Amendment

An amendment is a formal change to the grant agreement, prepared and signed in the portal like the agreement itself. It is needed for changes to what the agreement records: adding or removing a beneficiary, changing the coordinator, extending the duration, altering the maximum grant amount, or substantially changing Annex 1.

A great deal does NOT need one. Moving budget between cost categories or between partners is generally allowed without an amendment, provided the work described in Annex 1 is still carried out as agreed. Consortia waste months preparing amendments for reallocations that the agreement already permits.

Timing is the constraint people underestimate. An amendment must be requested and completed before the change takes effect, and it cannot be retroactive in the way consortia usually want. A partner that left eight months ago cannot be removed as of the date it stopped working. Costs incurred by a partner that is not yet a beneficiary are not eligible.

Duration extensions are the most common request and are usually granted when justified, but they must be requested BEFORE the project ends. An extension asked for after the final date does not exist as an option, and the project simply closes with its deliverables incomplete.

Every amendment needs every beneficiary to sign, which means the same coordination problem as the original signature. Batch changes where you can: one amendment covering a partner change, a budget shift and an extension is far less work than three.