The Declaration of Honour in Horizon Europe
The invitation letter to start the Grant Agreement Preparation (GAP) is an exciting moment in your Horizon Europe grant process. It means that all your project data is successfully recorded in the Funding and Tenders Portal (FTP) and you can start the last round of requirements to finally sign the Grant Agreement.
The GAP process is demanding, as you are required to follow some formal steps within a strict deadline. One of them is to sign a Declaration of Honour (DoH).
Why you have to sign the Declaration of Honour
The idea of the DoH is to ensure that all beneficiaries meet the eligibility criteria and are not in a situation that would exclude them from receiving the EU funding (e.g. bankruptcy).
You are requested to certify that all the information provided for your project is correct and complete, and that you comply with the eligibility criteria and all other conditions set out in the call for proposals and specified in the Declaration.
You also guarantee that your company has the resources needed to implement the project, as well as sufficient sources of funding to maintain the activity throughout project implementation.
How to sign the Declaration of Honour
The DoH is signed electronically and online in the Funding and Tenders portal. You do not need to print and scan any documents, just follow a few steps in the portal to complete the procedure.
The declaration must be signed by a Project Legal Signatory (PLSIGN), so make sure that this role has been assigned and all the access rights given prior to the signature process (read more on the roles management in our article The LEAR in Horizon Europe).
Please note that if there are any Affiliated Entities in your project, the PLSIGN has a separate task for the Declaration for each one. In such a case, the procedure is more complex as you have to download the DoH template for each entity, ask them to complete and sign it and upload the scanned documents received from them.
Give the Declaration of Honour priority
Although the basic DoH signature process is quite straightforward, it is important to get it done in a correct and timely manner as a prerequisite to the next big step, signing the Grant Agreement.
We are happy to help you get the DoH right, just get in touch: hello@getpolite.eu