The Certificate on the Financial Statement (CFS) after an audit must be issued by a qualified auditor. The auditor has to use the template of the European Commission. The template consists of the “Terms of Reference” (model for the agreement...

Cross-KIC projects aim at jointly driving strategic topics to promote European innovation while fostering collaboration and taking advantage of synergies within the EIT ecosystem. Cross-KIC activities refer to collaborative initiatives between the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) of the European...

In total, 9 KICs (Knowledge and Innovation Communities) have been created by the EIT (European Institute of Innovation & Technology) since its creation in 2010. A KIC is a network of universities, research institutions, and companies that work together to...

For some programmes, the European Commission is using lump sums funding in Horizon Europe. The European Commission gives the beneficiary a fixed amount of grant and the project is only evaluated at performance level, not from a financial point of...

To get the legal validation of your entity in the Funding & Tenders Portal, you have to submit various legal documents. This will be done by the Central Validation Service within the European Research Executive Agency for all EU services...

One logo is necessary when communication in Horizon 2020: the EU flag. A small text “Funded by the European Union” is also necessary. This is stated in Art. 29.4 of the Annotated Model Grant Agreement of Horizon 2020. 29.4 Information...

Audits are mandatory in Horizon Europe for entities that receive more than 430.000€ of grant from the EU. If successful, this audit delivers the entity a Certificate on the Financial Statement (CFS) required by the EU. The CFS audit is...

The Gender Equality Plan (GEP) in Horizon Europe is a mandatory document for public bodies, higher education establishments, and research organisations. Only organisations from EU Member States or Associated countries are subjected to this obligation. It is recommended for private-for-profit...

You can find the PIC number of any registered organization on the Funding & Tenders portal here. This database is the Single Electronic Data Interchange Area (SEDIA) and allows you to find through its name the PIC number. You may...

A EU login is the official account necessary to register yourself to access digitally institutions of the European Union. It is simple and easy to create a EU login. Follow these 6 steps. Go to the official EU website to...

If an entity has to pay taxes after receiving a EU grant depends on the situation of the company and the country of origin. European subsidies such as Horizon Europe funds make up a component of the taxable income of...

Yes, Norway is eligible for Horizon Europe. On the 24th of December 2021, it has signed the agreement with the European Union to become a third country associated to Horizon Europe. Therefore, legal entities from Norway can receive EU funding...

Each part of Horizon Europe proposals are evaluated in a different manner. Part A is going through an eligibility check and Part B is evaluated by European Commission (EC) external experts on specific criteria. Part A, which is made of...

In Horizon Europe, payments are done according to Article 22 of the Annotated Model Grant Agreement. Payments are made according to the amounts budgeted, reported and accepted. The payments of Horizon Europe projects are made by the European Commission to...

There are three type of countries that are eligible for the Horizon Europe programme: EU Member States, Third countries associated and other third countries. EU Members States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France,...

In Horizon Europe, the page limit is 45 pages for Research and Innovation Actions (RIAs) as well as Innovation Actions (IAs) in total. For Coordination and Support Actions (CSAs), the page limit is set at 30 pages. When the proposal...

Yes, months with absences can be declared in Horizon Europe. More specifically, months with more than half of the time absent can be declared in time sheets. In Horizon 2020, in exclusive declarations, it is indeed not possible to declare...

Extra payments are eligible in Horizon Europe under certain circumstances. They have to be registered in the accounting of the beneficiary for the reporting period as a cost. In the case of a payment that has an accrual period greater...

The funding rate of Horizon Europe projects depends on the type of project and on the nature of the beneficiary. It can vary substantially depending on the call the entity or person is applying to. Below a summary of the...

To prepare correctly a budget of a Horizon Europe project, you should go through 5 important steps. 1. Review the call conditions and plan the work For each call, we need to check 3 elements: Financing conditions: this refers to...

The European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) is an independent body of the European Union set up in 2008 to deliver innovation across Europe. The EIT brings together leading business, education and research organisations to form dynamic cross-border partnerships....

The evaluation of an ERC proposal is being done in two phases where the proposal is being evaluated based on its excellence. There are some restrictions when re-submitting a proposal according to the evaluation mark. If the proposal gets a...

The European Research Council (ERC) provides financial support in form of grants to excellent researchers and their teams to promote vanguard research activities that have a high risk or high benefit potential. It is expected that the financed research leads...

The National Contact Points (NCPs) for Horizon Europe can found on the European Commission website. The network of National Contact Points is the main structure to provide guidance, practical information and assistance on all aspects of participation in Horizon Europe....

RIS countries are countries that benefit from the Regional Innovation Scheme within the EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology) funding scheme. The EIT RIS scheme was introduced in 2014 to advance the innovation performance of more countries and their...

