The invention refers to a method (200) of handling hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), processes for grant-free transmission in a radio access network (RAN), the method comprising the steps of computing (202), for a radio device configured or configurable for grant-free transmission in the RAN, a number of HARQ processes for the grant-free transmission of the radio device; and signaling (204), to the radio device, the computed number of HARQ processes. The invention further refers to corresponding devices, and a corresponding computer program.