Personnel — Natural Persons & Seconded Staff (A.2/A.3)

costs — Forms — Eligibility conditions — Calculation 1.1 What? If eligible under the Grant Agreement (all programmes except SMP ESS, CUST/FISC), the beneficiaries/affiliated entities may charge ‘Costs for natural persons under direct contract’ or ‘Costs for seconded persons’.

These budget categories cover the costs of two types of persons:

− self-employed natural persons (e.g. some types of in-house consultants) who work on the action for the beneficiary under conditions similar to those of an employee, but under a contract that is legally not an employment contract

− persons who are seconded by a third party against payment.

‘Seconded’ means the temporary transfer of an employee from a third party (the employer) to the beneficiary. Seconded persons are still paid and employed by the third party, but work for the beneficiary. They are at the disposal of the beneficiary and work under its control and instructions. A secondment normally requires the seconded person to work at the beneficiary’s premises, although in specific cases it may be agreed otherwise in the secondment agreement.

Best practice: The secondment agreement should detail the conditions of secondment (tasks, reimbursement from one entity to the other, duration of the secondment, location, etc).

What not? Cost of persons who are employees of the beneficiary, (co)owners of the beneficiary (if the beneficiary is an SME) or staff provided by a temporary work agency.

1.2 Costs for natural persons working under a direct contract and persons seconded against payment must be declared as actual costs.

1.3 The costs of natural persons with direct contract (A.2) and seconded persons (A.3) must comply with the eligibility conditions set out in Article 6.2.A.2 and 6.2.A.3, in particular:

− fulfil the general conditions for costs to be eligible (i.e. incurred during the action duration by the beneficiary, necessary, linked to the action, etc; see Article 6.1(a))

− the person must be hired under either:

− a direct contract signed between you and the natural person (not through another legal entity; e.g. a temporary work agency) or

− a contract signed between you and a legal entity fully owned by that natural person, and which has no other staff than the natural person being hired or

− a secondment agreement with the employer of the natural person

− the person must work under conditions similar to those of an employee, in particular:

− the beneficiary must organise and supervise the work of the person in a way similar to that of its employees

Example: acceptable

The beneficiary's project leader and the person discuss regularly the work to be carried out for the action. The project leader decides the tasks and timing of the work and instructs the person accordingly. Example (not acceptable): The beneficiary's project leader and the person meet only once a month or irregularly, for updates on the state of play of the entrusted work. If changes are needed, they have to be agreed by the person and may lead to a change of the amount charged to the beneficiary.

− the person is subject to similar presence requirements as the employees

Examples (acceptable): 1. The person works physically at the beneficiary's premises, following a time schedule similar to that of the employees (e.g. the beneficiary authorises up to two days of teleworking per week to its personnel and the person has chosen to benefit from this regime, i.e. works 2 days in teleworking and 3 days physically at the beneficiary's premises). 2. The beneficiary does not require any presence at its premises and allows all its employees to telework full-time from anywhere in the world. The person choses to telework from home, i.e. the country where the seconding organisation is established. Examples (not acceptable): 1. The beneficiary applies a consistent policy of only authorising up to two days of teleworking per week. However, the person works four days per week in teleworking and only one day at the beneficiary's premises. 2. The beneficiary applies a consistent policy of requiring all staff to work at its premises. However, the person works from a country other than the one where the beneficiary is located.

− the remuneration must be based on working time, rather than on delivering specific outputs/products.

Similar conditions does not mean equal conditions. The working conditions of the person do NOT have to be exactly the same that those of an employee, but overall similar.

− the result of the work carried out (including patents or copyright) must in principle belong to the beneficiary; if (exceptionally) it belongs to the person, the beneficiary must (just like for employees) obtain the necessary rights from the person (transfer, licences or other), in order to be able to respect its obligations under the Grant Agreement

− the cost of the person must not be significantly different from costs for employees of the beneficiary performing similar tasks; if the beneficiary does not have employees performing similar tasks, the comparison must be done with national salary references of the country where the beneficiary is located, for the staff category to which the person belongs in the sector of activity of the beneficiary and

− the cost must correspond exclusively to the remuneration of the person and related eligible taxes.

