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Research and innovation
News article6 October 2021Directorate-General for Research and Innovation

Lump sum funding works in practice – assessment of the pilot in Horizon 2020

In the R&I Framework Programme, project funding is so far based on the reimbursement of actual costs. Despite simplified rules and improved IT support, this system remains complex and error-prone. One of the Commission’s initiatives with high potential to overcome this problem, and to simplify further, is the wider use lump sums.

Consequently, we developed a lump sum funding approach that removes all obligations on actual cost reporting, time sheets, and financial ex-post audits. The objective is a massive reduction in errors and administration of R&I grants, and a stronger focus on content.

The new approach was tested extensively in the ‘Horizon 2020 lump sum pilot’ during the last three years of the programme. Today, about four years after opening the first pilot calls, we release the Assessment of the Lump Sum Pilot 2018-2020 (available for download below).

The report presents the pilot in more detail and brings together comprehensive feedback that we have been gathering from the start.

Overall, the assessment shows that lump sum funding works in practice, and that the approach developed in Horizon 2020 is fit for wider use in Horizon Europe.

More information on the lump sum funding approach in Horizon is available on the Funding & Tenders Portal.

6 OCTOBER 2021
Assessment of the Lump Sum Pilot 2018-2020
English
(1.62 MB - PDF)
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Details

Publication date
6 October 2021
Author
Directorate-General for Research and Innovation