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Erasmus+ Programme, European policy experimentations EACEA10/2014 Project Handbook 2014
ERASMUS + PROGRAMME
KA 3 – Support for policy reform- Initiatives for Policy Innovations
Project HandbookFor grants awarded in 2015
Policy Experimentation in school education sector
IMPORTANT!
Before using this document please check that it is the latest available version. If there is a later versionit will be posted on the EACEA Erasmus+ webpage:
https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/beneficiaries-space/key-action-3-prospective-initiatives-policy-experimentation-in-school-education-sector-eacea-302014_en
(Version history is located on page 2 of this Handbook)
Version History
Version Date Comments
01 30.03.2016 First version for public release
The acronym EACEA
stands for the
Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency
(the "Agency" or the "EACEA" hereafter in this document)
For any question or further information you may have,
please do not hesitate to contact
the EACEA Prospective initiatives team
by email at our functional mailbox
This document should be read with the following documents (in order of precedence):
- The Grant Agreement,
- The Call for proposals EACEA30/2014 and related guidelines for applicants:
http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/funding/key-action-3-prospective-initiatives-policy-experimentation-in-school-education-sector-eacea-302014_en
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Table of Contents
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................5
1. LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE ASPECTS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT...............6
ROLES AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE PARTIES TO THE AGREEMENT......................6
1.1 The Coordinator......................................................................................................................6
1.2 The Beneficiaries....................................................................................................................6
1.3 The Agency.............................................................................................................................7
1.3.1 Control......................................................................................................................7
1.3.2 Support......................................................................................................................7
2. MONITORING OF THE PROJECTS BY THE AGENCY....................................................8
2.1 Purpose...................................................................................................................................8
2.2 What kind of monitoring?.......................................................................................................8
2.2.1 Agency's desk monitoring.........................................................................................9
2.2.2 Agency's monitoring activities..................................................................................9
2.2.3 Collaborative e-Platform for E+ beneficiaries........................................................11
3. REPORTING.............................................................................................................................12
3.1 The purpose of the reports....................................................................................................12
3.2 Instruction to complete the report.........................................................................................12
3.3 Structure of the reports.........................................................................................................13
3.4 Submission of the reports.....................................................................................................14
3.5 Processing of reports ...........................................................................................................15
4. DISSEMINATION AND EXPLOITATION OF RESULTS.................................................15
4.1 Purpose of dissemination and exploitation activities............................................................16
4.2 Recognition of Commission funding and use of Erasmus+ Programme logo......................16
4.2.1 Publicity..................................................................................................................16
4.2.2 Erasmus+ logo.........................................................................................................17
4.2.3 Disclaimer...............................................................................................................17
4.3 Use of the Dissemination Platform.......................................................................................17
4.4 Use of the results of the action .............................................................................................17
5. FINANCIAL RULES................................................................................................................18
5.1 General provisions on the eligibility of costs.............................................................18
5.1.1 Eligible Direct Costs...............................................................................................19
5.1.2 Indirect costs............................................................................................................30
5.2 Ineligible Costs.................................................................................................................31
5.3 Calculation of the final EU grant......................................................................................33
5.4 Penalties in the case of non-compliance with publicity obligations and for poor, partial, or late implementation ....................................................................................................33
5.5 Checks and Audits............................................................................................................33
6. AMENDMENTS........................................................................................................................34
6.1 Amendments via exchange of letters................................................................................34
6.2 Amendments via the Participant Portal............................................................................35
6.2.1 Change of legal status of the beneficiaries..............................................................35
6.2.2 Change of legal name of the beneficiaries..............................................................35
6.2.3 Change of address of beneficiaries..........................................................................35
6.3 Amendments by email......................................................................................................36
6.3.1 Change of legal representative of the coordinating organisation............................36
6.3.2 Change of contact person in the coordinating organisation ....................................36
6.3.3 Change of address of a beneficiary.........................................................................36
ANNEX Glossary ..........................................................................................................................37
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Introduction
Purpose of the Handbook
The Project Handbook applies to grants awarded by the Agency in 2014 under the Erasmus+ Programme for the Key action 3: Support for Policy Reform - Policy Experimentation in school education sector (Call for proposals EACEA 30/2014).
The Handbook is intended to serve as a management tool for the EU grant beneficiaries, especially to:
help beneficiaries to manage their project and run them efficiently;
clarify matters arising from the grant agreement and its annexes;
provide practical information that may be referred to throughout the project's life;
provide guidance on the methods of project monitoring and on the dissemination and exploitation of a project's results/products;
provide guidance on how to handle the financial side of projects in such a way that financial statements can be readily drawn up;
promote the sound financial management of a project and ensure that the best results/products are delivered at reasonable cost;
encourage smooth relations between the parties involved by setting out an operational framework for the project.
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1. LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE ASPECTS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT ROLES AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE PARTIES TO AN AGREEMENT
1.1 The Coordinator
The Coordinator is the organisation with which the grant agreement is signed and is entirely responsible to the Agency for the implementation of the project, the dissemination of the project results and for the overall management of the project. This organisation is the single point of contact and correspondent for the Agency.
Moreover, the Coordinator is in charge of reporting directly to the Agency on the technical progress and financial aspects of the project.
The Coordinator alone is entitled to receive funds from the Agency directly and is obliged, in the case of a multi-beneficiary agreement, to distribute the amounts corresponding to the beneficiaries’ participation in the project as specified in the multi-beneficiary grant agreement but with due financial prudence.
Note: Whenever a Beneficiary reduces its financial contribution, the Coordinator, in agreement with the other Beneficiaries, will have to find the necessary resources to ensure correct implementation of the project. In no case shall the Agency increase its contribution or the rate of co-financing.
1.2 The Beneficiaries
The Beneficiaries are exclusively those organizations identified as such in the Grant Agreement concluded with the Agency; they are recipients of funding and are committed to the project implementation in the same way as the Coordinator. In particular, they should provide the Coordinator as soon as possible with whatever documents or information (technical and financial) requested. They should also immediately inform the Coordinator of any events or circumstances that may affect the implementation of the project.
In addition to the signing of the mandates, which are an integral part of a multi-beneficiary grant agreement, the Coordinator and the Beneficiaries may wish to formalize their partnership by signing bilateral/multilateral agreement(s). This could enable them to not only detail any rights and obligations of the parties in the project as well as clarify issues like intellectual property rights on the outputs of the project but also define the tasks and expected results relevant to each Beneficiary. The Agency does not interfere in these agreements as these are internal to the partnership committed to implement a co-financed project (no template is foreseen and the Agency does not prescribe or in any way influence the content of such agreements). It should be noted that the provisions of the Grant Agreement (insofar as the mandates have been signed) are fully binding for the Beneficiaries and take precedence over any other agreement between the Coordinator and the Beneficiaries. For this reason it is suggested that partnership agreements also reflect them.
The Beneficiaries do not report directly to the Agency on the technical and financial progress unless explicitly requested to do so by the Agency. However, according to the provisions of the Grant Agreement the beneficiaries (Coordinator and Beneficiaries) are irrevocably and unconditionally, jointly and severally responsible for any amount due to the Agency by one of them which could not be honored by the latter.
Note: Only costs incurred by the Coordinator or Beneficiaries are considered eligible under the EU grant
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1.3. The Agency
1.3.1 Control
The Agency is responsible for implementing the financial programmes listed overleaf and managing the programme budgets in the interest of the European Union. Therefore, the Agency has an important role when it comes to supervision and control of the selected projects.
To this effect the Agency will monitor projects, through a variety of methods, so as to ensure that coordinators/ beneficiaries submit technical and financial reports in accordance with the current reporting requirements. It shall, if deemed necessary, carry out financial control either through on-the-spot checks, or by requesting supporting documents (either through sampling or full presentation of supporting documents). These checks are in addition to any ex-post controls that may be effectuated up to five (5) years from the date of any final payment or recovery of over-paid pre-financing.
The Agency shall ensure that the amount of its financial contribution to a project is reduced (recovered) if it finds irregularities, including non-compliance with the provisions of the Grant Agreement or with other aspects of the legal framework, or if it transpires that the action has been subjected to a change without the Agency’s approval having being sought.
Finally, preventive measures shall be put in place against fraud, corruption and any other illegal activities and, if irregularities are detected, effective, proportional and dissuasive penalties shall be applied in accordance with the Financial Regulation.
Note: When establishing the final amount of a grant (upon completion of the project and subject to compliance with all the contractual obligations), the Agency is guided by the general principle that a grant may not generate any financial profit for the Beneficiary.
