FAQ for coordinators in CBE JU-funded projects

There is no template for deliverables. Although no mandatory format exists, including the following information on the front page of each deliverable adds considerable value:

• Project acronym, logo (if any) and grant agreement number;
• Deliverable title & number; 
• Type of deliverable (R, DEM, DEC, DMP…);
• Dissemination level (public or sensitive); 
• Lead beneficiary name & contact details; 
• Scheduled (according to GA) submission Date and Month (e.g. 1 July 2024 – M12); 
• Actual submission Date and Month.

In addition, the Funding & Tender Opportunities Portal allows to upload only one document per deliverable.
 

Although there are no requirements on the min. or max. number of pages, each deliverable should provide sufficient information to both CBE JU and external reviewers to assess the project’s progress and if the activities described in the Grant Agreement have been successfully carried out. Info found in deliverables should also be in line with (e.g. financial) information found in periodic reports. 

For non ‘non-textual’ deliverables such as the creation of a project website, be pragmatic, and submit a deliverable including the URL of the website, some screenshots, the general structure of the website and basic data of its use. 

Public deliverables (dissemination level ‘PU – Public’) are automatically published on Cordis (the EC’s primary portal for results of EU-funded research projects) after approval by CBE JU. In principle, deliverables will only be approved after the assessment of the corresponding periodic report (see also Q 4.1.2). 

Please also note that in order to change the dissemination level of a deliverable, an amendment to the Grant Agreement is required. Therefore, please contact your CBE JU Project Officer as soon as you become aware of a dissemination level change, as not officially (= via an amendment) updating the dissemination level might result in the unwanted publication of confidential data. 
 

Yes. This is in line with art. 7 of the Grant Agreement, which states that the beneficiaries are “jointly responsible for the technical implementation of the action. If one of the beneficiaries fails to implement their part of the action, the other beneficiaries must ensure that this part is implemented by someone else (without being entitled to an increase of the maximum grant amount and subject to an amendment”. This article can only be implemented if all beneficiaries are aware at all times of the project’s progress (e.g. via its deliverables). 

Milestones are part of the ‘continuous monitoring/reporting’ of Horizon Europe / CBE JU-funded projects. The achievement of a milestone should be reported immediately via the Funding & Tender Opportunities Portal / the SyGMa IT tool, in the respective module. In order to submit the milestone info in SyGMa, please:

• Check the check box to indicate whether the milestone has been achieved or not; 
• Select the delivery date; 
• Add a comment (optional); 
• Click the Save button.

CBE JU uses the Horizon Europe approach regarding continuous reporting; more information can be found in the Horizon Europe online manual, specifically in the continuous reporting section.

The CBE JU template for the technical/scientific reporting is available here . It is based on the  Horizon Europe Periodic Report Template, but includes some CBE JU-specific questions. 

Additional information about periodic reporting can already be found in the Horizon Europe online manual. Please also note that in order to submit a complete periodic report, all ‘continuous reporting’ SyGMa tabs in (e.g. summary for publication, critical risks, publications, …) also need to be completed.

(Only) the last periodic report (similar to the one described above); there is no need to submit a ’separate’ final report. Therefore, please ensure that your continuous reporting data is updated before submitting the last periodic report. 

Please also note that in the final periodic report, some additional elements need to be included in the (public) ‘summary for publication’, and in particular, the Certificates on the Financial Statements (CFS) need to be submitted. More information on the final periodic report can be found in the online manual.  

In the relevant ‘IT – How to’ section of the Funding & Tender opportunities Portal, a dedicated section is devoted to how to complete your financial statement.

When completing the (periodic) financial statements, please ensure that you do not only add amounts (EUR) per cost category in the IT forms, but that you also provide all requested additional information. This level of information is essential for a good (financial) review and assessment by CBE JU. For more information, please follow the financial statement guidelines on the Horizon online manual.

All types of eligible costs for CBE JU funding are described in Article 6 of the Grant Agreement (GA). The Annotated Model GA (AGA) provides more concrete examples (e.g. calculation of hourly rates via ‘financial year’ or ‘monthly’ methods; travel and subsistence allowance; depreciation costs; etc.). 

Only costs of a mandatory CFS are eligible, and can only be claimed via the final periodic report. A CFS is mandatory for each beneficiary/affiliated entity that requests a total financial contribution of at least € 430 000. This is different from BBI JU projects (Calls 2014-2020), where a different threshold and calculation method was used. For more information, please consult point 4.3 of the ‘data sheet’ embedded in your Grant Agreement and Article 24.2 of the AGA.  

Best practice: identify asap those organisations that will require a CFS and inform them about this requirement, so that they can contract an external auditor (well) before project’s end. This will avoid unnecessary delays when submitting the final periodic report (as CFSs need to be submitted together with all other elements of the final periodic report). 
 

Yes, but via the participant to which the affiliated entity is linked. See also the relevant page on the Horizon Europe online manual.

As of the second periodic report, costs submitted via previous periodic reports can be adjusted. For more information on how to do it including screenshots, please click here. 

Financial audits are coordinated by the Horizon Europe common audit service and performed either by the EC’s auditor or by external audit firms. In addition to these audits, other institutions (e.g. the European Court of Auditors) can also initiate and perform audits. More information about which elements are typically audited can be found in the relevant online manual section. Finance audits can be launch during the project and up to five years after the final payment

All beneficiaries and affiliated entities that receive CBE JU funding. Audit may also extend to other participants involved in the action such as associated partners, subcontractors and recipients. This is why beneficiaries must ensure that the granting authority can exercise its rights also towards those other participants.

