Budgeting in ERC proposals

The ERC evaluates the estimated costs carefully and unjustified budgets will be reduced. It is thus important to include a solid and realistic budget in the proposal, and start working with the budget as early as possible.

The budgeting process

• The applicant/PI should contact the financial officer at department/faculty as early as possible.
• Draft the budget using the UiB H2020 budget template 
• Include all eligible costs in the budget (Budgeting in ERC proposals)
  - It is important that the PI and project owner (department/center) is aware of the total project costs. When budgeting it is thus recommend to include all eligible cost in the UiB budget template, even if costs exceed the max grant limit from the ERC.
  - Any ineligible project costs must also be taken into consideration, but not included in the budget template itself as only eligible costs can be presented to the ERC. The UiB real overhead rate is an example of such an ineligible cost, and is found by using the own contribution calculator in the budget template.
  - When budgeting be aware of specific rules relating to the use of personnel not employed by UiB, third parties carrying out part of the work (including subcontractors), purchase of equipment or use of UiB infrastructure.
• Decide how to present the budget in the proposal (Budgeting in ERC proposals)
  - If the total eligible costs are above the max grant limit from the ERC, the applicant/PI must decide how to present the budget in the proposal, showing the total eligible costs or only up to the ERC grant limit.
  - According to the ERC there is no right or wrong model, what is important is that the budget is clearly presented and that costs are fully justified.
  - If the project is successful, any project costs that will not be covered by the ERC grant should be budgeted on 2UiB in the PA project (these costs may be paid by the UiB top-up funding - how the top-up funding is spent should be a decision between the PI and project owner).
• In section c) Resources; fully justify the costs included in the budget, and include all information as described in the Information for ERC applicants (ref. Budgeting in ERC proposals).
• NEW FROM MAY 2019
  - The budget template and section c) Resources are no longer to be included in B2, only in the online submission forms.
  - Section c) must be maximum 8000 characters (approx. 2 pages, font size 11, single spacing)
  - Send the budget and section B2 to the Financial services for quality assessment. Please include section c) in B2 for the quality assessment, even though it will not be included in B2 in the proposal. We ask for B2 in order to carry out an eligibility check and to identify potential costs and/or deviations between the narrative description and the budget.
  - Please send the your documents to quality assessment as soon as possible and within 3 weeks before the deadline.

This page is updated by Hege Dysvik Høiland