1.3.2 Support
The primary aim of the Agency remains the success of the projects. The Agency is determined to assist the Coordinator and Beneficiaries in implementing the project as smoothly as possible and to the fullest satisfaction of all parties involved.
While the Agency will have a "hands-off" approach to the daily management of the project, it is our aim to give advice and answer questions regarding the agreement and to provide information, where possible, on the best possible way of complying with the incumbent obligations and requirements.
A dedicated desk officer is available to provide assistance. While we will endeavor to answer all queries as swiftly as possible, please note that each desk officer is responsible for a considerable project files and it may therefore take up to 15 days for your query to be answered. The name of your desk officer shall be communicated to the Beneficiary/ Coordinator at the beginning of the project. All queries should be addressed to the functional mailbox of the programme, quoting the reference of your project in the subject of the message.
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Note: All correspondence, including transmission of reports, must bear the name of the funding programme, the project reference number (number indicated in the Grant Agreement) and the project title. Specific provisions regarding the requirements for documentation to be presented over the lifetime of a co-financed project are contained in the Grant Agreement.
2. MONITORING OF THE PROJECTS BY THE AGENCY
2.1 Purpose
Monitoring is a standard part of the quality management cycle. Monitoring activities aim at:
• supporting and advising the beneficiaries in view of ensuring that the partnership implements the funded project in line with the overall objectives of the Erasmus+ programme and the specific objectives of the grant agreement signed between the Agency and the beneficiaries;
• checking and reviewing the project´s progress and performance, identifying potential risks and challenges and if necessary, proposing action and solutions in order to achieve the contractual objectives;
• ensuring the proper use of EU grants and sound financial management;• maximising the impact of the Commission's programme(s) and contribute to the achievement of
EU policy priorities by identifying best practices;• linking policy and programme: providing feedback about projects' results and achievements
back to the Commission in order to allow the Commission to exploit this information for policy making.
• Supporting/ensuring dissemination of projects' results, including at national level
In general, project monitoring should allow both the Agency and the coordinators to follow-up the project performance and results.
Smooth cooperation between the Agency and the beneficiary organisations is crucial. To this end, the Agency will ensure a constant follow up on the projects.
2.2 What kind of monitoring?
A performance-oriented monitoring is relevant in the first half of the project lifecycle: it targets more the way the project is being managed, how the consortium is cooperating, and whether the activities are being implemented according to plans. A result-oriented approach is relevant in the second half of project implementation and focuses more on the produced deliverables, their outreach, dissemination, future exploitation and sustainability, scalability and transferability of results.
The Agency's monitoring may cover operational and/or financial aspects and may be performed through face to face meetings or remotely. Monitoring can be performed in three main different ways (not exhaustive list, additional project monitoring methods may be developed):
• Agency's desk monitoring,• Agency's monitoring activities,• Collaborative e-Platform for E+ beneficiaries
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2.2.1 Agency's desk monitoring
The desk monitoring is done at the Agency by the project officers on the basis of the information available. The main tool is the review of progress and final reports that are due by the beneficiary usually on mid-term and after the end of the project. After a careful assessment of these reports, the Agency will provide feedback to the beneficiary.
The analysis of the project's progress report is of particular importance for the desk monitoring. At this stage the feedback provided to the beneficiary is constructive, thus not only identifying the weakness and strengths but also providing recommendations how to improve and to better implement the project in view of reaching its objectives. As part of the desk monitoring, the project officer analyses also the requests concerning changes to the grant agreement.
2.2.2 Agency's monitoring activities
The monitoring visits are normally organised as detailed below:
• to verify the status of the project's implementation and obtain a clear picture of how well the project is being managed;
• to monitor the cooperation mechanisms among the beneficiaries;• to check if the beneficiaries' use of the grants is in line with the rules of the Financial
Regulation, and the specific rules for the programme action concerned;• to provide the project with support and guidance.
Selection of projects:
The selection of projects to be visited is based mainly on the analysis of two main principles:
• project risk assessment: in line with the risk based payment procedure of the project and financial officers identify for each project the level of risk and the respective reasons.
• identification of best practices: the identification of the best practices is mainly based on the score obtained in the project reports.
The participation in project activities will improve the Agency's understanding of the project activities and outreach.
Visit to a partnership meeting and/or a project event
The Agency may attend a project or a partnership meeting to become acquainted with the progress of the project. The visit will focus on the follow-up of the work programme, project outputs, communication, administrative practices, project documents, as well as on general questions relating to the financial management of the project.
Beneficiaries will be asked to provide the Agency with the calendar of their partnership meetings and project events (including online meetings) organised during the project implementation.
At the partnership meeting, each beneficiary may describe their contribution to the project and demonstrate (when applicable) their activities and results to the Agency. The Agency's representative may be accompanied by an external expert and by a representative of the European Commission. A separate meeting with the coordinator may be envisaged in order to discuss in more detail administrative and financial issues.
Attendance to project events will provide the Agency with the opportunity to observe: the involvement of other stakeholders; how the work plan is being implemented and how the plan for dissemination and
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exploitation of results is put in place.
If visit is toward the end of the project (final conference etc), it enables the Agency to measure the impact of the project outcomes at a larger community level and to identify potential good-practices and to collect information for analysis, reports, and statistics. The Agency may take an active role during these events and present any issue deemed relevant by the beneficiary, facilitate workshops, held a presentation, discuss with the beneficiary organisations and the coordinator of any relevant administrative issue on which they need guidance.
Visit to the coordinating organisation
The Agency's monitoring visits may be undertaken by Agency's representatives (e.g. operational, financial officer), representatives of the European Commission and /or external experts.
A visit to the premises of the coordinating organisation can take place at any time during the lifetime of the project. The main objectives of the visit are:
At a more detailed level, the visit will focus on the follow-up of the work programme, project outputs, communication, administrative practices, project documents, as well as on general questions relating to the financial management of the project.
In any case, the Agency will confirm in advance the purpose of the visit. The documents to be made available to the Agency during the visit will be specified in advance and may include:
• any results/products available at the time of the visit;• beneficiary agreements referring explicitly to the EU grant agreement provisions (highly
recommendable for all projects, see article II.1.1 of the General Conditions);• minutes of the partnership meetings;• documents related to the protocol of policy experimentation• documents related to educational materials, survey results etc ; • accounts and all the corresponding supporting documents (i.e copies of the money transfers to
the beneficiaries and etc) ;• the full set of documents related to the procurement procedure (e.g. call/request of offers,
evaluation committee report, notification and rejection letters, etc.), the subcontracting agreements and invoices;
• internal and external evaluation reports, including results of testing; quality plan; • dissemination and exploitation plan, including intellectual property and commercialisation
agreements where appropriate; publicity material.
Meetings in Brussels
The meetings organised in Brussels encompass project representatives visiting the Agency or being invited to participate in an event organised by the Agency/the European Commission. In general, up to two meetings per year are organised by the Agency and/or by the European Commission for project representatives, e.g. coordinators' meetings, cluster meetings.
Beneficiaries shall participate in meetings organised by the Agency/European Commission. The project coordinator may be asked to attend meetings/conferences relevant to specific topics related to the content of their project or for promotion purposes. They may also be invited to meet the staff who manages their project in the context of on-going monitoring. Depending on the type of meeting, project representatives may also be requested to make presentations on the progress of their projects or aspects of its content or management. The documents that the coordinator is expected to bring will be specified in advance.
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Coordinators' meetings organised by the Agency (so called "kick-off meetings"): The project's representatives (usually coordinators or other beneficiaries if required) have the opportunity to participate in such meetings at the beginning of the project. Kick-off meetings relate to the start of the activities and allow the project coordinator to get familiar with all administrative and financial aspects of the project implementation and the challenges.
Cluster meetings focusing on a particular subject/topic. The project representatives have relevant experience in the domain and share their knowledge with other projects, thus benefitting from mutual learning.
Usually, the participation to all these meetings is mandatory (see article I.10.1 of the grant agreement). The expenses for participation are eligible costs and are covered by the project budget.
2.2.3 Collaborative e-Platform for E+ beneficiariesThe launch of a pilot e-platform aims to increase efficiency of project monitoring by encouraging projects to work together during their lifetime in order to exchange ideas, exploit synergies and collaborate on activities. The platform will not substitute the monitoring tools and procedures already in place at the Agency. The treatment of the information shared in the platform is part of the desk monitoring which is undertaken by each project officer. The questions on administrative and financial management of the project will be answered in a dedicated group. Moreover, information shared on aspects of projects implementation (events, outputs, products) will allow the project officers to get a comprehensive overview of his/her project in real time next to reports received annually. The platform will provide a new source of information allowing a more proactive monitoring by the project officers.
