01 Proposal · Page Limits and Layout Proposals are limited to a maximum of 50 pages for Part B (Technical Description). The application must be readable, accessible and printable. Formatting requirements include: minimum font size Arial 9 points, page size A4, and margins (top, bottom, left and right) of at least 15 mm (not including headers and footers). Supporting documents can be provided as annexes and do not count towards the page limit. Excess pages will be made invisible and disregarded by evaluators.
02 Eligible · Countries for Participation Applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must be legal entities (public or private bodies) established in EU Member States, including overseas countries and territories (OCTs). International organisations are also eligible, and the rules on eligible countries do not apply to them. Applicants must not be authorities in charge of the implementation of Cohesion policy within the meaning of Article 71 of the CPR Regulation 2021/1060.
03 Eligibility · Conditions for Applicants Applicants must be legal entities (public or private bodies). Natural persons are NOT eligible except self-employed persons (sole traders) where the company does not have legal personality separate from the natural person. EU bodies (except European Commission Joint Research Centre) cannot be part of the consortium. Entities without legal personality may exceptionally participate if their representatives can undertake legal obligations and offer equivalent guarantees for EU financial interests. Entities subject to EU restrictive measures are not eligible in any capacity. Associations and interest groupings may participate as sole beneficiaries or beneficiaries without legal personality, but if implementation is by members, they must also participate as beneficiaries or affiliated entities. Applications must correspond wholly to the objectives of the call.
04 Financial · and Operational Capacity Requirements Applicants must have stable and sufficient resources to successfully implement projects and contribute their share. Financial capacity check is normally done for all beneficiaries except public bodies or international organisations, and if individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60,000. The check is based on documents uploaded during grant preparation (profit and loss account, balance sheet, business plan, audit report from approved external auditor for last closed financial year). Analysis uses neutral financial indicators but also considers dependency on EU funding, deficit and revenue in previous years. Operational capacity is assessed together with the Quality award criterion based on competence, experience, and operational resources (human, technical, other). Applicants must show capacity via general profiles of staff, consortium description, and list of previous projects (key projects for last 4 years). Exclusion grounds include: bankruptcy, winding up, affairs administered by courts, arrangement with creditors, suspended business activities; breach of social security or tax obligations; guilty of grave professional misconduct.
05 Submission · and Evaluation Process Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System before the call deadline (13 January 2027, 17:00 CET). Paper submissions are NOT accepted. Submission is a 2-step process: (1) create EU Login account and register organisation in Participant Register to get 9-digit PIC; (2) submit proposal through Submission System with Part A (administrative forms filled online) and Part B (technical description uploaded as PDF) plus mandatory annexes. The standard submission and evaluation procedure involves one-stage submission and one-step evaluation. An evaluation committee assisted by independent outside experts assesses all applications. Proposals are first checked for admissibility and eligibility, then evaluated against operational capacity and award criteria, and ranked by scores. Successful proposals are invited for grant preparation; others are put on reserve list or rejected.
06 Award · Criteria and Scoring Methodology Three award criteria are used: (1) Relevance (40 points maximum) - clarity and consistency of project, objectives and planning; extent of match with call themes, priorities and objectives; contribution to EU strategic and legislative context; (2) Quality (30 points maximum) - project design and implementation (technical quality, logical links between problems/needs/solutions, methodology, feasibility, cost effectiveness) and project team/cooperation arrangements (quality of consortium, procedures for cooperation); (3) Impact (30 points maximum) - ambition and expected long-term impact on target groups/public, appropriate dissemination strategy for sustainability, sustainability of results after EU funding ends. Individual thresholds: Relevance 21/40, Quality 16/30, Impact 16/30. Overall threshold: 53 points out of 100 maximum. Proposals must pass individual thresholds AND overall threshold to be considered for funding within available budget. For proposals with same score, priority order is determined by: (1) projects covering themes not otherwise covered; (2) scores on Relevance, then Impact, then Quality; (3) overall portfolio and synergies; (4) balanced geographical and thematic coverage.
07 Evaluation · Timeline and Grant Agreement Signature Call opening: 14 October 2026. Deadline for submission: 13 January 2027 at 17:00 CET (Brussels). Evaluation period: February-April 2027. Information on evaluation results: May-June 2027. Grant Agreement signature: July 2027. After successful evaluation, proposals are invited for grant preparation, which normally takes about 3 months. Grant preparation involves: entering legal, administrative and financial data (3 weeks); finalisation of grant data (up to 2 weeks); signing declarations of honour (within 6 weeks); grant signature (within 3 months of GAP invitation). Project starting date is normally the first day of the month following entry into force of the Grant Agreement, or exceptionally a fixed date if duly justified (never earlier than proposal submission date).
08 Legal · and Financial Setup of Grants The grant is a budget-based mixed actual cost grant (actual costs with unit cost and flat-rate elements) that reimburses only eligible costs actually incurred. Funding rate: 80%. Maximum grant amount: approximately EUR 200,000 per project (may be lower than requested). Budget categories: A. Personnel costs (A.1 Employees, A.2 Natural persons under direct contract, A.3 Seconded persons, A.4 SME owners/natural person beneficiaries); B. Subcontracting costs; C. Purchase costs (C.1 Travel and subsistence, C.2 Equipment, C.3 Other goods/works/services); D. Other cost categories (D.1 Financial support to third parties - not allowed for this call); E. Indirect costs (7% flat-rate of eligible direct costs). Specific cost eligibility: SME owner/natural person unit costs allowed; travel and subsistence unit costs allowed; equipment costs via depreciation only; in-kind contributions allowed but cost-neutral; non-deductible VAT eligible. Grants may NOT produce profit. For-profit organisations must declare revenues; if profit exists, it will be deducted from final grant amount. Project duration: normally 12 months (extensions possible if duly justified). Milestones not applicable for IMREG calls. Deliverables managed through Portal Grant Management System and reflected in Grant Agreement Annex 1. Prefinancing may be distributed only if minimum beneficiaries have acceded; interim payment ceiling 90% of maximum grant amount. Certificates on financial statements required if requested EU contribution ≥ EUR 100,000. Liability regime: limited joint and several liability of other beneficiaries up to their maximum grant amount (default option).
