Spanish to English Other Other Official R&D contest rules

Definiciones: Mandante: En los proyectos de investigación y desarrollo científico-tecnológico de interés público, es una entidad diferente de la beneficiaria, que le otorga pertinencia al Proyecto y tiene la responsabilidad principal por la transferencia de los resultados del Proyecto y por la masificación y/o suministro de los productos o servicios en los que se utilizarán dichos resultados, durante su ejecución y una vez concluido este.

This is a long document (Chile) outlining the rules and regulations of a science and technology research and development project contest. The "mandante" is referred to throughout the document as the principal entity applying for entry into the competition. The most common definition of "mandante" is "client", but this sounds wrong since it is a competition for a grant. Or is it normal to use the word "client" in this context?
The second most popular equivalent is "principal". For those of you working primarily in the legal field, would this general term be appropriate as an equivalent in this context?
I found "mandator/mandant" in a legal dictionary but this doesn't seem appropriate either as I think this applies more to court/etc.
My gut is telling me it simply means "contestant", but all of my resources and examples don't align "contestant" with "mandante".

For more insight, the next "definition" on the list is "Institución Principal", which I translate as "Primary Institution".

I have reviewed all the other KudoZ posts on "mandante" which were helpful for insight but I did not find a satisfying answer for my context.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.