Further regulation of IP related matters is not obligatory but strictly recommended for the consortium partners. The following IP related issues may be considered in the Consortium Agreement:

(i) Confidentiality – mechanisms for marking information as confidential, use of confidential information, penalties for a breach of confidentiality provisions, etc;

(ii) Background selection- a list of background to be brought to the project (and/or exclusion of assets which will not be brought to the project);

In accordance with the Article 24 (2) of the Horizon 2020 Rules for Participation (RfP) and the Article 41 (3) of the Grant Agreement for Horizon 2020 (GA), the participants have to conclude a consortium agreement (CA) if the work programme does not rule otherwise.

However, neither the RfP nor the GA stipulates that a CA has to be concluded before the GA is signed. The GA only strongly recommends ("should in principle") that the CA be negotiated and concluded before the action starts because not having a CA at this moment could delay and jeopardise the action.

According to Article 41.3 of the Model Grant Agreement, a consortium agreement has to be signed between beneficiaries, unless the work programme specifies that there is no need for it. In other words, if not indicated otherwise, the beneficiaries must have internal arrangements regarding their operation and co-ordination to ensure that the action is implemented properly (consortium agreement).

It is to be noted that there is no binding model of a Consortium Agreement. The European Commission has only made available a check list with non-binding guidelines on the issues that participants may consider while drafting their Consortium Agreements.

A Consortium Agreement refers to the internal organisation of the consortium. Depending on the area or sector of the each project and of the grade of technical complexity that are involved, the Consortium Agreement might generally contain the following:

·         provisions on the governance structure of the consortium;

·         technical provisions (e.g. the tasks of each party and the project schedule);

·         financial provisions (e.g. the distribution of the Community financial contribution, the financial plan, etc);