As communicated in the letter of conclusion of the audit, you should not take any action in respect of the implementation of the adjustments in relation with the audited periods. The financial impact of audit findings will be initiated by CBE JU and you will receive a registered communication in this regard. Only non-audit-related cost adjustments (if any) should be submitted during periodic reporting.

All participants must keep records and other supporting documentation in order to prove the proper implementation and the costs claimed, up to 5 years after the final payment. This obligation is especially important for personnel costs, for which in case of an audit time records, declarations and/or time sheets are required to justify the hours charged to the project. Costs that are not sufficiently supported by adequate documentation will be recovered, even where the underlying work was genuinely carried out. 

The review will be based on the documents submitted within the period in question, including: the periodic report, financial statements, all elements submitted or achieved during the continuous reporting (e.g. deliverables, milestones, critical risks, info on dissemination, IPR, gender, etc.). The reference document for the progress assessment is the GA, and especially its Annexes I (Description of Action - DoA) and II (budget).

Some consortium members might be competitors in their daily business, and might not want to share certain confidential (e.g. commercial) information with each other when additional information is requested during the review. CBE JU will take this into account when organising the review meeting by proactively discussing / identifying such issues with the coordinator, and take appropriate measures (e.g. by structuring the review meeting agenda in such a way that some presentations are given and heard by only part of the consortium representatives).

CBE JU uses 1-2 external independent experts for projects’ reviews, depending on the complexity of the topic / project / value chain. They are selected ed on the basis of the relevant expertise needed to review the (scientific, industrial, IPR, etc.) progress of the project. The CBE JU Project Officer will consult the coordinator on the preselected experts. Consortia will be able to refuse experts on grounds of (commercial) Conflicts of Interest (CoI). Furthermore, experts will sign a contract with CBE JU that includes clear confidentiality arrangements. 

The review outcomes is used as for the assessment of the period by the CBE JU Project Officer.:

• If the review shows ineligible costs or substantial errors, irregularities or fraud or serious breach of obligations (including non- or improper implementation of the action as described in Annex 1), it may lead to suspension, termination, cost rejection, grant reduction and recovery (see Articles 30, 31, 32, 27, 28 and 22.2 of AGA) and to exclusion and/or financial penalties; (see Article 34 AGA) 
• If carried out during the implementation of the action, a review may also recommend reorientations to the action.
   

The pre-financing amount is fixed in each Grant Agreement (GA) at the time of the Grant Agreement Preparation. Please also note that an amount of 5% of the maximum grant amount is retained by the CBE JU from the pre-financing payment and transferred into the Mutual Insurance Mechanism (MIM), the successor of Horizon 2020’s Participant Guarantee Fund (PGF). 

The pre-financing will be paid to the coordinator within 30 days from 10 days before the starting date of the action, whichever is the latest (See section 4.2 of the GA’s datasheet).

The coordinator must submit the periodic report within 60 days following the end of each reporting period. CBE JU must execute the payment within 90 days after having received all the elements of the complete periodic report. However, if not all required documents are submitted within the 60-day period, CBE JU cannot proceed with the assessment and payment. If the information provided in the periodic report is incomplete or insufficient, CBE JU will ask additional questions, and the 90-day period will be suspended until the requested additional information is provided. Furthermore, the review (see FAQ section 3 above) is carried out before or during this 90-day period. The approval of the reports and any required deliverables by the CBE JU Project Officer will then trigger the payment. 

CBE JU uses the Horizon Europe programme definitions to distinguish dissemination and exploitation. 

There are two communication obligations stipulated in the Art.17 and Annex V of your grant agreement:

1. In all communication material:
   • Display logos of CBE JU, BIC and EU
   • Acknowledge the CBE JU funding
   • Display a disclaimer
2. Promote the project & its results

For the most up-to-date information, please always consult the ‘Manage your project’ section on the CBE JU website, where you can find the most recent CBE JU communication guidelines, logos and template text of the funding acknowledgment and disclaimer.
 

CBE JU offers the following communication channels to promote your project’s activities and results:

• CBE JU’s website, in particular the ‘Achievements’ section.
• The CBE JU newsletter. Please subscribe via this link. 
• CBE JU’s LinkedIn account: tag us in your project-related messages and follow our news.
• CBE JU’s Bluesky account: tag us in your project-related messages and follow our news.
• CBE JU’s YouTube channel. Share your project’s videos with us to add them on the dedicated YouTube channel.

For all communication-related questions and requests for inclusion/promotion of your communication material, please e-mail communications[at]cbe.europa.eu with your CBE JU Project Officer in CC. 

Check the ‘Manage your project’ section on the CBE JU website for a non-exhaustive list of other – often free - support measures, such as:

• The Horizon Results Platform, a free online space where you can promote projects’ key exploitable results to target audiences.
• The Horizon Results Booster, which offers free consulting services to step up a project’s dissemination and exploitation efforts. These services include creating a results portfolio, drafting an d implementing a common dissemination strategy for a cluster of projects, improving the exploitation plan, supporting the development of a business plan, and coaching on market activities.
• The Horizon Standardisation Booster allows ongoing or completed Horizon Europe projects to apply for practical guidance to assess the standardisation readiness of their project results, and match them up with standardisation experts to guide the project on how these results can feed into standardisation working groups or technical committees;
• GREEN ASSIST: this green advisory service for sustainable investments support helps beneficiaries to prepare green/greener investment projects, across diversified sectors and private & public beneficiaries.