supplementary salary
Is a supplementary salary from an EU-funded project possible in case that the project partner receives a salary in his/her organisation?
Here the internal rules of your organisation apply. As the salary has to be according to the usual practice of the beneficiary it is always very problematic to get an EU-project bonus because this cannot be reimbursed in the project. If the top-up corresponds to more hours work for the beneficiary there is no problem – national labour law is the limit here.
external experts
Is it possible to claim fees of external experts on the project budget?
In principle yes, when the cost cover flights and hotel fees as well as daily allowances only. It is always recommended to get a confirmation from your SO in advance. If it will be a substantial part of the project budget you should think about subcontracting.
daily allowances
Are daily allowances accepted in general?
Daily allowances are accepted by the commission if they are part of your normal operating accounting principles (“usual practice”).
use of equipment
Can we use equipment that has been bought of the projects budget also after the end of the project?
Yes, of course. You are the owner.
costs for dinner
Can costs for dinners during project meetings be claimed on the project?
If it is a project management or a project board meeting and the dinner is necessary for networking among the consortium partners and it is necessary to conduct the project, yes, it is possible to claim it on the project. But it needs to be justified for networking issues. Best advice is to ask the SO in advance if the costs for a common dinner will be covered by the project. It is always good to have an agenda so you really can show that the dinner was a working dinner and not for entertainment. As it is with all costs, the dinner has to fulfil all the eligibility criteria and have to fall under the usual practice of the partner who wants it reimbursed in the Form C (e.g. the organisation only allows the cheapest caterer, then a 5-star expensive catering can never be reimbursed).
clinical trials, sub-contracting
In our project we need to follow the progress of patients from different wards, GPs, home nursing organisations. They need to all fill-out a questionnaire and need to have their costs covered for this. Classical sub-contracting. There will be many (up to hundreds) of different organisations. We can't have a contract with them exactly, nor can we write out a call for the sub-contracting. What do we need to watch out for to ensure we follow the EU rules for sub-contracting?
In this case there should be a detailed description of the necessity of these people working in the project under Subcontracting in Annex I GA /DoW – this should be discussed with the PO/FO in detail as well as the costs.
best price ratio, subcontracting
For stage one, is it sufficient to allocate a budget to subcontractor but later in stage 2 show the 3 offers and best price quality ratio?
You only have to show the 3 offers in case of a second level audit by the Commission which can be done up to 5 years after the end of the project (good project documentation is needed!).
direct and indirekt costs
My question is in relation to direct and indirect cost. If we allocate some of the time of the Director of the Research Centre, where do we allocate this cost? As direct, personnel? But we do have this cost whether we are involved in this project or not...
Here it depends if the Director receives a salary or not. If the Director does not receive any salary the Marie Curie rates can possibly be taken. Otherwise there has to be made the distinction if his salary is completely in the overhead costs (indirect costs). If so and he wants to get reimbursed hours in the project, these hours have to be taken out of the indirect costs and booked under the direct costs – only then these costs can be reimbursed under personnel costs. I just add here that a complete time recording for the Director is needed too.
audit 375 k Euro
One question about the cumulated EC contribution: if other previous or current FP7 projects running, the limit 375K Euro applies for the whole amount of the projects?
The 375k€ limit applies for each project separately.
lump sum
We want to coordinate a project with ICPC (international cooperation partner countries) and would choose a lump sum for payment - are there also overheads additional to the lump sums and how do countries have to document their expenses?
Lump sums are deemed to cover all costs. ICPC beneficiaries only have to report on the time devoted to the project and not on the costs incurred. As the lump-sums are calculated on the basis of researchers/year, the reports submitted by the ICPC beneficiary will include the financial Form C and the number of actual hours worked by the researchers on the project. Consequently, the beneficiary will keep a record of the time (e.g. timesheets) worked by the researchers on the project.
Subcontracting
Subcontracting, what do you mean by limited part, if the project is 5 years, is one year of subcontracting is considered a limited part of the project?
It does not necessarily depend on the time if someone will be regarded as a subcontractor or as a real partner. It depends on the task one has in a FP7 project. Subcontracting is limited to side-tasks which are not central and crucial for development of the project.
pay rise in DE
What is the typical pay rise % in Germany for FP7?
Personnel costs depend on the position or the function the person has in the project.
