A practical guide to managing communication and collaboration in Horizon Europe projects
Effective communication is essential to the success of any Horizon Europe consortium.
Project coordinators must keep dozens of partners aligned across countries, institutions and time zones while managing meetings, discussions, decisions and daily collaboration over several years.
Microsoft Teams has become one of the most widely used collaboration platforms in research organisations, universities and companies. Thanks to its integration with Microsoft 365, many consortia already have access to it before a project even starts.
Can Microsoft Teams be used to coordinate a Horizon Europe consortium?
Absolutely.
It provides an excellent foundation for communication and document collaboration. However, consortium coordination extends beyond meetings and chat messages, requiring governance, planning and structured project management.
This guide explains how to organise an efficient Horizon Europe consortium using Microsoft Teams.
Step 1. Create a Dedicated Team for the Project
Avoid managing the project inside a general departmental Team.
Instead, create a dedicated Team exclusively for the Horizon Europe project.
This provides:
- A central collaboration space
- Easier member management
- Dedicated permissions
- Clear project identity
Every consortium member immediately knows where project communication takes place.
Step 2. Organise Channels Around the Project Structure
Rather than creating channels randomly, organise them according to how the consortium actually works.
Typical channels include:
- General
- Announcements
- Project Management Office
- Work Package 1
- Work Package 2
- Work Package 3
- Dissemination
- Communication
- Ethics
- Exploitation
- General Assembly
- Executive Board
Keeping channels aligned with project governance makes information much easier to find.
Step 3. Schedule Regular Meetings
Teams makes recurring online meetings straightforward.
Typical Horizon Europe meetings include:
- Weekly coordinator meetings
- Monthly work package meetings
- Steering committee meetings
- General Assembly meetings
- Technical workshops
Publishing recurring meetings well in advance helps partners organise their schedules.
Step 4. Store Meeting Minutes in One Place
Every meeting should produce clear action points.
A good practice is to store:
- Agenda
- Attendance list
- Meeting minutes
- Decisions taken
- Action items
in a consistent location that every partner can easily access.
Step 5. Use File Collaboration Carefully
Teams integrates directly with SharePoint for document storage.
Partners can collaborate simultaneously on:
- Deliverables
- Presentations
- Meeting documents
- Financial templates
- Reports
However, agreeing on naming conventions and review procedures remains essential to avoid confusion.
Step 6. Define Communication Rules
Large consortia generate hundreds of messages.
To avoid information overload, establish simple rules from the beginning:
- Which discussions belong in Teams?
- Which communications require email?
- When should meetings be scheduled?
- How should urgent issues be escalated?
Clear expectations reduce unnecessary communication.
Step 7. Keep Decisions Visible
Important project decisions should never disappear inside chat conversations.
Instead, maintain a shared register containing:
- Key decisions
- Responsible persons
- Decision dates
- Related documents
This becomes invaluable during long projects where personnel may change over time.
Advantages of Using Microsoft Teams
Teams offers several major advantages for collaborative projects.
Familiar to many organisations
Most universities and companies already use Microsoft Teams.
Excellent video conferencing
Meetings are easy to organise and integrate with Outlook calendars.
Strong Microsoft 365 integration
Teams works naturally with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and SharePoint.
Real-time collaboration
Multiple partners can work simultaneously on shared documents.
Centralised communication
Chat, meetings and files are accessible from a single platform.
Limitations to Consider
Microsoft Teams is primarily a communication platform.
No project governance model
Teams does not understand Horizon Europe governance structures by itself.
Action tracking is largely manual
Tasks, decisions and responsibilities often require additional tools.
Project planning is limited
Work packages, deliverables, milestones and reporting deadlines must be managed elsewhere.
Information can become fragmented
As projects run for several years, conversations spread across channels, making important information increasingly difficult to retrieve.
Digital Sovereignty Considerations
Microsoft Teams is widely deployed across Europe and remains the collaboration platform of choice for many research organisations.
Nevertheless, some universities, public institutions and research infrastructures increasingly assess collaboration tools through the perspective of digital sovereignty and long-term control over research data.
Depending on institutional policies, some organisations may choose European-hosted or open-source alternatives for sensitive projects, while others continue using Teams as part of their existing Microsoft ecosystem.
A More Structured Alternative
Microsoft Teams excels at communication, but communication alone does not coordinate a Horizon Europe project.
Dedicated solutions such as Grant Planner focus on the operational side of consortium management. Instead of relying on conversations to track progress, Grant Planner organises work packages, deliverables, milestones, responsibilities and timelines within a structured project environment. Documents managed in Grant Hub can remain linked to these project elements, giving every file a clear context beyond a simple folder structure.
For organisations already using Microsoft Teams, the two approaches complement each other naturally. Teams remains the communication platform, while Grant Planner provides the project governance layer that generic collaboration software was never designed to deliver.
Final Thoughts
Microsoft Teams is an excellent DIY solution for coordinating communication within a Horizon Europe consortium.
Its meeting capabilities, document collaboration and integration with Microsoft 365 make it a natural choice for many research organisations.
However, successful consortium coordination requires more than communication. As projects grow in size and complexity, keeping track of responsibilities, deliverables, deadlines and project governance often calls for dedicated grant management software alongside Teams.
Using Teams for collaboration and a specialised Horizon Europe platform for project coordination allows consortia to benefit from the strengths of both approaches while reducing administrative complexity throughout the lifetime of the project.