The EC has launched a new, online system (FORCE) to allow FP6 and FP7 project coordinators to submit their Form C financial statements electronically. Part of the SESAM project management application suite, the system will be further developed to allow all partners to prepare and submit their financial statements online. At present, the FORCE system is option for FP6 projects, but is already mandatory for use in FP7 reporting.
SESAM: http://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sesam.
FP7 Project Review Tool Quick guide for external experts
FP7 Project Reporting Tool Quick guide for beneficiaries
In both FP6 and FP7 project reporting, a financial statement must be submitted by each partner at the end of each period. This is normally done through the completion of the Form C (annex to the contract/grant agreement), with an accompanying Excel spreadsheet. However, the European Commission has just launched a new web based application, called FORCE, that allows coordinators to access, complete and submit forms C. It is expected that in later versions of the application, other partners will also be able to view, edit and print their own Form C).
For FP6 project: although it is still possible to submit Forms C through an excel sheet, it is highly recommended by the EC to use FORCE for financial statement submission from now on.
For FP7 projects: it is now mandatory to use the FORCE web-based application to submit Form C.
FORCE is accessible via the EC’s online reporting tool, SESAM, at http://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sesam. To access FORCE, coordinators must create an account in SESAM and indicate the link to their project. FORCE is available for all FP7 projects managed by the Directorates-General Research (RTD) and Enterprise and Industry (ENTR). In Directorate-General Energy and Transport (TREN), FORCE should be also available in a near future.
It should also be noted that, due to internal operational reasons at the EC, the mechanism to access Form C is slightly different for Directorate-General Information Society (INFSO) projects. However the Form C is the same.
For any technical question on the use of FORCE, please send your request to the IT Helpdesk at the following E-mail address: EC-FP7-IT-HELPDESK@ec.europa.eu.