The Grant Agreement Preparation (GAP) is the phase that starts once you receive the evaluation summary report (ESR) from the European Commission that states that your proposal has been funded. Now, jointly with the European Commission, the coordinator of the...

The MGA of Horizon Europe, MGA standing for Model Grant Agreement, is a guide aimed at assisting EU grant beneficiaries. It is provided for information purposes only and is not intended to replace the binding legal agreements themselves, nor professional...

The templates documents for Horizon Europe proposals can be found on the Funding & Tenders Portal under the Reference documents part. Then, select the programme, in this case Horizon Europe. Then, under Template & forms, click on Application forms. There,...

To recover your entity’s access on the Funding & Tenders Portal, you have to add a new LEAR (Legal Entity Appointed Representative). Only the LEAR has the rights to access your entity’s data and recover the access. This happens when...

The difference between a grant and a tender is that a grant is a financial contribution to your activities that your entity is pursuing. Grants are normally co-funded meaning that a part of the costs will be borne by your...

Yes, several persons can work together on the same proposal on the Funding & Tenders Portal. Once logged in with your account on the Funding & Tenders Portal, go to My Proposals. Select the proposal for which you want to...

To be notified when a new call is launched in the Funding & Tenders Portal, you need to subscribe to the RSS feed of the page of the portal. To subscribe to the RSS feed, there are two different ways....

The Data Management Plan in Horizon 2020 is a key element of good data management. A Data Management Plan (DMP) describes the data management life cycle for the data to be collected, processed and/or generated by a project. Download the...

To get a PIC (Participant Identification Code) number on the Funding & Tenders Portal of the European Commission, you first have to register on the Portal and create an EU Login. It is a 9-digit number that serves as a...

A LEAR is a Legal Entity Appointed Representative. This is a person appointed by its legal representative (CEO, Rector, Director General) to manage the legal and financial information about the organisation (i.e. change address), manage access rights of persons in...

To change your organisation’s address in the Funding & Tenders Portal, you have to go to the Funding & Tenders Portal and login with the email address and password of your organisation’s account. The account should be the one of...

The reference documents for Horizon Europe such as the framework programme regulation, the work programmes and the call documents, the grant agreements and contracts, and templates and forms can be found on the Funding & Tenders Portal of the European...

De minimis aid State aid and the de minimis aid criteria only apply to ‘state resources’ whereas resources centrally managed by EU institutions do not constitute state resources. Centrally managed programmes by the European Commission or its Agencies, such as...

Important budget shifts in EU projects should be reported to the coordinator and the coordinator should report it to the funding authority (i.e. European Commission) and request an amendment of the Grant Agreement. As a general rule, important budget shifts...

The Funding & Tenders Portal of the European Commission is the central shop window for EU funding and the procurement actions for all European bodies. If you are interested in getting a grant from the EU or offering your products...

Horizon Europe 9th framework programme of the European Union (EU) and is its main funding tool for research and innovation with a budget of 95.5€ billion spanning from 2021 to 2027. Through financing research and innovation projects, Horizon Europe tackles...

Yes, you can declare the cost of an SME owner in Horizon Europe if she/he does not receive a salary. For this you need to determine the days worked on the Horizon Europe project and the daily rate of the...

Sick leaves in Horizon Europe are eligible if they are an actual cost for your entity. According to the Annotated Model Grant Agreement, you may not include any part of the remuneration which has not been an actual cost for...

To change a bank account in a grant agreement (Life, Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, etc.), you have to submit a new financial identification form. The financial identification form is the official document provided by the European Union (EU) to be...

When filling the Funding Sheet in a Life Project, a sheet part of the templates provided by the European Commission, some additional information might be helpful. For the coordinator, the consolidated financial statement template is available here and the guidelines...

When reporting personnel costs in a Life Project, you have to use the templates provided by the European Commission. For the coordinator, the consolidated financial statement template is available here and the guidelines for the coordinating beneficiary is available here...

To report costs in a Life Project, the affiliated entities have to complete their own individual financial statement. The beneficiary to whom they are related will have to introduce in his own individual financial statement, in each of the cost...

For the reporting of a Life Project, each beneficiary needs to fill in the financial statement. In addition, each affiliated entity that can declare costs, which is only the case if the affiliate was included explicitly in the grant agreement....

The LIFE Programme of the European Union, officially called Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE) was created in 1992. It is the EU’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action, which has co-financed more than 5,000 projects...

To justify personnel costs, it is mandatory to provide a time sheet for Horizon Europe projects. Hereby the template provided by the European Commission. The obligation to have time sheet in Horizon Europe is stated in Article 20 of the...

The EU flag in Horizon Europe is mandatory for communication and dissemination activities as well as infrastructure, equipment, vehicles, supplies or major result funded by the grant. The EU flag must be clearly visible as well as the text next...

