Purchases — Travel & Subsistence (Article 6.2.C and 6.2.C.1)

C. Purchase costs

Calculation 1.1 What? If eligible under the Grant Agreement, the beneficiaries/affiliated entities may charge ‘Purchase costs’.

This budget category covers, depending on the options that apply, the following sub-categories:

− Travel, accommodation and subsistence (see Article 6.2.C.1)

− Equipment (see Article 6.2.C.2)

− Other goods, works or services, if necessary to implement the action (see Article 6.2.C.3).

Purchase contracts are normally limited in scope. If a contract covers the implementation of action tasks, this will be considered as a case of subcontracting (see Article 6.2.B).

1.2 Depending on the provisions in the Grant Agreement, purchase costs must be declared as actual costs or unit cost (unit cost is provided for travel and subsistence costs for instance in EMFAF, IMCAP, SMP, ERASMUS, CREA, CERV, JUST, ESF/SOCPL, EU4H, AMIF/ISF/BMVI, EUAF, CUST/FISC, TSI, UCPM).

1.3. The costs must comply with the eligibility conditions set out in Article 6.2.C, in particular:

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

− be based either on the best value for money (considering the quality of the service, good or work proposed, i.e. the best price-quality ratio) or on the lowest price

− not be subject to conflict of interest and

− for beneficiaries that are ‘contracting authorities’ or ‘contracting entities’ within the meaning of the EU Public Procurement Directives (Directives 2014/24, 2014/25 and 2009/81)15: comply with the applicable national law on public procurement; these rules normally provide for special procurement procedures for the types of contracts they cover.

The beneficiaries can in principle freely choose between best value for money and lowest price.

Best value for money applies the general cost eligibility condition set out in Article 6.1(a)(vii) (i.e. that costs must be reasonable and comply with the principle of sound financial management) to the purchasing context. It does NOT necessarily require competitive selection procedures. However, if a beneficiary did not request several offers, it must — in case of a check, review, audit or investigation — be able to show that the price was market-value and that the criteria defining quality were clear and coherent with the purposes of the purchase (for detailed guidance, see cost category 6.2.B above).

Selecting the lowest price may be appropriate for automatic award procedures where the contract is awarded to the company that meets the conditions and quotes the lowest price (e.g. electronic tendering for consumables).

1.4 The calculation method depends on the type of cost (depreciation, actual or unit cost; see below).

Specific cases (purchase costs (C.)):

Purchases between participants

Are in principle not accepted. If a beneficiary needs

Framework contracts

Framework contracts can be used for selecting a provider if this is

Providers of research infrastructures services for transnational and virtual access of users (HE) — The reimbursement of their costs by the beneficiaries will be considered as a specific purchase of services which will be specified in Annex 1. If (e.g. due to the applicable national law) an entity providing research infrastructure services cannot issue an invoice to a beneficiary, but is paid or reimbursed via any other form of transaction, this can be assimilated to an invoice and accepted as eligible purchase costs.

Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on public procurement (OJ L 94, 28.3.2014, p. 65) and repealing Directive 2004/18/EC (OJ L 94, 28.03.2014, p.65). Directive 2014/25/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on public procurement by entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors and repealing Directive 2004/17/EC (OJ L 94, 28.3.2014, p. 243).

Best value for money can be assured if the providers do not make a profit and their access costs are calculated according to a well-defined methodology. To this extent, sufficient details must be provided, such as name of the service providers, purchase costs and object, as well as the explanation why these service providers are needed and why the purchase costs of the services are appropriate.

Example

Beneficiaries can explain why these providers of scientific services are necessary for the action, confirm that they will not include any profit margin when being reimbursed by the beneficiaries; that they will bear part of the access costs to the research infrastructure (because some of their costs will not be reimbursed like depreciation costs of their equipments).

Best practice: Beneficiaries should contact the granting authority, if they intend to amend the grant to change a specific purchase of service assessed during proposal evaluation or to introduce a new specific purchase of service during the action implementation.

C.1 Travel and subsistence (all programmes except RFCS, CCEI)

C.1 Travel and subsistence [OPTION 1 for programmes without travel and subsistence costs (ineligible): Not applicable ] [OPTION 2 for programmes with travel and subsistence costs: Purchases for travel, accommodation and subsistence must be calculated as follows: - travel: [OPTION A (actual costs): on the basis of the costs actually incurred and in line with the beneficiary’s usual practices on travel] [OPTION B (unit or actual costs): as unit costs in accordance with the method set out in Annex 2a if covered by Decision C(2021)35 or otherwise as costs actually incurred and in line with the beneficiary’s usual practices on travel] - accommodation: [OPTION A (actual costs): on the basis of the costs actually incurred and in line with the beneficiary’s usual practices on travel] [OPTION B (unit or actual costs): as unit costs in accordance with the method set out in Annex 2a if covered by Decision C(2021)35 or otherwise as costs actually incurred and in line with the beneficiary’s usual practices on travel] - subsistence: [OPTION A (actual costs): on the basis of the costs actually incurred and in line with the beneficiary’s usual practices on travel] [OPTION B (unit or actual costs): as unit costs in accordance with the method set out in Annex 2a if covered by Decision C(2021)35 or otherwise as costs actually incurred and in line with the beneficiary’s usual practices on travel]. ]