Steps up to the grant agreement

Once the project proposal has been selected for funding, the first phase before the start of the project is the preparation of the grant agreement. At this stage, CINEA may request the project coordinator to adjust some technical or financial elements in the proposal.  

The contractual conditions of the project are set out in a model grant agreement. This is a standard document, used for all projects, which describes the action covered, the budget and EU grant awarded, the project duration and the roles and responsibilities of all the actors for its implementation. The grant agreement has to be signed before the project begins.

  • Model grant agreement: there are two types of models, depending on whether the grant is awarded to 
    • a single beneficiary: mono-beneficiary model grant agreement, or 
    • a consortium of partner organisations: multi-beneficiary model grant agreement.

The model grant agreement is provided together with each individual call for proposals in order to take into account the specificities of each call. 

  • Mandate Model: the mandate shall fully empower the coordinator to act on the partners' behalf in the context of a multi-beneficiary grant agreement. The completed mandates will be requested from successful applicants only during the grant agreement preparation phase.
  • Calculation of hourly rates: this template serves the beneficiaries to calculate the hourly rate for staff costs claimed for the project.

Please check the Toolkit for the Coordinator to help you preparing your proposal and managing the grant!

Implementing the project

The implementation of projects is closely monitored by CINEA on behalf of the European Commission to ensure that projects realise their full potential and deliver the expected results.  To facilitate this monitoring, projects have to submit reports at different stages of their lifetime.

The frequency and number of reports is defined in the grant agreement and can differ for each project, depending on the objectives, activities and expected outcomes as well as the duration of the project. There are three types of reports: progress, interim and final reports. All report types require technical information on the implementation of the project, to varying levels of detail. However, only interim and final reports include also a financial report. 

If provided for in the grant agreement, an external audit statement has to be provided in addition to the financial report.

For grants awarded to consortia, a declaration on the distribution of the EU support among the partners is required after the project closure.