Since FP7, all participants in grants of research DGs (European Commission) are being registerd in a Unique Registration Facility (PDM URF - Participant Data Management Unique Registration Facility). The data of all participants are captured by the EC, checked and validated once, and then left in the hands of the participants for permanent surveillance and update.

In the past, participants had to provide to the Commission their legal and financial information every time they submitted a proposal or negotiated a contract. To eliminate these redundant requests for information, there has been a slight change in the procedure to submit proposals as well as the procedure to negotiate grant agreements.
n the second semester of 2008, when the URF is integrated into the participant portal, legal status validation will be completely separated from negotiation of individual grants. For new entities participating in a proposal for the first time, the proposal submission will trigger the process of identification of the LEAR (Legal Entity Appointed Representative), validation of the entity and assignment of the PIC (Participant Identification Code).

Legal entities starting negotiation without being validated will need to introduce a separate request for appointment of their LEAR and obtain validation via the URF (online, via the portal) before an agreement can be signed.

The new, central platform of the PDM URF database can be accessed under:
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/urf_en.html.