COFUND: The coordinator of a COFUND project is requesting that part of the contribution from partners within the project is paid in cash. Is this standard practice?

There is no rule on this, and the partners have to agree this between themselves.

COFUND: Can an institution provide the co-funding from its own budget, or does it have to come from national funding sources?

Match funding can come from a variety of sources, including in-kind contributions, internal funding, Implementing / Associated partners, etc., the only exception is that it cannot come from another EU funding source.

COFUND: Can implementing/ associated partners provide the co-financing for а proposal, or does this have to come from the coordinator/ beneficiary?

Both implementing partners and associated partners can provide co-financing. The money for the implementing partners can come from the coordinator, whereas the money for the associated partners has to come from a different source as they can’t receive EU money.

COFUND: What happens if during the project implementation the cofunding that was initially promised was not received by the beneficiary?

At the proposal stage, evaluators will check what is being proposed against the different criteria, they will see if it is feasible or not, they will check for letters of commitment, see if the contribution from partners is credible or not.

If later on there is a deviation of what has been proposed, then the beneficiary will discuss with the project officer to see how to proceed. The package of benefits offered to the researchers must be strictly respected though.

COFUND: Will evaluators assess if the appropriate level of co-financing is committed to effectively implement the proposal?

Yes, they will assess if the appropriate level of co-financing is committed to effectively implement the proposal.

COFUND: With respect to the co-financing needed on the applicant’s side, is there a required % co-funding needed? Do applicants have to match 50-50 the funding provided by the EU?

No % required for matching funds so it is up to the applicant to determine how much they will contribute to the total funding pot acknowledging that the EU funding will only cover the minimum remuneration required for the researchers.

COFUND: In which budget categories should the nature of co-funding (in cash or in kind) brought by the beneficiary/ partners be indicated? Is it in the table 1.1a, or just after this table?

Financial contributions:

In the part A –  own resources: resources from the beneficiary/ financial contributions: from partners

In the part B – the contributions from the beneficiary and partners must be included under ‘Total cost = EU contribution + own resources’ for the different categories in the table 1.1a.

If there is an in-kind contribution, it can be explained just after table 1.1a, but all financial contributions must be exact, quantified and included in part A and in Part B, table 1.1a.

The financial contributions (or in-kind contributions) from partners should be supported by letters of commitment (mandatory for Associated partners and highly encouraged for Implementing partners).