Frequently asked questions

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To be eligible for ERC calls, Host Institutions (HIs) – which can be public bodies, research organisations or higher education institutions (including private research organisations and private higher education institutions establishments) from an EU Member State or Associated Country – must have a gender equality plan (GEP) or an equivalent strategic document in place for the duration of the project.

Please be aware that it is not necessary for the Host Institution to have already the gender equality plan or equivalent strategic document in place at the time of the submission and the absence of a GEP will not affect the evaluation of the project. However, if the project is successful, it will be necessary before the signature of the grant agreement.

The reporting requirements for ERC main frontier research projects granted under the Horizon Europe Programme (Starting Grant / Consolidator Grant / Advanced Grant or Synergy Grant) foresee two different reporting streams to cover the scientific aspects, on the one hand, and the financial aspects of the grant, on the other hand, as described in Article 21 of the Model Grant Agreement used for ERC actions. Scientific reports are the sole responsibility of the Principal Investigator and are submitted via the Host Institution usually twice during the lifetime of an individual PI project (at mid-term and at the end). In case of the Synergy grants running for 6 years, there are two intermediate and a final report. The financial reports are prepared by the Host Institution in consultation with the Principal Investigator and must usually be submitted 60 days after the end of each period; this report must include information on the use of resources and the general implementation of the project (see Article 21 of Model Grant Agreement used for ERC actions). At the end of a project, the Host Institution will also have to submit a Certificate on Financial Statements for each beneficiary (and linked third party) depending on the amount of requested EU contribution to the costs claimed (if the entity requests a total contribution of EUR 430 000 or more – standard threshold). Both types of reports (Scientific and Financial) are prepared and submitted online via the Funding & Tenders Portal. In the case of Synergy Grants the corresponding Principal Investigator assumes the primary responsibility for the scientific reporting and contribution to the financial reporting, while the other Principal Investigators must contribute to both the scientific and financial report (page 120 of Model Grant Agreement used for ERC actions).

Yes, Principal Investigators submitting a proposal to any ERC call must have, at the time of submission, the written consent of all participants on their involvement and on the content of the proposal, as well as of any researcher mentioned in the proposal as participating in the project (either as team member, collaborator, other PI or member of the advisory board), should the proposal be funded. The ERC Executive Agency may request PIs to provide proof of the written consent (email, letter) at any time.

Generally, costs are eligible if they are incurred during the lifetime of the project and provided that they are in line with the requirements for direct costs as listed in Article II.14 of the General Conditions of the ERC Grant Agreement (Single and Multi-Beneficiary). Costs must be actual, incurred by the beneficiary and according to the usual accounting and management principles and practices of the beneficiary. They must also be identifiable and verifiable.

For more information, see also the rules of the FP7 Guide to Financial Issues.

 

In FP7 ERC grants, the following costs are eligible under certain conditions:

 

- Travel and subsistence allowances:Should the Host Institution use flat rates for the daily subsistence costs, in accordance with the above mentioned rules and if allowed in the respective Work Programme, this should be mentioned in the Description of Work to be considered eligible.

- Meals (lunch/evening) during travels:

If the team member already received a daily allowance for travel expenses from the Host Institution, meals are considered to be covered by this allowance; hence they are not considered eligible.However, if the general practice of the Host Institution is to reimburse costs separately, upon presentation of a receipt, and if costs do not constitute reckless or excessive spending, they can be claimed as direct costs.

- Recruitment of a replacement for a team member on parental leave:

While recruitment costs would generally be covered by the overheads, in the light of ERC's specificity some recruitment costs may be accepted as direct eligible costs if they are: justified, part of the general practice of the Host Institution, clearly attributable to the project, and in line with the general requirements.

 

- Maintenance and repair of equipment, of failures due to the general usage of the equipment:

Any services or other costs related to certain equipment, such as delivery, handling, installation, maintenance or repair of items that are not covered by separate subcontracts, are part of equipment purchase and can be charged accordingly. In case of a separate subcontract for specific services (after-sales service, maintenance), the general rules for subcontracting apply.

 

- Purchase of spare parts:

Spare parts are eligible for funding as long as they meet the general eligibility criteria for consumables.

 

- Payments for patent applications:

Intellectual property activities such as the process of applying for a patent, if complying with all general eligibility requirements are direct eligible costs.

- Travel and other costs for experts and regular visitors: Reimbursement of travel expenses for experts who are not employed by the Host Institution may be considered direct eligible costs to the extent that the general requirements for direct costs are fulfilled and that the participation of these experts/visitors is duly foreseen in the Description of Work.

 

- Scientific text books:

For these costs to be considered eligible, the link between scientific text books and the ERC project needs to be demonstrated for the purchase of these books. Funding must be used for the sole purpose of achieving the objectives of the project and its expected results, in a manner consistent with the principles of economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

 

- Translation costs:

Translation costs are not the same as publishing costs and should be included under subcontracting if the translation is to be done by an organisation or person external to the beneficiary.If, however, a set of translators is working directly on the core research funded by the project and under direct instructions and supervision of the Principal Investigator, the costs concerned can be considered as personnel costs under the ERC grant.

- Climate compensation fees in addition to travel/ticket cost:

If by climate compensation fee is meant a sort of ecological tax that is identifiable on the invoice, it is not an eligible cost. However, if the payment of this fee is required by an institution to be paid for every plane ride, they can be eligible if:1/ This cost is an airport tax, which is an ecological charge applicable to all the tickets and mandatory under national legislation. It lies in the responsibility of the beneficiary to prove the "non-tax" nature of the "charge"; or2/ If it is included in the overall price and thereof not identifiable, i.e. it is part of the airline ticket.

