04.09.2006 - Finance Helpdesk Newsletter
Latest Commission “FP7 Rules of Participations” presentation available.
IST 2006
Implications of the new FP7 Financial Rules for ICT Organisations.
Collective Financial Responsibility
Assessment on the Influence of Financial Personnel within FP6
“Towards an SME friendly IST programme” – Policy Paper Published
Finance Helpdesk Workshops
Register with us
Latest Commission “FP7 Rules of Participations” presentation available.
The latest presentation given by Megan Richards from the European Commission outlining the current state of the latest FP7 Rules of participation is available to download here.
The presentation clarifies some important changes between FP6 and FP7 rules please look for the underlines and square brackets. Some other interesting points to note which she verbally mentions are:
Terminology changes:
· INCO becomes ICPC (International Cooperation Partner Countries);
· “Instruments” become “Funding Schemes”;
· The separate “Coordination Actions” and “Support Actions” are grouped together to become “Coordination and Support Actions” (CSA);
· “Financial Guidelines” become “Financial Rules”;
· “Model Contract” becomes “Model Grant Agreement”
· Under Eligible Costs, the word “Necessary” is replaced with “Used solely to achieve Project Objectives”
Other Changes:
· “Financial Collective Responsibility” is replaced by a “Mechanism to cover financial loss”;
· The “Mechanism to cover financial loss” will be managed centrally and cost less than 1%;
· Different “Forms of Grant” could be used together in a given project;
· “Scales of Unit Costs” will probably be based on personnel;
· “Lump Sum Amounts” limited to €25,000 per category (e.g. travel) and per participant;
· Partner's total claim of less than €25,000 may not require an Audit;
· Audit mandatory when total claimed reaches €325,000;
· Anonymity may be partially introduced – only by the Workprogram;
IST2006
The IST conference is the main networking event and showcase covering research and development in information society technologies (IST). It is organised by the European Commission in cooperation with the Finnish Presidency of the European Union and will take place in Helsinki, Finland 21 – 23 November 2006. It coincides with the launch of the EU’s Seventh Framework R&D Programme. Day One of the conference programme will feature high-level policy discussions on how governments can help ICTs contribute to an innovative Europe, with Days Two and Three devoted to the Seventh Framework Programme and other topics surrounding European research and innovation.
Registration to this event is now open and can be done here.
Finance Helpdesk Stand
The Finance Helpdesk will have a stand at the event and we will be happy to meet you there or at our networking session as explained below.
Implications of the new FP7 Financial Rules for ICT Organisations.
The Finance Helpdesk has initiated a networking session at IST2006 which discusses the Implications of the new FP7 Financial Rules for ICT Organisations.
To ensure that this session will happen, there have to be expressions of interest.
We invite you to express your interest in this session; it should take you only a few moments.
Please do so at the bottom of page:
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/istevent/2006/cf/network-detail.cfm?id=810
This session will be targeted at Universities, SMEs and large company project managers and project financial administrators.
The introduction of the new FP7 Financial Rules will mean that even those that have managed to learn the FP6 Financial Rules will have to relearn the new FP7 Rules, work out the implications for their organisation, and decide how best to work.
The Session will consist of a presentation outlining the major changes between the FP6 and FP7 financial rules. Afterwards, there will be a moderated discussion by the various attendees on the advantages and disadvantages of these changes and how their impact will be felt.
Particular, subjects include;
- The Abolishment of Cost Models
- Overhead Rates
- Impact of no AC model on Universities
- Impact of 75% on SMEs
- Financial liability rules
- Man Month rates
Collective Financial Responsibility:
There has been a lot of misunderstandings and confusion surrounding the Collective Financial Responsibility that was introduced in FP6 projects.
The Finance Helpdesk has produced a leaflet which hopefully will explain things.
To view the leaflet click here.
Assessment on the Influence of Financial Personnel within FP6:
Financial Personnel with little or no knowledge of the financial benefits of participating in the Framework Program are blocking their organisations – mostly SMEs – from joining proposals from an ill-informed purely financial perspective.
The Finance-NMS-IST project have produced a report based on an assessment of the influence of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) or other financial personnel within the New Member States on their organisation’s participation in FP6 IST Proposals
Until this report, the influence of CFOs and financial personnel on their organisation’s participation in IST proposals within the different NMS was largely unknown.
The financial person in an organisation holds a very responsible position and exerts a considerable influence, particularly in SMEs, where the running of the company is very much dependent on its finance and cash flow management. It is therefore a matter of importance for the Commission to understand the issues and influences of such people.
The study reports in detail the influence of the CFO and other financial personnel within the IST priority of FP6. It determines the different levels of influence in all the targeted countries, within two different organisation types (SMEs and Universities / Research Institutes), and whether organisations that choose not to participate in FP6 IST proposals did so due to perceived funding problems. The report further elaborates the results in order to better understand the problems encountered by these organisations – public and private – in the process of being involved in EU FP6 projects.
To view the report, please press here.
“Towards an SME friendly IST programme” Policy Paper Published
This policy paper is produced by the “EPRI-start” and “Finance-NMS-IST” Projects and reviews the experience of SMEs concerning their participation in the Information Society Technologies (IST) programme within the sixth framework programme for research and development (FP6, 2002-2006)
The Paper covers lessons learned from FP6 and gives policy recommendations for FP7 with special emphasis on the situation in the New Member States
To view the either the briefing or full paper, please click here.
Finance Helpdesk Workshops:
The Finance Helpdesk is holding the following Financial Workshops:
05/10/2006 Financial Aspects of RTD Contracts -Slovenia
17/10/2006 Financial Aspects of RTD Contracts -Poland
24/10/2006 1 Day FP7 Financial Workshop in Reykjavik, Iceland.
01/11/2006 Financial Aspects of RTD Contracts -Ukraine
14/11/2006 1 Day FP7 Financial Workshop in University of Southampton, UK.
The Workshops will cover:
FP7 Financial Regulations
• Differences between FP6 and FP7
• 75% for Universities and SMEs
• Flat rate Overheads Vs Real Costs (FC Calculation)
• Charging for Permanent Members of Staff,
• Eligible Costs
• NoEs
In-House Financial Recording Systems
• Time-sheets
• Cost Recording
Cost Reporting
• Activity Reports
• Management Reports (Form C)
• Audit Certificates
The Finance Helpdesk are currently looking for opportunities and collaborators to hold additional workshops.
If you wish to work together with the Finance Helpdesk and Host either an Internal or Public Financial Workshop, then please contact us here.
Register with us:
If you received notification of this newsletter by email, then you have already registered with the Finance Helpdesk. If you are not registered then please do so here.
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