RISE: What are the options for project start dates in RISE?

RISE only applies fixed start dates. This is relevant as the applicant indicates activities (secondment) from the start date.
Usually the project starts within 9 months following the signature of the GA e.g. from January to June following the call year.

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! 

RISE: Do TECH (and admin ADM) staff need to have at least ESR qualifications?

Tech staff does not have to have ESR qualifications. Tech staff must have the necessary and adequate expertise to implement parts of the projects and supporting the research and innovation activities. The staff members are eligible if complying with all the eligibility criteria defined in article 6.2.A of the grant agreement. For general staff members eligibility conditions see also the MSCA Work Programme and the Guide for Applicants related to your call.
(Answer provided by REA)

RISE: A partner wants to second PhD students paid from scholarships, or PhD students enrolled in their PhD program but who are not paid at all.

PhD candidates can be seconded in a RISE action only if they are considered staff members of the sending organisation and fulfil all other eligibility criteria mentioned under Article 6.2.A) of the grant agreement and its annotations.
As mentioned under article 6.2.A) and 32.1.(b) of the grant agreement and its annotations, the RISE action does not reimburse any salary/stipend/other type of remuneration but only EUR 2.000 per month to cover travel, accommodation and subsistence costs.
The salary/stipend/other type of remuneration must be co-financed by the sending beneficiary/partner in accordance with the principle of co-financing mentioned in article 28.4 of the Rules for Participation in H2020.
In principle, all staff members are under the payroll of the sending organisation and therefore already receive a salary/stipend/other type of remuneration prior to the secondment. The sending beneficiaries/partners are obliged to keep paying the existing salary/stipend/other type of remuneration during the secondment period. In fact, according to article 32.1.b) of the grant agreement and its annotations the beneficiaries/partners cannot penalise the staff member by reducing his/her existing rights due to the participation in the action. If in exceptional cases (especially with regard to PhD candidates in certain countries) no salary/stipend/other type of remuneration exists prior to the secondment the beneficiaries/partners are strongly encouraged to provide an additional financial remuneration to its seconded staff members.

The RISE action does not impose any specific contractual relationship. However, according to Article 6.2.A of the grant agreement and its annotations, the existing contractual relationship should confer to the sending organisation the legal means in terms of control, supervision and instructions to impose to the secondee compliance with the grant agreement obligations (e.g. full-time work for the activities of the project, IPR, visibility of EU funds, confidentiality, etc.).It is up to the beneficiary to ensure that this is actually the case according to national law provisions, internal practices and the provisions governing the link between the secondee and the sending organisation. The beneficiary is also responsible to verify that this condition is fulfilled for the staff members seconded from third country partners to its organisation.
(Answer provided by REA)

RISE: Can staff paid from an external grant be seconded?

During the secondment, staff members can receive additional financial support from third parties' sources (other than EU projects) provided the third parties concerned do not impose obligations contrary to RISE grant agreement and provided this has no impact on the eligibility conditions of the staff member (e.g. the seconded person must be the staff member of the sending organization and not of the third party by which he/she is paid).

Concerning EU projects:

• Staff members cannot receive any funding from EU H2020 MSCA
• The possibility of receiving funding from other EU funded projects is theoretically possible for personnel costs (remuneration of staff) but practically extremely difficult. The folllowing issues needs to be considered; 

1. The beneficiaries must request additional information to the EU services in charge of the concerned EU projects and namely if, depending on the type of action, the actual personnel costs of the PhD can be reimbursed regardless of his/her participation in RISE on a full-time working basis.
2. The other action must be fully compatible with RISE obligations in terms of IPRs, confidentiality, working time pattern, R&I activities, etc.
3. The possibility of receiving funding from other EU funded projects to cover other type of costs is not possible since already covered by RISE (travel and subsistence, networking, training, research, management, indirect costs)

(Answer provided by REA) 

RISE: Can a consortium agree to pay more for longer distances and less for short distances, according to the needs, or does the amount of 2100€ need to be fully spent on a monthly secondment of one staff member, no matter the distance and actual costs?

The monthly top up allowance of 2.000 EUR must be spent individually for each staff member. The beneficiaries have more margins with the institutional costs which can be used, among others, to maximize the top up allowance of the staff members. This can be agreed internally in a partnership or consortium agreement.

RISE: A staff member is employed part time at the sending institution and the duration of his employment is enough to meet the 6-months criterion. While on secondment, (s)he needs to work full time for the project. Does this mean, the sending institution needs to change her/his employment agreement accordingly and employ her/him full time for the duration of the secondment?

