All Actions: What are the minimum requirements for the letter of commitment?

Letters of commitment should follow the template/outline given in the respective guide for applicants for each call. Do not forget to have the letters signed and provided with the correct date! 

COFUND: Should the partner organisation (associated partners from Horizon Europe on) provide a letter of committment?

As it is described in the Guide for Applicants:
All partner orgnisations, known at the time of proposal submission, must:
- provide a letter of commitment in Part B of the proposal which explicitly states their precise role in the action and their exact and quantified financial contributions if any.
- be included in the overview of all the identified partner orgasnisations provided in table in part B of the proposal

For the outline of the letter, please refer to the specifications in the Guide for applicants for the respective call. In case of resubmission, check potential changes and ensure the letter refers to the correct call and has the correct date! 

Where do I find the 'Researcher declaration' in Horizon2020 and HorizonEurope?

The ”Researcher Declarations” is even more important in Horizon2020, as reporting is automated (the data from the declarations will be fed directly to the reporting system). TThe RD has to be updated for all cases of leave (e.g. parental or sickness leave) and for secondments. The declarations are done electronically via the SyGMa portal for managing the grant.  

COFUND: Is there a country correction coefficient applied to the EU contribution in COFUND?

No country coefficients apply anymore for COFUND in H2020.

What is the contribution in COFUND?

The contribution is limited to 10 Mio Euro/beneficiary/call.
For the living allowance of the ESRs, the contribution amounts to 1935 Euros/person/month, for ERs to 2740 Euros/person/month. Institutional unit costs amount to 325 Euros/person/month for the management of the Project.
Please note that for researchers with employment contract the living allowance (salary, social security contribution, taxes and other costs included in the remuneration) can't be lower than 2709 Euros for ESRs and 3836 for ERs. 

COFUD: How long does it take from the moment of writing the proposal until the moment the project can finally start?

Count roughly 14 months.
Stage 1: After the Call for a COFUND has been published, the applicant has about 4 months to prepare and submit a proposal until the deadline
Stage 2 :  A panel of experts will evaluate the proposals (~4 months)
Stage 3 : Applicants whose proposals have been successfully evaluated will be invited to the grant preparation phase
Stage 4:  It will take another 3 months to prepare the contract. 
Stage 5: Start of the COFUND programme. 
The duration of the programmes can vary, normally between 36 and 60 months from the starting date specified in the Grant Agreement, however shorter programmes are possible depending on the specificity of the proposed training. The length of any individual researcher’s appointment must be at least 3 months.

What are the evaluation criteria for COFUND ?

Excellence (50%):
Quality of the selection/recruitment process.
Quality of the research options offered by the programme.
Quality of career guidance and training.

Impact (30%):
Enhancing the potential and future career perspecitves of researchers; strengthening human resources on regional, national and international level.
Aligning practices of participating organisations with the principles set out by the EU for human resources development in research and innovation.
Quality of the proposed measures to exploit and disseminate the results.
Quality of the proposed measures to communicate the results to different target audiences.

Quality and efficiency of the implementation (20%):
Coherence, effectiveness and appropriateness of the work plan.
Appointment conditions of researchers.
Competence of the participant to implement the programme.

Who evaluates the proposal?

You will find details on the evaluation process in the Guide for Applicants. The evaluators are experts (=researchers) in the field. They will be matched to your proposal according to their profile and to your abstract and keywords. They will for sure be in your general research area, but might not be in the exact same field that you are. 

Every proposal is read and evaluated by at least three independent evaluators.

How can I become an evaluator?

Please have a look at the 'Funding & Tender Opportunities' Portal for information on how to become an evaluator:

https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/work-as-an-expert

Can you please let me know the outcome of the evaluation?

No. National Contact Points/Programme Committee members do not get the information (neither the Evaluation Summary Reports nor the ranking - 'main list', 'reserve list' etc.) earlier than the coordinators of the projects.
You can find the timeline for each call in the respective Guides for Applicants. Results do not come earlier than announced there, and sometimes a delay of one or two weeks is possible.
If you do not get information on the outcome of your proposal, get in touch with your coordinator (for the Individual Fellowships: This is your future supervisor who is the contact person of the European Commission).