How to Build a Compliant EU Project Website: A Step-by-Step Guide for Coordinators
Building a website for an EU-funded project is not the same as building a website for an organization. The Commission sets specific rules for how the site must acknowledge funding, display programme branding, and present project information. Getting those rules right matters for your final report. Getting the site live on time matters for your grant agreement. This guide walks through what you actually need to do, in order, with realistic numbers for budget and timeline.
Step 1: Understand what your grant agreement requires
Before you write a single brief or talk to any developer, open your grant agreement and find the dissemination section. Look for the specific requirements around the project website. Most EU grant agreements under Creative Europe, CERV, Erasmus+, and Horizon Europe require the following at minimum:
- A public-facing website that remains accessible for the duration of the project and, in many cases, for a defined period after the project ends.
- A visible acknowledgment that the project received EU funding, using approved language. The standard phrasing under most programmes is "Co-funded by the European Union" or "Funded by the European Union" depending on the programme.
- Display of the EU emblem (the twelve gold stars on blue) at a minimum size, in an approved position on the page. Some programmes specify that the emblem must appear on the home page and on any page featuring project content.
- A programme-specific badge or logo displayed at a defined hierarchy alongside the EU emblem. Creative Europe, CERV, Erasmus+, and Horizon Europe each have their own programme logos with their own usage rules.
Write down the specific requirements from your grant agreement. These become the non-negotiable specifications for whoever builds your site.
Step 2: Define the page structure your project needs
A dissemination website for an EU-funded project typically needs a small number of well-structured pages rather than a large site. The standard structure for most projects covers five to eight pages:
Home page: A brief project overview, the consortium summary, and the EU/programme branding prominently placed. This is the page most external visitors will see first, and it needs to make the project's purpose clear within a few seconds.
About the project: Objectives, expected results, and the broader context. This is where you explain what the project is trying to achieve and why it matters.
Partners: A page dedicated to the consortium members, with each organization's name, country, logo where permitted, and a brief description of their role. Partner pages are important for accountability and for consortium members who want to link to the project from their own sites.
News and events: A regularly updated section for project milestones, events, publications, and announcements. This is the section that shows the Commission the project is active.
Results and deliverables: A download section for public outputs. Reports, guides, toolkits, and other deliverables that the grant agreement requires you to make publicly available go here.
Contact: A simple contact form or email address for public inquiries. Some programme guidelines require a contact mechanism on public dissemination sites.
If your project involves multiple languages, a multi-language version of the site is often required or strongly recommended, particularly for programmes with multilingual consortium members.
Step 3: Set a realistic budget before you talk to anyone
The biggest mistake coordinators make at this stage is approaching developers without a clear budget in mind. Generalist agencies will quote against whatever scope you present them, and without a firm number from you, quotes will frequently exceed what your dissemination budget line can absorb.
For most EU projects, the web presence budget falls between 700 and 2,000 euros. That range needs to cover design, development, hosting, and domain for at least the project duration. A five-page site built to Commission standards by a specialist sits at the lower end of that range. A more complex site with multi-language support, a news CMS, a partner showcase, and a results section sits at the higher end.
The key number to avoid is the generalist agency minimum, which tends to start around 3,000 euros and rises with scope. That pricing reflects a production model designed for commercial clients with larger budgets, not for EU coordinators working within a fixed grant.
Step 4: Choose a developer who already knows EU branding rules
This is the step where most coordinators lose time. If you hire a developer who has never worked on an EU-funded project, you will spend the early weeks of production explaining requirements that a specialist already knows. That adds time, adds revision rounds, and introduces uncertainty about whether the final site is actually compliant.
When you evaluate potential developers or agencies, ask them specifically about EU programme branding requirements for your programme. Ask them to show you examples of EU project sites they have built, organized by programme type. If they cannot show you a Creative Europe site or a CERV site when that is what you are running, they are learning on your project.
Golden Blue builds websites specifically for EU-funded project coordinators. The Essential tier at 700€ delivers a five-page professional site in ten working days, with EU branding compliance built in. The Complete tier at 1,500€ covers up to twelve pages with multi-language support, a CMS, a partner showcase, and a results section, delivered in fifteen working days. You can see case studies from Creative Europe, CERV, Erasmus+, and Horizon Europe projects in the portfolio before you decide.
Step 5: Prepare your content before development starts
The fastest way to slow down a web project is to arrive at development without content ready. A developer can build the structure and apply the branding in a few days, but they cannot write your project description, your partner bios, or your objectives for you.
Prepare the following before your first conversation with a developer: a two to three paragraph project summary, a list of consortium partners with their organization names and countries, your project logo if one exists, and any deliverables or documents you want available for download at launch. If you have high-resolution partner logos, gather those too.
With content ready on day one, a specialist can deliver a compliant, professional site well within your grant timeline. Without it, you are the bottleneck, not the developer.
Step 6: Plan for the site's life after launch
EU project websites are not set-and-forget. Your grant agreement likely requires the site to stay live and accessible for a period after the project ends, and during the project you will need to post news, upload deliverables, and update the partners section if consortium membership changes.
Make sure whoever builds the site includes hosting and domain management for at least the project duration. After that period, a simple maintenance arrangement covering hosting renewal, SSL, and occasional content updates is a practical way to stay compliant without ongoing technical overhead.
The maintenance add-on at Golden Blue covers this at 15€ per month after the included twelve months, which is well within what most project budgets can absorb as a post-project cost.