What is a LEAR (Legal Entity Appointed Representative)?

The Legal Entitity Appointed Representative (LEAR) is a person working in an organisation (usually an administrative staff member) who has the right to modify the legal and financial information stored in Participant Portal, about this organisation.

He or she is formally appointed by the legal representative (CEO, rector, Director-General, etc.) of the organisation to perform certain tasks on behalf of his/her organisation, as part of its participation in EU funded projects that are managed via the Participant Portal.

His/her tasks are to manage the legal and financial information of the organisation in the Beneficiary Register on the Participant Portal and to provide and update the list of persons in his/her organisation who are authorised to sign grant agreements (LSIGN) or financial statements (FSIGN).

As a LEAR you can:

• view your organisation’s legal and financial data in the ‘Beneficiary Register’ in the ‘My Area’ Section of the Participant Portal — the EU’s dedicated (secure) website for funding;
• ask the Commission to validate updates of this information where necessary;
• monitor whether or not this information is validated by the Commission, and when;
• monitor all uses made of your organisation’s ‘Participant Identification Code’ (PIC).

REMEMBER: The appointment of a LEAR comes after you register and validate your organisation to the Participant Portal.

Remember that an organisation has to be registered to the participant portal and have a PIC number to participate to a proposal submission. It is not necessary to be validated or appoint a LEAR before a proposal is actually successful.

A detailed description of a LEAR's appointment is described here. The necessary documents are the following:

1. LEAR appointment letter (duly signed by legal representative)
2. LEAR role and duties (duly signed by LEAR and legal rep)
3. Declaration of consent to the terms and conditions of use of the Participant Portal electronic exchange system (duly signed by legal rep)
4. Copy ID card of the LEAR
5. Copy ID card of the legal representative
6. Proof of empowerment of the legal representative (e.g. company statute)
7. Terms and conditions of use of the Participant Portal electronic exchange system

For reference purposes only you can find attached the relevant documents that you need to prepare and sent to EC below. Please check the latest versions of the documents from the links above.

! IMPORTANT: all documents for the LEAR's appointment have to be sent through postal mail pdf copies and electronic signatures are NOT accepted. 

European Commission 
Research Executive Agency 
Participant Validation and Support Unit (REA.C3) 
COV2 13/132 
B-1049 Brussels 
Belgium