HORIZON 2020 HORIZON 2020

Administrative and financial aspects

Directorate D – Key Enabling Technologies

DG Research and Innovation

Helene Chraye – Head of Unit

Content

1. One set of rules

1. One set of rules

2. Time to grant

3. Speeding up the process

4. Financial capacity check

5. Five personnel cost categories

6. Single rates of funding & indirect cost

7. New funding model: what is impact?

8. Other cost connected issues

9. Final remarks

Q&A

1. One set of rules

H2020 Grant Agreement

Terms and Conditions

Annexes

(1–6)

EU Financial Regulation

H2020 Rules for Participation and Dissemination

Chapter 1: General subject of the agreement

• Title of action, start date, duration and budget

Chapter 2: Action

• Grant amount, reimbursement rates, eligible costs

Chapter 3: Grant

• For implementing the action: resources, third parties, subcontracts

• Grant administration: reporting, deliverables, payments, audits

• Background/results: access, protection results, exploitation, dissemination

• Others: researches working conditions, gender equality, ethics, confidentiality

Chapter 4: Rights and obligations

• Obligations of beneficiaries and coordinator, consortium agreement

Chapter 5: Division of beneficiaries' roles

Chapter 6: Rejection of costs, reduction of the grant, recovery of undue amounts, penalties, liability for damages, suspensions, termination, force majeure

• Communication, amendments, accession, applicable law, disputes

Chapter 7: Final provisions

Terms and Conditions:

Annex 1: Description of the action

Annex 2: Estimated budget

Annexes:

Annex 3: Accession forms of beneficiaries

Annex 3a: Declaration on joint liability of third parties

Annex 4: Model financial statements

Annex 5: Model certificate on financial statements

Annex 6: Model certificate on the methodology

2. Time to grant (1)

A maximum time to grant of 8 months:

5 months for informing all applicants

of outcome of scientific evaluation

3 months for signature of GA

Some exceptions apply:

- Actions of ERC - Complex actions - Large number of proposals - On request of applicants

5 months

Validations (incl. Third parties!)

Viability data Cons. agreement

Up to 3 iterations Annex 1 adaptations, start date, reporting periods, eligible costs, viability check, additional clarifications

GA production Progr. Committee Comm. Decision

3 months (2 months for GA preparation)

2. Time to grant (2)

3. Speeding up the process

How to speed up the process:

No more long negotiations:

In principle each proposal evaluated 'as it is', not as 'what could it be';

Proposals mirrored as much as possible in Annex 1 of GA

No more paper: e-communication & e-signatures

Compulsory for:

1. Private coordinators if action budget ≥ 500.000 EUR

2. All private partners (incl. COO) if there are doubts about their financial capacity (e.g. 'weak' result in previous year…)

For 'weak' results, no bank guarantee is allowed but financial capacity can be guaranteed by other legal entity (incl. mother company…). Important to verify this as soon as possible!

4. Financial capacity check

In Annex 2 of GA (Estimated budget) 5 categories for Direct personnel cost:

1. Personnel

– normal employment or appointment contract

2. Natural persons under direct contract

3. Seconded persons

– seconded from third parties against payment

– must be mentioned in Annex 1!

4. SME owners without a salary

5. Beneficiaries that are natural persons without a salary

5. Five personnel cost categories

One H2020 project = One funding rate

Defined in the Work Programme for all beneficiaries and all activities in the grant;

Up to 100 % of eligible cost;

For innovation projects limited to a

maximum of 70 % of eligible cost (100 % for non-profit organisations).

6. Single rates of funding & indirect cost

Single model of indirect cost:

25% flat rate

An example

7. New funding model: what is impact?

Direct costs

Indirect costs

Total costs

% EU contribution

EU contribution

Model indirect cost = 60 % of direct cost

100 60 160 75% € 120

Direct costs

Indirect costs

Total costs

% EU contribution

EU contribution

Model indirect cost = 25 % of direct cost

100 25 125 100% € 125

FP7 Majority of HES & RTOs

8. Other cost connected issues

VAT eligibility

VAT is eligible if non deductible

Audit certificates

Only for final payment/per beneficiary or third party /only for EU contribution ≥ €325 000 € for reimbursement of actual & unit costs

Optional Certificate on Methodology for calculating and claiming direct personnel costs declared as unit costs

Timesheets Not needed if persons work exclusively on the action

Additional

remuneration for

non profit entities

Non-profit organisations eligible for additional personnel remuneration

up to 8000 euro/year/person

9. Final remarks

Annex 1 readiness

Quality of proposal shall allow its direct transposition into Annex 1

Consortium

stability

It is strongly needed to have committed partners to project & prepared the consortium agreement

Number of

project partners

For efficient management of big projects, it is recommended to keep number of project partners

as low as possible

Quick reactions

from consortia

Due to short time to conclude Grant Agreement (3 months), consortia shall be able to react quickly during Grant preparation phase

Thank you very much

for your attention!

Find out more:

www.ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020

Q&A session