09 Application · Form Requirements and Format The application form consists of two parts: Part A (Administrative Forms) containing structured administrative information about participants and summarised budget, filled directly online in the Portal Submission System; Part B (Technical Description) containing narrative technical description of the project, downloaded as template from Submission System, completed, and uploaded as PDF. Part B must include: Cover page with project name, acronym, coordinator contact; Project summary; 1. Relevance (background, objectives, needs analysis, complementarity with other actions); 2. Quality (concept/methodology, consortium set-up, project teams/staff/experts, management/decision-making, project management/quality assurance/monitoring, cost effectiveness/financial management, risk management); 3. Impact (impact and ambition, communication/dissemination/visibility, sustainability); 4. Workplan (work packages, activities, resources, timing); 5. Other (ethics, security); 6. Declarations (double funding, financial support to third parties). Mandatory annexes: CVs (standard) of core project team; list of previous projects (key projects for last 4 years); declaration on standards and independence. Page limit: maximum 50 pages for Part B; supporting documents as annexes do not count. Formatting: Arial 9 points minimum, A4 page size, 15mm margins. Application must be complete, readable, accessible, printable. All participants must have obtained EU Login account and registered in Participant Register before submission.
10 Declaration · on Standards and Independence Participants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must submit a Declaration on Standards and Independence as a mandatory annex. The declaration confirms that: (1) the organisation respects values stated in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law, respect for human rights); (2) the organisation will be independent of any instruction, pressure or request from any EU institution, EU Member State or other State/institution regarding editorial choices and content concerning project activities; (3) proposed activities will follow general principles of transparency, non-discrimination and independence, including: for editorial production - general principles of editorial independence and high journalistic standards (quality and ethical standards); for support to other media - fair, non-discriminatory, objective and transparent selection procedures; publication on partners' websites of project summary, editorial/journalistic standards applied, measures for compliance and accountability; (4) project partners will share responsibility and devise joint editorial guidelines if needed, addressing independence, sound journalistic standards (accuracy, independence, professional reporting), due impartiality and multiple/plural viewpoints. The declaration must be signed by an authorised person of each participant organisation and assembled by the coordinator into a single file for upload.
11 Model · Grant Agreement Key Terms and Conditions The Model Grant Agreement (IMREG MGA - Multi & Mono, Version 1.0, 01 November 2024) sets out the legal framework for grants. Key terms include: (1) Participants: Coordinator and Beneficiaries sign/accede to Agreement; Affiliated Entities do not sign but are bound; Associated Partners and subcontractors participate in other roles; (2) Proper implementation: beneficiaries must implement action as described in Annex 1 in compliance with Agreement, call conditions and applicable law; (3) Conflict of interest: beneficiaries must prevent situations compromising impartial/objective implementation and notify granting authority without delay; (4) Confidentiality and security: beneficiaries must protect confidential information and comply with security rules; (5) Ethics: beneficiaries must comply with ethical principles and applicable law; (6) IPR and results: beneficiaries retain ownership of results; granting authority has rights of use; (7) Communication and visibility: beneficiaries must ensure visibility of EU funding; (8) Record-keeping: beneficiaries must keep records for 5 years after final payment (or 3 years for grants ≤ EUR 60,000); (9) Reporting: continuous reporting via Portal; periodic reports with financial statements; (10) Payments: prefinancing, interim payments, final payment; no-profit rule applies; (11) Recoveries: if overpayment, amounts recovered; liability regime specified in Data Sheet; (12) Checks and audits: granting authority, OLAF, ECA may conduct checks/audits/investigations; (13) Termination: grant agreement or beneficiary may be terminated for breach; (14) Applicable law: EU law + law of Belgium (standard); dispute settlement: EU General Court + EU Court of Justice for EU beneficiaries.
12 Online · Submission System Procedures Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System. Submission process: (1) Create EU Login account (if not already existing); (2) Register organisation in Participant Register to obtain 9-digit PIC; (3) Launch Submission wizard from Topic page; (4) Pre-register draft proposal; (5) List participants and contact persons; (6) Fill in Administrative Forms (Part A) directly online; (7) Upload Technical Description (Part B) as PDF plus annexes; (8) Submit proposal before deadline. At submission, application package is combined into one document, sealed, and e-receipt generated with date/time. All contact persons of coordinating organisation receive confirmation email; if not received, proposal was NOT submitted. After deadline, no corrections or re-submissions possible; read-only access available. Proposals in draft status accessible for 90 days after deadline. If submission fails due to technical error, complaint must be filed within 4 calendar days via IT Helpdesk with PDF copy and screenshots. System requirements must be checked. Submission should be done early (at least 48 hours before deadline) to avoid technical problems. Multiple submissions allowed; latest version replaces previous. Proposals remain sealed until after call deadline. For grant preparation, participants access Grant Management System to enter legal/administrative/financial data, prepare Description of Action, sign declarations of honour, and sign Grant Agreement electronically.