Applications are welcome from any organisation in the 27 Member States and other Associated Countries that carries out RTD. This includes businesses of all sizes, higher education and research institutions and policy makers, as well as consumer facing organisations and individuals; provided that they meet the conditions in the Rules for Participation in FP7.

Collaboration with others is an essential pre-requisite to any application. In general, proposals should involve consortia of at least three independent applicants from Member States or Associated Countries. Organisations from most other countries are also eligible to participate, but usually on an unfunded basis.

In addition to the minimum conditions in the rules for participation, specific programmes or work programmes may define conditions regarding the minimum number of participants, or additional conditions on the type of participant or place of establishment.

In most cases research funding through FP7 requires a consortium with a minimum of three partners from three member or Associated states. The eligibility of these consortia also varies according to different conditions related to the type of project. These project types are described in Annex III ‘Funding Schemes’ of the rules for participation.