Workshop held on financial matters in H2020

On Friday, 13 April, the Ministry of Science organized a workshop on financial and administrative matters in the Horizon 2020 programme, intended for accountants and financial and administrative managers of the current and future projects under this EU programme.

Some of the topics covered by the workshop were: compliance and additional requirements of the H2020 rules in relation to standard accounting practices; pre-financing and periodic payments of project funds tranches; relationships of project partners and coordinators; eligible and ineligible costs; methods of calculating personal costs in project preparation and keeping records on them during implementation and reporting in financial statements; different categories of staff on the project; good management of travel and equipment costs, other costs and indirect costs – rules, justification of costs, required records, monitoring costs in relation to the budget plan, etc.

The workshop was attended by over thirty representatives of universities and other organizations, who followed the presentations with interest, taking active participation in the discussion by asking numerous questions and presenting their dilemmas. One of the more important messages and conclusions of the event was the need to improve financial management at universities, which would help projects become a source of additional revenue and financial strengthening of the entire institutions, not just individual teams. This is a practice that exists in all developed universities in Europe and it is only possible to create an encouraging environment in which teams and institutions will be interested in getting as many projects from EU funds as possible by its adoption.

The workshop was led by Marina Matović from the Center for the Promotion of Science from Belgrade, a financial advisor for international projects and a member of the BESTPRAC COST Action, through which financial and administrative managers from numerous organizations in Europe are networking and exchanging knowledge. Montenegro is also included in this COST action (http://www.bestprac.eu/home/).