{"id":47606,"date":"2026-10-07T09:00:46","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T07:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nexuswelt.com\/?p=47606"},"modified":"2026-09-20T12:16:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T10:16:52","slug":"horizon-europe-budget-cost-categories-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nexuswelt.com\/de\/horizon-europe-budget-cost-categories-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a Horizon Europe Budget: Cost Categories, Rates and Common Mistakes"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Munich, 7 October 2026 \u00b7 Nexuswelt Group<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

The budget is the part of a proposal most consortia treat as arithmetic and evaluators read as evidence. An implausible budget undermines the implementation section, and a budget that does not match the work plan is one of the easiest criticisms for a reviewer to make.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

It is also where a surprising amount of money is left on the table through category placement alone. This guide covers the cost categories, how personnel costs actually work, the flat rate that makes classification a financial decision, and the mistakes that recur.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

The cost categories<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>

\"Horizon<\/p>


Every expense must sit in exactly one category. Double funding of the same cost across categories is explicitly prohibited.<\/i><\/p>

Personnel: the two-thirds<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>

Personnel is the largest line in almost every budget and the one with the most specific mechanics.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

The daily rate<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>

Horizon Europe works in daily rates rather than person-months. The rate is calculated from actual personnel costs over a reporting period, divided by the maximum declarable day-equivalents for that period. The horizontal ceiling is 215 day-equivalents per person per calendar year across all EU grants – a person cannot declare more than that in total, however many projects they work on.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

For part-time staff the ceiling pro-rates by the working time factor. For a reporting period shorter than a year, the maximum day-equivalents are calculated proportionally from the annual ceiling.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Only time actually worked on the project may be reported. The budget is an estimate; the report is a record.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

The unit cost option<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>

Since May 2024 there is an optional simplified route: a beneficiary-specific personnel unit cost, derived from the last closed financial year and approved through a wizard in the <\/span><\/span>Funding & Tenders Portal<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>. Once approved it replaces the actual-cost personnel categories with a single daily rate, applies to subsequent proposals invited to grant preparation, and is fixed for at least two years.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

For organisations running several EU projects, this removes a recurring administrative burden. It is worth investigating before your next proposal rather than after it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

The flat rate, and why category placement is a financial decision<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>

Indirect costs are a flat 25% of eligible direct costs. You do not track overheads, produce invoices or justify a rate. The mechanism is simple and it has one consequence that repeatedly costs consortia money.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Subcontracting is excluded from the base on which the 25% is calculated. So is financial support to third parties, where applicable.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

A euro booked as personnel generates indirect cost reimbursement. The same euro booked as subcontracting does not. Over a large budget the difference is material, and it is decided by how the work is structured rather than by any negotiation.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

This is not an invitation to misclassify. Subcontracting has a specific definition – implementation of a described action task by a third party – and reviewers examine subcontracting closely against what the grant agreement foresaw. The point is that the structural choice between doing work in-house and subcontracting it has a financial dimension that should be made deliberately at budgeting stage.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Funding rates by action type<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>
Action type<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/td>Funding rate<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Research and Innovation Actions (RIA)<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/td>100% of eligible costs<\/span><\/span><\/td><\/tr>
Coordination and Support Actions (CSA)<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/td>100% of eligible costs<\/span><\/span><\/td><\/tr>
Innovation Actions (IA) – non-profit entities<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/td>100% of eligible costs<\/span><\/span><\/td><\/tr>
Innovation Actions (IA) – for-profit entities<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/td>70% of eligible costs, leaving a 30% co-financing requirement<\/span><\/span><\/td><\/tr>
ERC, EIC Pathfinder, EIC Transition<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/td>100% of eligible costs<\/span><\/span><\/td><\/tr>
EIC Accelerator grant component<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/td>70% of eligible costs, with the grant capped at \u20ac2.5 million<\/span><\/span><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>

Two points that matter in practice. In a mixed Innovation Action consortium each partner’s rate is determined independently by its own legal status, so a company and a university in the same project receive different percentages of their own costs. And submitting a proposal structured for one action type to a call for another is a fatal error that reviewers identify immediately – the action type is dictated by the topic and by the maturity of the work, not by which rate looks better.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

The 30% that companies discover late<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>

For a for-profit participant in an Innovation Action, 30% of eligible costs are not funded. This is not a shortfall to be absorbed quietly – it is a co-financing requirement that has to have an identified source before submission.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Startups in particular reach selection and then discover that participation requires committing company money for several years. Identify where that comes from at budgeting stage: own resources, an investor, a national co-funding scheme, or a decision not to participate in that action type. For startups, this should be treated as part of co-financing readiness<\/a> before the proposal is submitted.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Rules on the other categories<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>