Yes, you can declare the cost of an SME owner in Horizon 2020 if she/he does not receive a salary. For this you need to determine the hours worked on the Horizon 2020 project and the hourly rate of the...

The SME definition in Horizon Europe is given by the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. Note that this definition is also valid for Horizon 2020. It should be less than 250 employees and less than 50M€ of...

Yes, under certain circumstances there is a possibility to pay employees more in Horizon Europe projects, it is called the project-based remuneration. For programmes with standard rules for supplementary payments: The personnel costs may also include supplementary payments for personnel...

A good exploitation plan in Horizon Europe has to be precise about the impact of the results of your project on science, industry, society and governments mostly after its end. Results are any tangible or intangible output of the project,...

In European research and innovation projects, especially Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020, the dissemination and communication of results is mandatory. According to article 17 of the Horizon Europe grant agreement and article 29.1 of the Horizon 2020 grant agreement, each...

A good communication plan in Horizon Europe makes the difference between an excellent proposal and a winning proposal. The quality of the proposals submitted in Horizon 2020 calls was very high keeping the success rate low (an average of 11%)...

One logo is necessary when communication in Horizon Europe: the EU flag. A small text “Funded by the European Union” is also necessary. This is stated in Art. 17 of the Annotated Model Grant Agreement of Horizon Europe. Every time...

The dissemination plan in Horizon Europe ensures scientific results created during the project are being published and disseminated among the research community. To do so, various means can be used and should be defined at the very beginning of the...

Budget deviation is not necessarily a problem in Horizon Europe. It depends on the size of the deviation. This budget deviation will be visible when doing the financial (intermediary or final) reporting. To avoid unpleasant surprises, it is recommended to...

Costs can be eligible or ineligible in Horizon Europe depending on their nature. There are five eligible cost categories in Horizon Europe: personnel, subcontracting, purchase, other, and indirect costs. The detailed list is available in the General Model Grant Agreement...

In Horizon 2020, if your entity received more than 325.000€ of grant, you will have to submit a certificate on the financial statements (CFS) to the European Commission (EC) during the final reporting. To obtain such certificate, you need to...

The main steps of an EU project depend on the call and on the program. Some calls have rather long and complex processes whereas other shorter. In this case we will take the example of a Horizon Europe project, as...

Depending on the programme and type of action, there are different kinds of EU grant participants. Entities can participate in various roles: as coordinator, beneficiaries, affiliated entities, associated partners, in-kind contributors, subcontractors or recipients of financial support to third parties....

The structure of a Horizon Europe Grant Agreement is based on three main elements: the datasheet, the articles and the annexes. The datasheet is a summary of the specific data of the grant agreement, The articles are the core of...

The AMGA of Horizon Europe, AMGA standing for Annotated Model Grant Agreement, is a guide aimed at assisting EU grant beneficiaries. It is provided for information purposes only and is not intended to replace the binding legal agreements themselves, nor...

No, Switzerland is not eligible for Horizon Europe, as it has not signed the agreement with the European Union to become a third country associated to Horizon Europe. Therefore, legal entities from Switzerland cannot receive EU funding in Horizon Europe...

Yes, Israel is now eligible for Horizon Europe. On the 6th of December 2021, it has signed the agreement with the European Union to become a third country associated to Horizon Europe. Therefore, legal entities from Israel can receive EU...

The difference between other goods and services and equipment in a Horizon Europe project can be sometimes tricky. Here is how to well differentiate both. Other goods and services are consumables and supplies, promotion, dissemination, protection of results, translations, publications,...

No, the United Kingdom is not yet eligible for Horizon Europe, as it has not become a third country associated to Horizon Europe yet. The agreement between the EU and the UK has not been signed yet. Until association agreements...

When reporting personnel costs in Horizon 2020 projects, attention must be paid in order to avoid errors. Most of the errors made are because of a misunderstanding of the rules, unawareness of the specificity of the rules, or intentional. Because...

To report personnel costs in Horizon 2020 is not necessarily a simple thing. Personnel costs is the cost of the time worked for the Horizon 2020 project by employees, seconded staff, SME owners, and consultants. There are different manners to...

Horizon 2020 rules are still important today because many research projects are still running. Horizon Europe might have started since the 1st of January 2021 but all projects launched before will be running in the upcoming years. Given that the...

Invoicing between partners is in general not allowed within Horizon Europe. According to the Annotated Model Grant Agreement of Horizon Europe, purchases or invoicing between beneficiaries is not considered eligible as there is the risk of double funding or charging...

No, subcontracting between partners is not allowed in Horizon Europe nor in Horizon 2020 projects. According to the Annotated Model Grant Agreement of Horizon Europe, subcontracting between beneficiaries is not allowed in the same grant. All beneficiaries contribute to and...

Subcontracting is a commercial agreement made between your entity and a third party for the realization of an entire defined task. Financial support to third parties is a non-commercial agreement between you and a third party is for a sub-grant...

