All inquiries regarding the OID and PIC number can be addressed to Foundation Tempus Information Centre.
Please note: if your organisation wants to participate in the Erasmus+ projects submitted to National Agencies, including the Tempus Foundation (so-called decentralized projects), please consult the content below related to the OID; if your orgsniation wants to participate in the types of Erasmus+ projects submitted to the EACEA Executive Agency in Brussels (so-called centralized projects), please consult the content below related to the PIC number.
Organization ID (OID) and Participant Identification Code (PIC number) are unique identifiers of organizations/institutions used to participate in Erasmus+ projects. Any organization, institution or informal group of young people that, either in the role of project applicant or partner, wishes to participate in the decentralized Erasmus+ project proposal (projects submitted to one of the national Erasmus+ agencies, including the Tempus Foundation) must have a registered OID, while to participate in centralized projects (projects submitted to the EACEA Executive Agency in Brussels) must have a registered PIC number.
The OID consists of the letter E and eight digits, while the PIC number contains nine digits.
OID and PIC number are obtained on the platform/portal of the European Commission, after entering basic information about the organization, such as the name, address, registration number, VAT/tax identification number, contact person, etc. The Erasmus+ and Euroepan Solidarity Corps platform which is used to register OID number can be accessed via this link, while PIC number can be registered on the Funding and Tender Opportunities portal available here.
Each organization can update its data on its organization’s page on the platform/portal where the OID/PIC number has been registered.
Once registered, the OID/PIC number can be used for all project proposals within the Erasmus+ programme.
Other EU programmes for which the PIC number is used are Horizon 2020, Creative Europe, Europe for Citizens.
Detailed list of all types of Erasmus+ projects, with information on which types of projects are decentralized (submitted to national agencies) and which are centralized (submitted to the EACEA Executive Agency), ie. for which projects OID/PIC number is used, is available on this page.
The OID and PIC number allow the European Commission and its agencies, as well as the National Agencies for the Erasmus+ programme (including the Tempus Foundation) to monitor data on organizations participating in submitted applications and projects funded through the Erasmus+ programme.
In addition, the project application forms do not require entering basic data for organizations (name, address, city, country, contacts, website), but the system loads it from the platform/portal automatically once the OID/PIC number is entered in the form.
A person who wants to register an OID and/or PIC number for his/her organization must have a registered personal EU Login account. EU Login is a European Commission user authentication service, which allows registered users to access a wide range of Commission services online, using a unique account consisting of email address and password. An email address doesn’t have to be the personal address of a registrant (eg. of a teacher who registers his school) but can be the email address of an organization/institution (eg. a school), thus providing access to the EU Login account by the organization even if/when the person is no longer connected to the organisation.
The EU Login account allows an individual, among other:
- to register the organization for obtaining the OID and/or PIC number for participation in the Erasmus + programme
- to access and generate an e-application form for an Erasmus + project
The process of obtaining an OID/PIC number begins with the registering of the EU Login account of the person who registers the organization in order to obtain an OID/PIC number. Any EU Login user can register an individual organization. The procedure for registering an OID and PIC number is very similar but is carried out on two different European Commission portals.
To register an OID, user needs to log in to the Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps platform via his/her EU Login account, after which is guided through steps for registering the organization.
To register a PIC number, user needs to log in to the Funding and tender opportunities portal via his/her EU Login account and follow the steps for registration.
A PIC Number Registration Guide is available to support users who register a PIC number.
The OID that an organization receives when registered is considered temporary (declared OID), but is sufficient for participating in decentralized project proposals. Only once the project is approved for funding, the procedure of certification of the status of the organization by the National Agency that approved the project (for organizations from Serbia it is the Tempus Foundation) must take place – a process which makes the OID certified. A similar procedure applies to the organization and its PIC number in case of approval of a centralized project, with this procedure being called validation and implemented by the EACEA Executive Agency, for organizations from all countries.
Any individual who owns an EU Login account can register his/her own organization or another organization. It is recommended that the registration be performed by a person who belongs to that organization and who has informed his/her management about the process, in order to reduce the possibility of errors when entering data. In any case, during the registration, among other things, it is necessary to enter the contact person from the organization that is being registered.
When registering an organization, it is necessary to provide basic information about the organization such as its type, name, address, registration number, VAT/tax identification number, contact person (this can be the same person who performs registration on the platform/portal), etc. Registration applications contain explanations for each part of the registration process, and an asterisk indicating the fields that must be filled in to proceed to the next step and for the process to complete.
Organizations who want to apply for an Erasmus+ project should upload the following scanned documents (ideally in PDF format, no larger than 6 MB individually) in the Documents section of their space on the relevant platform/portal:
- Legal entity form, available at:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/legal-entities_en
- Financial identificatin form, available at:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/financial-identification_en
In addition, it is necessary to upload documents confirming the data provided during the registration of the OID/PIC number, such as the act of the organisation establishment/entry into the register, the act showing the tax identification number. It is not necessary to add this documentation in the project submission phase, but it will be necessary so in the OID certification/PIC validation phase. Uploaded forms and supporting documents cannot be deleted, but it is possible to add a new modified version, which becomes a reference for the agency.
