Once the call deadline arrives and you submit a proposal, it undergoes an admissibility and eligibility check on the Funding and Tenders Portal. Those who pass are assigned to at least 3 independent expert evaluators who work remotely. Each expert scores the proposal against the 3 standard criteria: Excellence, Impact, and Quality and efficiency of the Implementation. For single-stage calls, this remote evaluation and subsequent internal validation typically take up to 5 months from the submission deadline.
In most of the programs, after individual reviews, a consensus group brings together the experts who evaluated the same proposal to reach a single set of comments and scores. A panel then reviews these consensus reports. The panel is composed of additional experts and establishes a ranked list per topic, resolving ties and ensuring coherence in evaluations. On this basis, the Commission or the relevant agency selects proposals for funding within the available budget and issues an Evaluation Result Letter to all applicants.
It is important to notice that about one week before sending the Evaluation Result Letters, the EC staff initiates a validation process with the selected candidates, asking the project coordinators to upload legal and accounting documents to the portal. Although this is not a guarantee of funding, it is a strong indicator that the project is on the final short list.
In some Pillar II topics (cluster calls) and in most Pillar III European Innovation Council (EIC) schemes, the panel stage may include an interview before a jury in Brussels on a date communicated by the funding body. The jury makes the final recommendation for funding, considering the scores and portfolio balance (avoiding two or more projects that are very similar).
Two-stage calls, frequent in Pillar II clusters such as Health and Climate, follow a modified timeline. At stage 1, applicants submit a short outline proposal, often limited to 10 pages and in some cases evaluated “blind,” without revealing the consortium. Only Excellence and Impact are assessed at this stage. Applicants are informed of the first-stage outcome about 3 months after the initial deadline. Only the best proposals are invited to submit a full stage-2 proposal, which is then evaluated on all three criteria through the same remote-consensus-panel sequence as single-stage calls. The results of stage 2 are typically communicated within 5 months of the second deadline.
Successful projects then enter grant agreement preparation. This phase covers finalization of the technical description, budget adjustments, ethics and security checks, and internal approval procedures. The Horizon Europe rules set an indicative maximum of 8 months from the (final) submission deadline to the signature of the grant agreement, which applies to single-stage and two-stage calls. In practice, beneficiaries often receive the evaluation results around month 5 and complete grant preparation during months 6 to 8. The project start date is agreed in the grant agreement. Usually, it falls on the first day of a month, often shortly after signature, so that most Pillar II and III projects begin their work approximately 8 months after the call deadline, unless the work program specifies a different schedule.
