All funding organisations participating in a joint call have to agree on a way to fund successful transnational proposals. The preferred funding mode for a specific call or network will depend on the overall financial situation and the respective flexibility of involved national/regional funding organisations.
The funding modes can be sorted into the following main categories:
Virtual common pot model or mixed mode: funds are usually provided directly by the respective national/regional funding organisations to successful applicants. Consequently, in a next phase the monitoring of funds is also done by the involved funding organisations.
Real common pot: the programme owners agree to provide the financial contribution to a central unit (i.e. call secretariat). Funds are then distributed to the respective project consortia and the funded project is further monitored by the secretariat.
While several funding modes are technically possible the typical case for a network which receives EU co-funding for joint calls is a call operated with a mixed funding mode.
In any case, for transnational project cooperation it is important that all involved project participants receive funding more or less at the same time since any delay in funding one participant might delay the implementation of the entire project.