The objectives of platform:
To enable projects (coordinator and beneficiaries) to collaborate online in a secure and trustworthy environment, share good practice, carry out peer review activities, while sharing results & outputs and providing vital information about activities, events and outcomes in real time. Peer reviewing and peer learning will be possible so that the platform will not only function as a source of information but will allow experimentation as well.
To provide better insight into project monitoring aspects and in particular the identification and exploitation of best practices.
To provide networking opportunities among various stakeholders DG EAC, DG EMPL, experts groups, Agency: exchange of experience and knowledge.
The Agency will provide feedback to the project coordinator when any of these monitoring activities take place. The coordinator should share and discuss this information with the partnership. Whenever appropriate, the beneficiary should inform the Agency on the planned actions to improve their project.
The following graph shows a complete monitoring cycle:
Agency's monitoring
Actions taken by the coordinator/partnership for
project improvement
Agency's feedback to the project coordinator
Partnership discusses the Agency's feedback
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3. REPORTING
Disclaimer
The Agency is currently revising its reporting procedure and is moving towards an eReporting system. This section of the Handbook will be updated as soon as the new rules for submitting reports are in place. Meanwhile, please refer to the currently available documents for preparing the reports as the information required will not be modified, only the procedure for submitting reports.
3.1 Purpose of reports
Reporting on your project's progress and achievements is both a crucial and beneficial part of the project management process. The reports you are required to submit serve a dual purpose:
• For your own benefit and use. The reports are means of communication between you and your peers about the project implementation. In addition, reports allow you to share the knowledge created via the project at the disposal of a wider community. Through their dissemination, you increase the potential for discovering initiatives that share common ground with yours and you increase the chances of being contacted by interested parties with useful input or feedback.
• For the Agency's benefit and use. The assessment of the reports enables the Agency to take a decision on the continuation of the project. You will be required to submit a Progress Report or several Progress Reports (if applicable) and a Final Report. Approval of the 1st Progress Report leads to the launch of the second pre-financing payment and approval of the Final Report leads to the final payment. There is no further pre-financing payment at the submission of the 2nd Progress Report. The Progress Reports provide the Agency with an update on how a project is advancing against original plans and budgets, while the Final Report is due at the end of the project and allows the overall evaluation of the project.
In order to provide a practical and structured means for a project to report its progress and final achievements, the Agency has prepared report templates - including a financial reporting table which could be found: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/beneficiaries-space/key-action-3-prospective-initiatives-policy-experimentation-in-school-education-sector-eacea-302014_en
3.2 Instructions to complete the report
Please note the following points before you produce and submit your report to the Agency:
• You must use the appropriate reporting templates and financial tables provided on the Agency's website.
• All sections and tables of the report templates must be completed.
• The declaration of honour has to be signed by the legal representative.
• The report should be written in one of the official working languages of the EU (English, French or German) and submitted within 60 days following the end of the reporting period.
• The report must be sent electronically (Email: [email protected]) and on 1 electronic storage device (eg. 1 USB stick, 1CD ROM...) containing all products and other supporting documents must be sent to the address specified in article I.6.2 of your grant agreement. If you refer to websites in your reports, passwords should be given for all private areas. The Agency acknowledges receipt of the report by email and, if necessary, requests further information.
• The report should not be used as a means to signal major changes. These are subject to formal
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amendment requests that should be submitted separately, at any event, within a minimum of one month before the end of the eligibility period.
• Even if the second progress report (if applicable) is not linked to a payment (article 1.4.1 of the grant agreement), you are still required to submit the financial statement (a budget table). Please note that the purpose of the financial analysis is to provide beneficiaries with relevant feedback. The total eligible costs will be determined only at the reception of the Final Report.
3.3 Structure of reports
Both the Progress Report and the Final Report have the same basic structure, however different requirements of reporting at the mid-term or end of a project are taken into account. The approach that has been taken is expected to facilitate compliance with reporting obligations towards the Agency as well as enable the identification of best practice and the extraction of qualitative and quantitative analysis and statistics.
The reports shall contain the following (the list is not intended to be exhaustive):
• Project's update, objectives of the experimentation, the expected outcomes, the profile of the target population tested and the potential for scalability;
• Information about the implemented activities, project management, beneficiaries involvement and finances, including deviations to the work programme, and a detailed financial report;
• A clear report on the experimentation protocol including information about a tested measure and its results on the target population; information on the requirements, challenges and risks faced during the experimentation and solutions implemented; data collection and monitoring, evaluation and reporting procedures; involvement of public authorities etc;
• Dissemination strategy incl. qualitative and quantitative indicators (statistical data), and specifying how the produced educational materials, documents and media are made freely accessible through open licenses;
• Information how the results will be transformed into changes in the education and training systems and youth policies and the methods used to ensure a systemic impact in systems and policies; follow-up process/recommendations for scaling up of the results.
Both the Progress Reports and the Final Report have the same basic structure consisting of 5 parts:
Section A General information
Providing information on project title, project number, partnership composition, contact details etc.
Section B Declaration of honour by the beneficiary
It is a Formal declaration of the accuracy of the information provided in your report. The legal representative must declare that the data and information contained in the report are accurate and in accordance with the facts.
Make sure that the declaration is signed by the legal representative (the same person who signed the grant agreement). If the declaration page is signed by a different person, the Agency will not be in a position to accept the report, which would delay the due payment.
Section C Information related to the implemented activities
C.1 Project's update
C.2 Relevance
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C.3 Project implementation
C.4 Partnership and cooperation arrangements
C.5 Impact, dissemination and exploitation
C.6 Obstacles and shortcomings
C.7 Any other comments
C.8 Policy follow-up (for final report only)
Section D Statistics (for final report only)
Section E Annexes
E.1 Financial statement (a detailed budget)
E.2 Implementation of Work plan, work packages and deliverables
E3. Report on Evaluation and Methodology (for final report only) – done by an evaluation body
3.4 Submission of Reports
Each report must be submitted to the Agency by the deadline indicated in the grant agreement. Late submission may considerably delay the process of analyzing and assessing the report. This may delay the payment of due funds and you may receive late feedback preventing you from making corrections and exposing you to possible failure.
The report must be sent in the following way:
- electronically to: [email protected]
- 1 electronic storage device (eg. 1 USB stick, 1CD ROM...) with copies of the final report and the financial report (excel) and all RESULTS (publications, presentations and agendas of meetings and conferences, folders) sent to:
Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive AgencyMonika HOLIKUnit Erasmus+: Schools, Prospective Initiatives, Programme CoordinationOffice: BOU2, 01/017Avenue du Bourget, 11049 BrusselsBELGIUM
3.5 Processing the Reports
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This document will only be viewed and assessed by representatives of the Agency to judge the project performance and decide upon the payment of the due part of the grant.
Incompleteness of a report
If a report is incomplete (for instance, some parts are missing or incorrect), the Agency may request that further information be supplied and provided through the submission of a new, updated version of the report. In this case, the period foreseen in the contract for payment will be suspended until the additional information has been received by the Agency.
In addition, there are a number of elements that are indispensable for the Agency to carry out an analysis of the report. The absence of any of these elements would render the Agency unable to assess the report and would thus lead to a rejection of the report until the missing information had been provided.
Reasons for rejecting reports:
- lack of signature by the legal representative or signed by an unauthorized person (the signature of a person other than the legal representative cannot be accepted);
- the financial report (electronic version) is missing or the amounts presented are not in accordance with the agreed budget (initial or last amended budget);
- the report, including the financial report, has been submitted using wrong templates and/or not using the correct excel reporting tool;
- the report has been submitted in a language other than English, French or German.
Based on the assessment of the final report, the Agency takes a final decision with regard to the payment of the due part of the grant. In some cases, a recovery order may be issued. Once the assessment is complete, the Agency will inform the project beneficiary of the final evaluation i.e. its decision (email or letter informing that a final payment has been done by the Agency or a letter of pre-information that a recovery order will be issued by the Agency). In case of weak implementation of a project, as stated in the grant agreement, the Agency may reduce the amount of the final grant.
