SE: How do applicants encode Associated Partners from third countries in the online system?

Under Staff Exchanges, all participant organisations must be encoded simply as ‘Partner’ (regardless of whether they are beneficiaries or associated partners), except for the coordinator, which is registered as ‘Coordinator’.

Applicants should refer to ‘How to complete the Budget table (Part A section 3)’ of MSCA Staff Exchanges Guide for Applicants.

During the GAP phase, the Associated Partners will be moved to the ‘Associated Partners’ tab.

PF: Who can be included as an associated partner in a Postdoctoral Fellowships proposal?

Associated Partners to be included in Part A are only the outgoing host organisation in the third country in Global Fellowships or the host organisation for a non-academic placement. Any secondments should be described in detail in Part B1 and all Associated Partners (linked to a Beneficiary, for outgoing phase in GF, for secondment or for non-academic placement) must be listed (in Table 5.1) and described (in Table 5.2) in Part B2.

DN: Is it necessary to encode main contacts for Associated partners?

When entering Associated partners in the EU portal, applicants do not need to enter a name or a contact for the partner (which they do for beneficiaries). Even though associated partners have to be added in the portal with a PIC, the researchers from Associated partners do not have access to the proposal in the submission system (unlike contacts for beneficiaries).

DN: Is it necessary to have an amendment to the Grant Agreement when adding a new Associated Partner not initially part of the project?

If a new legal entity joins a Doctoral Networks consortium as Associated Partner, the coordinator needs to inform the Project Officer and an amendment to the Grant Agreement (and to the Consortium Agreement or Partnership Agreement) will be needed to formalise this change.

DN: Can coordinators cover the organization of training events and other costs of Associated Partners that they have not declared in the proposal?

Associated Partners delivering training or hosting secondments could be funded by the Research, Training and Networking costs either by the coordinator or a beneficiary. This arrangement should be agreed in the Consortium Agreement and/ or Partnership Agreement with the Associated Partner(s).

DN: Should applicants add associated partner(s) in part A in section ‘add an associated partner’? If yes, do they need to complete all their data?

Associated Partners have to be added to Part A (Participants List), but applicants do not need to fill in the section “role of participating organisation” in part A. In part B1 and B2, full picture for associated partners is needed.

DN: In the 2023 Doctoral Networks Guide for Applicants it says that “… in part A, associated partners do not need to fill in the role of participating organisation in the project.” Do associated partners have to fill in the information about the researchers involved (which is a change from the 2022 call)?

For Associated Partners it is not an obligation to fill in this part about the researchers involved in the proposal.

COFUND: Is it possible to add Associated Partners in part A that don’t have a PIC number?

If the COFUND programme has Associated Partners involved, the applicant has to put their PIC number in part A.

DN: Do Associated partners linked to a beneficiary need to be included in part A of the project proposal? If so, are they added as a normal Associated partner?

Yes, Associated partners linked to a beneficiary need to be added in part A of the project proposal. Their links should also be indicated in part A - in the section “Links with other participants” - "same group", "controls", "is controlled by".

Associated partners linked to a beneficiary do not need to provide a letter of commitment. However, it should be clear from part B1 which Associated partners are linked to a beneficiary, and which ones are not (p.13 of the 2022 Doctoral Networks Guide for Applicants).