 

- Costs charged by journal publishers for the provision of immediate open access to publications (article processing charges - APCs):

These costs are eligible if they are incurred during the lifetime of the project and provided that they are in line with the general requirements for all direct costs.
 

In case the journal tallows 'green open access' with an embargo period of six months, but "gold open access" is chosen resulting in an article processing charge (ACP), the cost is still eligible provided that they have been incurred during the lifetime of the project and that they are in line with the general rules for eligibility of direct costs as described in the Grant Agreement.If 'gold open access' is chosen, the publication must still be deposited in a repository for scientific publications and open access must be provided immediately to that deposited version (no embargo period).

 

In case there are several authors, there is no requirement to split open access related costs between the authors. If the costs have been incurred during the lifetime of the project and they are in line with the general requirements for direct costs, then they are eligible in full, regardless of the number of co-authors. However, grantees should consider whether it would be appropriate to ask other authors for a contribution to the costs.

 

If a former team member of an ERC project publishes an article based on his/her work related to the project and wants to provide immediate open access to it by paying an article processing charge to the publisher, this cost can be considered an eligible cost if it incurred during the lifetime of the project and provided that it is in line with the general requirements for direct costs.

 

- Open access fees for monographs:

These costs are eligible if they are incurred during the lifetime of the project and provided that they are in line with the general requirements for direct costs.

 

- Attendance at Conference Costs:Normally researchers participating in a conference are expected to play an active part, e.g. present a paper or a poster.  As well as the usual documents needed to support the costs claimed (purchase orders, invoices and payment (conference, travel and hotel) and evidence of payments), an auditor would expect to see conference registration and conference agenda with names and roles. 

As a best practice it is recommended that a small note is produced by the researcher describing his/her role and the link to the project.

 

 - Costs for management of the project:

Management costs directly linked to the project and respecting the general eligibility criteria can be considered as direct eligible costs.See also Article 33.4 of the FP7 Rules of participation.

However, management costs such as administrative, technical or logistical costs are cross-cutting costs for all operations of the beneficiary and cannot be attributed in full to the project. These costs should be covered by the 20% flat rate of indirect costs.

- Membership fees of society publisher:

If the net effect of taking out a membership in the society is a reduction in the cost of the article processing charges (APCs) that is higher than the cost of the membership fee, then the membership fee (for the year concerned) is an eligible cost, provided that it is in line with the general requirements for direct costs.

 

- Costs for the deposit of research data in an open access data repository (run by an external organization):

Yes, these costs are eligible if they generated or collected as part of an ERC project and provided that they are in line with the general requirements for direct costs.

 

- Consumables for people formally not paid by an ERC grant (e.g. undergraduate students) :

They are eligible as long as they can be attributed directly to a project and are identifiable by the Host Institution as such, in accordance with its accounting principles and its general internal rules (i.e. there is a proven track record of each consumed amount).

 

- Redundancy payments:

Employment-related costs and termination/redundancy payments are considered eligible costs as long as they are in accordance with the usual accounting practice of the beneficiary, are fair and justified and recognised by national law. It is the Host Institution's duty to foresee possible project changes and include corresponding provisions in the (employment) contract. The ERCEA will examine each case individually.

The budget can be estimated based on a market research. Note however that each project will be evaluated in particular on their maturity, which should take into account the planned procurement procedures and the associated risks of delay.

As stated in the introductory section on p. 6 of the call document, grants under this topic can be linked with another grant funded from any other EU funding programme. Combining funding from DIGITAL and ERDF or RRF is possible, however double funding of the same costs and funding beyond 100% of eligible costs is prohibited. Combination of funding is possible if the other funding source covers the same activity and is to some extent aligned with the timing of this call. In case an applicant uses such a funding source, the applicant has to indicate in the application form (in section 6 Declaration in Part B of the application form) that there is a synergy and that combination of funding is planned.

According to the conditions applied to the ERC frontier research Grants 2017, there are three main restrictions to be considered for Principal Investigators in this regard:

  • A Principal Investigator may submit proposals to different ERC frontier research grant calls made under the same Work Programme, but only the first eligible proposal will be evaluated.
  • A researcher may participate as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator (NB: Projects with Co-Investigators were supported under the Advanced Grant in ERC Work Programmes from 2008 – 2011) in only one ERC frontier research project at any one time (NB: A new frontier research project can only start after the duration of the project fixed in a previous frontier research grant agreement has ended).
  • A researcher participating as Principal Investigator in an ERC frontier research project may not submit a proposal for another ERC frontier research grant, unless the existing project ends (NB: According to the duration of the project fixed in the previous frontier research grant agreement) no more than two years after the call deadline;

These restrictions are specified in the ERC Work Programme 2017 and may be modified in future work programmes by the ERC Scientific Council in light of experience.

NB: As a team member, it is possible to participate in more than one ERC grant.

Under the ERC-2022-AdG call, the Scientific Proposal (Part B2) can be maximum 14 pages. Since the ERC- 2019-AdG call, the budget table and description of resources are part of the administrative form (Part A, Section 3 - Budget) and do not count towards the page limit of the Scientific Proposal (Part B2). The justification of the project costs and description of time commitment (Resources and Time Commitment) can be maximum two pages, i.e. Section C. Resources may have a maximum length of 8000 characters, including spaces. Please note that 4000 characters, font size 11, single line spacing, correspond to one A4 text page. The budget table itself does not count towards the page limit.

Yes. Any SME (as defined by Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC) can be a Host Institution (HI) for an ERC grant as long as it meets the conditions of eligibility of the HI laid down in the ERC Work Programme 2022.

Under call ERC-2022-AdG, the budget table and description of resources are part of the administrative form (Part A, Section 3 - Budget). All the resources have to be described and justified in the text box under the budget table (Section C. Resources). The applicant should NOT include any description of resources or budget details in Part B2 (scientific proposal).