If the costs do not fulfil all the conditions indicated here above, they may be eligible as purchase of services (see Article 6.2.C.3) or subcontracting (see Article 6.2.B) but NOT as personnel costs. Thus, for seconded persons, if the resulting daily rate is higher than the daily rate actually paid by the third party to the seconded person (applying the calculation rules of the Grant Agreement) the costs can NOT be declared as personnel costs. They may be eligible instead as purchase of services (see Article 6.2.C.3) or subcontracting (see Article 6.2.B). The reason is that in this case the payment made by the beneficiary to the third party would be higher than the actual remuneration of the person, and this implies that there is a commercial margin (or other non-personnel cost) that is being charged by the third party to the beneficiary.

1.4 Costs of natural persons working under a direct contract and seconded persons against payment must be calculated as follows:

{amount per unit [daily rate]}

multiplied by

{number of day-equivalents worked on the action}

The daily rate must be calculated as follows:

− if the contract specifies a daily rate: this daily rate must be used; if the contract fixes an hourly rate instead of a daily rate, you must convert the hourly rate into a daily rate (daily rate = hourly rate x 8)

− if the contract states a fixed amount for the work and the number of days to be worked (or hours; in that case 8 hours = 1 day-equivalent): the global amount for the work must be divided by the number day-equivalents to be worked

− if the contract states a fixed amount for the work, but does not specify the number of days (or hours) that must be worked: the global amount for the work must be divided by the pro-rata of 215 annual day-equivalents which corresponds to the duration of the contract over the reporting period

Example

The contract provides that the person will work at the beneficiary's premises for assisting in action tasks. The contract is for 6 months starting on 01/01/2021 and ending on 30/06/2021. According to its time records, the person worked 60 day-equivalents in the action over that period. The contract sets a monthly payment of EUR 3 000 but does not explicitly establish the number of days/hours to be worked. Personnel costs for the action = 60 (day-equivalents worked in the action) x daily rate Daily rate = annual personnel costs / pro-rata of 215 = (3 000 € x 6 months) / (215 x (6 months/12 months)) = 18 000 € / (215 x 0,5) = 18 000 € / 107,5 days = 167,44 €/day Personnel costs for the action = 60 x 167,44 = 10 046,4€.

Cost elements that are ineligible under the Grant Agreement (even if they are part of the amount stated in the contract) must be removed from the calculation of the personnel cost.

Horizontal 215-days ceiling

If a pro-rata number of 215 annual day-equivalents is used

Specific cases (costs for natural persons with direct contract and seconded personnel (A.2, A.3)):

Persons seconded against payment from a third party located in a different country than the beneficiary — As salary levels are not homogeneous across different countries, the remuneration of the person paid by the third party, and so the actual costs paid for the secondment, might be higher than those paid by the beneficiary for employees performing similar tasks. In that case, the actual costs paid for the secondment can still be considered eligible, if the beneficiary can demonstrate that its usual practice is to pay for secondments at the level of the actual remuneration of the seconded person.

Secondment of staff between beneficiaries/affiliated entities — Is allowed, but it is the beneficiary/affiliated entity who employs the person who has to declare its costs (NOT the beneficiary/affiliated to whom the person has been seconded).

Fellowships, scholarships, stipends, internship or similar agreements (not employees) — Costs for persons (e.g. students, PhDs and other researchers) under fellowships, scholarships, stipends, internship or similar agreements, through which they work for the beneficiary on the action (without having an employment contract) can be accepted, if the agreement is work-oriented (as opposed to training-oriented: i.e. not aimed at helping the student to acquire professional skills).

Such cost can be charged to the action as personnel costs, if they fulfil the conditions set out in Article 6.1 and 6.2.A.2, and in particular:

− the assignment of tasks and the remuneration complies with the applicable national law (e.g. on taxes, labour and social security)

− the recipients of fellowships, scholarships and stipends have the necessary qualifications to carry out the tasks allocated to them under the action.

PhD agreements are considered work-oriented. However, time for training, if any, may NOT be charged to the action.

Fellowships, scholarships and stipends, etc. that are not work-oriented are cannot be charged as personnel costs, but may be eligible as financial support to third parties (FSTP; cost category D.1), if explicitly allowed by the call conditions and in line with Annex 1 (see Article 6.2.D.1).

Cost for exemptions from academic fees (HE)

The fees (or the fee exemption) are