Applying for Horizon Europe funding for the first time involves navigating an institutional landscape that is not always intuitive. There is a submission portal with specific roles and access rights. There is a validation process for your organisation that must be completed before anything else can happen. And there is a network of publicly funded support specialists whose entire job is to help you — at no cost.
Most first-time applicants discover these resources too late, if at all. This article explains who they are, what they do, and why understanding them before you start is significantly better than understanding them when a deadline is approaching.
National Contact Points: your free, local guide to Horizon Europe
What they are
The network of National Contact Points (NCPs) for Horizon Europe is the main structure to provide guidance, practical information and assistance on all aspects of participation in Horizon Europe. NCPs give personalised support on the spot and in applicants’ own languages.
NCPs are support structures established by member states and associated countries and recognised by the European Commission to help participants access the different EU programme opportunities. For Horizon Europe, there are 17 different NCP functions plus the NCP national coordinators network, giving support to participants across the different parts of the programme.
The 17 functions correspond to the different parts of the programme — there are NCPs for ERC grants, for MSCA, for the EIC, for each of the thematic clusters under Pillar II, for Widening, and so on. In practice, this means your country has a specialist contact for whichever part of Horizon Europe is most relevant to your work.
Who funds them
NCPs are funded by the participating countries themselves — not by the European Commission directly. The NCP network is established and funded directly by the participating countries and associate members of the Horizon Europe programme, and its main goal is to be able to provide the most complete and reliable information related directly to the Horizon Europe programme in the national language in the format of personalised support.
This matters for two reasons. First, the service is free to applicants — there is no charge for NCP support. Second, the quality and structure of NCP services varies between countries. The NCP system can vary significantly from one country to another, from highly centralised to decentralised networks, involving a number of very different actors, from ministries to universities, research centres, special agencies, and private consulting companies.
What NCPs can do for you
In general, the following basic services are available in accordance with the NCP Guiding Principles agreed by all countries: guidance on choosing relevant Horizon Europe topics and types of action; advice on administrative procedures and contractual issues; training and assistance on proposal writing; distribution of documentation such as forms, guidelines, and manuals; and assistance in partner search.
Beyond these core services, NCPs also organise information days, brokerage events, and training workshops. NCPs inform communities about potential relevant calls for proposals. They use their NCP networks in other countries to help researchers and innovators develop international partnerships. NCPs are also responsible for reviewing drafts of upcoming Horizon Europe Work Programmes.
For first-time applicants, the most valuable NCP service is typically direct proposal feedback. Many NCPs offer to review draft proposals before submission and provide structured comments — a service that would cost significant money from a private consultant and is available for free from your national NCP.
What NCPs cannot do
NCPs are advisers, not decision-makers. They cannot influence evaluation outcomes, provide inside information about evaluation results, or give authoritative legal interpretations of the Grant Agreement. They work within the framework established by the Commission — they can help you understand the rules, but they cannot change them or guarantee any outcome.
NCPs also do not manage grants. Once a project is funded, the relationship shifts entirely to the executive agency managing your Grant Agreement. Your NCP’s role ends at the proposal stage.
The LEAR: the most critical administrative role your organisation needs to fill
What the LEAR is
A LEAR is a Legal Entity Appointed Representative. This could be the CEO, rector of a university, or Director General of an institute. The nominated LEAR is typically an administrative staff member who is then validated by the European Commission’s Central Validation Service. Once appointed and validated, the LEAR is responsible for managing the organisation’s legal and financial information on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal, as well as managing the access rights of other people within the organisation, such as assigning Legal and Financial Signatories. There can only be one LEAR per organisation.
What the LEAR does
Once an organisation has been validated, it must appoint someone to serve as its LEAR. This person must be authorised to manage legal and financial information on the organisation, manage the access rights of others in the organisation, and appoint representatives to electronically sign grant agreements or financial statements on behalf of the organisation via the EU Funding and Tenders Portal.
In practice, the LEAR is the gatekeeper for all Portal activity within the organisation. They control who can access which projects, who can sign which documents, and how the organisation’s legal and financial data is maintained. In larger research organisations with multiple active EU projects, the LEAR is typically employed in the central administration and has an overview of all the projects and proposals in which the organisation is involved, and the roles colleagues have in those projects.
