Bring together Horizon Europe project management and secure European file sharing
Successful Horizon Europe projects depend on efficient collaboration. Partners need to exchange deliverables, review technical documents, share datasets and coordinate activities across multiple organisations—often over several years.
By integrating Grant Planner with Nextcloud, organisations can combine dedicated Horizon Europe project management with one of Europe's leading self-hosted file collaboration platforms. The result is a secure, GDPR-friendly workspace where project planning and document sharing work hand in hand.
For organisations committed to European digital sovereignty, this combination provides a compelling alternative to non-European cloud storage services.
Why Combine Grant Planner and Nextcloud?
Grant Planner manages the operational side of your Horizon Europe project.
Nextcloud manages the project's documents and shared files.
Together, they provide a unified environment where project teams can plan activities while keeping supporting documentation securely accessible from a central European platform.
Instead of scattering files across email attachments or multiple cloud services, every consortium member works from a shared repository linked to the project's activities.
Connect Project Activities with Shared Documents
Every work package generates documentation.
For example:
- Technical deliverables
- Meeting minutes
- Financial reports
- Risk registers
- Dissemination materials
- Ethics documentation
- Data Management Plans
- Supporting datasets
By combining Grant Planner with Nextcloud, project teams can keep these documents organised while ensuring they remain easily accessible from the corresponding work packages, tasks and deliverables.
Secure File Sharing Across the Consortium
Large collaborative projects require secure document exchange between numerous partners.
Nextcloud provides granular access permissions, secure file sharing, synchronisation and self-hosting capabilities that make it particularly attractive for universities, research institutes and public organisations.
Sensitive project information remains under the organisation's control rather than being stored exclusively within commercial cloud ecosystems.
Version Control and Collaboration
Project documents evolve continuously throughout Horizon Europe projects.
Nextcloud maintains version history while enabling collaborative editing through integrations such as ONLYOFFICE or Collabora Online.
Combined with Grant Planner's project tracking capabilities, this helps ensure that every deliverable remains associated with the correct project activity and that document history is preserved throughout the project's lifecycle.
A Strong Choice for European Digital Sovereignty
Both Grant Planner and Nextcloud align well with European digital sovereignty initiatives.
Nextcloud is developed in Europe and is widely adopted by public administrations, universities and research organisations seeking greater control over their infrastructure and data.
Together, the two platforms offer organisations the opportunity to modernise project management while remaining consistent with GDPR requirements and broader European digital sovereignty objectives.
Ideal Use Cases
The Grant Planner and Nextcloud integration is particularly well suited for:
- Horizon Europe coordinators
- Universities
- Research institutes
- Public administrations
- Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs)
- Innovation consultancies
- Large collaborative consortia
It is especially valuable for organisations that already operate a self-hosted Nextcloud instance.
Benefits at a Glance
By combining Grant Planner with Nextcloud, your organisation can:
- Centralise project planning and document sharing.
- Securely exchange files across the consortium.
- Maintain complete document version history.
- Link project documentation to work packages and deliverables.
- Strengthen GDPR compliance and European digital sovereignty.
- Build a collaborative environment without relying on non-European cloud storage.
Final Thoughts
Grant Planner and Nextcloud complement each other naturally.
Grant Planner provides the structure required to coordinate Horizon Europe projects, while Nextcloud offers a mature platform for secure file storage, sharing and collaboration.
Together, they create a robust European ecosystem that combines project management with sovereign document collaboration, making them an excellent choice for organisations that already rely on Nextcloud as part of their digital infrastructure.
Looking for a Simpler Alternative?
Nextcloud is an extremely powerful collaboration platform, but that flexibility also comes with additional infrastructure, administration and licensing costs. For some organisations—particularly smaller research teams or institutions with limited IT resources—it may be more functionality than they actually need.
If your primary objective is simply to manage the documents associated with your Horizon Europe projects, Grant Hub may be a practical alternative.
While Grant Hub is intentionally less feature-rich than Nextcloud, it integrates natively with Grant Planner and is included at no additional cost with every Grant Planner subscription. For many organisations, this provides everything needed to organise project documents, associate them with work packages and deliverables, and maintain a structured document repository—without deploying and maintaining a separate collaboration platform.
For teams that need the full flexibility of Nextcloud, the integration remains an excellent choice. For those seeking a simpler and more cost-effective solution, the combination of Grant Planner and Grant Hub may offer the best balance between functionality, ease of use and total cost of ownership.