Build the European food safety knowledge ecosystem, ensuring safe food as the basis for healthy diets and sustainable food systems.

This call for proposals aims to identify organisations for which tasks falling within the plant health mission of the PLANTS unit can be entrusted by EFSA. In particular, these tasks regard the commodity risk assessment and/or assessment of commodity treatments for the evaluation of the technical dossiers sent by Third Countries for High Risk Plants or for request of derogation of import prohibitions.

The costs under Specific Agreements are co-financed by EFSA at maximum 90% of the total eligible costs.

• Agriculture - Farming - Forestry
• Health
• Rural development

• International Organisations
• NGOs
• Non Profit Organisations
• Other Beneficiaries
• Semi-governmental organisations
• State-owned Enterprises

In order to achieve the main objective of the call, proposals can be submitted by one eligible organisation or by a consortium of eligible organisations. In case of a consortium, one of the partners must be identified in the proposal as the consortium leader. The applicant (consortium leader) is responsible for identifying consortium partners.

Proposals submitted by a sole applicant:
The Applicant submits the proposal to EFSA. There can be only one applicant in the proposal.

As soon as the grant agreement is signed, the applicant becomes the beneficiary. The beneficiary is liable for the technical implementation of the project as described in the proposal which becomes Annex 1 of the grant agreement.

The beneficiary:

• Communicates with EFSA;
• Receives and answers all claims EFSA might have in relation to the implementation of the project;
• Requests and reviews any documents or information required by EFSA and verifies their completeness and correctness before passing them to EFSA;
• Informs EFSA of any event that is likely to substantially affect the implementation of the project;
• Submits the deliverables and reports to EFSA;
• Requests and receives payments from EFSA.

Proposals submitted by consortium:

• The Applicant submits the proposal to EFSA on behalf of the consortium. The applicant is the leading entity of the consortium.
• The Partner is the other entity in the consortium. There can be a minimum of one partner or more partners.

Once the grant is awarded, the grant agreement is signed between EFSA and the applicant (leading entity of the consortium).

Partners do not sign the grant agreement directly but instead sign a mandate (template provided by EFSA) authorising the applicant to sign the grant agreement and any future amendments on their behalf.

As soon as the grant agreement is signed, the applicant becomes the Coordinator and partner/s become co beneficiary/ies. The coordinator and co-beneficiary/ies are referred to as the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries are jointly and severally liable for the technical implementation of the project as described in the proposal which becomes Annex 1 of the grant agreement. If a beneficiary fails to implement its part of the project, the other beneficiaries become responsible for implementing that part.

The coordinator has the following important roles:

• Takes part in implementing the project;
• Monitors the action is implemented properly;
• Act as intermediary for communication between the consortium and EFSA;
• Receives and answers all claims EFSA might have in relation to implementation of the project;
• Requests and reviews any documents or information required by EFSA and verifies their completeness and correctness before passing them to EFSA;
• Informs EFSA and the partner/s of any event that is likely to substantially affect implementation of the project;
• Submits the deliverables and reports to EFSA;
• Requests and receives payments from EFSA and distributes the funds to partner/s without unjustified delays.

The coordinator may not delegate the above-mentioned tasks to the co-beneficiary/ies or subcontract them to any third party.

The other beneficiary/ies:

• Take part in implementing the project;
• Forward to the coordinator the data needed to draw up reports, financial statements and other documents required under the grant agreement;
• Inform the coordinator of any event or circumstances likely to substantially affect or delay the implementation of the project.

If you are searching for consortium partners, please contact your Focal Point at the following address: https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/partnersnetworks/eumembers (section: Focal Points members and observers).

For any further information or guidance, you can contact: efsaprocurement@efsa.europa.eu

• Funding&Tenders
• Call document