Why the LEAR validation process matters — and why it must not be left to the last minute
A LEAR is appointed in parallel to an organisation’s validation in the Portal. During the validation process, applicants will receive a request from the EC’s Central Validation Service to appoint the LEAR. Applications to a Horizon Europe call can take place before the LEAR process is finalised. However, the LEAR must be appointed and validated before the Grant Agreement can be signed.
This sequencing is the source of one of the most common — and most avoidable — delays in Horizon Europe project launches. An organisation that wins a grant but has not completed its LEAR validation cannot sign the Grant Agreement. The project cannot start. Partners wait. In some cases, the negotiation timeline is affected.
The validation process involves submitting legal and financial documents to the Commission’s Central Validation Service and waiting for them to be reviewed and confirmed. This process can take several weeks. Organisations applying to Horizon Europe for the first time should initiate LEAR appointment and validation as early as possible — ideally before or during the proposal preparation phase, not after the results are announced.
Portal roles: who can do what on the Funding and Tenders Portal
Beyond the LEAR, the Funding and Tenders Portal operates on a role-based access system. Understanding the key roles prevents the situation — common among first-time applicants — where the person responsible for submitting a proposal cannot access the submission form because the correct role has not been assigned.
Account Administrator
The Account Administrator manages user access within the organisation’s Portal account. They can add and remove users, assign roles to colleagues, and control who has access to specific proposals and grants. In many organisations, this role is held by the same person as the LEAR, though they are technically distinct.
LSIGN — Legal Signatory
The LSIGN is the person authorised to sign Grant Agreements and amendments on behalf of the organisation. This is a legally significant role: their electronic signature on the Portal constitutes the organisation’s formal commitment to the terms of the GA. The LSIGN must be a person with the appropriate legal authority within the organisation — not simply a project manager or researcher.
In many organisations, the LSIGN is a senior administrative or legal officer, or the institution’s director. The LEAR assigns the LSIGN role on the Portal.
FSIGN — Financial Signatory
The FSIGN is the person authorised to sign financial statements — the periodic cost declarations submitted at each reporting period. Like the LSIGN, this is a role with direct legal and financial consequences: the FSIGN’s signature attests that the reported costs are accurate, eligible, and properly documented.
In practice, the FSIGN is often a senior finance officer — a CFO, head of grants finance, or equivalent. The LEAR assigns the FSIGN role on the Portal.
Proposal Coordinator and Participant Contact
For each proposal, the person preparing and submitting it is assigned the role of Proposal Coordinator (if their organisation is leading the proposal) or Participant Contact (if their organisation is a partner). These roles govern access to the specific proposal workspace on the Portal and the ability to upload documents, complete forms, and submit.
A researcher or project manager who wants to submit a proposal but has not been assigned the correct role by their organisation’s Account Administrator will not be able to access the submission area. This is one of the most frequently encountered practical problems among first-time Portal users — and it is entirely preventable by checking role assignments well in advance of the deadline.
How these roles work together in practice
For a first-time applicant, the practical sequence is:
- Register the organisation on the Portal and obtain a PIC number
- Appoint and validate the LEAR — start this process early, as it takes time
- Assign an Account Administrator (often the same person as the LEAR initially)
- Identify and assign LSIGN and FSIGN — these need to be in place before a Grant Agreement can be signed
- Assign the Proposal Coordinator role to the person preparing the submission
- Contact your NCP for guidance on the call, proposal structure, and partner search
None of these steps are technically complex. All of them take time, and all of them create problems if left until the submission deadline is imminent.
Final thoughts
The support infrastructure around Horizon Europe — NCPs, the LEAR system, Portal roles — exists precisely because the programme is complex and the administrative requirements are real. Using it effectively is not a sign of inexperience. It is a sign of professional preparation.
The organisations that navigate Horizon Europe most successfully are not those that figure everything out independently. They are those that make use of the free, publicly funded support available to them — and put the right administrative foundations in place before they need them.
Once those foundations are in place and the Grant Agreement is signed, the challenge shifts from applying to executing. For first-time applicants especially, that transition — from proposal to live project with partners, deliverables, and reporting deadlines — is where the real complexity begins. Kronis PMO and Kronis Finance provide the infrastructure to manage it.
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