It depends: I is certain that they need to find the necessary internal arrangements allowing the staff member to work full-time during the secondment. These arrangements can be of whatever nature provided they can finally demonstrate full-time work.

RISE: Which secondments are eligible from or to International Organisations?

The following rules would apply for international organisation (IO):
The IOs are not counted as established in MS/AC for the minimum eligibility conditions as stated in article 7.1 of the Rules of participation;
Secondments FROM an IO:
a) Secondments from an IO in a TC not listed in general Annex A cannot be funded unless the participation of the IO is considered essential according to article 10.2 of the Rules of participation and as also further explained in the Guide for Applicants (see extracts below).
b) If the participation of the IO is considered essential the following principles apply:
· From IO located** in MS/AC to MS/AC: inter-sector
· From IO located** in MS/AC to third country: international
· From IO located** in third country to MS/AC: international
· From IO located** in third country to third country: not eligible
Secondments TO an IO:
They are eligible as international or inter-sector. For the third case in the list the participation of the IO shall be essential (see above):
· From MS/AC to IO located** in MS/AC : inter-sector
· From MS/AC to IO located** in third country: international
· From a third country to IO located** in MS/AC : international
· From a third country to IO located** in third country : not eligible
**Notice that it is the actual location of the branch of the IO from where the staff is seconded that counts and not the country of the headquarters of the IO if the staff is not seconded from there.
(Answer provided by REA)

RISE: What kind of contractual justification is required to participate in a RISE project in the case of collaborators of a NGO in an EU-MS/AC?

CONTINUATION OF THE QUESTION: The NGO in this case, has members who are people with disabilities and familiars, as well as voluntary collaborators. The relationship of all of them with the NGO is as members by paying an annual fee, and only some administrative staff perceives a salary.
Are the following examples eligible for a secondment?
- The president of the NGO, although she does this on a voluntary basis and has no salary for this work.
- A full professor of a University in this EU-MS/AC collaborates on a voluntary basis in the NGO as responsible of R&D in the NGO. He does not perceive any salary from the NGO. The relationship with the NGO is because he pays an annual membership fee to the NGO.
- A member of the NGO, a person with disabilities, who wants to collaborate in different tasks of the project and perform mobility.

ANSWER:
The existing link between the sending organisation and the seconded person should provide to the sending organisation the legal and contractual means to impose to the seconded person compliance with RISE obligations. The seconded person must therefore work under the instructions and supervision of the sending organisation. This is normally the case with employment contracts but other forms of contractual relationship are accepted regardless of their nature provided they ensure to the sending organisation the legal means mentioned above.
Therefore, on the top of all other eligibility criteria applicable to RISE, the NGO must verify internally if the relationship with the three persons mentioned in your e-mail is enough to ensure the above legal means. Is the link with the NGO sufficient enough to allow the NGO to have contractual control/supervision over these persons?
Concerning the “professor of a Spanish university” please notice that in addition to the above the same professor will not be able to be seconded from both the NGO with which he/she collaborates and the University to which he/she is also linked.
(Answer provided by REA) 

RISE: Is a partnership agreement mandatory?

The partnership agreements are not mandatory but are strongly recommended - see Guide for Applicants:
It is also strongly encouraged to conclude a Partnership Agreementt with the TC partner organisations to determine clear and transparent rules governing the internal relations between MS/AC beneficiaries and TC partner organisations (e.g. use and distribution of funding, legal issues, IPR, confidentiality, scientific responsibilities to implement action tasks, compliance with grant agreement obligations, etc.).

RISE: If an organization in an African country is legally part of a Danish organization, which country should be registered in a RISE project?

If the organization has their own PIC, it is the location of the organization which determines for RISE the status, rather than which country “owns” it. In this case, the country should be the African country.
(Answer provided by REA and NCPs)

RISE: How does financing of those organisations in TC who are eligible for funding work? Are these organisations entitled to receive funding via the beneficiaries?