4. DISSEMINATION AND EXPLOITATION OF RESULTS
EU (co-)funded projects have the responsibility to put emphasis on dissemination and exploitation of results, as they directly contribute to the impact of the programme and to public awareness of their functioning and results. Grant beneficiaries must make themselves familiar with the underlying principles and tools and take them fully into account during the project implementation phase. A first source of information is the Annex II of the Erasmus+ Programme Guide called "Dissemination and exploitation of results – a practical guide for beneficiaries" available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/documents/erasmus-plus-programme-guide_en.pdf
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This section should be also read in conjunction with:
Article I.10.5 and I.10.6 of the grant agreement dealing with publicity, dissemination (including Annex II - General conditions - П.7 and П.8)
Article I.10.6 of the grant agreement, giving the link to the dissemination platform to upload the results of the project: http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/
4.1 Purpose of dissemination and exploitation activities
Significant emphasis is placed on the impact of EU co-financed projects and on ensuring that what they produce will be widely known about and widely used. The results generated, lessons learned and the experience gained by the project should be made available to the widest possible community.
The objective of dissemination and exploitation is to maximise the impact of project results by optimising their value, by strengthening their impact, by transferring them to different contexts, by integrating them in a sustainable way and by using them actively in systems and practices at local, regional, national and European levels.
European Policy Experimentations will be put in place to ensure systemic impact, dissemination, exploitation and sustainability of project results during and after EU funding, for and beyond the beneficiaries in participating countries and across a wider range of countries.
The outcomes of European Policy Experimentations should draw from and feed into the Open Methods of Coordination in the field of education and training and in the field of youth.
Projects should make the results of the policy experimentations available through the Internet free of charge, under open licenses.
4.2 Recognition of Commission funding and use of Erasmus + Programme logo
4.2.1 Publicity
Project beneficiaries must make themselves familiar with the publicity provisions as stipulated both in the specific and the general provisions of the Grant Agreement in conjunction with the guidelines on the following Agency website: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/about-eacea/visual-identity_en
Any communication or publication related to the Project, made by the beneficiaries jointly or individually, including at conferences, seminars or in any information or promotional materials (such as brochures, leaflets, posters, presentations, etc.), must indicate that the project has received funding from the Union and must display the European Union emblem. When displayed in association with another logo, the European Union emblem must have appropriate prominence.
The Guidelines for beneficiaries and other third parties:
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4.2.2 Erasmus+ logo
The project's publications and results that are distributed must carry the Erasmus+ logo and mention "Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union" (for projects funded by the E+ programme alone, "co-funded" should be replaced by "funded"):
4.2.3 Disclaimer
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. For other official EU language versions, reference must be made to the following website: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/publ/graphics/beneficiaries_all.pdf
4.3 Use of the Dissemination Platform
A new platform established for Erasmus+ will offer a comprehensive overview of projects funded under the Programme and highlight best practices. It is meant to be a project database as well as a showroom for best practices. The platform will also make available products/deliverables/intellectual outputs which are the result of the projects funded.
During the project lifetime, the beneficiary of the project will be required to update the project summary and at later stages, the selected project will be required to upload the results of the project to the Dissemination Platform. The Erasmus+ Dissemination Platform can be consulted at: http:// ec.europa. eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/
4.4 Use of the results of the action
Erasmus+ promotes the open access to materials, documents and media that are useful for learning, teaching, training, youth work and are produced by projects funded by the Programme. Beneficiaries of Erasmus+ grants producing any such materials, documents and media in the scope of any funded project must make them available for the public, in digital form, freely accessible through the Internet under open licences. Beneficiaries are nonetheless allowed to define the most appropriate level of open access, including limitations (e.g. interdiction of commercial exploitation by third parties) if appropriate in relation to the nature of the project and to the type of material. The open access requirement is without prejudice to the intellectual property rights of the grant beneficiaries.
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5. FINANCIAL RULES
This section complements the financial provisions as stated in the Part B of the general conditions of the grant agreement and applies to all beneficiaries (e.g. the rules on staff costs apply to all beneficiaries of the project). This guidance addresses grants funded through the reimbursement of a specific proportion of costs actually incurred by beneficiaries
5.1 General provisions on eligibility of costs
To be considered as eligible costs of the project, costs must satisfy the following general criteria:
• they must be incurred by the beneficiaries explicitly mentioned in the Annex IV (list of beneficiaries);
• they must be generated during the contractual lifetime of the project as specified in the grant agreement (article I.2.2). Activities taking place before or after the period specified in a grant agreement are not eligible for funding, with the exception of costs relating to final reports and audit certificates;
• they must be necessary for the implementation of the action or the work programme which is the subject of the grant. All costs must be connected with the subject of the agreement, the activities programmed and the results expected;
• they must be indicated in the estimate overall budget of the project. Therefore, when the final grant is determined, the eligible cost base cannot include costs which did not appear in the estimated budget unless an amendment to the initial estimated budget has been signed. However, if at the time of application the beneficiary fails to supply the relevant information, he may still seek the Agency's approval while the action is under way. This condition also applies to procurement contracts that the beneficiary has to conclude with third parties for the purpose of implementing tasks forming part of the action (see also art. II.10.2 of the grant agreement);
• they must be necessary for the execution of the project. These costs must be essential for the performance of the operation in question and would not be incurred if the action did not take place;
• they must be identifiable and verifiable, in particular being recorded in the accounting records of the beneficiary and determined according to the applicable accounting standards of the country where the beneficiary is established and according to the usual cost-accounting practices of the beneficiary;
• they must comply with the requirements of applicable tax and social legislation. The purpose of this provision is to ensure that EU funding is not provided on costs which would contravene the national law;
• they must be reasonable, justified, and comply with the requirements of sound financial managementI, in particular regarding economy and efficiency. The concept of correctly matching estimated costs and expected achievements is essential in terms of sound financial management: the beneficiary must be able to justify the resources used to attain the objectives set in line with the objectives of the grant agreement or grant decision.
At the end of the project duration or at any other time, the beneficiary needs to be able to justify all project expenditure by copies of invoices or accounting documents, if requested by the Agency or any other body or organisation authorised by the Agency. Therefore, the beneficiary's internal accounting and auditing
I Costs shall be defined in accordance with the principle of sound financial management, namely in accordance with the principles of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. The principle of economy requires that costs shall be defined in due time, in appropriate quantity and quality and at the best price. The principle of efficiency is concerned with the best relationship between resources employed and results achieved. The principle of effectiveness is concerned with attaining the specific objectives set and achieving the intended results.
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procedures must permit direct reconciliation of the costs and revenue declared in respect of the project with the corresponding accounting statements and supporting documents.
5.1.1 Eligible Direct Costs
The eligible direct costs for the project are those specific costs which are directly linked to implementation of the project's action and can therefore be attributed directly to it. To be eligible, direct costs shall comply with the conditions of eligibility set out in the General Conditions.
a) STAFF
Costs relating to the following categories of staff are considered:
• statutory staff, having either a permanent or a temporary employment contract with the beneficiary;
• temporary staff, recruited through a specialised external Agency;• other types of contracts as far as the national labour law assimilates them to staff.
Personnel costs may only be charged to the project insofar as they correspond to the actual time devoted to the project.
Costs entailed by subcontractors shall be included under the appropriate category (see heading "subcontracts").
Staff members of beneficiaries are not allowed to operate in a subcontracting capacity for the project as this would be a clear conflict of interests (see articles II.4 and II.10 of the grant agreement).
SPECIFIC CASES
In-house consultants:
Tasks performed by consultants, experts and/or other service providers (e.g. accountants, lawyers, translators, external IT staff, etc.) are to be considered as resulting from implementation contracts and are therefore subject to specific procedures (avoidance of conflict of interest, best value for the money) I. The Grant Agreement foresees a certain flexibility to carry out specific tasks in case the Coordinator/Beneficiary does not have sufficient in-house know-how: the possibility to subcontract limited tasks which are then considered under specific rules for subcontracting. However, as an exception to these rules, these costs may be considered as staff costs regardless of whether the consultants are self-employed or employed by a third party, if the following cumulative conditions are fulfilled, in accordance with the terms of the call for proposals and subject to the eligibility of costs:
a) The beneficiary has a contract to engage the consultant to work for it and (some of) that work involves tasks to be carried out under the project funded by the grant;
b) The consultant must work under the instructions/supervision of the beneficiary; c) The consultant must work in the premises of the beneficiary as a member of the project team;d) The output of the work belongs to the beneficiary;e) The costs of employing the consultant are reasonable, are in accordance with the normal practices of
the beneficiary and are not significantly different from the personnel costs of employees of the same category working under a labour law contract for the beneficiary;
I See Article 209 of the Rules of Application of the EU's Financial Regulation: "Without prejudice to the application of the Directive 2004/18/EC, where implementation of the action or work programme requires the award of a procurement contract, the beneficiary shall award the contract to the tender offering best value for money or, as appropriate, to the tender offering the lowest price, while avoiding any conflict of interests."
