In a Horizon Europe project, the administrative project management tasks typically include: 

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND FINANCIAL TASKS 

• Grant Agreement preparation. 
• Financial management including financial reporting, securing internal validation by the Finance and Accounts Department at AAU, managing partner and overall project budget.  
• Scientific reporting (collecting, proofreading and submitting).
• Administrative reporting such as project management plan, handbook, ethics deliverables, data management plan (collecting input, preparing and submitting).
• Making sure that all project deadlines are respected and preparing for project reviews and audits.
• Contract amendments. 
  Closing the project after end of the project period. 

GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS 

• Support, guidance and feedback to scientific coordinator.
• Day-to-day communication within the consortium and with the grant provider. 
  Planning meetings (agenda, minutes, etc.).
• Dissemination activities (such as managing the project website).
• Organising conferences, workshops and similar events.
• Internal setup for administrative procedures. 
  Making sure that the European Commission and internal AAU regulations and procedures are complied with and aligned during the project. 

If your proposal has been invited for funding, you will receive an Evaluation Summary Report (ESR) and be asked to prepare a Grant Agreement (GA), so now the real work will begin. First, you need to get approval from your Head of Department on budget and participation. You also need to discuss the project setup with your department, to ensure that you receive support for the administrative project management tasks of the project (either at the Department or from F&P). 

The GA will mainly be done online via the Funding and Tenders Portal, so the coordinator must register on the Funding and Tenders Portal to gain access to the project. You must add a Legal and Financial Signatory and all relevant persons must be added as coordinator contacts.   

You need to convert your proposal to an Annex I (see more further down). If your project needs any adjustments, it will be addressed in the Evaluation Summary Report (ESR) and you must act on this before signing the GA. 

If things go well, a GA will be drawn up and signed between the coordinator and the European Commission (EC). The GA stipulates in broad terms the start date of the project, reporting periods, pre-financing, possible special clauses, etc. 

CONSORTIUM AGREEMENT 
Since the GA is a contract between the coordinator and the EC, additional agreements must be entered into between the coordinator and the beneficiaries. First, all beneficiaries must accede to the GA by signing an accession form electronically. In addition to this, Grants & Contracts, will help you prepare a Consortium Agreement which regulates the "daily life” in the project and includes regulations on liability, governance structure, publication, intellectual property rights (IPR) (access rights), confidentiality, etc. All beneficiaries must sign the Consortium Agreement before project start.  

ANNEX I (THE DESCRIPTION OF ACTION – DOA) 
Another important aspect before the initiation of the project is adapting the proposal into Annex I (the Description of Action - DoA). Many parts of the proposal can be copied into Annex I, but other parts need to be rewritten, especially if the Evaluation Summary Report has identified certain aspects. Annex I consists of two parts:  

1. Part A which is filled in online on the Funding & Tenders Portal. 
2. A narrative part uploaded as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file in the portal. 

Once the Grant Agreement (GA) has been signed, you must (assisted by F&P if we are included as administrative project manager in the project) register your project in the accounting system at AAU and receive a project number so that you can separate all project costs. This is done by filling in the sheet “Projektoprettelse” and sending it to Grants & Contracts.  

As the coordinator you will receive the pre-financing within 30 days after the GA has been signed or 10 days before project start. This amount must be distributed to all beneficiaries, so make sure to collect bank details from all. If you are a beneficiary, you will receive your pre-financing corresponding to a share of your budget from the coordinator. See "Official documents and practical information” for banking details. The amount to be received is specified in the GA. 

OTHER TASKS TO BE STARTED 

• Preparing the kick-off meeting.
• Preparing the project website.
• Setting up procedures, logo, templates etc. 

IMPORTANT FOCUS AREAS 

• Ensure that all partners take ownership of the project and accept the procedures.
• Ensure good social relations among the partners.
• Ensure a good working relationship with your project officer. 

After a hopefully successful kick-off meeting, the scientific work will start. Deliverables and reports have been identified in Annex I and are therefore contractual obligations. The reports must be submitted as stipulated in the Grant Agreement (GA). 

If you propose changes to the data included in the GA (including Annex I), you must prepare an amendment to the GA. The most common reasons for an amendment are the addition or termination of a beneficiary, major changes of the Description of Annex I or major changes to the budget (e.g. addition of subcontracting) 

REPORTING PERIODS 
The number of reporting periods the projects have and the duration of each period was decided in the negotiation phase. At the end of each reporting period, the coordinator is responsible for making a joint statement on the project to the EU. This includes: 

• Periodic Report (status on the technical work and project management)
• Financial Statement (reporting on the spending of the EU funding)
• At the end of the final reporting period, the periodic report should also include:
• Final publishable summary
• Plan for use and dissemination of foreground
• Report covering the wider societal implications of the project
• All reports and financial statements are submitted online on the Funding & Tenders Portal. 

PROJECT REVIEW 
Most projects will be subject to a technical review shortly after the end of each reporting period. At these reviews, the EU is represented by the project officer and appointed external reviewers who have read the periodic report and relevant deliverables. At the meetings the coordinator and work package leaders will be required to make a presentation of the work performed. Hereafter the reviewers will ask questions and give their comments. After the meeting the external reviewers will make an assessment report which will be sent (through the Funding & Tenders Portal) to the project officer and subsequently the coordinator. The same procedure will take place after the final reporting period. 

IMPORTANT FOCUS AREAS 

• Ensure that all deadlines are met, and reports and deliverables comply with requirements
• Ensure good contact to your EU Project Officer  
• Ensure good social relations among the partners
• Ensure progress and interaction between work packages
• Ensure proper risk management
• Secure project impact (e.g. dissemination, exploitation) 
• Closely follow-up consortium budget and ensure correlation to the work performed. 

The project is now at its final stage and beneficiaries or coordinators should start preparing the final reports and closure. The final report is very similar to the normal periodic reports, although it should also include: 

• Final publishable summary
• Section on Use and Dissemination of Foreground 
• Section on Societal Implications (questionnaire) 

The coordinator should also submit an overview of the distribution of the European Commission contribution to show what has been transferred to each beneficiary (you will get access to this sheet via the Funding & Tenders Portal). 

When the European Union has accepted all reports and financial statements, they will transfer the remaining EU contribution to the coordinator and again the coordinator will transfer the final payment to the partners. Subsequently, the AAU project numbers can be closed. 

IMPORTANT FOCUS AREAS 

• Dissemination of results and exploitation (spin-offs, patents etc.).
• Make sure that all costs have been included.
• Keep a close eye on expenditures on the consortium level to allow for redistribution of the budget to compensate for over-/underspending. 
• Consider if work should continue in a new application.
• Will it be necessary to influence the EU system and lobby for certain call topics.  

If AAU is partner in a Horizon Europe project, you will handle the dialogue with your project coordinator and administrative project manager yourself in conjunction with your local research support employees. 

• Horizon 2020 online manual
• EU Grants Annotated Model Grant Agreement 
• EU Indblik (Magazine focuses on Horizon Europe)  
• EU-ERFA 
• DARMA
• Grants & Contracts ("Kontraktenheden")    
• Project administration   
• Finance & Accounts Department (Projektøkonomi) 
• Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education 
• VBN
• Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe description of procedures (Projektøkonomi)