The financial management of grants is different from normal accounting practices. It follows the financial rules of the funding agency for a specific funding scheme. These can vary from programme to programme. For example, in Horizon Europe, companies funded by the EU typically cannot claim VAT, whereas universities can as they cannot reclaim them from their tax departments. VAT are thus ineligible costs whereas taxes on airline tickets are eligible for funding. For companies funded by the Swiss funding agency SERI, the rules are different again. Moreover, Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) are 100% funded while Innovation Actions (IA) are only 70% funded.
We at accelopment have supported more than a hundred European projects in their financial management and developed our accelFINANCE® toolbox for efficient and effective financial monitoring and reporting. As part of our grant finance support (gfs) service, our tasks typically range from the maintenance of a project-specific financial monitoring system, continuous controlling and the correct distribution of the EU funding to advice on the appropriate use of resources and the compilation of the financial project reports. We consider ourselves a “first, second and third level hotline” for all project partners when it comes to financial questions about Horizon Europe, Eurostars and other grants.
We have financial experts with experience in companies and academic institutions.
We support coordinators and consortia in the management of the project budget throughout the project’s lifetime. Using our accelFINANCE® tools (Project monitoring and Project reporting), we perform the following tasks:
We offer Horizon Europe-specific finance support as a project partner or service provider.
We support Swiss companies in all phases of the project implementation – from the setup to the closing of the project finances. Building on our own SERI financial reporting experience, we offer the following:
We offer SERI-specific finance support as a consultancy service.
The management of your EU project requires specific skills. From submitting deliverables on the EC portal to coordinating reporting for the entire consortium, an efficient implementation of your project is work. We can support you in this task, either as a project partner (beneficiary), a service provider or a subcontractor.
When your project is selected for EU funding, the Grant Agreement (a funding contract between the European Commission and the project consortium) is a prerequisite for the project to start. The new framework programme Horizon Europe has brought key changes to the Model Grant Agreement.
Yannic Fechtig