Budget categories
For budgeting and reporting project costs, the following standard budget categories are available:
Personnel costs
There is a difference between the calculation and the reporting of personnel costs:
- Calculation of the daily rate: per reporting period (standard) or per calendar year (option)
daily rate = annual gross-gross personnel costs / 215
- Reporting of days: Only the actual time worked on the project may be reported.
eligible personnel costs = daily rate x number of days worked on the project
Project working time must be documented/supported by "Declarations" (standard) or time sheets (option) (see heading "Personnel Cost Documentation").
Personnel Cost Documentation
In principle, in the event of cost reviews (e.g. audit), the actual time worked on the project must be demonstrated to the European Commission by reliable "Declarations" (standard) or time sheets (option).
The EU Commission provides a non-binding template for "Declarations".
The following minimum criteria must be included in your Horizon Europe time records, regardless of the time recording system used:
- relevant year
- project name/acronym and number
- full name of the participant
- full name, date, and signature of the person working on the project
- staff category of the person working on the project
- number of days worked on the project
- full name and signature of the person's supervisor
- reference of the work performed to the work packages
-> Records must be dated and signed MONTHLY by both the person working on the project and his/her supervisor!
Important details on personnel cost documentation can be found in the Annotated Model Grant Agreement (AGA), commentary on Article 20.1.
Consortium Agreement
In addition to the Grant Agreement (signed between the beneficiaries and the European Commission), a Consortium Agreement must also be conducted among the project partners.
This contract contains important rights and obligations (e.g. liability, confidentiality, Intellectual Property Rights) that must be observed.
Non-beneficiaries (third parties)
While the project consortium consists of the beneficiaries who are in a direct contractual relationship with the European Commission, third parties may also participate in the project as non-project partners. However, unlike the beneficiaries, they are not liable to the European Commission.
The following types of third parties are optionally available in Horizon Europe:
- Affiliated entities (ownership/control or other legal link to a beneficiary)
- Subcontractors ((partial) implementation of an ”action task“ as described in the project description (Annex 1))
- Contractors/Purchases (purchase of goods/services by a beneficiary)
- Third parties providing in-kind contribution (provision of personnel and/or resources to a beneficiary)
- Associated partners (contribution to the project work without receiving funding from the project)
- Third parties receiving financial support (only relevant, if explicitly mentioned in the work programme; financial support provided by beneficiaries to third parties)
Support
Communication between the European Commission and the project consortium is done via the "Funding & Tender Opportunities Portal“. This electronic platform is used to manage the entire project (e.g. proposal submission, reporting, payments).
All legal documents (e.g. General Model Grant Agreement) as well as guidelines (e.g. Annotated Model Grant Agreement, Online Manual), and other templates (e.g. "Declaration") provided by the European Commission can be found in the Reference Documents.
Contact and further information
For basic advice on legal and financial aspects as well as questions concerning the Funding & Tenders Opportunities Portal, please contact your thematic NCP, the grant service unit of your university or the contact persons in your non-university related research organisation.
For specific legal and financial questions, please contact the team legal & financial aspects in Horizon Europe within the "European and Internationale Programmes" unit.
Further detailed information on Horizon Europe project reporting can be found under Legal and financial questions about Horizon Europe.
The FFG regularly organises information events and trainings on a wide range of topics, which you can attend free of charge as part of the FFG Academy. The team legal & financial aspects in Horizon Europe also organised free-of-charge legal and financial events related to Horizon Europe.
Legal and financial information on Horizon Europe and the subsequent framework programme is available via the newsletter "FFG: Europa und Internationales im Fokus" (in German only - upon registration, you are automatically subscribed to the "Legal & Finance" section).