Horizon Europe offers beneficiaries the option to utilize personnel unit costs, streamlining and minimizing errors in cost declaration for staff in projects. This entails establishing a single predetermined daily rate for personnel, applicable across all staff involved in the project. By adopting this approach, discrepancies in daily rates are eliminated, ensuring beneficiaries are aware of their daily earnings from the project outset. Moreover, reporting becomes more straightforward as it is based solely on days worked, simplifying potential audits.
While the use of personnel unit costs is voluntary, beneficiaries can experiment with it and switch back to using actual costs if they find it unsatisfactory. Those interested in employing personnel unit costs can determine an approximate daily rate for their organization through the Personnel Unit Costs Wizard.
Personnel unit costs wizard – Horizon Europe
Key features:
- Daily rate is fixed ex-ante for the beneficiary
- Applicable to all Horizon Europe grants of the beneficiary
- Applicable to all persons working for the beneficiary
- Actual cost method applied by default
- Beneficiaries in the same grant agreement can use different personnel costs methods
Main benefits of the personnel unit cost method:
- No more complex calculations
- No more errors in daily rate calculation
- Reporting limited to number of days worked
- One daily rate for all staff
- Daily personnel costs known upfront
- Possibility to return to actual costs
Main inconvenient of the personnel unit cost method:
- Daily rate can be updated only every two years and for new grants only. Salary increases will not be fully taken into account.
- Ex-ante validation through an external audit certificate is necessary. Audit cost not eligible.
- Severance pay not eligible
Note that the personnel uni cost method has to be chosen by the beneficiary prior to the Grant Agreement Preparation phase and cannot be used for a funded project that has already started.
Source and more information: EC webinar