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f) Travel and subsistence costs related to such consultants' participation in project meetings or other travel relating to the project is directly paid by the beneficiary;
g) The consultant uses the beneficiary's infrastructure (i.e. user of the 'indirect costs').
Seconded staff:
Secondment occurs when an employee of a third organisation is temporarily transferred, for an agreed period of time, to an organisation which is currently implementing, as beneficiary, an action grant financed by the E+Programme. The costs of seconded staff are considered eligible as long as these costs meet the following criteria:
i. The seconding entity must employ the person under a labour law contract. In this respect, a clear subordination arrangement should be established between the employee and the seconding entity as well as that the social charges are paid directly by the seconding entity and not by the employee him/herself;
ii. The tasks the person will carry out for the beneficiary must fall within the scope of the tasks covered by the employment contract with the seconding entity;
iii. The arrangements must take the form of a letter of secondment between the seconding entity and the person or an agreement between the seconding entity and the beneficiary (or potentially a tripartite agreement) but not as a contract for the provision of services. The duration of the secondment must be agreed in advance.
iv. The arrangements must foresee the reimbursement by the beneficiary of the remuneration of actual costs borne by the seconder as a secondment fee and not as the payment of a price against services. For this reason, if the seconded staff costs are paid to the seconding entity via a commercial invoice, these costs should be rather claimed as subcontracting.
NB: if the secondment to the action is on a full-time basis, the seconded staff should not perform conflicting and/or overlapping tasks;
In these exceptional cases it will be up to the beneficiary to prove through supporting documents that these conditions are present.
Staff costs of public organization:
Costs related to permanent staff of public organization may be funded by the EU grant only to the extent that they relate to the cost of project implementation activities that the relevant public organization would not have carried out, had the project concerned not been undertaken (i.e. the EU contribution may not under any circumstances be used to fund the staff costs corresponding to the core activities of the relevant public entity). The staff in question must specifically work on the project and their involvement in the project must represent an additional cost.
Another possible scenario is the temporary secondment of personnel by the public administrations for the benefit of certain public or semi-public bodies. In this case such personnel should generate a cost (i.e. represent a financial flow) for the beneficiary. If this is not the case, the cost of such personnel is to be treated as a contribution in kind which may be taken into account as co-financing but not in the base of eligible costs giving rise to EU financing, unless a specific provision of the basic act provides otherwise. Indeed, if covered, this would directly generate a profit for the beneficiary who would not bear the corresponding expenditure.
Calculation method of daily/hourly rate of staff costs
The findings from recent ex-post audits/controls and ex-ante verifications have shown that one of the main reasons for irregularities in financial reports was due to the miscalculation of staff costs combined with lack of adequate supporting documents, time registration systems or their unsuitability for the purpose of providing a reliable and accurate view of the time actually spent on the project.
In order to reduce errors deriving from such causes, the following is aimed at providing guidance to beneficiaries about acceptable time registration systems (and supporting documents), as well as about the
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recommended approach to calculating eligible staff costs:
Note: The rates at which staff is charged to the project must correspond to the Beneficiary's normal policy on remuneration (documented by a salary grid, long-term work contracts etc.) and should not significantly exceed the rates currently applicable in the relevant area (both geographically and with respect to the profile of the staff concerned). Failure to respect this principle may lead to the costs being classified as reckless and excessive expenditure at any moment during the project implementation or at the time of final payment analysis (whereupon the difference between the current market rates/ rates documented as compliant with the Beneficiary's' long-term remuneration policy and the higher rates actually paid may be considered as ineligible cost).
The calculation of staff cost must be based on the annual gross salary including social charges and other statutory costs, the total actual annual working time units and the time actually worked on the grant as follows:
Annual gross salary +social charges X actual days or hours working on the grant Total actual annual productive working days or hours
In which:
Annual Gross Salary + Social Charges = costs actually paid by the beneficiary in the timeframe of a year, including: salary, taxes, employer's contribution for national security schemes etc. Total actual annual productive time = total time in days or hours worked in the timeframe of a year.
The calculation of the total annual productive days or hours must be done as follows:
1 Total number of days in a year 365
2 Less weekends To filled in3 Less public holidays To filled in4 Less annual leave actually taken To filled inTotal number of productive days in the year(1-2-3-4)
To calculate
Please note that time used on meetings, training and similar absences are considered as productive working time and should not be deducted. Salaries paid by a beneficiary to personnel on sick leave, before social security takes over, may be considered eligible. Note that long term illness and maternity leave cannot be charged to the grant. Furthermore, any amounts corresponding to such long-term absences should be deducted from the nominal amount "annual gross salary + social charges", i.e. the amount "annual gross salary + social charges" should only indicate the salary for the time during which the relevant staff member was not on long-term sick leave/maternity leave.
Actual days/hours worked on the grant = worked time in days or hours for the purpose of the grant. This needs to be clearly substantiated by timesheets (see provisions on time registration systems below).
When establishing the annual gross salary the following elements should also be taken into consideration:
1. Annual gross salary including 13th and 14th salaries, if applicable. This should be done by adding up the gross salary per month as indicated on the salary slip.
2. Holiday allowance if not included in item 1 above.3. Obligatory/compulsory social charges imposed by law, such as pension schemes, health
schemes, insurance schemes, contribution to labour market funds, etc.4. Employer's contribution to non-statutory pension schemes is not accepted as an eligible
cost and should not be used in the calculation.5. Less compensation received from insurance or other schemes in case of sickness and re-
employment schemes to reactivate unemployed people.
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The total annual staff costs = Annual staff cost (sum of 1 + 2 + 3 - 4 - 5)
Note: Only actual salaries should be reported. Estimations or average salaries will not be accepted and the costs not taken into account when establishing the final amount of the grant. The rates indicated in the budget estimate contained in the grant agreement are considered indicative and cannot be the default reference when reporting staff costs for the purposes of an interim or a final payment. These costs are not lump sum cost.
All additional (non-statutory) and individual pension schemes and/or sickness insurances are not eligible, as well as company cars, bonuses and any other similar fringe benefits. Dividends or profit sharing are also not eligible.
The above calculation should be based on statutory documents, such as the salary slips and pay roll summary, so that the amounts taken into account for the calculation of the annual staff cost can easily be traced and verified.
For projects running over several years the calculation of the cost of salary related to the project must be done separately for each individual year using the same format as explained above.
Time Registration Systems
Where a staff member works full-time for the organisation, but is allocated only part-time to the project, only the equivalent part of his/her salary is an eligible cost for the project. For this reason a Coordinator and all Beneficiaries must establish a time registration system that, as a minimum, respects the following rules:
- The time sheets (paper or electronic) must contain at least the following information:
• Reference to the project reference number (grant agreement number); • Name of the employee; • The time sheet should be kept on either a weekly or monthly basis or show the day, month and
year. Global sheets showing for example "x" hours spent per month are not accepted as supporting documentation.
• The number of time units (days or hours but possibly the time unit used in the budget attached to the grant agreement) worked on the project during the period of the time sheet
• Number of time units (days or hours) worked on other grants/activities • Total number of time units (days or hours) worked. • Details of the tasks performed for the project • Date and signature of the employee • Date and signature of the project manager
- The time worked on the project must be registered in a timely and regular manner, normally every day (time sheets established retroactively shall not be accepted as supporting document).
- The completed timesheet for a given month should be signed by the employee and approved by the supervisor in a timely manner – ideally during the first week of the following month.
- It is highly recommended that a description of the time registration procedure is written down for future reference.
A template time sheet is available at:https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/beneficiaries-space/key-action-3-prospective-initiatives-policy-experimentation-in-school-education-sector-eacea-302014_en
Supporting Documentation of Staff costs:
Staff costs declared can relate to staff under variety of conditions and below we have provided a non-
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exhaustive list of the most common occurrences.
existing employment contract with the organization or the seconding entity in case of secondment; in case of specific contract linked to the project, specific indication of tasks, reference to the project,
to the duration of the contract and the hourly/daily rate should be indicated; for staff not working full time on the project : timesheets or equivalent system established and
certified by the employer, description of tasks, date of the performance (duly dated and signed by employee and employer);
in case of secondment: secondment letter/agreement with specific indication of tasks, reference to the project, to the duration of allocation to the project, to the percentage of working time allocated to the project; to the hourly/daily rate;
calculation of the hourly or daily rate requested together with the official documents on which this calculation is based;
monthly salary slips or a copy of payroll issued by Human Resources Department; proof of payment
Note: Such staff must be registered in the payroll and in the accounting system of the organisation! The salary should be paid by bank transfer.
b) Travel costs
Travel costs for staff taking part in the project are considered eligible, provided that they are reasonable, justified and that they comply with the principle of sound financial management, in particular regarding economy and efficiency, and provided that these costs are in line with the beneficiaries' usual practices on travel costs.
