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TRANSCRIPT
Webinar on Horizon 2020 Coordinators
Welcome!
We will start the webinar 10:30 CET.
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The presentation slides and recording will be published on http://www.ncpacademy.eu/ after the webinar.
Webinar on Horizon 2020 Coordinators
Morten Gylling Melanie Büscher
[email protected] [email protected]
Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation NCP Academy – WP leader
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Agenda
• Brief introduction
• Which documents are the most important for the project?
• When are project costs eligible?
• How to promote the project and make visible the EU funding
• What are the roles and responsibilities of the partners in the project?
• How and when to make an amendment
• Q&A session
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Wide range of information activities
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The Grant Agreement
ARTICLE 6 — ELIGIBLE AND INELIGIBLE COSTS ARTICLE 38 — PROMOTING THE ACTION — VISIBILITY OF EU FUNDING ARTICLE 41 — DIVISION OF BENEFICIARIES’ ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES ARTICLE 55 — AMENDMENTS TO THE AGREEMENT
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But how to understand all the rules? - The Annotated Model Grant Agreement:
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The Consortium Agreement
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The two agreements
Coordinator
Beneficiary 2
Beneficiary 4 Beneficiary 3
Beneficiary 1
Consortium Agreement Grant Agreement
When are actual costs incurred eligible? Article 6.1 in Grant Agreement
(pages 35-110 in Annotated Model Grant Agreement)
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They must be actually incurred by the beneficiary
Not by a subsidiary, an affiliated company, a member of the same trade organisation …
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They must be incurred during the project period
(except costs related to final report)
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The must be incurred in connection with the action as described in Annex 1.
This is particular important to remember in relation to travels, conferences and other activities that might be relevant for the action –
but are they necessary for its implementation?
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They must be identifiable and verifiable and recorded in the accounts of the beneficiaries.
They must be in compliance with applicable laws.
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And finally, they must:
- reasonable
- justified
- and in compliance with the principles of sound financial management, in particular regarding economy and efficiency
This is particularly important in relation to subcontracting, catering and conference organisation …
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Promotion of the action in communication activities Article 38 in Grant Agreement
(pages245-249 in Annotated Grant Agreement)
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The Coordinator must – together with the other beneficiaries – promote the action through communication activities.
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The communication must be targeted information to multiple audiences (including the media and the public), in a strategic and effective manner and possibly engaging in a two-way exchange.
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The activities must, however:
• be effective (i.e. suited to achieving the action’s communication goals)
• be proportionate to the scale of the action (e.g. activities carried out by a large-scale action with beneficiaries coming from several different countries and a large budget must be more ambitious than those of a sole participant of a mono-beneficiary grant)
• address audiences that go beyond the action’s own community (including the media and the public).
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Any communication activity that is expected to have a ‘major media impact’ must be first notified to the Project Officer.
(so EU can promote their support to the action as well…)
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The communication activities during the action must already be part of the proposal and be included in Annex 1 and 2.
E.g. in a specific work package for communication or by including them in other work packages.
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Moreover, the activities must make the research activities known to multiple audiences in a way that they can be understood by non-specialists and include the public policy perspective of EU research and innovation funding.
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The beneficiaries must ensure the visibility of EU funding for any communication activity related to the action :
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No [number].
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Information given may NOT include classified (or otherwise restricted) results.
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Roles and responsibilities in the consortium Article 41 in Grant Agreement
(pages 255-262 in Annotated Model Grant Agreement)
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The coordinator must act as the intermediary for all communications between the beneficiaries and the Commission.
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The coordinator must request and review any documents or information required by the Commission.
In particular, the coordinator must verify their completeness and correctness before passing them on to the Commission.
The coordinator must also submit the deliverables and reports to the Commission.
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The coordinator must ensure that all payments are made to the other beneficiaries without unjustified delay.
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The coordinator must inform the Commission of the amounts paid to each beneficiary, when required.
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The tasks of the coordinator (Art. 41)
The coordinator may not delegate the previously mentioned tasks to any other beneficiary or subcontract them to any third party.
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Financial Statements:
• verify consistency with the action tasks
• verify their completeness and correctness
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Financial Statements:
• But NOT the eligibility of costs
• Each beneficiary remains responsible for the cost it declares (both with regards to whether eligible and verifiable).
