What?

Costs for goods and services which are produced or provided within the beneficiary’s organisation directly for the action on the basis of its usual cost accounting practices

Examples:

• Self-produced consumables
• Specialised premises for hosting research specimens (eg. Animal house)
• Standardised testing of research processes
• Use of specific research device/facility
• In-house catering and housing for researchers

In Horizon 2020

• Unit costs
• All in average costs but WITHOUT inclusion of indirect costs in the unit costs
• No profit
• Personnel cost: calculation of hourly rates according to the MGA principles
• Pro-rate depreciation costs for the relevant reporting period
• Under “other direct costs”

AMGA H2020 (from 27.02.2017 onwards)– art. 6.2.D.5 (in version 5.2-26 June 2019 – page 101)

Horizon Europe

Principles

• Unit costs according to usual cost accounting practices of the beneficiaries, and consistently used by the beneficiary regardless of the source of funding
• Attributed by direct measurement or on the basis of cost drivers
• Costs used for the action

Details

• Needed: well documented methodology for using allocation keys based on the organisation’s usual cost accounting practices, direct and indirect costs
• Indirect costs can be included in the unit cost and can be different than 25% as is the rate in Horizon Europe, but is based on usual accounting practices. So no flat rate can be used. It is allowed to include actual indirect costs determined via allocation keys within the internal invoices, if that is the usual cost accounting practice. The allocation per key driver must be by cost item.
• This budget will not be included to calculate the 25% for indirect costs of the project
• Not applicable to projects requesting transnational access and virtual access to research infrastructure unit costs
• If catering used as part of eg. cost of visiting professor, then can be a cost driver (also catering costs from externals through invoices)
• Cleaning cannot be an internal invoiced cost itself (it is not directly used in the action), but can be cost driver in costs for an animal housing facility
• In budget table item D.2
• In the template from Work Programme 2026 onwards, no specific table "other costs categories" exists anymore; this information will be demanded in GAP phase
• Examples of eligible costs as part of the unit cost: AMGA HEU – article 6.2.D.2 (p.110)