EDCTP will commence Grant Agreement preparation and customisation with the Project Coordinators of those proposals that have successfully passed the review procedure. EDCTP aims to complete the Grant Agreement process within 3 months of commencement.

• Depending on the type of grant scheme, some of the following issues may need to be addressed before the Grant Agreement can be signed:
• The Project Coordinator will be asked to respond to any comments that were made by the SRC and to make amendments to their proposal if required
• EDCTP will request an official letter from the clinical trial sponsor that should include a statement of adherence to the ICH – GCP Guidelines
• The Project Coordinator will be asked to submit the clinical trial protocol that will be reviewed by EDCTP
• EDCTP will require proof that the clinical trial protocol has been submitted to the relevant local ethics committee(s)
• EDCTP will require proof of ethical approval by the appropriate ethics committee(s) of any additional clinical research projects that are part of the application
• The Project Coordinator will be requested to complete and return a Work Plan for the duration of the project
• The Project Coordinator will be asked to complete detailed budget forms which will be examined by the Financial Department of EDCTP
• If applicable, EDCTP will request official letters from all African and third parties supplying cofunding to the project confirming the amount and type of cofunding
• EDCTP will require a statement that the products used in the clinical trial will be readily available at an affordable price in developing countries in case of a successful trial and subsequent registration
• The Project Coordinator will be asked to supply legal information about the partners in project by filling in the ‘EDCTP legal entity form’ for each partner institution.

The documents related to the Grant Agreement can be found under the Guidelines and forms section on the our website.

Usually the first instalment of the agreed grant sum is paid out within 1 week of the date in which the grant agreement was signed by EDCTP (effective date).  For most grants, this occurs within 1-3 months from the date of approval of the project by EDCTP.

EDCTP funds are disbursed in the Euro currency. Grantees are required to open a Euro bank account so as to guide against exchange rate fluctuations which may jeopardise project implementation. Exceptions are where national regulations do not allow a Euro bank account.

For grants above 200,000 Euro, grantees are requested to open a separated bank account for EDCTP projects. Exceptions are where national regulations do not allow a Euro bank account.

In order to minimise project risk and ensure efficient payment and utilisation of grants, EDCTP utilises a Performance Related Payment Scheme. With the exception of the First Payment which is usually done automatically, all subsequent payments are related to the progress, performance and reporting of the projects by Grantees. Usually, during the Grant Agreement process, a set of hard milestones and deliverables, specific to a particular project are in collaboration with the Grantee. These then form the basis of periodic monitoring and reporting throughout the entire lifecycle of the project. Some of these milestones are standard or mandatory milestones which may or may not be tied to payments. Examples of such milestones are shown in the table below:

Standard Milestones / Deliverables	Associated with Payment
1. Draft Protocol 2. Approved Protocol (Ethical Clearance) 3. Project Start Up Meeting 4. First Patient In (Consented) 5. First Training 6. Interim Technical Report 7. Annual Technical-Scientific Report (Approved) 8. Annual Financial Report (Approved) 9. Last Patient Out (Last medication) 10. Final Technical and Financial Report (Approved)	No No No No No No Yes Yes No Yes

In general, payments are only made after all Annual and Final Reports (Technical and Financial) have been approved.

Although the remaining milestones like Ethical Clearance are not directly linked to payments, they will be considered and thus influence the approval of reports which in turn determines whether and how much payment will be made.

If the last payment to a Grantee was not (fully) utilised or committed in a particular period in which it was meant for, the next payment will be less the unused amount.

As stated above, most milestones and deliverables are agreed during the grant agreement process. Once a milestone or deliverable has been reviewed and formally approved by EDCTP, the Grantee will usually receive the payment related to that milestone within 14 calendar days of approval.