Costs may be claimed only for journeys directly connected to specific and clearly identifiable project-related activities.
Reimbursement must be based on actual costs, regardless the means of travel chosen (rail, bus, taxi, plane, hire car, etc.). Beneficiaries are required to use the cheapest means of travel (e.g. use Apex tickets for air travel and take advantage of reduced fares, where this is not the case then a full explanation should be provided).
However, in some cases air/rail travel is not economical and sometime it is more cost effective to travel by car. In these situations (and where it is substantiated and the price is not excessive), these costs will be refunded as follows:
for private vehicles (own and company cars): on the basis of the corresponding rail fare - the price of one ticket only will be reimbursed, even where several people are travelling in the same vehicle); evidence of the corresponding rail fare should be sought at the time of travel and documentation evidencing this (e.g. declaration of costs from a travel agent; on-line quote) should be readily available;
for hire cars (maximum category B or equivalent) or taxis: the actual cost where this is not excessive compared with other means of travel (also taking account of any influencing factors i.e. time, excessive luggage);
only in exceptional cases, where NONE of the above-mentioned means of calculation CAN be applied, will a ‘rate per mile/km’ be considered; where this is the case a full explanation should be provided as to the reason for the non-application of the above-mentioned means of calculation and full documentation should be readily available to substantiate the rate applied (to include evidence of the ‘organisational’ or ‘national’ rates per mile/km and support documentation evidencing payment of the applied rate).
The travel cost for a journey should include all costs and all means for travel from the point of origin to the point of destinationI (and vice versa) and may include visa fees, travel insurance and cancellation costs.
I In some exceptional cases where public transport is not available it may be necessary to take a taxi. Where several persons travel in the same taxi only one fare can be charged.
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Examples of supporting documents that must be supplied when requested
tickets (plane, train, bus, etc.) and invoices (hotels, restaurants, travel agency); boarding pass; for car journeys: declaration stating the city of departure and arrival, the calculation method with unit
rate and number of units, dates and names and activities concerned; list of participants duly signed with clear identification of the activity/purpose of the trip, dates,
names and functions of the participants in the project (e.g. beneficiary, expert, volunteer, subcontractor);
proof that the payments have been made by the beneficiary/ies and are recorded in the accountancy.
c) Subsistence costs
Subsistence costs for staff taking part in the project are eligible under this budget heading. Reimbursement must be based on the existing internal rules of the beneficiary organisations and/or on the basis of actual costs (reimbursement of receipts). Costs may be claimed only for journeys directly connected to specific and clearly identifiable project-related activities. Subsistence costs will be granted maximum for the days of the meeting plus one day.
In case no existing internal rule are in place, and the reimbursement is based on actual costs, it is very important to keep all supporting documents for costs of subsistence (cost of accommodation, meals, local travel within the place of mission and sundry expenses). These may be requested by the Agency before making the final payment and should be kept available in any case for a possible ex-post audit/control. To be considered eligible these costs must be reasonable, conform to local prices and be exclusively linked to the project.
The system of per diem for reimbursement of subsistence costs can be accepted only if it can be demonstrated that such a system was officially in place before the grant was awarded. In this case the amount of per diem should follow the normal practice of the organization.
Where a common lunch or dinner is provided during a project event to its participants and this is charged separately to the project the following rules should be applied:
where one or more of the persons concerned by the common lunch/dinner (or other service that is otherwise included in the "per diem" amount) also receive the per diem amount, the relevant person's per diem must be reduced accordingly (and the relevant financial report should explicitly indicate such cases). Under no circumstances should the relevant amounts be charged to the project twice.
Evidence of the applied payment system (documentation evidencing amounts reimbursed on the basis of actual costs incurred or evidence of payment of daily per diem rates to an individual) should be readily available. It is not recommended that reimbursement is effected through cash payments but through a bank transfer.
Examples of supporting documents that must be supplied when requested
• List of participants duly signed with clear identification of the activity/purpose of the trip, dates, names and functions of each of the participants in the project (e.g. beneficiary, expert, volunteer, subcontractor);
• Hotel/restaurant invoices;
• Internal rules defining modalities for the reimbursement of subsistence costs.
d) Equipment costs
Purchase, rent or lease of equipment (new or second-hand), including the installation, maintenance and insurance costs, are considered eligible costs:
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• only when specific and necessary for achieving the goals of the project. Proposed equipment costs must always be duly justified. The rules for procurement defined in the grant agreement apply;
• provided that it is written off in accordance with the tax and accounting rules applicable to the beneficiary and generally accepted for items of the same kind. Only the portion of the equipment's depreciation corresponding to the duration of the project and the rate of actual use for the purposes of the project may be taken into account. The beneficiary shall explain the rules applied. If the nature and/or the context of its use justify different treatment, this should be duly justified.
Project Coordinator or Beneficiary purchases equipment specifically for the project, they can charge the cost of purchase of equipment within the equipment category but must respect the following rules:
Compare the prices of different suppliers to see who offers the best value for money (taking account of price and quality); Evidences of market prospection and choice of contractor should be kept on file and made available to the Commission upon request.
Charge against the project only the cost of equipment purchased or rented during the period covered by the Grant Agreement, at a rate that reflects the degree and duration of use for project-specific purposes within that period;
Only the cost depreciated in accordance with the national depreciation rules will be considered eligible.
ICT costs, such as computer equipment, should be spread proportionally to all projects and main activities implemented by the beneficiary which incurred the cost. The pro rata charged to this EU project, should reflect the percentage of use of the ICT equipment. The apportionment should be on a reasonable, justified and coherent basis, which should be readily available.
All equipment related to the administration of the project (e.g. PCs, portables, etc.) and all equipment purchased before the start of a project is covered by indirect costs of the project.
Examples of necessary supporting documents
• contracts and invoices;
• proof that the payments have been made by the beneficiary and are recorded in his accounts;
• for costs incurred through subcontracting, please refer to subcontracting and procurement rules.
e) Subcontracting costs
Subcontracting refers to the implementation of specific tasks being part of the action as described in the annex to the grant agreement, by a third party, to which a procurement contract has been awarded by one or several beneficiaries. The subcontracted third party may not be employed by any of the beneficiary.
In order to maintain the concept of the project partnership, the management and the general administration of the action, representing core activities, may not be subcontracted.
The tasks concerned must be set out in the description of the action and the estimated costs of subcontractingmust be clearly identifiable in the estimated budget. Any recourse to subcontracting while the action is under way, if not provided for in the initial grant application, shall be communicated to the Agency for approval.
Costs are based on a verifiable estimate or, if the subcontractor is identified, on the basis of an offer. The estimate/offer will cover all costs (e.g. staff costs plus travel costs, etc.).
The beneficiary shall award the contract to the tender offering best value for money, that is to say, to the tender offering the best price-quality ratio, in compliance with the principles of transparency and equal
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treatment for potential contractors, care being taken to avoid any conflict of interests in accordance with article II.4.
For contracts of a value over €60.000, the coordinator and, where applicable, the other beneficiaries must obtain competitive tenders from at least 5 potential contractors, unless national rules prescribe differently.
The total reported costs for subcontracting may not exceed 30% of the total eligible direct costs of the project.
A subcontract must at least indicate:• the reference to the tender and offer;• the reference to the EU project;• the start/end date;• the tasks to be implemented within a certain time schedule;• the value of the contract;• the payment modalities (amount or percentage and deliverables to be achieved; law
applicable in case of contestation, etc.);• date of signature of the contract.
Examples of supporting documents that must be supplied when requested
• All documents relating to the procurement procedure to be followed are detailed in the articles II.9 and II.10 of the grant agreement:
• terms of reference/specifications of the tendering;• request for quotation with reference to the project, activity and deadline for answering;• quotations received dated and signed;• evaluation committee's report;• award decision;• contracts and invoices; proof that the payments have been made by the beneficiary and are
recorded in the accountancy.
Note: The Agency is NOT party to any subcontracting agreement between a Coordinator/Beneficiaries and the subcontractor/service provider. To this effect the Agency has no liability towards any of the parties under such agreement and is bound solely by the terms of the grant agreement. Thus, the Coordinator/ Beneficiary has sole responsibility for the implementation of this agreement and for compliance with its provisions.
