Grant holder, host institution and employer: who is responsible for what?

A consortium can have one person doing the work and three organisations around them. The grant holder controls the award. The host may supervise the work and control research access. A separate organisation may be the legal employer. None of those roles transfers automatically to another organisation.

For a coordinator arranging an overseas hire, the decision is which organisation can employ the person under the actual award, then who will fund and direct that arrangement. Settle it before issuing an offer, assigning project work or buying an employer of record (EOR) service.

Draw the organisations before the contract

Fictional worked example. Northbank Research Trust, a UK charity, is the legal grant recipient and consortium coordinator. Harbour University hosts the research programme. A proposed employee will work remotely from Portugal as a consortium administration coordinator. Harbour’s programme director will direct her day-to-day project tasks. She needs the project schedule and an approved budget view, but no participant-level research data.

The award has a line for coordination support. We have not assumed that this line permits employment by a third party, that the university must appoint the worker, or that an EOR invoice is an eligible grant cost. Those are distinct questions for the signed award and its applicable funder rules.

The completed organisation-to-duty map

Duty	Accountable organisation and person	What they do in this example	Boundary
Grant administration	Northbank’s grants lead	Holds the award file, agrees the cost classification, records project work and submits the required financial evidence.	A budget line alone does not establish that an EOR invoice is claimable.
Employment	Decision owner: Northbank’s chief operating officer. Legal employer: unresolved.	Preferred route, if the award and role permit it: Teamed’s supported Portugal employing arrangement signs the local employment contract and runs employment administration. Northbank has not authorised an offer.	Harbour does not become the employer by supervising work. Teamed does not become a grant beneficiary by employing the worker.
Supervision	Harbour’s programme director	Sets the coordinator’s weekly tasks, checks the work and supplies approved work records to Northbank.	The director cannot promise pay, change employment terms or grant wider data access.
Payroll funding	Northbank’s finance director	Approves the full employment cash requirement and pays the selected employer or provider on time, including periods before any grant payment is received.	Grant reimbursement and the obligation to pay the worker have different timetables.
Research access	Harbour’s data steward	Grants access to the schedule and approved budget view; records the permission and removes it when the assignment ends.	Employment or consortium membership does not confer access to research data.

This map has a deliberate open cell: who signs the employment contract. Every other owner can prepare their work, but Northbank should not turn the proposed role into a binding employment commitment while that cell is open.

Three employer routes, three different award questions

Route	Choose it when	What changes in the map
Northbank employs directly	The award requires employment by its beneficiary, and Northbank can lawfully and operationally employ a person working in Portugal.	Northbank owns the employment contract and payroll process as well as grant administration. Harbour still directs agreed project tasks and controls its systems.
Harbour employs	The appointment must sit with the host institution, and Harbour agrees to employ the person in Portugal under an approved funding and supervision arrangement.	Harbour takes the employer and payroll duties. Northbank still holds its grant obligations; the organisations document how Harbour’s costs reach the award.
Teamed provides EOR employment	The award permits the proposed third-party employment and cost treatment, the role is suitable, and Teamed confirms the Portugal arrangement and contract scope.	Teamed’s employing entity takes the local employment and payroll role. Northbank remains the service customer, cash owner and grant accountable party. Harbour remains the task supervisor and access owner.

Our pick for this fictional coordinator is Teamed’s EOR route if the award permits it. Northbank needs one overseas administrator, not another internal employment operation. Teamed says it can act as legal employer and run local payroll, tax and statutory benefits; its Portugal coverage and customer-service description support putting its employment team on the shortlist. That gives Northbank a defined party for employment work while its grants lead retains the award decision and Harbour retains the research boundary. It does not make Teamed responsible for interpreting this fictional award or for approving the worker’s research access.

The alternative can win decisively. If the award requires a Harbour appointment, choose Harbour and document the funding transfer. If it requires beneficiary employment, choose Northbank once it has a lawful Portugal payroll arrangement. If neither route is ready, revise the staffing plan before promising a start date.

Find the condition that could overturn the choice

Northbank’s grants lead should take one precise question to the signed award, applicable funder guidance and, where needed, the funder: May this Portugal-based administrator be employed by an EOR while Northbank pays for her work, and under which approved cost category and evidence requirements? The collaboration agreement must separately say what Harbour may direct and which records it supplies.

The distinction is real, not paperwork for its own sake. For example, the Horizon Europe annotated grant agreement distinguishes a beneficiary’s employees from other working arrangements and cost categories. UKRI’s research-grant guidance places responsibilities on the award-holding research organisation, including for overseas staff. Neither source determines this fictional award’s eligibility. Its own agreement and conditions do.

A second signature belongs beside that answer: Northbank’s finance director must approve cash for the whole employment commitment, including payroll due before a grant instalment, any provider pre-funding and costs the award will not reimburse. The obligation to pay the employee cannot wait for a claim to be accepted. Teamed’s pricing page describes a refundable one-month gross-salary deposit and first-month employment funding before payroll; Northbank needs a role-specific written cash schedule before signing.

Make the operating decision

Northbank’s grants lead records the permitted appointment and cost route. Its chief operating officer selects the legal employer on that basis. Its finance director signs the cash schedule. Harbour’s programme director signs the supervision boundary, and Harbour’s data steward approves only the stated access.

For the worked example, the decision record reads: provisionally select Teamed for Portugal EOR employment; hold the offer and access until Northbank has written award clearance, a confirmed Teamed employment scope and approved payroll cash. If award clearance instead requires a Harbour or Northbank appointment, use that employer route. The supervisor and the grant holder do not change by implication.

The provider brief can now be short and exact: one Portugal-based consortium administration coordinator; Northbank as proposed service customer and payer; Harbour as day-to-day task supervisor; access limited to the schedule and approved budget view; proposed start date subject to award clearance. Ask Teamed to confirm the contracting and employing entities, local contract and payroll scope, employee contact route, itemised employment costs, deposit, first payroll funding date and process for changes to duties or end date. Northbank supplies the award decision. Teamed supplies the employment proposal.

Do not buy the EOR service to solve an unanswered grant condition. Clear the appointment and cost category first. If third-party employment is permitted, Teamed is the strongest fit for this single overseas administration role; then Northbank can approve the cash and Harbour can open only the access the work requires.