The Research Executive Agency (REA) is now autonomous

The task of executive agencies is to manage specific activities which would normally have been carried out by the European Commission. The Research Executive Agency (REA) has its own legal personality, but is supervised and controlled by the European Commission.

The parts of FP7 that the REA manage are:
• The Marie-Curie Actions of the People Program.
• The SME-specific activities of the Capacities Program.
• A large part of the Space and the Security themes from the Cooperation Program.
• In addition, a major role of the REA is to provide and manage the evaluation facilities across the entire framework programme (except evaluation facilities for the Ideas Program, which is entirely managed by the European Research Council).

This means that in above areas your Project Officer will now be part of the executive agency and not the Commission.

More.

60% Transitional Indirect rate is maintained

On the 15 June 2009, the Commission made the decision not to reduce the Transitional Indirect rate for calls closing after 31 December 2009. Instead the 60% rate will continue to be used. This is due to the fact that currently about 84% of Universities still use flat rates.

The Finance Helpdesk underlines that this statistic is worrying as it is clear that the vast majority of universities have not yet implemented an accounting system that would allow them to receive much higher funding via using actual indirect costs.

The Finance Helpdesk has been assisting Universities and Research Institutes across Europe in setting up their books correctly and advising on the best suited Indirect Costs Methodology.

They hope that organisations looking into upgrading their accounting systems will not now decide to halt and continue to use the 60% Transitional Indirect rate, when they could from our experience be due a much higher overhead rate.

Swiss participation in FP7 in 2007-8

This annual report gives an overview of the Swiss participation in FP7 up to 2008 in terms of thematic areas or participant types, success rates of project proposals as well as an international comparison of the Swiss participation.

The report is available on the SER website.

Swiss participation in COST: Annual report available

COST (European CO-operation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) is one of the longest-running European instruments supporting cooperation among scientists and researchers across Europe. COST is a framework allowing for coordination of nationally-funded research on a European level. The aim of COST is to establish and support international networks amongst scientists.

The Swiss State secretariat of education and research (SER) just published its annual report 2008 on Swiss participation in COST: This annual report gives details on COST Switzerland, COST at international level, the Swiss representation in various technical committees and Swiss participation in COST Actions.

To download this annual report and for further information on Swiss involvement in COST please refer to the SER website under "Dokumentation" and "Themen". For further information on how to participate in COST, please contact the cost office at SER.

Use of Subcontractors in FP7 - information leaflet published

There are different ways that an organisation can take part in an FP7 Project. The majority of organisations participate in projects as Consortium partners, or Beneficiaries as they are now known.
Another way an organisation can take part in FP7 Projects is as a Third Party. Subcontracting is a type of Third Party participation; however it is subject to specific rules.

The Finance Helpdesk has published a leaflet to explain these specific rules. The leaflet can be downloaded from there site, members login required.

EC participant Portal: New functionalities in pilot phase

The EC "Participant Portal" is intended to become your single entry point of interaction with the Research Directorates-General of the European Commission. It will host a full range of services that facilitate the monitoring and the management of your proposals and projects throughout their lifecycle.

Today it offers:

- Registration of your organisation's data in the Unique Registration Facility (URF), avoiding redundant requests for information;
- After registration you will receive a Participant Identification Code (PIC) that uniquely identifies your organisation.You can use it to maintain your organisation's details and monitor its status in the processes of electronic proposal submission and negotiation;
- You can also check whether your organisation has already registered and if so, retrieve the PIC that has already been assigned;
- The appointed representative of your organisation, called the LEAR (Legal Entity Appointed Representative) can provide and update relevant legal & financial data via the portal.

New functionalities are currently implemented as pilot services:

- All visitors may search for FP7-related support documents;
- LEARs may access the list of projects associated with their organisation, including project details and the status of amendments.

Since the Participant Portal is still in its early days, technical problems may occur especially for the pilot services.

Here the link to the FP7 Participant Portal.

Update of FP7 financial guidelines available

The European Commission has recently published a first update of the FP7 financial guidelines.

The modifications, product of experience, new developments and feedback from users, include:

- Explanations on a financially weak entity wanting to be coordinator
- Further information on the certification process
- Further explanations on direct personnel costs, an updated model of timesheet and additional information on productive hours
- Additional explanations on indirect personnel costs including the simplified method
- New examples of "Other activities" and "Management activities"
- New explanations on the obligation to declare interests
- Additional example and explanations on the intervention of the Guarantee Fund

The document can be downloaded on cordis.