LEAR appointment and validation

Parallel to the validation of your organisation in the Participant Register, its legal representative(s) (e.g. typically the CEO of the company, the rector of the university, the Director-General of the Institute... always in accordance with the statutes of your organisation) must nominate a Legal Entity Appointed Representative (LEAR). The LEAR role, which can be performed by an administrative staff member in the organisation's central administration, is key: once validated by the Commission, the LEAR will be authorised to:

• manage the legal and financial information about the organisation
• manage access rights of persons in the organisation (but not at the project level)
• appoint representatives of the organisation to electronically sign grant agreements ('Legal Signatories' - LSIGN) or financial statements ('Financial Signatories' - FSIGN) via the Funding & Tenders Portal

Further details about the LEAR's rights and responsibilities are explained in the Roles and access rights section.

How to appoint a LEAR

• Please note that validation of the organisation is a prerequisite for the validation of the LEAR.

Identify the person in your organisation who will act as LEAR and the legally empowered representative appointing her/him.

The person who initially registered the organisation in the Funding & Tenders Portal (the self-registrant) will be able to launch the appointment of the LEAR in parallel to the validation of the organisation.
Once invited to do so, this person can go to the 'My Organisations' menu, click on the 'Actions' button, then 'Modify Organisation' and proceed with the following step.

Beneficiaries that are natural persons do not need to prove their capacity to become a LEAR, but still need to enter their LEAR data and signed supporting documents, including copy of identity proof, in the Participant Register.

Encode in the Participant Register the name and contact information of the LEAR and the legal representative(s) appointing her/him:

On completion of this step, the Participant Register will generate the necessary supporting documents to be hand-signed:

• LEAR appointment letter and LEAR role and duties (generated as a single document)
• Declaration of consent to the Funding & Tenders Portal Terms & Conditions

The system automatically checks the existence of an EU Login account linked to the LEAR's e-mail address, first and last name, and in case of inconsistencies alerts the self-registrant. If no EU Login account exists, the system will start creating one and the LEAR will be requested (via a notification e-mail) to finalise the creation of her/his EU Login account (the LEAR appointment process will be blocked until this is done)

Get your organisation's legal representative to:

• date, sign and stamp the LEAR appointment letter & LEAR roles and duties document generated by the system (both sections must be signed)
• read the Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions and
• date, sign and stamp the declaration of consent to the Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions.

Upload a scanned version of the following documents in the Participant Register:

1. the LEAR appointment letter & LEAR role and duties (dated and signed by the legal representative(s) and the LEAR)
2. the Declaration of consent to the Funding & Tenders Portal Terms & Conditions (dated and signed by the legal representative(s))
3. copies of an official valid proof of identity (ID-card, Passport) carrying a photo and signature of
   • the legal representative(s) and
   • the appointed representative (LEAR)
4. document(s) proving that the legal representative(s) appointing the LEAR is/are empowered as such, which must:
   • clearly indicate the role/function within the organisation as legal representative(s),
   • identify and appoint a specific person (by indicating his/her personal data) as the person covering that specific role/function.

TIPS:

Don't forget to keep the originals of all documents you uploaded on file, so that they are available for EU controls, audits or ex-post checks. Since the Participant Register is now being built up as a single EU organisation registry for all EU funding and tenders, your registration will be valid for this and any future EU funding and tenders your organisation will ever apply for. You must therefore keep the originals permanently; the document retention rules of individual grant agreements/contracts (2/3/5 years after the end of the action) do not apply. You should therefore not throw them away and ensure that they are maintained also in case of insolvency, takeover or change of control. Missing documents may lead to serious consequences (see Funding & Tenders Portal Terms & Conditions).

Upon receipt of the above listed documents and once the corresponding PIC has been validated, the Validation Services will also validate the LEAR appointment in the Participant Register.

Activate the LEAR's online user account using:

• the activation instructions which the LEAR will receive by e-mail
• the account activation PIN code which will be sent to the LEAR by post, or by SMS if the LEAR's mobile phone number was provided

TIPS:

Should you encounter any problems with the LEAR appointment, please contact the Validation Services via the messaging service in the My Organisations menu, clicking on the "Actions" button > "Modify Organisation".

Changing the LEAR or his/her data?

• In case there is a need to replace an already validated LEAR, the organisation can designate a new LEAR by following the steps set out above under How to appoint a representative (LEAR). There is no alternative procedure specifically designed for replacing LEARs.
• If you are a LEAR and your e-mail address has changed, please inform the Validation Services via the 'messaging' option under the My Organisations menu, clicking on the "Actions" button > "Modify Organisation". The e-mail address will be updated by us.

How can I contact the LEAR of an organisation?

Go to the Participant Register page under the menu "How to participate" and use the "Search a PIC" function for finding the organisation. The search results contain a "Contact Organisation" button on the right-hand side. Clicking the button will open a contact form that allows you to send a message to the LEAR (and his/her Account Administrators) without disclosing their contact details (for reasons of personal data protection). The LEAR can then contact you directly.

You can contact the LEAR of your own organisation(s) on the My Organisations page (after logging in with your EU Login account), by clicking the "Actions" button > "Contact Organisation" available for each organisation to which your EU login account is linked.

What can the LEAR do in the participant register?

The LEAR role, which can be performed by any member of your staff (typically from the central administration), is key. They are the formally-nominated main responsible for your organisation’s use of the Portal Electronic Exchange System and thus bear the final responsibility for all your actions in the Portal. Once validated, they will be responsible for:

• keeping an overview of all the projects and applications the organisation is involved in
• managing all the legal and financial information about the organisation
• managing the access rights at organisation-level and keeping an an eye on access rights at project-level
• appointing the persons which will be able to electronically sign contracts (Legal Signatories - LSIGN) and cost claims or invoices (Financial Signatories - FSIGN)

Beneficiaries that are natural persons do not need to prove their capacity to become a LEAR, but still need to enter their LEAR data and submit supporting documents.

Further details about the LEAR's rights and responsibilities are explained in the Roles and access rights section.