The EU contribution is allocated to the coordinator. The coordinator shall distribute the contribution to each beneficiary according to own staff seconded to other participants (including the other EU/AC organisations in inter-sectorial secondments) to the RISE consortium plus the secondments of staff from TC partners to its organisation. Other financial arrangements may be concluded in the partnership agreement depending on the specific necessities of each project.
As a general rule, the EU contribution must be directly managed by the beneficiaries of the project established in Member States/Associated Countries. However, under the responsibility of the sending organisation established in MS/AC, the EU contribution can be transferred to the TC. It is highly encouraged to define these financial arrangements in a partnership agreement according to the needs of the project.
All the budget parts under RISE are unit costs, so no actual costs. Provided that the secondment has occurred, the budget is directly linked to the actual duration of the secondment and calculated on that basis as mentioned in the Guide for Applicants. Therefore, there is no need to demonstrate how the associated budget has been actually used or to provide evidence of actual expenditure incurred. It is only necessary to demonstrate that the declared secondment really took place at the dates which have been reported. This can be done by any means depending on the internal practices of the beneficiaries but must be adequate enough to provide a clear and not doubtful justification about the actual duration of the secondments declared.
In general, the distribution of the money (Researcher Costs and Institutional Costs) is up to the consortium to decide, but if the coordinator and beneficiaries decide to send money outside of the EU, this is at their own risk.
(Answer provided by NCPs)

RISE: Should the Staff member unit cost - 2100€ - of RISE projects be paid fully to the seconded, individual staff member or can the beneficiary use the “extra” (if there´s some money left after travel, accommodation and other subsistence costs) to the benefit of the project, for example networking costs? The text at the GfA is referring only to the “top-up allowance”.

The researcher staff shall be seconded under the best conditions possible for the time of the exchange. Provided that this requirement is met, it is up to the beneficiary to manage the EU unit costs (no minimum per category).
As for the reporting, the REA will request the submission of the researcher declaration (RD) and the corresponding periodic report (According to article 19.1). You will not be requested to report on each category but the corresponding number of units (person- months) per researcher month per beneficiary.
In the case of an audit, each beneficiary shall keep proof of the time for the secondments (boarding pass, visas, etc…) as normal accounting practice.
(Answer provided by REA)

RISE: In a consortium consisting of several countries including Belgium and Japan: Do the Japanese institutions have to finance the secondments to Belgium themselves and does this also mean that the Belgian participant cannot claim any management costs for this?

Yes, that is right. The institutional unit costs (Training & Researcher, management & overheads) are calculated accordingly to the planned person months of staff exchange eligible for funding. Because secondments from Japan to Belgium are not eligible for funding, so they can’t claim any management costs for this.
(Answer provided by NCPs)

RISE: Can the participants use part of the institutional costs to recruit technical staff for the management of the project?

No, the institutional costs are not supposed to cover any recruitment since this is not the aim of the action. The RISE action, as all other EU grants, is based on the principle of co-financing. Based on this principle the beneficiaries must co-finance the action by supporting the costs not reimbursed by the EU (in that case, the costs of newly recruited staff if necessary for the action). RISE is not supposed to cover 100% of the costs required to implement the action but only 100% of the eligible costs defined in the Grant Agreement.
(Answer provided by REA)

RISE: Can Third -Countries not eligible for funding receive a percentage of the institutional cost?

No, the eligibility rules cannot be bypassed to fund ineligible secondments using the institutional costs of eligible secondments. The RISE action, as all other EU grants, is based on the principle of co-financing. Based on this principle the beneficiaries must co-finance the action by supporting the costs not reimbursed by the EU (in that case, the secondments from TC not eligible for funding). RISE is not supposed to cover 100% of the costs required to implement the action but only 100% of the eligible costs defined in the Grant Agreement. REA confirms that the institutional costs can be used to cover general networking (where partners from TC not eligible for funding are also involved).
(Answer provided by REA)

RISE: Is it possible to transfer institutional unit costs from a beneficiary to a Third Country partner?

It is possible to transfer the institutional unit costs, if this is foreseen in the partnership Agreement. Of course, these rule should be very clear and strict, because the EU beneficiary is reporting these costs later on to REA.
(Answer provided by NCPs)

RISE: In case of a project meeting how can the participant cover his travel cost, by his own budget or by the host’s one?

For project meetings, travel costs for attendees should be covered by either of the Institutional cost categories.

RISE: Does the seconded staff member have to be 'actively engaged' with the sending institutions immediately prior to the secondment, or could it be e.g. a former employee?

In order to be eligible to the RISE funding, the researchers must have been employed by the beneficiary for at least six months before the secondment : this rule implies that the beneficiary cannot send staff newly hired in secondment, regardless of their former professional experience.
(Answer provided by NCPs)

RISE: Can an ITN fellow also be seconded within a RISE project?

An ITN fellow cannot be seconded in the RISE project also:
- as travel allowances are already covered by the ITN fellowship (double funding) as well as, - the commitment to be seconded full-time for the RISE project (article 32.1.f Obligations towards seconded staff members).
(Answer provided by REA)