31.01.2006 - Finance Helpdesk Newsletter
Funding for Permanent Staff members under the FP6 AC Cost Model
Updated Commission “Audit Certificates” presentation
Overhead Calculations within FP6
Recording Hours Guidelines
FP7 News
IST Call 6
Goodies section of Finance Helpdesk website
Financial Helpline
Funding for Permanent Staff members under the FP6 AC Cost Model” Paper Published:
When the Commission originally introduced the AC cost model, the 100% funding rate for eligible costs, was seen as a very positive thing for those entitled to use it.
Unfortunately, what is given with one hand is taken with the other. It was not understood by all that some costs are not eligible under the AC Model, i.e. Permanent members of staff.
One of the most common questions that the Finance Helpdesk receives is:
“How can we get our permanent members of staff salaries paid for under the project costs?”
We have put this paper together from the answers.
To download the paper, please click here.
Updated Commission “Audit Certificates” presentation available:
During the recent IST NCP Meeting (Jan 2006), an updated presentation was given, which gives a lot of good information on audit certificates.
Please click here to download.
Overhead Calculations within FP6:
Overheads are not understood well by the majority of organisations that take part in the Sixth Framework Program. It is not understood how, just by calculating your overheads correctly, you could claim higher funding for the same work.
We have put this paper which tries to explain the whole subject in a clear manner.
To download the paper, please click here.
Recording Hours Guidelines
While larger organisations and those who have received grants from their own governments may have developed systems for staff to record hours, many others, including Universities, Research Institutes and commercial bodies have not. Some organisations will only be interested in time of arrival and time of departure and vacation and sickness records, while others will already be allocating personnel costs to products or budget headings based on a sophisticated time (often computerised) system.
Unless a member of staff is working all of his time on an EU project, some means of recording time (and therefore personnel costs) to be allocated to the project and other productive tasks, will need to be implemented. Estimates are unacceptable and daily recording of time allocation is therefore essential. We have always advised at least minimum recording of hours per day with allocation between projects (and in FP6 between activities). This has sometimes been resisted, particularly within some Research Institutes and Universities where it has been considered almost an infringement of personal liberty.
We have produced a leaflet which lays out some guidelines for correct time recording.
To download the leaflet, please click here.
IST Call 6:
IST Call 6, opened on 22 December 2005 and will close on 25 April 2006. This Call has an indicative budget of EUR 140 million.
Open Strategic Objectives:
- 2.6.1 Advanced Robotics (37M€)
- 2.6.2 Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) in the Ageing Society (40M€)
- 2.6.3 Search engines for audio-visual content (30M€)
- 2.6.4 Accompanying actions in support of participation in Community ICT research (3M€)
- 2.6.5 International Co-operation (30M€)
FP7 News:
The Commission has published their proposal for rules of participation in FP7.
This document contains the latest information available on the European Commission’s plans for the rules of participation in the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).
Once again, The Commission says the rules will simplify of FP7 in comparison to its predecessor FP6.
In particular this document proposes:
• simplification of the eligible costs definitions;
• abandonment of the three cost reporting models;
• top-up funding of a maximum of 25% for research activities available for SMEs, research entities, non-profit and public organisations;
• abandonment of cost reporting for Networks of Excellence;
• abandonment of bank guarantees in the majority of cases;
• intention to reduce the number and size of documents;
• average personal costs if required;
• maximum percentage for indirect eligible costs.
A copy of this document is available in our Links Page.
Goodies section of Finance website:
Under the “Goodies” section of the website we have the following material available for download:
Commission Presentations / Documents
- publicly available Commission slides, FAQs, and documents.
Informal Supplement Resources
- Financial Workshop Slides
- Timesheet examples
- Budget Tables
- Papers
- Leaflets
Public Deliverables
- Public deliverables of the Finance-NMS-IST Project.
Financial Helpline:
If you received notification of this newsletter by email, then you have already registered with the Finance Helpdesk, which allows you use the free, confidential, Financial Helpline facility.
If you are not registered then please do so here.
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