As a novelty in Horizon Europe, as part of the corporate Model Grant Agreement (MGA) approach, it will no longer be possible for organisations that do not receive Horizon Europe funding to be beneficiaries signing the grant agreement.
This is a significant change from the rules of Horizon 2020, where under Article 9 of the Model Grant Agreement, organisations from countries ineligible to automatically receive Horizon 2020 funding could still participate in projects as beneficiaries after signing the grant agreement. Consequently, they enjoyed the same rights as other beneficiaries (e.g. right to participate in project meetings, voting rights, etc.) and similar obligations.
Article 7 of the Horizon Europe MGA states that, "the beneficiaries… must remain eligible under the EU programme funding the grant for the entire duration of the action. Costs and contributions will be eligible only as long as the beneficiary and the action are eligible."
In contrast to Horizon 2020, now under Horizon Europe, it is whether an organisation is eligible to receive EU funding, (for example, in a specific call for collaborative projects), that will determine its beneficiary status. Countries eligible for funding will be mentioned in the 'Topic conditions and documents' section of each topic included in the Work Programme and it will be necessary to check this section to make sure all organisations in the proposal have the correct status.
If an applicant organisation is based in a non-EU country that is eligible for funding, it can be included in the proposal as a beneficiary, as it will be able to receive funding from the Commission (via the coordinator). However, if this is not the case, then it cannot participate as a beneficiary and should be included as a third party (e.g. Associated Partner under Article 9.1 of the Model Grant Agreement).
It is also important to remember that, exceptionally, organisations from countries not automatically eligible to receive Horizon Europe funding can be eligible if the call/topic text foresees such option – in this case they can become beneficiaries and sign the grant agreement as they qualify to receive EU funding under the call. This is particularly relevant for calls where collaboration with third countries is required; the topic text must explicitly mention the exceptional availability of EU funding for these countries in this case.
Finally, if the status of an organisation is incorrect (e.g. the organisation was initially included as a beneficiary in the proposal), it will be changed at the Grant Agreement Preparation phase, before the grant agreement is signed.