The European Commission paves the way for unit personnel costs in Horizon Europe and Euratom

The European Commission has adopted a decision allowing beneficiaries of Horizon Europe and Euratom projects to now claim personnel costs in the form of unit costs. This new option is reflected in the updated MGA. 

Unit costs serve as an alternative to the actual personnel costs so far utilized in projects. The aim of the decision is to simplify the calculation of personnel costs and reduce the frequency of errors that often occur in practice. The option to use unit costs is open to all HE/Euratom grant beneficiaries. It will be particularly appreciated by newcomers or institutions that participate in projects on an exceptional basis and have limited experience with grant implementation.

Unit personnel costs are based on the total personnel costs of the beneficiary institution for the last closed financial year. Applications for their use can be submitted via the FTOP Portal from May 1, 2024. 

Beneficiaries who decide not to use this alternative will not be affected by this decision and can continue to use the existing method of calculating actual personnel costs.

EC plans to organise a webinar on this topic. Detailed information about the webinar (including the link to connect) can be found HERE.

Follow also the information on FTOP.