Connect Horizon Europe project management with software development workflows
Many Horizon Europe projects include a significant software development component. Whether developing research software, AI models, digital platforms or embedded systems, development teams often rely on GitHub to manage source code and coordinate technical work.
By integrating Grant Planner with GitHub, organisations can connect project management with software development. Project managers gain visibility into development progress, while developers continue working within the tools they already use every day.
The result is a smoother collaboration between technical teams and project coordinators throughout the project lifecycle.
Why Combine Grant Planner and GitHub?
Grant Planner manages the overall Horizon Europe project.
GitHub manages the software itself.
Together, they bridge two worlds that often operate independently: project management and software engineering.
Rather than asking developers to leave GitHub or project managers to interpret technical discussions, the integration allows each group to work in its preferred environment while sharing the information that matters.
Synchronise Development with Project Planning
Software development is rarely isolated from the rest of a Horizon Europe project.
Features, bug fixes and technical milestones often contribute directly to:
- Work packages
- Tasks
- Deliverables
- Milestones
- Reporting activities
By linking GitHub repositories with Grant Planner, development progress can be associated with the relevant project activities, making reporting easier and improving visibility across the consortium.
Connect Issues and Pull Requests to Project Activities
GitHub provides excellent tools for developers, including:
- Issues
- Pull requests
- Code reviews
- Releases
- Continuous Integration (CI/CD)
- Discussions
An integration with Grant Planner allows these technical activities to be connected to higher-level project planning.
For example, a task within a Horizon Europe work package could reference the GitHub issues or pull requests that contribute to its completion, providing clear traceability between technical work and contractual project obligations.
GitHub Projects and Grant Planner: Different Purposes
GitHub Projects is an excellent tool for organising software development.
It enables development teams to plan sprints, manage backlogs, prioritise issues and monitor engineering progress using Kanban boards or custom workflows.
However, Horizon Europe project management extends well beyond software development.
Grant Planner provides capabilities that GitHub Projects is not designed to address, including:
- Work package management
- Deliverables and milestones
- Consortium coordination
- Budget planning and tracking
- Risk management
- Quality assurance
- Ethics monitoring
- Project reporting
- Horizon Europe-specific governance
Rather than replacing GitHub Projects, Grant Planner complements it.
Developers can continue using GitHub Projects for day-to-day engineering management, while project coordinators manage the broader Horizon Europe project within Grant Planner.
Improve Communication Between Developers and Project Managers
One of the biggest challenges in collaborative research projects is translating technical progress into project progress.
Developers think in terms of commits, pull requests and releases.
Project coordinators think in terms of deliverables, milestones and reporting periods.
Integrating GitHub with Grant Planner helps connect these perspectives, making it easier to understand how technical work contributes to contractual project objectives.
A Flexible Integration for Research Software
The integration is particularly valuable for projects developing:
- AI applications
- Research software
- Digital health platforms
- Scientific simulation tools
- Data analysis platforms
- Embedded software
- Digital twins
- Open-source research infrastructures
It supports both private and public GitHub repositories depending on the project's collaboration model.
Digital Sovereignty Considerations
GitHub has become the de facto standard for software development and offers one of the richest ecosystems available for version control and collaborative engineering.
However, GitHub is owned by Microsoft, a non-European company. Organisations with strong digital sovereignty requirements may therefore wish to evaluate European or self-hosted alternatives.
Options include:
- GitLab CE, which can be self-hosted and is widely adopted by research organisations.
- Forgejo, a lightweight, community-driven Git platform that can be self-hosted.
- Gitea, another popular open-source Git platform suitable for institutions wanting full control over their infrastructure.
Many universities and research institutes already operate their own Git platforms internally, making these alternatives particularly attractive for sensitive research projects or organisations pursuing European digital sovereignty strategies.
Regardless of the chosen source code platform, Grant Planner remains independent of the development environment and can integrate with whichever solution best fits the organisation's technical and governance requirements.
Ideal Use Cases
The Grant Planner and GitHub integration is particularly valuable for:
- Horizon Europe software projects
- AI and machine learning projects
- Digital health projects
- Research software engineering teams
- Universities
- Research institutes
- Technology companies
- Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs)
Benefits at a Glance
By combining Grant Planner with GitHub, your organisation can:
- Connect software development with Horizon Europe project planning.
- Link GitHub repositories to work packages and deliverables.
- Improve traceability between technical work and project reporting.
- Allow developers and project managers to work in their preferred tools.
- Complement GitHub Projects with Horizon Europe-specific project management capabilities.
- Support organisations pursuing European digital sovereignty through flexible integration with self-hosted Git platforms.
Final Thoughts
GitHub is an outstanding platform for building software.
Grant Planner is designed to deliver Horizon Europe projects.
Rather than competing, the two solutions address different challenges. GitHub helps development teams write, review and release code, while Grant Planner provides the governance, planning and reporting framework required to successfully coordinate complex European collaborative projects.
Together, they allow technical excellence and project excellence to progress hand in hand.