The Coordinator/ Beneficiary must undertake the necessary arrangements to ensure that the subcontractor/service provider waives all rights in respect of the Agency under such agreement. The Coordinator/Beneficiary remains fully responsible towards the Agency for compliance with the obligations resulting from the Grant Agreement.
f) Other costs
Costs arising directly:
Publications and dissemination: From requirements imposed by the grant agreement are eligible (e.g. dissemination of information, specific evaluation of the project, audits, translations, reproduction, website, etc.), including the costs of financial services (bank guarantees);
Conferences and seminars: From the realisation of specific actions or of products/results of the
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project are eligible e.g. the organisation of seminars by the project team itself (where the seminar is foreseen as a product/result and where task-related costs are easily identifiable), the "in house" production of proceedings of a seminar, the production of a video, the purchase of product-related consumables (reams of paper for printing of publications, blank DVDs), etc. This should not include travel costs and subsistence costs for staff members of beneficiaries (to be included under “Travel”).
Other typical costs: Such expenses under this budget heading may include other costs stemming from obligations under the grant agreement which are not budgeted for under another budget item, such as:
• Project specific press releases and event advertisements (one-off costs); • Purchase of copyrights and other Intellectual Property Rights (IPR); • Room rental for project-related activities (but not the use of the Project
Coordinator's/Beneficiary's or Beneficiary's own premises); • Purchase of information materials specific and key to the project implementation
(books, studies, electronic data); • Conference fees; meeting registration costs; • Rental of exhibition space; • Intellectual property taxes connected with the publication of project materials e.g. CD-
ROM; • Catering costs for a meeting or other event (where those being provided for are not
members of the Contractor or Partner organisations); • Charges for financial services (fees for bank guarantee, charges for bank transactions,
etc.) • Audit costs (in accordance with the Grant Agreement), costs of evaluation reports.
Travel and/ or subsistence costs to third parties.
Only activities which are specific and necessary for achieving the goals of the project are considered. When travel and/or subsistence costs are reimbursed to third parties (experts, speakers, etc.), the rules applicable to staff of beneficiaries will be applied.
If the activities related to publication, dissemination, conferences and seminars are subcontracted then the subcontracting rules mentioned in the Grant Agreement are applicable.
All costs related to the administration of the project e.g. consumables, supplies, photocopying costs, telephone costs, internet access, paper, etc., are covered by indirect costs of the project (see below).
Examples of necessary supporting documents
• contracts and invoices;• proof that the payments have been made by the beneficiaries and are recorded in his
accounts.
5.1.2 Indirect costs
The eligible indirect costs for the project are those costs which, with due regard to the conditions of eligibility described above, are not identifiable as specific costs directly linked to performance of the project which can be recorded in the project's accounts , but which have nevertheless been incurred in connection with the eligible direct costs for the project. They cannot include any eligible direct costs.
The indirect costs of the project eligible for European Union funding is a flat rate amount set at 7% of the total amount of eligible direct costs. This simplifies grant management both for the beneficiary and the Agency, since supporting documents are not required. The percentage of funding applied to the indirect costs must be specified in the grant agreement under article I.3 and must correspond to the estimated budget of the
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action in Annex III.
Indirect costs shall not be eligible under a project grant awarded to a beneficiary who already receives an operating grant from the Commission during the period in question.
Examples of indirect costs are:
• All costs for equipment related to the administration of the project (e.g. PCs, portables, etc.);
• Communication costs (postage, fax, telephone, internet access, mailing, etc.);• Infrastructure costs (rent, electricity, etc.) of the premises where the project is being
carried out;• Office supplies;• Photocopies
Note: An organisation that receives an operating grant from the EU budget cannot include indirect costs in their final statement of expenditure for an action grant for the period covered by the operating grant
It is expected that the beneficiaries can provide copies of the following types of documents upon Agency’s request. No supporting documents need to be attached to the final report, but the Commission often requests to the coordinator/ beneficiary to provide sample of representative supporting documents from any given cost categories. The size of the sampling requested may represent up to a 100% of the costs declared. In case of a multi beneficiary project the sampling will include both costs incurred by the project coordinator and those incurred by the co beneficiaries. The documents must be the same as those which would be accepted by the beneficiaries' tax authorities and may include the documents described below in respect of individual cost categories.
5.2 Ineligible costs
Under no circumstances can the following types of costs be considered as eligible:
• Return on capital;• Debt and debt service charges;• Provisions for losses or potential future liabilities (provisions for contractual and moral
obligations, fines, financial penalties and legal costs);• Interest owed;• Doubtful debts;• Exchange losses;• Costs declared by the beneficiary and covered by another project or work programme receiving a
European Union grant;• Excessive or reckless expenditure;• Expenses for travel to or from countries outside eligible countries, unless explicit prior
authorisation is granted by the Agency;• Contributions in kind.
Costs which could be considered as eligible according to the criteria detailed under section 5.1 become ineligible if they are not supported by adequate supporting accounting documents (see also point 5.7 below).
5.3 Calculation of the final EU grant
Please refer to Article II.25 of the grant agreement for more information on the calculation of the final
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grant.
In short, the final grant is determined as follows:
STEP 1: Declared expenditures from your financial report
Less Ineligible costs found during assessment of your final statement - Costs ineligible by nature or - Limited by application of the "10% rule" (article I.8 of the grant agreement or - Limited by maximum ceilings from the Call (Subcontracting and indirect costs) or - Limited by application of articles I.2 (eligibility period) and II.19 (eligible costs) of
the grant agreement.
Equal to TOTAL ELIGIBLE COSTS AGREED BY THE AGENCY
The final amount of the grant will depend not only on the performance of the action but also on final eligible costs accepted. In addition, regardless of the costs incurred, the grant may be reduced in case of non-performance, weak implementation (poorly, partially or late execution of the action).
STEP 2: Application of double ceiling
Multiplied by The % of EU co-financing from the grant agreement (article I.3)
Limited To the maximum European Union contribution from the grant agreement(article I.3 /article II.25)
Equal to FINAL EUROPEAN UNION GRANT after double ceiling
STEP 3: Verification of non-profit rule and determination of final EU grant amount
Grants may not have the purpose or effect of producing a profit in the frame of the action implemented by the beneficiary. Profit shall be defined as a surplus of receipts over the eligible costs incurred by the beneficiary, when the request is made for payment of the balance.
For multi-beneficiaries agreement, the non-profit rule is applied at the level of the project, and not individually to the coordinator and each co-beneficiary.
Less Pre-financing amount(s) already received
Equal to Balance payment if positive or Recovery if negative
5.4 Penalties in the case of non-compliance with publicity obligations and for poor, partial, or late implementation
Poor, partial or late implementation of the project may be established by the Agency on the basis of:
• The final report submitted by the coordinator,
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• The products and outputs (where applicable) produced by the project,
• Information received from any other relevant source proving that the project is not implemented in accordance with the contractual provisions; other sources of information may include monitoring visits, desk checks or on the sport checks undertaken by the Agency.
The final report, products and outputs will be assessed by the Agency, where applicable with the help of external experts, using a common set of quality criteria such as:
• The quality of activities undertaken;
• The quality of project implementation, experimentation methodology and monitoring of project;
• The extent to which the project implemented effective quality measures as well as measures for evaluating the project's outcomes;
• The quality of the products and outputs produced;
• The extent to which the project proved to be innovative;
• The extent to which the project proved to add value at EU level;
• The potential impact on systems and policies;
• The impact on the participating organisations and participants;
• The potential wider impact of the project on individuals and organisations beyond the beneficiaries.
• The quality and scope of the dissemination activities undertaken;
• The extent to which the project was implemented in line with the approved grant application;
The final report will be evaluated on the basis of quality criteria and scored on a total of maximum 100 points. If the final report scores below 50 points in total, the Agency may reduce the final grant amount on the basis of poor, partial or late implementation of the project even if all activities reported were eligible and actually took place. A reduction may be applied to the grant initially provided for of:
• 25% if the final report scores at least 40 points and below 50 points;
• 35% if the final report scores at least 30 and below 40 points;
• 55% if the final report scores at least 20 and below 30 points;
• 75% if the final report scores below 20 points.
5.5 Checks and audits
Please refer to the article II.27 of the general conditions for more information on possible checks and audits.
6. AMENDMENTS
Introduction
An amendment is an act modifying the grant conditions initially agreed or established in clauses of the grant
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agreement. Any amendment to the grant agreement must be subject to a prior written supplementary agreement. An amendment request should not be made retroactively e.g. changes that have in reality already been carried out.
