Yes, in-kind contributions provided by third parties against payment or free of charge are eligible in Horizon Europe.
In-kind contributions are good or services that a third party, meaning an entity that is not part of the consortium, is providing to the beneficiary. In-kind contributions can be against payment or free of charge. Both are eligible and the indirect cost flat rate of 25% can be added to that. For in-kind contributions against payments, there is no special article anymore, compared with Horizon 2020, that regulates it. These costs need to be declared as personnel costs under the sub-category seconded persons, or purchase of goods, works or services. For in-kind contributions free of charge, there are some specific provisions in the Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement, article 6.1 and 9.2. As for contributions against payments, these costs must be declared under the relevant cost category as if they were incurred by the beneficiary.
References:
GMGA Article – 6.1 General eligibility conditions
In-kind contributions provided by third parties free of charge may be declared as eligible direct costs by the beneficiaries which use them (under the same conditions as if they were their own, provided that they concern only direct costs and that the third parties and their in-kind contributions are set out in Annex 1 (or approved ex post in the periodic report, if their use does not entail changes to the Agreement which would call into question the decision awarding the grant or breach the principle of equal treatment of applicants; ‘simplified approval procedure’).
GMGA Article 9.2 – Third parties giving in-kind contributions to the action
Other third parties may give in-kind contributions to the action (i.e. personnel, equipment, other goods, works and services, etc. which are free-of-charge) if necessary for the implementation.
Third parties giving in-kind contributions do not implement any action tasks. They may not charge costs or contributions to the action, but the costs for the in-kind contributions are eligible and may be charged by the beneficiaries which use them, under the conditions set out in Article 6. The costs will be included in Annex 2 as part of the beneficiaries’ costs.
The beneficiaries must ensure that the bodies mentioned in Article 25 (e.g. granting authority, OLAF, Court of Auditors (ECA), etc.) can exercise their rights also towards the third parties giving in-kind contributions.
The third parties and their in-kind contributions should be set out in Annex 1.
EU Financial Regulation 2018/1046 Article 2(36)
In-kind contributions: ‘in-kind contribution’ means non-financial resources made available free of charge by third parties to a beneficiary.
