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How Horizon Europe reaches an Irish research team

Horizon Europe is directly managed. There is no Irish Managing Authority, no national envelope and no intermediate body: you apply to the Commission, an agency or Joint Undertaking, and if you win, that body signs the grant agreement with you and pays you. Irish bodies help you get there, and Enterprise Ireland pays public research bodies to write the proposal — but nobody in Ireland decides whether you are funded.

Horizon EuropeReg. (EU) 2021/695 · Model Grant Agreement€93.5bn EU-wide, directly managed — there is no Irish allocation to compete for
One programme, too many disconnected records. Delivery notes, partner decisions, expenditure, results and reporting evidence often sit in different places.

How the money reaches an organisation

Every level here can be asked for its own process map. That is the point of yours.

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European Commission — DG Research and Innovation
Sets the work programme and the calls under Reg. (EU) 2021/695. €93.5bn across the EU for 2021–2027, awarded on proposal quality in open competition — not shared out by country.
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The granting authority — the Commission service or executive agency that signs your grant
European Research Council Executive Agency, Research Executive Agency, European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, Health and Digital, Climate Infrastructure and Environment. The one that ran your call is the one that signs, pays, reviews and can audit you.
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Enterprise Ireland — national support network and proposal funding
Leads Ireland’s Horizon Europe network; ten agencies host National Contact Points. It has no say in whether your proposal succeeds, but it does pay towards writing one: coordinator support of up to €12,500 including VAT for a researcher in an Irish higher-education or publicly funded body, and support for work-package leaders, travel and ERC preparation. Apply ≥10 weeks before the call closes.
👉 Your organisation sits at this level
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Your organisation — a beneficiary on the grant agreement
Signs the grant agreement directly with the granting authority, keeps cost records unless lump-sum funded, reports each reporting period, and holds the records for five years after the final payment — three years for grants of not more than €60,000.
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Everyone the research is for
Patients, industry, other researchers and the public who get the results. Horizon requires open access to publications, so the output is meant to travel beyond the consortium.
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Audit Chain
Built upward from your own records. Your accounts, timesheets and supporting documents → your periodic report and financial statement, with a Certificate on the Financial Statements where requested EU contribution to costs reaches €430,000, or €725,000 with a systems-and-process audit; none for lump sums → the granting authority or the Commission runs reviews, checks and audits under the Agreement, and you get a draft audit report to comment on before it is finalised → findings can be extended to your other grants. Alongside, not above: the European Court of Auditors audits the EU budget, and OLAF investigates suspected fraud; the EPPO has no power in Ireland. There is no Irish audit authority in this chain — the certificate is a document you buy, not a tier above you.

Process maps under this programme

Where this came from

Human reviewed2026-09-21Automatically checked2026-10-12Current source statusAutomatic baseline required

Read against the source on 2026-09-21. This is the human-reviewed version.

What that check changed: Reviewed and updated on 21 September 2026 against the Horizon Europe Regulation, the model grant agreement and the agencies' own pages; 15 sources are listed below. Horizon Europe is directly managed, so there is no Irish Managing Authority and no national allocation. Oversight runs from the beneficiary's own records through the granting authority to the Commission, with the European Court of Auditors, OLAF and the European Public Prosecutor's Office alongside. The Certificate on the Financial Statements is a document the beneficiary buys, not a tier of oversight; it is required at €430,000 of requested EU contribution, or €725,000 where the beneficiary holds a systems-and-process audit. Irish support is not only advisory: Enterprise Ireland pays towards writing a proposal, up to €12,500 including VAT for a coordinator in an Irish higher-education or publicly funded body.