Budget specification

The budget in the application for support shall be specified on partner level as well as under each cost category (flat rates need no specification).

From the 15th of August, 2024, the programme provides a budget template in Excel which is optional to use as a help when creating the budget that shall be registered in Min ansökan. The template is adapted for the planning of staff as real costs. The budget template can be found on the webpage For project applicants.

From call nr 7 for Regular projects, the programme offers an option to calculate the staff costs with country specific unit costs.

Staff costs (real costs)

• the planned budget in the application shall be based on estimated real costs. 
• staff costs shall be specified with one line per role and partner with the real monthly salary, the percentage of social fees used in respective organisation (%) and the level of assignment in % and number of months engaged.
  Example: “Project Manager, 4 205 euros per month, social fees 50%, working 20% for 36 months”. Total cost in column for the intended partner = 45 414 EUR (calculated as 4 205 * 1,50 * 20% * 36).
• determine for each concerned staff member a fixed percentage of time to be worked on the project per month, make an average estimation for the whole project duration to be able to calculate the cost for each staff member.

Note! If you are planning to hire PhD students for the project you must clearly describe the role and relevance of the PhD student in the project. Applicable from regular call 3 the programme will accept a maximum of 50 % as the fixed percentage for a PhD student. No educational/ teaching- activities will be financed. The same rules apply to partners in Finland, Sweden and Norway.

When applying for the payment you report the real costs based on full time or the fixed part time.

Staff costs – unit costs (an option applicable from REG call 7)

The hourly rate per country:

• Swedish partners = 534 SEK /hour
• Finnish partners = 39 EUR /hour
• Norwegian partners = 584 NOK /hour

Plan the budget based on the staff resources needed for the project activities, just as you would with the other cost options. Calculate the planned hours and multiply that with the unit cost for respective country to get the amount for the budget. Example: if a Finnish project staff person will work 500 hours in the project, you take 500 and multiply that with the unit cost of 39 euros, and then you have the total staff cost for that person.

Note that a workload of 100% is a maximum of 1 720 hours for 12 months. So, if a person works 100% for the project, you can calculate a maximum of 1720 hours per year for that person, not any more hours than that. This means that the planned amount for a person working 100% for 36 months is as a maximum, for the different countries:
• In Sweden: 534 SEK * 1720 * 3 = 2 755 440 SEK
• In Finland: 39 EUR * 1720 * 3 = 201 240 EUR
• In Norway: 584 NOK * 1720 * 3 = 3 013 440 NOK

Budget amounts in SEK and NOK are converted into EUR in the same way as all other costs in SEK and NOK before adding the amounts in Min Ansökan, since we only use EUR in Interreg Aurora. See information about how to convert SEK and NOK into EUR here.

Staff costs shall be specified in Min ansökan with one line per role per partner with the planned level of assignment in % and number of months engaged.
– Example: “Project Manager in Finland, working 100% for 36 months”. When you use the unit cost to calculate the total planned cost, where 100% = 1 720 hours for 12 months the total cost in column for the intended partner in Finland would be = 201 240 EUR (calculated as 39 EUR * 1720 hours * 3 years)

When applying for the payment of an approved grant one reports the costs based on the unit costs times the number of actually worked hours verified with signed time sheets (templates will be available)

40 % flat rate to cover all other costs 

• when applying with the 40%-method you only need to specifiy the Staff costs and a flat rate of 40% will automatically be added on top of that.
• it is a flat rate based on staff costs to cover “all other costs”.
• mandatory use in regular projects with a budget up to EUR 200 000 and optional use in projects with larger budgets.
• when applying for payments, you only need to report the Staff costs, and the 40% flat rate will automatically be added based on the reported Staff costs.

15% flat rates to cover Office and administrative expenditure and Travel and accommodation costs. 

• when applying with the method “all cost categories” two flat rates of 15% will be added automatically based on the amount you register on staff costs.
• these budget lines are always covered by the flat rates, no real costs possible.
• when applying for payments, you need to report the Staff costs and all other real costs, the 15% flat rates will automatically be added based on reported Staff costs.

Other possible real costs (if using method “all cost categories)

• External expertise and services costs, Equipment expenditure and Costs for infrastructure and works.
• The planned budget in the application shall be based on estimated real costs.
• The costs shall be specified for each partner with a description of the planned purchases.
• Add one line per purchase and partner e.g “expert speaker/ laboratory equipment / event x/ xxx, 1 000 euros”. Total cost in column for the intended partner = 1 000 EUR. Also indicate whether the cost is a purchase or a depreciation cost for already bought items.
• these budget lines are not possible to use in combination with the 40%-flat rate.
• When applying for the payment you shall report the real costs actually paid.

Project revenue

• Projects are expected to share outputs and results widely and free of charge. But a budget line for project revenue is available for projects planning to have some kind of revenue.
• Unexpected revenue not foreseen in the budget in the application stage shall be reported in payment applications to avoid double financing of the expenditure.

Co-financing

• You must specify who the intended co-financiers are (which organisations will contribute with financing to the project?). This can be the partner itself or other external financiers. It is not necessary to submit documentation of approved grants from external financiers nor regarding own financing.
• You will need co-financing corresponding to 35% of the EU-costs and 50% of the Norwegian costs. 
• If you find out that the financing plan differs from what you presented in the application for support, please contact the joint secretariat to change the financing plan.

  – If an external co-financier will not be able to finance the project as intended, the project partner will cover the lack of funding itself. This is confirmed by the applicants in the signing document.

  – But, if you find out that external co-financing will not be approved, and the project partners are not willing to cover the lack of funding with own financing – please contact the joint secretariat regarding either a withdrawal of the application or a reduced budget so that all planned costs are covered. 

EU-funding and IR-funding

• The EU-funding (65%) and IR-funding (50%) will be calculated automatically by the system once you have added the costs and co-financing.
• In case the EU-share is larger than 65% and/or the IR-share is larger than 50% you will need to add some more co-financing or lower the costs.