13. CELTIC participation fee and invoicing
13.1 Why to pay a CELTIC participation fee?
The CELTIC participation fee is necessary to run the EUREKA cluster organisation, the CELTIC Office and the Eureka cluster research network. It is used to support the projects during the execution of the projects by providing different tools, reviews of projects with qualified experts and a number of technical and administrative support services.
13.2 When are invoices sent out?
Invoices will be sent out in June and in December, each accounting for ½ of the yearly fees. The invoices are based on the latest data from the latest approved PCR. Updates have to be submitted before the invoicing dates. In the starting phase of a project sometimes only one invoice is sent in the second half of the year, which accounts then for the entire yearly fee.
13.3 What amount will be charged?
The annual CELTIC fee has been set to 1,500 Euro per person year (PY) of planned work. This is the case for projects submitted until the first call in March 2020.
For projects that were submitted from April 2020 onwards the CELTIC Core Group has set the annual administrative charge at 1.5% of the annual eligible project costs per participant.
13.4 How can I avoid paying VAT?
VAT will be charged only if the partner has not provided the VAT number to the CELTIC Office. If this number is available VAT will not be charged.
13.5 No fee exemption for project labels in 2017 and later
The CELTIC Core Group decided that all project partners have to pay the CELTIC-NEXT fee for projects labelled in 2017 and later.
13.6 When do I have to pay the fees?
Your organisation will only pay CELTIC fees when you participate actively in a running CELTIC project. This means: In the negotiation phase with the funding bodies no fees will be asked. The fees will only be invoiced once the project starts and when the project coordinator sets the status of your organisation to “ACTIVE”.
13.7 Do I have to pay the fee if my company is not funded?
It is important to understand that the fee is independent from the fact if a partner receives public funding or not. The fee has to be paid from the moment a partner becomes active in the project work.
13.8 I have reported less work than planned. Will the fee be adjusted?
The fee is only based on the planned effort figures in the Project Description or in the latest update as indicated in the PCR. No calculation will be done on the actually worked effort, e.g., as reported by a partner. The reason why only planned figures can be taken into account is the strong relation between the effort and the budget applied for funding. As changes may have an impact on the public funding all changes must be officially announced through a PCR that will also be used to inform the involved Public Authorities.
13.9 Can the CELTIC fee be included in the total project budget?
In most cases, this is not accepted by the national funding agencies. In case of doubt this should be clarified with the Public Authorities in question.
13.10 What is a PO number?
A PO, or purchase order number, is a special number that is required by some accounting software (e.g. SAP based). Without a PO number those systems cannot accept and handle invoices. If your company works with such an accounting system you will be asked to send us a PO number before we can send out the invoices. Generally, not always, a new PO number is required for every new invoice.
