EU project management Q&A #2

Daily rates and travel costs are specified in ‘programme guides’. They can differ between countries and roles (manager, trainer/researcher, technician, admin).

There are 2 models to calculate them: real costs and unit costs method. Example of daily rates unit costs: E+ programme guide pg. 128

In accordance with the beneficiary’s usual accounting practices and with international accounting standards.

You have to take into account actual usage of equipment and its depreciation rate.

H2020 case: Annotated grant agreement, 6. 2. D. 2 (page 82)

Example: A microscope was bought before the action started and was not fully depreciated. For 6 months in reporting period 1 it was used for the action for 50% of the time and for other activities for the other 50% of the time. Linear depreciation is applied according to the beneficiary’s usual practices (depreciation over the expected period of use of the microscope): EUR 100 000 per year (EUR 50 000 for 6 months). Costs declared for the project: EUR 50 000 (6 months of use) multiplied by 50 % of use for the action during those 6 months = EUR 25 000.

Unit costs type of calculation means you get a fixed amount of money for e. g. 1 day of work or 1 day of travel. If the actual cost (of travel) is higher, the partner must cover it.

Subsistence costs: costs related to travel (accommodation, local transport, food, insurance, taxes, daily allowance...)

A term from the Multi-Beneficiary Model Grant Agreement: Internal Security Fund — Borders and Visa, Internal Security Fund — Police, Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund & Justice Programme — Drugs Policy Initiatives

Ad-hoc query is unplanned, a non-standard inquiry. An ad hoc query is created to obtain information as the need arises.

In this specific case:

“EMN Ad-Hoc Queries are a means by which EMN NCPs and the Commission can collect comparative information from each Member States in a relatively short time on a wide range of asylum- and migration-related issues, e.g. legal migration, irregular migration, borders, return, visas etc.”

(from EC Migration and Home Affairs webpage)

Interim payment: payment from the authorities to the consortium during the project, if the report is satisfactory.

Payment by results: You get paid for successfully producing e. g. Intellectual Output (in E+), not directly by the invested effort. If you report only timesheets without the actual results, you won’t get paid.

Direct cost: salaries, equipment, travels, events,...

Indirect costs: costs related to running the partner organization, e. g. rents, utility costs, telecommunications,...

Usually you can find (Excel/Word) templates for financial planning in a document package (application package) on the web page of the specific call. This applies to smaller, specific or local calls.

Example: Interreg https://www.interreg-central.eu/Content.Node/apply/apply.html

Some programmes (E+, H2020, Creative Europe) offer online application forms with input fields for all costs and you don’t need separate spreadsheets with financial plans.

Examples:

https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/about-eacea/electronic-application-forms-eforms_en

In-kind contributions are donations of goods, services or time — instead of cash. Who is donating? The project partner. Why? Usually to cover co-financing of the project.

They can be free or against payment.

Example (H2020):

Example (in-kind contribution against payment): Civil servant working as a professor in a public university. His salary is paid by the government (the ministry) which employs him. According to the secondment agreement, the beneficiary (the university) has to reimburse the government an amount corresponding to the paid salary. The reimbursed amount is a cost for the beneficiary and is recorded as such in its accounts. The beneficiary will declare the amount reimbursed to the government in its financial statements.

Example (in-kind contribution free of charge): Civil servant working as a professor in a public university. His salary is paid not by the beneficiary (the university) but by the government (the ministry). According to the secondment agreement, the government does not ask any reimbursement in exchange (non-cash donation). The beneficiary will declare these salary costs in its financial statements, even if they are paid by a third party (the ministry/government).

(From H2020 AMGA, pg. 128)