External experts in Horizon Europe are usually justified as other goods, works and services. However, this can depend on the type of contract your entity makes with the supplier. Therefore, external experts in Horizon Europe can be justified under three...

Receipts in Horizon Europe means revenue. According to the Financial Regulation of the EU, receipts are limited to the Union grant and the revenue generated by the project. According to this regulation it is important to remember that non-profit organizations...

Project-based remuneration in Horizon Europe is inherited from Horizon 2020 known as additional remuneration. It is a usual remuneration practice of a beneficiary under which an employee receives supplementary payments for working in a Horizon Europe project. As an example,...

The Mutual Insurance Mechanism in Horizon Europe is replacing the Guarantee Fund in Horizon 2020 and it can vary between 5%-8%. Compared to the previous framework programme, the Mutual Insurance Mechanism in Horizon Europe is not always 5%. It is...

No evidence is required to justify the indirect costs in Horizon Europe. Indirect costs are calculated based at the 25% flat rate on the direct costs, but only categories A-D, except volunteers costs, subcontracting costs, financial support to third parties...

Yes, in general rewards are eligible under Horizon Europe. Rewards could fall under the category prizes D.1 Financial support to third parties. It is important to ensure objective and transparent selection procedures and include at least the eligibility and award...

You can claim the full purchase cost of an equipment in Horizon Europe, if the equipment is purchased specifically for the action (or developed as part of the action tasks) and if it fulfills the cost eligibility conditions applicable to...

There are five eligible cost categories in Horizon Europe: personnel, subcontracting, purchase, other, and indirect costs. Below the complete list of costs eligible in Horizon Europe with extract from the General Model Grant Agreement GMGA Article 6.2 – Specific eligibility...

Convert the hours worked into days in Horizon Europe when reporting personnel costs can be done in three different ways. Option 1: we convert the number of hours that the person must work per day according to its contract. Example:...

The threshold for CFS audits in Horizon Europe is of 430.000€. In other words, a beneficiary that receives more than 430.000€ of EU contribution has to provide a Certificate on the Financial Statement (CFS). The threshold for CFS audits is...

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...

Yes, internal invoices are eligible in Horizon Europe. Officially known as internally invoiced goods and services, they correspond to the category D.2, according to article 6.2 of the General Model Grant Agreement (GMGA) of Horizon Europe. These are goods and...

An Associated Partner in Horizon Europe is an international partner in Horizon 2020. An Associated Partner (AP) is an entity that works for the EU project but cannot declare costs and needs to have its own budget. It can be...

An Affiliated Entity in Horizon Europe is a Linked Third Party under Horizon 2020. It is an entity that has a link with a beneficiary, in particular legal or capital link, which is neither limited to the project nor is...

The System and Process Audit (SPA) is an optional audit in Horizon Europe allowing the entity to go through less audits as it rises the threshold for a certificate on the financial statement (CFS) to 725.000€ instead of 430.000€. A...

Indirect costs (overheads) in Horizon Europe are calculated as a flat-rate of 25% of the eligible direct costs (A. Personnel costs and C. Purchase costs including travel, equipment and other goods and services). There is no need to justify indirect...

The missions of Horizon Europe are commitments to solve some of the greatest challenges facing our world like fighting cancer, adapting to climate change, protecting our oceans, living in greener cities and ensuring soil health and food.  They are an integral...

The Horizon Europe Work Programmes can be downloaded from the Funding and Tenders portal of the European Commission. This page includes reference documents of the programmes managed on the EU Funding & Tenders portal starting with legal documents and the...

The total budget of Horizon Europe is of 95.5 billion euros. It spans over 2021 until 2027 and includes 5.4 billion euros from Next Generation Europe (NGEU) programme, the EU programme for the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. Below a...

No, a single individual cannot participate in Horizon Europe. Most EU funding programmes require that participants (including beneficiaries and affiliated entities) are legal entities such as public or private bodies, including international organisations. Therefore, a single individual cannot participate in...

Associated countries to Horizon Europe are countries that signed an agreement with the European Union. This allows legal entities from these associated countries to participate under equivalent conditions as legal entities from the EU Member States, unless specific limitations or...

How to calculate personnel costs in Horizon Europe is the most important change compared to Horizon 2020. This excel template with fictitious numbers might be of great help. First, you have to calculate the daily rate of the person working...

Yes, VAT is eligible in Horizon Europe, except when the beneficiary can deduct or refund the VAT (Value-Added Tax). According to article 6.3 of the Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement, VAT is eligible in a Horizon Europe project. Beneficiaries can...

Yes, in general, a consortium agreement is required for Horizon Europe projects. According to article 7 of the Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement, a consortium agreement is required for a Horizon Europe project. Below the details and references. References: AMGA...