By Julien Sudre, grant writer and Horizon Europe project manager, founder of Grant360 and Innotrope. Originally published 9 November 2025. Updated: 23 September 2026.
Use the EU Funding & Tenders Portal to access your signed Grant Agreement, manage project roles, report milestones and deliverables, prepare periodic reports, submit financial statements and request amendments when needed. Begin by checking your project's access rights, reporting calendar and active tasks; then assign a person to prepare, review and submit each item. The exact screens and actions depend on your role and grant type. The Portal's Online Manual and IT How To guidance are the most useful references for current navigation.
This guide draws on the author's experience writing more than a hundred grant applications and managing European projects. Some users still call the site the "Participant Portal"; Funding & Tenders Portal is its current name. Interface labels can change, so follow the live help pages when a button differs from the description below.
Where do you find your project and its official documents?
Sign in with your individual EU Login, open your projects and select the relevant grant management view. Your access depends on the roles assigned to that login for the participating organisation and project. The Portal role guide explains the relationship between a person's EU Login, the organisation's Participant Identification Code (PIC) and project roles.
Check the signed Grant Agreement and its annexes first. The Description of Action (DoA), normally Annex 1, contains the work packages, deliverables and milestones the consortium has committed to; other grant documents set out the budget, reporting periods and obligations. Store controlled internal copies for day-to-day work, but consult the signed and amended version when a requirement is disputed. The European Research Executive Agency (REA) explains what the grant agreement covers.
For example, if a partner says a deliverable is due in month 18 but an older spreadsheet says month 15, check the current signed DoA and any amendment before changing the Portal entry or internal plan.
Which roles do you need for a project task?
Roles determine who can view, prepare, approve, sign or submit information. Coordinator contacts and participant contacts manage different project contributions; a Project Financial Signatory (PFSIGN) signs the beneficiary's financial statement, while a Project Legal Signatory (PLSIGN) signs legal documents where the procedure requires it. A Legal Entity Appointed Representative (LEAR) and account administrators have organisation-level functions. Consult the official roles and access rights guide and instructions for assigning or revoking roles.
Do not assume every technical team member has read-only access or that a primary coordinator contact alone can perform every action. Before a reporting deadline, verify who can draft the statement, who can sign it and who submits the consortium report. When staff change, update roles and contact details promptly. Use individual professional accounts rather than sharing credentials.
A simple internal role map should list each task, named account holder, backup and relevant Portal permission. Test access before the task becomes urgent; a missing signatory cannot be fixed by uploading an unsigned PDF in a different section.
Where do you report milestones, deliverables and ongoing results?
Use Continuous Reporting for the status of milestones and deliverables, the publishable summary, critical risks and other applicable monitoring information. The Online Manual on continuous reporting explains what belongs there and notes that additional indicator screens depend on the programme and action type.
Check the promised deliverable, due date and dissemination level against the current DoA. Arrange an internal quality review, then verify the final Portal status: saving or uploading a draft is not necessarily submitting it. If a milestone is not met, provide an estimated date and explain the effect on dependent work. If a deliverable is late, the manual calls for an explanation in the relevant reporting comments.
The publishable summary should be readable by the general public and contain no confidential or sensitive information. Public-facing entries and deliverables deserve a disclosure and rights check before submission. Do not assume that everything entered into continuous reporting is automatically published or approved for use as a press release.
For a detailed routine, read How does continuous reporting work in Horizon Europe?.
How do you prepare and submit a periodic report?
Open Periodic Reporting according to the reporting schedule in the Grant Agreement. The technical report includes Part A, structured information compiled from the Portal, and Part B, a narrative PDF prepared using the available template. The applicable financial statements and other documents are assembled through the same reporting process. Partners contribute their parts; the coordinator checks and submits the combined report. Online Manual: reports and payment requests.
Before locking Part A for review, verify the continuous reporting entries. The manual warns that information entered after the technical report is first locked will not be included in that periodic report. Ask each beneficiary to check its own financial statement and have its PFSIGN sign and submit it to the coordinator under the applicable workflow. The coordinator then checks that the structured and narrative accounts agree and that required statements and annexes are included.
For example, if Part B states that a pilot started in month 12 while the milestone table still says "not achieved" with no explanation, resolve the inconsistency before submission. A partner's internal approval does not by itself complete the Portal's signing and inclusion steps. Actual-cost and lump-sum grants use different financial reporting workflows; use the instructions shown for your grant.
How do you handle a change to the Grant Agreement?
First identify whether the proposed change affects the signed agreement or can be managed within its existing terms. If a formal amendment is required, the consortium prepares the change and its justification through the Portal. Participants can contribute, but the coordinator launches, finalises, submits and signs a consortium-initiated amendment under the process described in the Online Manual on amendments. The precise signing actions depend on the authorised roles.
Suppose a beneficiary must be replaced in a work package. Describe the reason, the new allocation of tasks, resources and timing, and the effect on other partners and deliverables. Discuss uncertainties with the project officer through the appropriate channel before assuming an internal decision is legally effective. Keep the revised signed documents accessible once the amendment is completed.
Do not use a blanket rule that every budget adjustment or change of bank details is an amendment to the DoA. The applicable agreement, change type and official workflow decide the route. The AGA, the Commission's Annotated Grant Agreement, provides the contractual context.
Where should you communicate with the granting authority?
Use the official channels and tasks designated for the matter in the Portal and by your project officer. Formal notifications, reporting requests and amendments have specific workflows; a general email or an internal meeting minute may not fulfil a formal submission requirement. The coordinator is normally the consortium's principal contact, while other authorised users may have roles in individual processes. REA: grants and reporting; Online Manual: grant management.
When an issue arises, identify the project, relevant agreement provision, facts, affected deadline and action requested. Keep a copy of the official response in the project's decision record. Avoid treating every exploratory question as an amendment request or claiming a Portal message automatically authorises a change to the contract.
What should you do if you cannot find a task or a submission goes wrong?
First verify that you have selected the right project and reporting period, that the task is open and that your assigned role permits the action. Read the current help page for that specific workflow. If the problem persists, use the Portal's support channel and inform the coordinator and project officer as appropriate to the issue and deadline. IT How To: Portal navigation.
If a deliverable remains in draft, check its status and the authorised submission step before declaring it late or complete. If a periodic report is returned for changes, read the request, assign each correction and use the Portal's unlock or resubmission workflow. Keep a record of the version supplied and the date. Do not promise that every missed deadline can be corrected without consequence; the agreement and granting authority determine the outcome.
Conclusion: How can you make Portal use manageable for the consortium?
Maintain an internal calendar aligned with contractual deadlines, a list of authorised users, a controlled document repository and a short checklist for each recurring submission. Review open Portal tasks and notifications regularly. This internal organisation helps partners provide accurate inputs and gives the coordinator time to check the final official record.
The Portal is where the consortium performs its official grant management actions; effective project management also requires decisions, evidence and coordination outside it. For the complete framework, read How do you manage a Horizon Europe project effectively?. If you use Grant Planner to organise work internally, verify its current functions on the product page and keep formal submissions in the Funding & Tenders Portal.