In this process, the body conducting the OID certification/PIC number validation may request the organization to submit additional documents, and in the case of (centralized) validation, certified translations of certain documents.
OID certification/PIC number validation is a process of verifying the status of an organization based on registered data and uploaded documents on its platform/portal page, which must be carried out latest before signing the funding agreement. In the case of OID (decentralized projects) the procedure is initiated and implemented by the National agency of the country where organisation is established, while in the case of PIC (centralized projects) the procedure is implemented by the competent body of the European Commission. On that occasion, the contact person for the organization is contacted, in case the submission of additional documents and/or certified translation of documents is needed.
The duration of certification/validation may vary depending on the correspondence with the competent authority and the need for provision of additional clarifications related to the organization, as well as additional supporting documents.
Upon completion of the process, which involves checking all data and documents entered on the platform/portal, the OID becomes certified/PIC number becomes validated. In some types of Erasmus+ projects, certification of OID/validation of PIC numbers of all partner organizations in the project is required before contracting as well.
During the validation of the PIC number, the LEAR-Legal Entity Authorized Representative is nominated and verified. It can, but does not have to be, an authorized person of the organization, ie. its legal representative.
The LEAR person can also nominate the so-called Account Administrator(s), who has the same rights as those to modify organization data, but cannot appoint other account administrator.
Trajanje sertifikacije/ validacije može da se razlikuje u zavisnosti od korespodencije sa nadležnim telom i potrebe da se obezbede dodatna pojašnjenja vezana za organizaciju, kao i dodatna prateća dokumenta.
Po završetku procesa, koji podrazumeva proveru svih na platformi/portalu unetih podataka i dokumenata, OID postaje sertifikovan/ PIC broj postaje validiran. U nekim vrstama Erazmus+ projekata se pre ugovaranja zahteva i sertifikacija OID/validacija PIC brojeva svih partnerskih organizacija na projektu.
Tokom validacije PIC broja dešava se nominovanje i verifikovanje LEAR – Legal Entity Authorized Representative – kontakt osobe koja ispred organizacije preuzima komunikaciju sa Evropskom komisijom. To može, ali ne mora biti, ovlašćeno lice organizacije tj. njen pravni zastupnik.
LEAR osoba može da nominuje još i tzv. administratora/e naloga (Account Administrator), koji imaju ista prava kao i ona za modifikaciju podataka o organizaciji, ali ne mogu da imenuju druge administratore naloga.
The data entered during registration of the organisation on the platform/portal can be changed. As long as the OID is not certified/PIC is not validated, the changes made are automatically verified in the system. After successful certification/validation, all changes in the data on the platform/portal must be approved by the relevant agency.
All changes are made by accessing the appropriate platform/portal on which the OID/PIC of the organization is registered, using the EU Login account with which the OID/PIC was registered.
Sve izmene se vrše pristupom odgovarajućoj platformi/portalu na kome je i registrovan OID/PIC organizacije, pomoću EU Login naloga kojim je OID/PIC registrovan.
The process of nominating a person by an organization that will receive LEAR status runs in parallel with the validation of the PIC number of the organization in the user register.
The rights and obligations of the nominated person, as well as the procedure of his/her nomination are explained in detail in the Instruction on the website of the European Commission.
There can only be one person who has been granted LEAR status for one organization.
Individuals (natural persons) can register on the platform/portal. However, bearing in mind that this is a single register of beneficiaries that includes several European Commission programmes, it should be noted that only legal entities (organizations, institutions, etc.) can participate in Erasmus + projects, while the only exception is informal groups of young people who are represented and registered by natural persons on their behalf.
After registration, some information about the organization/institution, as well as the OID/PIC number itself become available to the general public interested in the Erasmus+ programme. On the other hand, access to all data and supporting documents is available only to the person who registered the organization, LEAR and/or delegated account administrators.
The Erasmus+ project application forms do not require entering basic data for organizations (name, address, city, country, contacts, website), but the system loads it automatically from the database of OID and PIC numbers once the OID/PIC number is entered in the form.
The system does not load the contact person for an individual project, and the applicants themselves enter this information directly in the form. Therefore, the contact person for an individual project may or may not be the same person registered as the contact person for the organization on the platform/portal.
Everybody can check if the organization already has a registered OID, as well as search for registered organizations on the Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps platform.
Everybody can check if the organization already has a registered PIC number, as well as search for registered organizations on the Funding and tender opportunities portal.
Organizations that by 22/10/2019 had a registered PIC number, should have automatically been assigned an OID. This practically means that all organizations that registered before the entry into force of these changes, except the PIC number, will automatically have an OID, while organizations that register after these changes will be able to register a PIC, OID or both identifiers, depending on the type of projects they want to participate in.
