DN: Having branches in different countries, what specific country does the budget of an IERO count to? Is there a possibility to choose? Does it have to be the country where the main branch is based?

One single IERO/IO (all branches included) cannot receive more than 40% of the total EC contribution. The country where the IERO is based won’t be counting towards the 40% rule, but it is the IERO itself which is counting (as if the IERO was considered as a separate country, but using the country correction coefficients of their hosts). Example: In a project, if there are European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) German and French branches, the budget requested by both branches will count towards the 40% rule for EMBL’s share, while this specific budget will not count for France’s or Germany’s share of the budget.