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The hierarchy of rules on eligibility of expenditure applicable to Interreg projects is as follows, and apply to all partners of the project, independently of partner country:
This hierarchy of rules only applies to eligibility rules of expenditure.
All applicable EU and national rules, apart from eligibility of expenditure, are on a higher hierarchical level than rules set by the Interreg Aurora Programme and must therefore be followed (e.g. procurement law). In such cases, the partner has to follow the stricter applicable rule. National procurement rules must be observed for all purchases and full documentation of the procurement is mandatory for expenditure to be regarded as eligible.
The programme will use both real costs and simplified cost options (SCOs). Regarding real costs, all beneficiaries must maintain separate accounting records or use separate accounting codes for all transactions relating to the project. The SCOs are reported based on pre-defined calculation methods and are not expected to match with accounting records. Costs covered by a SCO cannot be reported under any other cost category as real costs as this would be double financing.
All costs must follow the principles of sound financial management and must be free from partiality and conflict of interest. A conflict of interest can arise when a decision is compromised for reasons involving family, emotional life, political or national affinity, or where any economic interest or any other interest is shared with another person.
All costs must be:
Value added tax (VAT) is according to the EU-regulations eligible in projects with a budget up to EUR 5 000 000 (including VAT).
Cost-sharing within the project partnership
Invoicing between partners shall be avoided, as it can cause time-lags and other problems for project partners at the reporting stage. The main principle is that a specific cost shall be paid by one partner in total, and they shall not send an invoice regarding partial payments of that cost to the other partners. The partner carrying shared costs, shall include it as an expenditure in the individual project partner budget. The project partner in question can then receive a larger proportion of the funding in the project.
Ineligible expenditure
Examples of costs that are not eligible:
Use of the euro
The ERDF-funding is handled in EUR meaning that all partners budgets and reports must be in EUR. And even though the Norwegian IR-funding will be handled and paid in NOK also the Norwegian figures needs to be converted into EUR, for comparison regarding the joint application submitted in Min Ansökan.
Here you can find the EU-commission official exchange rate
Cost categories and simplified cost options
The programme aims to simplify the reporting of costs as much as possible. This is done by using some Simplified Cost Options (SCOs) such as flat rates and lump sums. When using flat rates, all partners must use the same method.
The benefits of SCOs are many. As SCOs are typically very easy to calculate, the beneficiary rarely makes mistakes in applying them. Reporting becomes much easier as there is no need to attach invoices. Thus, SCOs helps the programme to focus the efforts on what actually matters – results – and less on technicalities and practicalities that come with regular reporting. There can also be some downsides worth mentioning. As SCOs are calculated on the principle of being approximately suitable, some partners or projects will, by definition, be undercompensated where others will be overcompensated. Another aspect to consider is that SCOs are always defined in advance and cannot be modified later.
In Min Ansökan one chooses the method for the budget and the following cost categories are possible in Aurora projects depending on the choice of method:
A) The 40%-method
B) All cost categories
Staff costs (real costs)
Office and administrative expenditure (flat rate 15% based on staff costs, calculated by the system)
Budget specification
The budget shall be specified on partner level as well as under each cost category depending on the reporting method.
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 will need to specify who will contribute with financing to the project, this can be the partner itself or other external financiers. Remember that you will need co-financing corresponding to an amount of 35% of the EU-costs and 50% of the Norwegian costs. It is not necessary to submit documentation of approved grants from external financiers nor regarding own financing.
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, during the joint secretariat’s assessment of a submitted application finds out that external co-financing will not be approved, and 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.
Interreg Aurora is a brand new programme in the European Interreg community for cross-border cooperation 2021-2027.
The programme offers great opportunities and enables new and exciting cross-border cooperation in the northernmost part of Europe and Sápmi.
Interreg Aurora Managing Authority
County Administrative Board of Norrbotten
Stationsgatan 5
971 86 Luleå
SWEDEN
Phone: +46 (0)10-225 50 00
E-mail: interregaurora@lansstyrelsen.se
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