Template

Consortium roles and responsibilities

Who decides what, who delivers what, and who answers to the granting authority. Use it as an annex to the consortium agreement or as the first page of the project handbook.

Download the template (Markdown)

Governance bodies

Keep the structure proportionate. Three bodies are enough for most projects: a General Assembly deciding on money and membership, an Executive Board running the work plan, and a coordinator handling the interface with the granting authority. Write down the voting rule and the deadlock rule before you need them.

Role definitions

Coordinator

One organisation, one named person

Single point of contact with the granting authority and the project officer
Grant agreement, amendments, payment distribution to beneficiaries
Consolidates periodic and final reports; owns the reporting calendar
Chairs the Executive Board, maintains the risk register and action log

Work package leader

One partner per work package

Delivers WP objectives, deliverables and milestones on schedule
Coordinates contributing partners and tracks their effort
Reports progress, risks and deviations monthly
Reviews deliverables before they reach the coordinator

Task leader

One partner per task

Executes the task and produces the agreed outputs
Raises dependencies and blockers to the WP leader as they appear

Beneficiary (each partner)

Every organisation in the grant agreement

Performs the work in Annex 1 with the committed effort
Keeps time records and cost documentation audit-ready
Declares background IP and respects access rights in the consortium agreement
Nominates a technical contact, an administrative contact and a deputy

Dissemination and communication manager

Usually a partner with outreach capacity

Owns the plan, calendar and KPIs; approves use of the EU emblem and funding statement
Ensures open access compliance for publications and data

Exploitation and IP manager

Often the partner closest to market

Maintains the key exploitable results register with owners and routes to market
Coordinates protection, licensing and joint-ownership decisions

Data and ethics manager

A partner with legal or data expertise

Owns the data management plan, GDPR compliance and ethics deliverables

Quality manager

A partner independent of most deliverables

Runs internal review: every deliverable reviewed by two partners who did not write it

RACI matrix

R = responsible, A = accountable, C = consulted, I = informed.

Activity	Coordinator	WP leader	Partner	Diss. / IP manager
Periodic report	A/R	C	C	I
Deliverable production	I	A	R	C
Deliverable quality review	A	C	R	I
Risk escalation	A	R	C	I
Publication / press release	I	C	R	A
Patent filing decision	I	C	R	A
Budget transfer request	A/R	C	C	I

Guidance for coordinators

Agree the internal deadlines before the kick-off: drafts three weeks before the due date, review comments within one week.
Ask for effort figures monthly. Reconstructing them at the periodic report is where audits start going wrong.
Make escalation cheap: any slippage above four weeks goes to the Executive Board immediately, without blame.
Keep one repository, one naming convention, and one action log. Two of anything creates a second version of the truth.
Sign the consortium agreement before the start date; renegotiating governance mid-project is far harder.

Guidance for partners

Name a deputy for every contact point. Holidays and staff turnover are the most common cause of missed deadlines.
Declare background IP honestly and early; late declarations complicate exploitation for everyone.
Record time as you go, against the tasks in Annex 1, with a method you can defend in an audit.
Raise a blocker the week it appears. A problem shared at month six is a plan; at the review it is a finding.
Read the deliverables you are listed on, even when someone else writes them — accountability is shared.

Setting up a consortium?

Arvacore helps coordinators and partners put governance, reporting and IP arrangements in place before the project starts.

contact@arvacore.com