The amendment request has to:
• be submitted by email ([email protected] ) to the Agency by an official letter or request form signed by the legal representative of the beneficiary, that is, the person who signed the grant agreement or his/her legal replacement; in some specific cases outlined below, a simple e-mail (without a letter) can be sent but the legal representative should at least be in copy of the email.
• be made (where required) on the specific amendment request form provided by the Agency under the link mentioned below.
• be submitted to the Agency before the change occurs and at least one month before the end of the contractual period (article П.12.3 of the grant agreement).
• duly justify the reasons for the proposed changes.
The Agency reserves the right to reject an amendment request that is not sufficiently justified. Once the amendment is made, it becomes an integral part of the initial grant agreement.
The modifications to a grant agreement have to be authorised by the same parties who have signed the initial agreement. Furthermore, the amendment must be signed by the legal representative of the coordinator, i.e. the person who has the necessary powers to commit the entity. This can be the same person as the one who signed the grant agreement or it could be another person replacing the initial representative or a person to whom the authorisation to represent and commit the entity has been given by means of a specific mandate. If the person signing is not the legal representative identified as such in the grant agreement, a supporting document proving the authority to sign on behalf of the coordinator should be submitted along with the request for amendment.
6.1 Amendments via an exchange of letters
Before any amendment can take effect, it needs to be agreed in writing.
A request for amendment on behalf of the beneficiaries must be submitted by the coordinator of the project. A request for an amendment sent by email is accepted on the condition that it is a scanned document duly signed by the legal representative and attached to the email together with the amendment request form.The amendment request form contains further guidance and is available at: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/beneficiaries-space/key-action-3-prospective-initiatives-policy-experimentation-in-school-education-sector-eacea-302014_enRequests for changes leading to a modification of the grant agreement must be supported by a detailed justification and full details of the desired changes. The Agency acknowledges receipt of an amendment request by email and, if necessary, requests further information (e.g. missing accompanying documents/justifications). Failure to provide such supporting documentation will considerably delay the review process and may lead to the refusal of the request. It should also be noted that if no modification request has been submitted, a change in the project implementation will cause serious difficulties at final report stage and in certain circumstances may thus result in a reduction of the final grant.Once an amendment request has been approved, the Agency informs the coordinator through a scanned letter of amendment. Pending such exchange of letters, the requested changes are not considered approved by the Agency.
The following modifications on the grant agreement need to be requested by exchange of letters:
• Change of the coordinating organisation• Change in partnership: withdrawal of beneficiaries
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• Change in partnership: new or replacing beneficiaries joining the project• Changes to the eligibility period• Changes to the budget breakdown (Annex III)• Change of bank account• Changes to the work programme (Annex I)
Concerning changes in Annex III budget, no amendment is needed provided that budget transfers between budget categories (headings) are limited to 10% of the amount of each budget category for which the transfer is intended, (art. I.8 of the Grant agreement).
Attention:The amendment request will also be evaluated against the eligibility criteria for the action. Special attention has to be paid withdrawal or replacing beneficiary organisations, in view of the minimum partnership requirements for the action (at least 3 public authorities from 3 different eligible countries and at least 1 public/private evaluation entity).
6.2 Amendments via the Participation Portal
The Participant Portal is the platform where the LEAR (Legal Entity Appointed Representative) of each beneficiary registers any changes related to their legal entity. The accuracy of these changes and any supporting documents are checked and validated by the Research Executive Agency (REA). Once REA has validated these changes, they notify the beneficiary that this information is up to date in the database of the Commission (i.e. URF/PDM and ABAC).
It is not required to send an amendment request to the Agency for these modifications. However, it is recommended to inform the Agency by email of the specific changes introduced via the Participation Portal for a better follow-up.
The following modifications must be made via the Participant Portal:
6.2.1 Change of legal status of the beneficiaries
The new legal status of the beneficiary must fulfil all the eligibility and selection criteria originally applied. If this change results in non-fulfilment of the eligibility and/or selection criteria, participation will be terminated. It will also be verified whether the eligibility criteria at project level are still respected. If this is not the case, the agreement will be terminated.
6.2.2 Change of legal name of the beneficiaries
In certain cases, what appears to be a change of name may in reality be a different change (e.g. new legal entity, transfer of rights and obligations) which may require other supporting documents and a different treatment. In this case the Agency will inform you what documents are needed.
6.2.3 Change of address of the beneficiaries
The change will be accepted by the Agency provided that it is compatible with the eligibility criteria.
Address of Participation Portal:http://ec.europa.eu/education/participants/portal/desktop/en/organisations/register.html
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6.3 Amendments by email
6.3.1 Change of legal representative of the coordinating organisation (person who signed the grant agreement)
An e-mail or letter signed by the new legal representative together with an official document confirming the name of this new legal representative must be submitted to the Agency. If the e-mail is not sent by the new legal representative, he/she should be in copy. Examples of official documents include statutes and/or minutes of the Board.
6.3.2 Change of contact person in the coordinating organisation
An e-mail or a letter signed by the legal representative of the beneficiary organisation must be submitted to the Agency outlining the reasons for the envisaged change. If the e-mail is not sent by the legal representative, he/she should be in copy.
6.3.3 Change of address of a beneficiary
Such a modification is made by the LEAR of the beneficiary in the Participant Portal. Before the Agency accepts it, it will have to be ensured that it is in line with the eligibility criteria of the call for proposals.
The table here below summarizes the different modifications and the way they should be submitted by the beneficiary and treated by the Agency:
Request by the beneficiary Reply by the Agency
Type of change Scanned letter
Participant Portal
Simple e-mail Scanned letter Simple
Change of address of the beneficiary/ies x o
Change of legal representative of the beneficiary/ies x x o
Change of the contact person x x o
Change of legal status of the beneficiary/ies x o
Change of legal name of the beneficiary/ies x o
Change of address of the coordinator x o
Any other change x o
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Annex: Glossary
The Agency: refers to the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, to which the European Commission delegated powers for the implementation, on its behalf and under its responsibility, of part of Union programmes.
Amendment: an amendment is an act modifying the grant conditions initially agreed or established in clauses of the grant agreement.
Beneficiary: a moral person or entity, whether private, public or semi-public, that is responsible by the signature of the grant agreement for the coordination and management of the project, including the dispatch of the funds. The beneficiary is the one who receives the grant and who reports directly to the Agency. Beneficiaries are solely and totally responsible for implementing the action or the work programme defined in the grant. All beneficiaries are listed in Annex IV of the grant agreement, including the "coordinator" and referred to collectively as "the beneficiaries", and individually as "beneficiary" for the purposes of the grant agreement.
Consortium: participating organisations from different countries teaming up to implement and follow up a project.
Contact person: the person responsible for the management of the project vis-à-vis the Agency and the contact for any communication from the Agency to the beneficiaries.
Coordinator: the beneficiary which signs the grant agreement and has the responsibility of coordinating the action. As coordinator, this beneficiary becomes the contact point between the other beneficiaries and the Agency.
Delegation: a document signed by a delegating public authority giving authorization to be represented by other public or private organisations, as well as legally established networks or associations of public authorities, provided the delegation is in writing and makes explicit reference to the proposal being submitted.
Final Report: implementation report and financial statement covering the entire period of a project submitted by the deadline stipulated in the grant agreement.
Grant agreement: agreement between the Executive Agency and several beneficiaries. This represents the most common form of the legal commitment. These beneficiaries have given mandate for the purpose of the signature of the agreement to the representative of the signatory of the agreement (called "coordinator").
LEAR: Legal Entity Appointed Representative. It is the person authorised to have access to the Participant Portal on behalf of a legal entity and make any changes related to its legal status, legal address and legal name if needed.
Legal Representative: the person legally authorised to enter into legal and financial commitments on behalf of the "coordinator".
Mainstreaming: is the planned process of transferring the successful results of programmes and initiatives to appropriate decision-makers in regulated local, regional, national or European systems.
Mandate: A document signed bilaterally by the applicant and each beneficiary (partner). With the 'Mandate' participating organisations grant power of attorney to the applicant to act in their name and for their account during the implementation of the action.
Multiplication: is the planned process of transferring the successful results of programmes and initiatives to
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appropriate decision-makers in regulated local, regional, national or European systems.
Partnership agreement: bilateral agreement made between the coordinator and each beneficiary to govern a number of issues that will or may arise during the life of the project (e.g. collaboration methods, tasks, financial provisions, intellectual property rights, etc.) in accordance with article II. 1 of the grant agreement.
Progress Report (s): a mid-term report and financial statement on the implementation of a project submitted in accordance with the deadline indicated in article I.4.1 of the grant agreement
PIC: Participant Identification Code.