For owners of SME and natural persons without a salary participating in FP7 project it is possible to calculate their wage by using ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/docs/cordis-sme-owners-rates_en.zip
The pay rise has to be typical for your organisation (“usual practice”). If it is usual practice that there is no pay rise, so pay rises in EU-projects cannot be justified. If all the employees get e.g. a pay rise of 2,5% every year, this would be usual practice and should also be taken into account in budgeting.
VAT costs
Is it possible to use the overheads to cover VAT costs? Have overheads to be justified?
If you use the flat-rate, overheads do not need to be justified. If effectively money is left over after covering your overhead this can be used any way. This of course does not apply if you calculate the actual costs!
Financial issues
When do I have to provide a certificate on financial statements?
Every partner who receives more than 375.000 EUR or exactly 375.000 EUR funding has to give a certificate on financial statement (CFS). Together with the financial statement (Form C) which reaches the threshold of 375.000 EUR, the CFS has to be submitted. E.g. in the first period you receive 200.000 EUR funding – you need no CFS. In the second period you receive another 200.000 EUR funding – now you reached the threshold (as 400.000 EUR is more than 375.000 EUR), therefore you have to bring in a CFS. In the next (last) period you receive another 200.000 EUR funding – you don’t need a CFS as you don’t reach the threshold anymore. If you receive less than 375.000 EUR funding in a project, you don’t have to bring in a CFS at all. In projects with less than 2 years if you receive more than/or exactly 375.000 EUR funding, you only have to hand in a CFS at the end of the project. (The same is valid for organisations with a valid Certificate of Methodology, they don’t need a CFS for interim payments, just one at the final payment if they get >= 375.000 EUR funding). Costs for CFS can be reimbursed under Management – Subcontracting.
Financial issues
How much budget does a coordinator receive for the pre-financing finally, considering the amount reserved for the guarantee funds and the amount that will be kept until the last payment?
One single pre-financing payment
Received by the coordinator within 45 days of entry into force of GA, to ensure positive cash-flow during project. The pre-financing equals 160% of average EU funding per period for projects with more than 2 reporting periods, or it equals 60-80% of total EU contribution for projects with 1 or 2 reporting periods. The pre-financing remains the property of the EC until the final payment. Form the amount of pre-financing which depends on the project length, 5% of the total EU funding is transferred to the Guarantee Fund. During project implementation the amount reported in the Form C are paid by the EC (ownership of this money is transferred) – but only up to a limit of 90% of the total EU funding. (10% retention is kept until the final payment – with the final payment the Commission pays 10% as well as 5% are coming from the Guarantee Fund.
Subcontracting in FP7
Is Catering always considered as subcontracting in FP7?
The key question is if the cost is a subcontract. If the services in question are a subcontract then the subcontract can not be taken into account when calculating overheads. The classification of the services depends on their character.
Some costs incurred in relation to organisation of the meeting may be considered as subcontracting (e.g. catering services provided by an external company) whereas others (renting the rooms directly in a hotel) would not fall within this category. ln this sense remember that subcontracting is a business transaction by which the subcontractor performs some work for a beneficiary.
Subcontracting costs are direct costs. Whether major or minor costs, they have to be identified by beneficiaries in the financial statement form (Form C, Annex VI to GA). In any case, they should be reported as subcontracting (if you are paying for a service; the difference is that the GA allows that these minor subcontracts do not previously appear in the Description of work of the project, As subcontracts, they are a cost to a beneficiary for a work/service which is performed by a third party and not by the beneficiary, and therefore indirect costs can not be charged by the beneficiary on them; in this cases, the indirect costs are already covered by the price paid by the beneficiary to the subcontractor. The same rules for subcontracting apply to all projects, including CSA.
What are the financial limits for collaborative projects?
What are the financial limits for collaborative projects ?
The magnitude of research funding is usually specified by topic. It depends on the type of projects. Large, medium/small collaborative projects are from € 3 mil up to € 12 mil , the same for NoE
Project co-financing
How much is required as co-financing by the institution ?
This depends on the type of project and kind of organization ( SMEs, Universities, and/or others…) Please refer to the guidelines
consortium stage 1, II
In what way during stage one proposal to show the credential of partner, through papers published, or in form of CV (Attachment), in addition to Part B or this info must be part of Part B
Here we strongly recommend to follow the Guide for Applicants, which is always published together with the call fiche and work-programme. Please, always use the actual version!
consortium stage 1
In stage one, how detailed do we mention particular persons that are responsible for different jobs?
