Does the Horizon Europe AGA require CRediT?

No. The Annotated Model Grant Agreement encourages structured contributorship statements but does not mandate CRediT specifically. CRediT travels through the publication and CC BY OA route rather than via direct AGA capture.

Where should CRediT articulation appear in a Horizon Europe Part B?

The work-package descriptions and consortium-composition table are the natural homes for CRediT-aligned articulation of who leads which work and which contribution roles each beneficiary holds.

Does the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) parse CRediT?

Not directly - EOSC federates FAIR-compliant data deposit and is independent of the contributorship layer. Where the depositing repository captures CRediT, that record travels into EOSC via the linked dataset and publication metadata.

How does Open Research Europe handle CRediT?

Open Research Europe (the Commission's in-house publishing platform) captures CRediT as a structured submission field and renders it on the published article, similarly to Wellcome Open Research and Gates Open Research.

Do Horizon Europe Pillar II Missions and partnerships have different CRediT expectations?

Not formally - the Missions and partnerships sit within the broader Horizon Europe open-science framework. Some Mission calls reference CRediT in their FAQs, but the contractual position remains the AGA umbrella stance.

CRediT statement guide

Horizon Europe - using CRediT in your application

Horizon Europe is silent on CRediT in the model grant agreement but its open-science framework treats structured contributorship as expected practice. CRediT travels with the immediate-CC BY publication route and lives natively on Open Research Europe.

EncouragedPolicy year 2021European UnionBack to Horizon Europe funder mandate

At application stage

What Horizon Europe asks for in proposals

Horizon Europe consortia submit through the EU Funding and Tenders Portal. Part A (administrative) collects participant information; Part B (technical) covers Excellence, Impact, and Quality and efficiency of implementation. The Quality-and-efficiency section asks consortia to describe consortium composition, work-package leadership, and task allocation - all natural places for CRediT-aligned articulation.

Where to embed a CRediT statement

The consortium-composition table and the work-package descriptions are where CRediT-aligned language is most useful. Naming work-package leaders' anticipated CRediT roles ("WP3 leader holds Methodology and Investigation across tasks 3.1-3.4") gives evaluators a precise account of capability distribution across the consortium. The Annotated Model Grant Agreement (AGA) does not require CRediT in the proposal itself.

Sample wording

Inside a Horizon Europe Part B work-package description: "WP3 (led by Beneficiary 2) covers Methodology and Investigation. Conceptualization is shared between WP3 lead and the Coordinator; Formal analysis is led by Beneficiary 4."

At final-report stage

How CRediT figures in Horizon Europe progress and final reports

Horizon Europe periodic and final reports collect deliverables, milestones, publications, datasets, and dissemination activities through the EU Funding and Tenders Portal. The continuous-reporting model means that publications and outputs are catalogued throughout the project lifecycle.

Does Horizon Europe ingest CRediT as structured metadata?

Horizon Europe does not parse CRediT as structured grant-reporting metadata. The chain runs through immediate-CC BY publication in trusted repositories (Zenodo, Europe PMC, OpenAIRE-linked institutional repositories, or Open Research Europe), where CRediT is captured at the journal layer. Open Research Europe captures CRediT directly as a structured submission field.

Common pitfalls

Things to avoid

Confusing Horizon Europe open-access requirements with CRediT - they are independent; OA is contractually required, CRediT is encouraged through open-science guidance.
Treating work-package leadership descriptions as project-management filler; evaluators read these closely for capability distribution and CRediT-aligned articulation makes the case sharper.
Failing to maintain and update the Data Management Plan throughout the project; CRediT does not substitute for DMP compliance.
Omitting the precise EU funding-acknowledgement wording from publications, which is enforced at compliance review.
Publishing outputs without depositing the accepted manuscript in a trusted repository under CC BY, which is a grant-agreement violation regardless of CRediT.

Worked example

Sample CRediT statement for a Horizon Europe proposal

Illustrative wording (names invented) - adapt to your team and confirm the Horizon Europe-specific funding-acknowledgement format current at time of submission.

Conceptualization: J. Martens (WP1 lead, Coordinator), F. Rossi (WP3 lead). Methodology: J. Martens, F. Rossi, P. Schneider (WP4 lead). Software: P. Schneider, T. Kovacs. Investigation: F. Rossi, T. Kovacs, M. Andersson. Formal analysis: J. Martens, P. Schneider. Writing - original draft: J. Martens, F. Rossi. Writing - review & editing: all authors. Funding acquisition: J. Martens. Project administration: J. Martens. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No XXXXXX.

Frequently asked

Horizon Europe + CRediT - common questions

Does the Horizon Europe AGA require CRediT?: No. The Annotated Model Grant Agreement encourages structured contributorship statements but does not mandate CRediT specifically. CRediT travels through the publication and CC BY OA route rather than via direct AGA capture.
Where should CRediT articulation appear in a Horizon Europe Part B?: The work-package descriptions and consortium-composition table are the natural homes for CRediT-aligned articulation of who leads which work and which contribution roles each beneficiary holds.
Does the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) parse CRediT?: Not directly - EOSC federates FAIR-compliant data deposit and is independent of the contributorship layer. Where the depositing repository captures CRediT, that record travels into EOSC via the linked dataset and publication metadata.
How does Open Research Europe handle CRediT?: Open Research Europe (the Commission's in-house publishing platform) captures CRediT as a structured submission field and renders it on the published article, similarly to Wellcome Open Research and Gates Open Research.
Do Horizon Europe Pillar II Missions and partnerships have different CRediT expectations?: Not formally - the Missions and partnerships sit within the broader Horizon Europe open-science framework. Some Mission calls reference CRediT in their FAQs, but the contractual position remains the AGA umbrella stance.

Related guidance