Finance Helpdesk Newsletter #50

Upcoming Open Finance Helpdesk Workshops

Brexit

New H2020 Association Agreements

H2020 Financial Reporting

The Finance Helpdesk

Upcoming Open Finance Helpdesk Workshops:

20/07/2016                  2 Day Financial Workshop in Vienna, Austria.

14/09/2016                  2 Day Financial Workshop in London-Heathrow, UK.

02/11/2016                  2 Day Financial Workshop in Vienna, Austria.

21/11/2016                  1 Day Marie Curie Workshop in Vienna,Austria.

22/11/2016                  1 Day ERC Workshop in Vienna, Austria.

Brexit:

On the 23 June 2016 the UK held a referendum on whether to remain part of the EU. The results of this referendum showed a vote to leave by a small margin.

What happens now?

One of two things can happen.

1) The UK Parliament can agree and start negotiating to leave the EU;

2) The UK Parliament can disagree and either outright ignore the result or request another referendum.

Let’s assume for the moment that the UK does indeed leave the EU, what will this mean for the EU projects?

Firstly, there will be no difference for projects that have signed Grant Agreements.

In addition, there is a 2-year period where the UK Government negotiates with the EU some sort of Association agreement. During the negotiations, the UK remains a member on exactly the same terms as today.

In short, do not panic. Let’s wait and see what the UK Parliament will do.

We will keep you updated.

Why not join us for our Financial Workshop that will be held in London – Heathrow on 14 & 15 Sept where we will dedicate a special session on the ramifications of Brexit for your organisation specifically.

New H2020 Association Agreements:

Since our last newsletter, two more countries, Tunisia and Georgia, have become Associated with H2020. Both Association Agreements are retroactively applicable as from 1 January 2016.

Researchers and innovators from Georgia and Tunisia will now be able to participate in Horizon 2020 under the same conditions as their counterparts from EU Member States.

This brings the number of Associated Countries to Horizon 2020 up to 15.

The list now includes: Iceland; Norway; Albania; Bosnia and Herzegovina; the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; Montenegro; Serbia; Turkey; Israel; Moldova; Switzerland (partial association); Faroe Islands; Ukraine; Tunisia; Georgia.

Armenia is nearly there, the H2020 Association Agreement was signed on 19 May 2016, however it will only enter into force once Armenia notifies the Commission that it's internal procedures have been completed.

For more information, please download from here.

H2020 Financial Reporting:

Each Beneficiary and Linked Third Party must fill one of the Financial Forms (Form C) in themselves and submit them to the Commission, as part of the periodic report. 

The Financial Form is split into different columns:

Column A - Direct personnel costs

This column is split into 3 input lines (a-c).

• Declare your direct personnel costs under line (a) as actual costs or under line (b) as unit costs (average costs).
• If you are an SME owner or individual not receiving a salary /reimbursed on the basis of unit costs, declare your personnel costs in line (c).
• Note: You need only supply data on the person-months per work-package (not per deliverable).
• At this stage, you don't have to provide details like names, level of experience etc. (though you may be asked for this later).
• Use of in-kind contributions from third parties: if you need to report any related personnel costs, the system will prompt you for details of the costs, name and type of third party, and whether or not the costs were planned in Annex 1 or not.

If the costs were not planned, you must give more explanation.

Column B - Direct costs of subcontracting – line(d)

In this pop-up, break down the total direct costs forthe period into the costs for individual subcontractors, under Unforeseen subcontracting not indicated in the grant agreement (Annex 1) (in addition to the information provided in the technicalreport - par.1.2).

Column C - Direct cost of providing financial support- Line (e)

This is only concerned with "cascade funding" and prizes (Article 15, GA). Declare as third parties here (Not to be confused with the other types of Third Party)

Column D - Other direct costs – line (f)

All the other Direct Costs come under here.

• If costs declared under "other direct costs" are equal to or less than 15% of the personnel costs, you are claiming for this reporting period, you do not need to provide an explanation (though you must still keep all the proof you have of any costs you declare as eligible, in case you are audited).
• If costs declared under "other direct costs" are higher than 15% of these personnel costs, then you must explain other major direct cost items (This means costs declared in your accounts according to your internal accounting practices.) in the table provided in the pop up in line f). 
  You must explain all items apart from those that add up to less than 15% of your personnel costs. Start from the highest-value cost items.

If you are reporting other direct cost items, you mustprovide:

1. if indicated in the DoA – a simple reference tothe DoA

2. if not indicated in the DoA – cost/amount peritem, description of the item, nature of item (travel, equipment, other goods& services), work package(s), project relevance/explanation

    

   ColumnF - Specific costs – line (i)

   Report individual specific costs in the pop-up that appears here:

   e.g. costs for energy-efficiency measures in buildings, costs for providing transnational access to research infrastructure, costs for clinical studies.

    

   Direct costs of Third Parties (not linked thirdparties)

• Declare direct cost related to in-kind contributions from third parties in the pop up appearing in the columns for personnel and/or other direct costs, depending of the type of cost.
• If you used any unforeseen in-kind contributions, either for payment or for free, as well as describing them in the technical report (par.1.2), you must specify here the cost of the resources.

Additional information – line (o)

You can declare again the different third party costs that need to be removed from your total eligible costs, in order to calculate your indirect costs (e.g. costs of in-kind contributions from third parties, but only those which are not used on your premises).

The Finance Helpdesk:

Did you know that the Finance Helpdesk can join your consortium as a partner?

Staff at the Finance-Helpdesk have participated in numerous Framework programme projects and have expertise in a wide variety of topics giving added value including:

a) Financial Rules and Assistance with the Budgeting, Negotiations and Reporting.

b) Covering ethical issues and ethical management of the project (Finance-Helpdesk staff are ethical evaluators for the Commission).

c) Red Teaming Proposals.

d) Assisting and advising on project management and quality assurance tasks during the project lifetime.

e) Technical assistance including Health-Care, ICT, Security, Chemistry, Social Sciences etc.

f) Dissemination.

If you are interested in inviting the Finance-Helpdesk to participate as a partner in your proposal, please contact info@finance.helpdesk.org in the first instance and include a brief proposal abstract mentioning the call topic.

The Finance Helpdesk Team.

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