General provisions for participants

Any company, university, research centre, organisation or individual, legally established in any country, may participate in a collaborative project (known as an indirect action) provided that the minimum conditions laid down in the Rules for Participation in FP7 (RFP), including any additional conditions laid down by specific programmes such as the minimum number of participants, or additional conditions on the type of participant or place of establishment.

Eligible countries

While FP7 participants can in principle be based anywhere, there are different categories of country which may have varying eligibility for different specific and work programmes:

• MEMBER STATES - The EU-27;
  "Cyprus, Malta, France, Germany, Italy, Czech. Republic, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Sweden, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Finland, Romania".
• ASSOCIATED COUNTRIES - with science and technology cooperation agreements that involved contributing to the framework programme budget;
  List of association and cooperation agreements in FP6 as of 10/5/2006 (pdf)
• CANDIDATE COUNTRIES - currently recognised as candidates for future accession;
• THIRD COUNTRIES - the participation of organisations or individuals established in countries that are not Member States, candidates or associated should also be justified in terms of the enhanced contribution to the objectives of FP7.
  “Science & Technology agreement between Jordan & the European Community (EC)”
  List of the International Cooperation Partner Countries (ICPC)
  Science & Technology agreement between Jordan & the European Community (EC)

Eligible consortia

In most cases EU research funding through FP7 is to be sought by building a consortium in order to submit a project proposal in response to a call. The eligibility of these consortia also varies according to different conditions related to the type of action of instrument, while the minimum conditions for eligibility summarised as follows:

• INDIRECT ACTIONS (COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS)
  At least three legal entities (defined as organisations or individual researchers as above) must participate, each of which is established in a Member State or Associated country, and no two of which are established in the same Member State or Associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other in accordance with Article 6 of the RFP, meaning they are not subsidiaries of the same organisation or of each other.
• INDIRECT ACTIONS CONCERNING INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION PARTNER COUNTRIES
  While participants from non-EU or Associated countries are still eligible consortium members for most projects, special conditions apply for collaborative projects addressing the participation of international cooperation partner countries in parity with Member States or Associated countries. These minimum conditions, mainly relevant to the International Cooperation activities under the specific programme for Capacities, as identified in the work programme, are the following: (a) At least four legal entities must participate; (b) at least two of the legal entities referred to in point (a) must be established in Member States or Associated countries, but no two may be established in the same Member State or Associated country; (c) at least two of the legal entities referred to in point (a) must be established in international cooperation partner countries, but no two may be established in the same international cooperation partner country; (d) All four legal entities referred to in point (a) must be independent of each other in accordance with Article 6 of the RFP.
• COORDINATION AND SUPPORT ACTIONS, AND TRAINING AND CARREER DEVELOPMENT OF RESEARCHERS
  For coordination and support actions, and actions in favour of training and career development of researchers, the minimum condition shall be the participation of one legal entity.
• INVESTIGATOR-DRIVEN "FRONTIER" RESEARCH PROJECTS
  For indirect actions to support investigator-driven "frontier" research projects funded in the framework of the European Research Council, the minimum condition shall be the participation of one legal entity established in a Member State or in an Associated country.
• SOLE PARTICIPANTS
  Where the minimum conditions for an indirect action are satisfied by a number of legal entities, which together form one legal entity, the latter may be the sole participant in an indirect action, provided that it is established in a Member State or Associated country.