On Monday 27 February, the European Commission announced it had moved to a change of rules for the Horizon 2020 EU framework programme on research and innovation in order to respond to "an unexpected secondary effect" in the previous rules for researchers in some member states where basic salaries are relatively low.
This new modification to the "Model Grant Agreements" mainly concerns one point: the reimbursement of researchers' remuneration (up to 100%) for their work as part of a project financed by Horizon 2020. The problem particularly involved the member states of eastern and central Europe. The basic salaries of researchers in these countries is relatively low, but can be significantly increased with bonuses as part of national research projects. The rules which were adopted in 2013 prohibited the EU from reimbursing what was added to the remuneration above €8,000 per year per researcher.
In order to remedy this "unexpected secondary effect", which resulted in some researchers preferring not to ask for an EU grant, the Commission has now introduced a new definition of additional remuneration. From now on, only the part of bonuses which, with the basic salary, exceeds what a researcher would receive for his work in national projects will be described as additional remuneration. This change is retroactive and is applied to all ongoing grants. (Original article in French by Jan Kordys)