HORIZON-CSA Coordination and Support Actions: the application, step by step

What it is

Coordination and Support Actions are Horizon Europe proposals written against a work programme topic, which may be submitted by one or more legal entities. Their Part B, the technical description, has three sections — Excellence, Impact, and Quality and efficiency of the implementation — each scored out of 5.

Who can apply

Legal entities established in an EU Member State or a country associated to Horizon Europe, unless the topic provides otherwise. Legal entities established in a non-associated third country may participate as associated partners, unless the topic explicitly excludes it. The current list of associated countries is the Horizon Europe List of Participating Countries on the Funding & Tenders Portal.

Applicants

One or more legal entities, established in a Member State, an Associated Country or, in exceptional cases and if the topic provides for it, in another third country.

Duration

Not set in the General Annexes — check the topic's conditions on its topic page.

Funding

For topics using lump sum funding, the estimated budget is described in a detailed budget table, used as a basis for justifying and/or fixing the lump sum amount. Maximum funding rate: 100% for Coordination and support actions. Indirect costs are a 25% flat rate of the total eligible direct costs, excluding subcontracting, financial support to third parties and any unit costs or lump sums which include indirect costs. The General Annexes set no amount per project: check the budget on the topic page.

Deadlines

Deadlines are set in each call. Check the current deadline on the call's topic page on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.

How it is scored

Evaluation scores will be awarded for the criteria, and not for the different aspects listed in the table. For full applications, each criterion will be scored out of 5. The threshold for individual criteria will be 3. The overall threshold, applying to the sum of the three individual scores, will be 10. Proposals that pass the individual threshold AND the overall threshold will be considered for funding, within the limits of the available call budget. Other proposals will be rejected.

Proposals with the same score: “1) Proposals that address aspects of the call that have not otherwise been covered by more highly ranked proposals will be considered to have the highest priority. 2) The proposals identified under 1), if any, will themselves be prioritised according to the scores they have been awarded for ‘Excellence’. When these scores are equal, priority will be based on scores for ‘Impact’. In the case of ‘Innovation actions’, priority will be given to the score for ‘Impact’, followed by that for ‘Excellence’.”

The form structure

Part B, the technical description, in the order of the standard template for Coordination and Support Actions (Version 5.1). Part A — administrative information about the participants, the summarised budget and call-specific questions — is filled in directly online on the Funding & Tenders Portal.

1. 1.Title and list of participants
2. 2.1. Excellence
   • 1.1 Objectives
   • 1.2 Coordination and/or support measures and methodology
3. 3.2. Impact
   • 2.1 Project's pathways towards impact
   • 2.2 Measures to maximise impact - Dissemination, exploitation and communication
   • 2.3 Summary (optional)
4. 4.3. Quality and efficiency of the implementation
   • 3.1 Work plan and resources
   • 3.2 Capacity of participants and consortium as a whole

How you write it in AvenEU

• ✦Part B section by section, with every question of the template and an estimate of the pages your text fills against the 28-page limit for topics using lump sum funding.
• ✦A field for the topic you apply to — its ID, expected outcomes and scope, copied from the topic page — which EUri reads when it analyses every other section.
• ✦EUri analyses each section against the General Annexes' three award criteria for Coordination and Support Actions, each scored out of 5 with a threshold of 3, and 10 overall.
• ✦The detailed lump-sum budget table, per participant and work package, with the 100% funding rate of Coordination and support actions and indirect costs at 25% of personnel and purchase costs. You copy the figures into the official workbook from your topic's submission system.
• ✦Partner suggestions from Erasmus+ data, filtered to the countries Horizon Europe admits.
• ✦Export in the structure of Part B, section by section, for transfer into the official template.