New Unique Registration Facility launched
A new service called Unique Registration Facility (URF) has been launched on CORDIS to facilitate the preparation of grant agreements between participants and the European Commission. Thanks to the new service, participants in the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and other programmes managed by the Research Directorate General will no longer have to submit their legal and financial information each time a new grant agreement is in the pipeline. Once participants have been validated by the European Commission's central validation team for their existence as legal entities and their legal status, they will only have to submit their Participant Identification Code (PIC). The new service will also make it possible for participants to see the legal and financial data the Commission holds on them. As a result, they will be able to suggest changes and updates. Furthermore, the unique identification of each participant will help the production of statistical reports. It will also be possible to track organisations from proposal to negotiation stage. The URF is only the first module of a participant portal currently under development. In the future, this portal is intended to become the central means of communication between participants and the Commission.