Please refer to the particular Guide for applicants. For stage one proposals in the HEALTH.2012 INNO-1, INNO-2 call for collaborative projects it is mentioned that …
“List all the expected members of your consortium. The minimum (3) number of participants (except for topic 3.4-1, which requires a minimum of 8 participants under specific conditions) constitute the eligibility conditions and must be named, otherwise your proposal will be considered ineligible.“ But the content of the Guides for Applicants may change for call HEALTH.2013.
success rate, stage 2
Once passed the stage one cut-off, approx which % of proposers will be successful proposals at the stage 2? Is the percentage higher than only one stage proposals? For instance, in CP usual proposals it's said to be about 12-20%
It is appr. 25 -30%.
number of partners
For innovation-2 projects you need at least 3 partners, do they need to be from 3 different countries or is 2 enough?
The partners have to be independent from each other, legal persons and have to come from 3 diff. European member states or associated countries (CH, IL, IS, LI, NO, TR, AL, BA, MD, ME, MK, HR, RS, FO).
Innovation-1 Call, SME participation
All the partners of the consortium for the Innovation-1 must be SME? I mean, a larger company can participate?
Yes, larger companies can also participate. Just make sure you meet the requirements as defined in the topic text concerning % funding that has to go to SMEs. Large companies are great too, because like SMEs, they will enhance the impact of the project by usage of the project results! The 30 % depends on the specifics of the call. More is OK, it has to be in balance with the amount of work the SME partners(s) do of course.
Two-stage evaluation criteria?
Which are the thresholds of the tree different criteria of the second stage submission?
S/T quality 4/5
Implementation 3/5
Impact 3/5
Overall threshold 12/15
COLIPA Calls
How will the COLIPA topics be funded? What is the role of the COLIPA industries?
The research area "Alternative Testing Strategies" will be implemented with a maximum financial EC contribution of EUR 25 000 000. Contrary to other research topics of the programme the maximum EC financial contribution will be 50 % of the eligible cost of the projects independent on the applicable funding scheme (e.g. co-ordinating action, large scale integrating project).
The remaining 50% of the budget foreseen for these activities will be provided in kind by the COLIPA industries for a total amount of EUR 25 000 000
When the topics of the 6th Call will be available?
Are the 6th Call topics already available?
The detailed list of topics and content of the 6th Call will be officially available early June just before the Open Information day to be held in Brussels on 9 June 2011.
The official list will be published on Cordis once the call officially launched.
In the meantime the indicative list of topics will be available on the Fit for Health website during the virtual "Partnering campaign" that will take place from 16 to 20 May 2011. This list will be indicative only and will be subject to possibile modifications by the EC
second level audits
Are second level audits only targeted to projects or can they also be related to a whole organisation, having several EU-projects?
In FP7 the Commission normally audits 3 projects at a partner at once. A Commission is always an audit of the organisational rules and the systems used in EU-projects. However, the EU COM audit unit has the power and the possibility to involve all other EU projects when they find a logical / consistent error that seems to be “systematic”. Then an extrapolation of the audit findings on all other projects is possible and all the project may be recalculated.
responsibility of coordinator, II
Is the coordinator responsible if time sheets form project partners are not correct?
No, that is the responsibility of each partner (Annex II of the Grant Agreement). The partners have to be able to justify the costs of their Form C themselves until 5 years after the end of the project.
responsibility of coordinator
Is the coordinator of a project responsible for the money spent in the project?
Each partner is responsible for the costs in the Form C and has to have the documentation in its organisation (including the co-ordinator). But if a partner exceeds the amount of money he is allowed to spend it is the responsibility of the co-ordinator and the management board to monitor that. The co-ordinator is responsible for a good conduction of the project as well as for all the payments to the partners.
time sheets
How does the justification of hours worked on the project to be documented? Are time sheets required?
Not necessarily. When you have a consistent, high-quality documentation system you can convince your auditor to take this instead of time-sheets.
But time sheets are default for most of the organisations, because they are easy to handle. The time recording needs to be signed and countersigned by either the project leader or the hierarchical supervisor. If the time recording system of your organisation is able to do this (e.g. by electronic signatures) then there are no time sheets needed. As the most organisations co not have such a system it is best to print out and sign and have counter-signed the time sheets on paper.
pharmacy as third party
If a pharmacy in a hospital is involved in the accomplishment of clinical trials – will this pharmacy be considered as third party in the project?
