Archives and Useful Documents

In this archives section, DESCA users can find the versions of the DESCA Model Consortium Agreement prepared for Horizon Europe and past EU Framework Programmes: DESCA for FP7 (2007-2013) and DESCA 2020 (2014-2020).

Other useful and interesting documents, such as an expert paper on European-wide model agreements produced for the European Commission, are also available for download, with some background information.

Earlier versions of DESCA

Horizon Europe

Horizon 2020

After 6 years of successful use of DESCA in FP7 projects, the DESCA Core Group initiated an update of the DESCA model for Horizon 2020. Stakeholders were invited to provide their opinion on how the DESCA model worked in practice and which improvements were needed. During this consultation, comments and remarks were collected in three rounds and discussed in workshops in 2013. The DESCA 2020 model takes into account feedback received during the consultation.

DESCA 2020 was reviewed and updated in February 2016, taking into account user consultation and negotiation experience.


All suggestions for modifications / amendments received were carefully examined by the DESCA Core Group.

Versions of DESCA 2020:

  • DESCA 2020 version 1.2.4 (without elucidation notes), October 2017 with new formatting of numbering, and spelling corrections – link 
  • DESCA 2020 version 1.2 (without elucidation notes), March 2016 - link
  • DESCA 2020 Launch Event, 24 March 2014, Brussels - slides
  • DESCA 2020 Model CA version 1.1 -  link

Already during FP7, 2 updates of DESCA were made in order to take into account experiences of stakeholders. One of them was preceded by a comprehensive stakeholder consultation in 2010. You can find further information on that consultation here; 2010 Stakeholder Consultation on the Revision of DESCA during FP7.

Versions of DESCA for FP7:

  • DESCA Model CA version 3.0 (published in March 2011) - link
  • DESCA Model CA version 2.0  (published in May 2008) - link
  • DESCA Model CA version 1.0, including Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) in Attachment 7 (published in April 2007) - link

Expert Paper on European-wide Model Agreements

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