Once the evaluation is completed, the Contracting Authority reviews and validates the draft Contract and the award decision for the specific contract is granted. The contractors will receive a notification in the portal and an email regarding the outcome. Click on the bell icon to access the notifications related to the contract.

For more information about the notification system, consult this page. 

In the notification, you will find: 

• The notification regarding the award letter and evaluation outcome. It contains a link to the letter;
• The notification announcing that the contract is ready to be reviewed and signed.

Contracts (and amendments to contracts) can be signed only by a PLSIGN  (Legal Signatory assigned to a project). PLSIGNs are nominated by the CoCo (Coordinator contact) or PCoCo (Primary coordinator contact) of the contract from a list of LSIGNs.  

As a PLSIGN, connect to the Funding & Tenders Portal and open the My Contract(s) section (1). 

On this section you will find a list of all the contracts you have been assigned as PLSIGN by the PCoCo. If you are assigned as PLSIGN in a framework contract by clicking on the   icon on the left of the title you will see the list of specific contracts linked to it. You can search for the contract by entering the contract title in the search field (2) and by clicking on the magnifier. 

Click on the Actions menu (3) of your contract and select Manage Contract, the Contract general Information page will open.

Contract Signature process

On the top section of the screen you will see the contract information:

Contract title, contract number, request number, lot, consortium leader, contracting authority entity in charge of the contract, the total amount, the payment modality and the contract status. You can minimise or maximise this panel by using the arrow (1).

You will find in the Active Processes (2) tab, the processes currently ongoing for this contract, in the Documents (3) tab, the documents relevant to this contract and, in the Archived Processes (4) tab, processes either cancelled or completed for this contract. The Archived Processes tab is displayed only if there is an archived process for the contract.

The process contract signature is displayed as active, you can click on the arrow to expand the process panel (5).

By expanding the process panel, you will see on your left the responsible actor for this step (1). 

You will also view the timeline (2):

• Step 1 - Invited: you have received the invitation to sign the contract. This step is automatically set to completed. You see the date the contract signature process has started.
• Step 2 - Confirmed: This step is already flagged as completed in cases where the confirmation of an expert availability is not applicable. The completion date is indicated.
• Step 3- Signed: The orange colour indicates that this step has started and is pending. 

Active Tasks linked to the process

On the right, you will find the active tasks (3) currently ongoing for this process, documents (4) relevant to this process and the history (5) tasks either completed or cancelled for this process in the respective tabs. The History tab will not be visible unless there a completed or cancelled task for this process. 

This Sign contract task is in orange as its status is pending indicating that an action is expected from you. 

Click the arrow (6) next to the pending status to access and perform the task.

In the Sign contract task, you have to first review the contract by clicking on the download icon (1):

A new window pops up. The Document download service window opens enabling you to download and review the contract before you decide on your action:

Back in the Sign Contract task, click the Sign button (1):

A pop up will appear asking you to confirm that you agree to sign the contract, click on the Confirm button to proceed.

You are redirected to the EU Login eSignature page where you will have to enter your password and then click the Sign button to confirm the contract signature. 

The contracting authority is informed and the task is now removed from the active task tab. 

The responsible actor for this process has now changed (1), the signed step in the timeline is green (2), the process status (3) remains active and you can find the completed task in the History tab (4):

  If after performing an action or receiving a notification, you do not see any change in the process timeline or in the task, click the refresh  button. 

 In the Sign Contract task, if you don’t wish to sign the contract, click on the Decline button.

A pop up will appear asking you to confirm that you decline to sign the contract, it is mandatory to provide the reason for declining and then to click on the Proceed button. 

The contracting authority will be informed and this contract will be cancelled.

If you detect some incorrect data while reviewing the contract go back to the Sign Contract task, click the Incorrect data button to inform the contracting authority that you cannot sign the contract as such.

A pop up will appear asking you to indicate the incorrect data in the text field (mandatory) and then to click on the Proceed button. 

The contracting authority will be informed and will review your request.

The responsible actor for this process has now changed (1), the signed step in the timeline is grey (2), the process status (3) remains active and you can find the cancelled task in the history tab (4):

 At the top of the General information page, you will find the button Launch new interaction with the EU (1). This button is to be used in the frame of amendments.