It depends on the legal structure of the hospital. If the pharmacy is within the legal structure (is the same legal entity as the hospital), it is a part of the partner of the consortium and therefore “the partner”. If the pharmacy is a legal entity on its own, then it can be regarded as a third party linked to the beneficiary with special clause 10, when there is a link between the hospital and the pharmacy (holding structure, mother, daughter etc.). For the work in the project an agreement between the pharmacy and the hospital has to be set up.
number of reports / period
How many reports have to be delivered in which reporting period? How many reports are required for the last reporting in a project?
After every reporting period there has to be a periodic report for the period (as well as a financial report Form C) – there also has to be a periodic report for the last period. After the last period a final report has to be handed in additionally. Reporting is done on-line via the Participant Portal.
Subcontracts or third party in clinical trials
When it comes to Clinical trials, is it better to include hospitals as third party or as sub-contractors?
When a hospital is a service provider who will not need to get access to other parts of the project it is a typical sub-contractor. On the other hand if a clinic is affiliated to one of the partners and likes to get access to the results and perhaps IPR then it should be involved as a third party linked to the beneficiary with special clause 10 (means: the partner is responsible for the reporting, the budget and the scientific quality and is steering the hospital as an affiliated partner/(third party).
Management of EU projects
How detailed has management to be in an EU-Project?
Management depends on the complexity of the project.
Management can be much more detailed in difficult phases of a project. As a co-ordinator one of your tasks is to follow the progress of your project to avoid undue delays. Especially in the first phase of the project you need to monitor the people if they are on the right track. Delays in critical tasks will trickle down and have an effect of the entire project. The focus of all partners in a project has to be on agreeing on objectives.
As a co-ordinator you have to pay attention that the partners deliver their reports in time. Delays in reporting leads to a delay of the interim payments for the whole project.
research groups from different hospitals
Our centre is a national consortium composed of research groups from different hospitals, universities, etc. If a research group applies for funds as part of the consortium, how do we reflect their belonging to other institutions?
Here it depends if your centre is a legal person or not. If it is, then the Centre can apply for funding. If not, the hospitals, universities etc. should apply as partners.
If the centre is partner and people doing the research work who are not “directly hired” by the centre but have a working contract at a hospital, university which is member of the centre, then the costs of the personnel might only be eligible if the hospital, university is as a “third party linked to the beneficiary” with special clause 10 in the Grant Agreement working in the project.
Charts
For the stage one, is it common to use Chart, e.g. Gantt chart to explain work-plan, do people use chart in stage one?
I would recommend integrating a Gantt or Pert Chart in first stage proposals only when you stick to the page limit. The Guide for Applicants does not foresee to have a Gantt or Pert Chart at stage one.
advisory board
When to include advisory board in the proposal, stage one or stage two?
The advice is to include an AB already in the project governance structure of the project at the first stage. It may help to convince the evaluators.
advisory board
When to include advisory board in the proposal, stage one or stage two?
The advice is to include an AB already in the project governance structure of the project at the first stage. It may help to convince the evaluators.
dissemination actions
For clarity: dissemination includes everything from attending conferences to talk about results of the project to personnel costs for writing scientific papers about the project results to establishing and maintaining the project website. Is this correct?
Dissemination is everything you do to get the results / outcome of the project to the right target group(s)
demonstration vs research
How can I differentiate between Demonstration and Research?
Demonstration activities are closer to the product than research activities. Demonstration activities include e.g. prototype development, surveys, and up-scaling activities.
Does my project idea fit into the relevant call topic?
Does my project idea fit into the relevant call topic?
The idea should hit as exact as possible the wording of the topic.
Please contact your National Contact Point to clarify if and where your project idea can be positioned in the FP7 Health thematic.
How long does it take from submission proposal until the project inception?
How long does it take from submission proposal until the project inception?
It takes on average one year including the evaluation phase, the negotiation phase and the signature of contract.
How many partners are recommended for a project submission (golden rule)?
How many partners are recommended for a project submission (golden rule)?
At least three. We don't recommend more than necessary; all tasks must be covered with sufficient expertise and partners' contribution should be complementary and appropriate.
Managing a FP project - Coordination aspects
I am an SME, what do you recommend if I have a project idea, but are not willing or able to be a lead partner?
It is suitable to find a partner that has more experience in managing the project and making sure that the joint application succeeds. The management and training activities are funded up to 100%, but not the project preparation.