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Other reports/ deliverables
• Are they complete?
• In the right format?
• Is the information provided related to the action?
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The tasks of the beneficaries
Besides the smooth and successful implementation of the action:
Article 41.
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The beneficiaries must inform the Commission about major changes in their organisation (LEAR).
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The beneficiaries must inform the coordinator about circumstances that could affect the implementation of the action significantly.
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The beneficiaries must provide input to the financial statements and periodic reports to the coordinator in good time.
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The beneficiaries must provide information to the Commission if requested to do so.
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The information must always be:
- Concise, correct and complete
- In the right format
- Submitted before the deadline
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Amendments Article 55 in Grant Agreement
(pages 323-333 in Annotated Model Grant Agreement)
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It is possible to make amendments to the Grant Agreement.
But the general terms and conditions cannot be changed.
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The need for an amendment can be requsted from both the consortium or the Commission.
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It is not always necessary to launch an amendment process.
But let us look at some cases where an amendment is necessary.
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An amendment is necessary if:
- A beneficiary is removed from the consortium
- A beneficiary is added to the consortium (Annex 3)
- Linked third parties are added or removed from the action
- Coordinator is removed/added
- Coordinator gets a new bank account
- The action changes title and/or acronym
- The actions changes starting date, duration or reporting periods
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But normally, the questions we get regard
- Changes to Annex I (DoA)
- Changes to Annex II (budget)
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For Annex I (DoA), an amendment is necessary when:
- a significant change of the action tasks (e.g. if tasks are added/removed) or of their division among the beneficiaries
- changes concerning the tasks to be carried out by linked third parties and related costs
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For Annex 2 (budget), an amendment is necessary when:
- budget transfer of amounts between beneficiaries or between budget categories (or both) arises from a significant change that affects the action’s work (i.e. Annex 1)
- a budget transfer to a form of costs that is not provided for in Annex 2 (e.g. from actual costs to unit costs).
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It is, however, NOT necessary to make an amendment when:
- Transfers of amounts between beneficiaries or between budget categories (or both) when the action is implemented in line with Annex 1
- Simple change of name, address or other legal entity data of beneficiaries/linked third parties
- Changes in short names
- Change of beneficiary due to universal takeover
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Link to Coordinators’ Day presentation on amendments
B. Direct costs of
subcontracting
[C. Direct
costs of fin.
support]
D. Other direct costs
A.1 Personnel D.1 Travel
D.2 Equipment
D.3 Other goods and services
D.4 Costs of large research
infrastructure
Beneficiary 1 500.000 100 3.213 150.000 0 325.000
Beneficiary 2 0 0 0 0 0 125.000
A. Direct personnel costs
A.4 SME owners without salary
Estimated eligible* costs (per budget category)
(d) (e) (f)
A.2 Natural persons under direct
contract
A.5 Beneficiaries that are natural
persons without salary
A.3 Seconded persons
[A.6 Personnel for providing access to
research infrastructure]
Unit
0
300.000
XX EUR/hour
(a) Total (b) No hours Total (c)
Actual Actual Actual Unit ActualForm of
costs****
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It is the coordinator who launches an amendment.
This is done through Participant Portal
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An amendment must be:
- Clear and concise
- Submitted in due course in order for the Commission to process it.
- Approved by the consortium in accordance with the Consortium Agreement.
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The Commission has 45 days to approve or reject a request for amendment to the Grant Agreement.
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The amendment will take effect (i.e. the changes to the GA will start to apply) either:
• on the day of its entry into force (i.e. day of the last signature of the amendment) or
• on the specific date(s) indicated (and agreed) in the amendment.
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In FP7, one third of all consortia experienced changes in the consortia.
Always advise clients to contact Project Officer, NCP or local research support unit before launching an amendment.
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Useful documents
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Thanks for your attention
If you have any questions, please use the chat feature in the lower left corner of your screen.
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Q&A session The presentation slides and recording will be provided on http://www.ncpacademy.eu in due time.
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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 633563.
Please provide us with your feedback http://goo.gl/forms/UIGv5Ulgsl
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