ERA-NET Cofund under Horizon 2020 allows flexibility for the scope of activities (compulsory joint call with or without additional activities) and whether the MS contributions are made in cash (classical ERA-NET) or in kind (institutional funding ERA-NET) which are described below.
Implementation of a single joint call, based on MS contribution in cash
ERA-NET Cofund can be used to implement only a single joint call for proposals (identical to the former ERA-NET Plus) with MS contribution in cash. The call is organised by national/regional funding agencies. The projects resulting from the call receive financial support from the national programmes on the basis of a grant agreement between the national programmes and the project participants (cascading grants).
The ERA-NET Cofund grant reimburses the direct costs of providing financial support to third parties for the trans-national projects, paid in accordance to national funding rules.
Implementation of a single joint call, based on MS contribution in cash and additional activities
An ERA-NET Cofund consortium may carry out other activities in addition to the joint call receiving top-up funding. Where appropriate, additional partners which do not participate in the co-funded call may be involved. The activities have to be related to the coordination of public research and innovation programmes and should focus on the preparation and implementation of joint activities including additional calls without Union top-up funding (activities comparable to the ones of the FP7 ERA-NETs). Examples of potential additional activities can be found here.
The funding of coordination costs (through lump sums, also called unit costs) is limited to those beneficiaries that carry out activities that go beyond the co-funded call.
In the case of a combination of the co-funded call with other activities the ERA-NET Cofund grant reimburses:
- direct costs of providing financial support to third parties for the trans-national projects, paid in accordance to national funding rules
- Coordination costs for additional activities (on the basis of unit costs per beneficiary per year, see below)
Implementation of a single joint call, based on MS contribution in kind
In-kind contributions in ERA-NET calls have been rarely used under FP6 and FP7 (iMERA+, AERTOs). They were however always possible and interest on the side of the stakeholders has grown, since this approach would allow to target research areas that do not work on the basis of the classical cash ERA-NETs.
ERA-NET Cofund allows the possibility, when justified by the research area and the underlying national programmes, to target governmental research organisations, with the co-funded call for proposals being based on in-kind contributions from their institutional funding. In this case the beneficiaries carry out the transnational projects resulting from their call for proposals themselves. The ERA-NET Cofund grant will reimburses the costs of trans-national projects, implemented by the beneficiaries, on the basis of Horizon 2020 rules for eligible direct and indirect costs. The in-kind contributions are the resources allocated as direct expenditure in the selected trans-national projects that are not reimbursed by the Union contribution.
If the ERA-NET is based on in-kind contribution instead of cash contribution will be announced in the call text. There are only limited calls addressing this Option.
A summary presentation on In-Kind/ Institutional ERA-NET-COFUND-Projects is available here.
