Call schedule and milestones

The overall time frame of a call is determined by the individual steps involved in the call procedure as the following call milestones need to be arranged:

• Launch 
• Deadline for pre-proposal submission (if a 2-step procedure is chosen)
• Availability of pre-proposal assessment results
• Feedback to applicants and invitation to full proposal phase
• Deadline full proposal submission (or the only one in case of 1-step submission procedure)
• Availability of eligibility checks and evaluation results 2nd stage
• Availability of ranking list and recommendations
• Dates of funding decisions
• Any meeting required for the call execution

In order to agree on a common time frame at the network level the funding agencies have to consider the following issues:

• Legal constraints at national/regional and EU level
• Operational constraints of programme managers (minimum time required for performing each of the single tasks)
• National/regional programme schedules
• Expected number of proposals and the time required to manage the workload. Evaluation procedures are the most influencing operational and legal factors on the call timeline, since they represent the most critical constraints set by all agencies of the network

Advice for Co-funded European Partnerships: The calls must remain open for at least 2 months and must be published on the Funding & Tenders Portal, and on the beneficiaries’ websites.The timing of the call should be aligned with the reporting periods for the Grant Agreement in order to have the cash flow available at the appropriate time