Question 1: What Is Exactly Meant by 'Previous' and 'On-Going' Reporting Period?

FAQ on ASR

Question 1: What is exactly meant by 'previous' and 'on-going' Reporting Period?

Reply 1:The previous or ongoingReporting Period is related to the year when the ASR is submitted and is in line with the terminology used in the grant agreement. Therefore, if we are talking of the ASR to be submitted in the year N:

The previous Reporting Period is the one ending on 31 December of the year N-1;
The ongoing Reporting Period is the one from the 1st January to the 31st December of the year N.

For example, for the ASR to be submitted by 31/03/2017the previous reporting period is the period ending on 31/12/2016 and the on-going reporting period is the one from 01/01/2017 to 31/12/2017.

Question 2: In case the Action's implementation dates and costs breakdown are different from those in the Grant Agreement, will the ASR be considered as a request for amendment? Will the revised implementation dates be accepted by INEA?

Reply 2:The rules for amending the Grant Agreement are set in Art.II.12. INEA does not consider the ASR as a formal request for amendment. Moreover, the completion of the assessment of the ASR by INEA shall not be considered as acceptance of the Action's reported revised implementation plans and costs breakdown. As a matter of principle, INEA expects the Beneficiaries to report in the ASR the most updated implementing plans.

Question 3: The Action started in 2014 but it is not clear which financial data should be introduced for the years 2014 and 2015. There may be four different possibilities: (1) the figures from the Grant Agreement, (2) the ones of the last ASR, (3) the one of the request for interim payment or (4) the amounts corresponding to the costs that were accepted by INEA.

Reply 3: INEA always expectsactual costs to be reported in the year they have been incurred. Therefore, twocases are possible:

a)No request for interim payment covering the years 2014 and 2015 has been submitted. In this case, the costs for the years 2014 and 2015 should be the same of the last ASR submitted in 2016. In the unlikely case they have been revised (for instance for accounting reasons), then the Beneficiaryshould report the revised incurred costs, and explain the deviation from the ones reported in the last ASR.

b)A request for interim payment covering the years 2014 and 2015 has been submitted and processed by INEA. In this case, what indicated in the point a) still applies. Moreover, any costs found ineligible by INEA in the frame of the request for interim payment should no longer be reported for the years 2014 and 2015.

Question 4:The Action is subject tosome delays. While it was due to be completedby the end of 2019, now it is considered that the Action will endby mid-2020. How should this be reflected in the financial tables?

Reply 4: The ASR should always reflect the actual “most likely” scenario for the implementation of the Action. Therefore, the description of the actual Action, its activities and its milestones dates should reflect such scenario. Similarly, the estimated costs should be reported in the year they are actually expected to be incurred (in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020), even if for the time being the end date of the Grant Agreement is December 2019. Note that the TENtec ASR tool will allow encoding costs in 2020 in line with the actual dates of the activities encoded by you.

Question 5: Will the amount of the Grant be reduced if the Beneficiaryindicatesin the ASR that itwill be spent less than foreseen during the eligibility period?

Reply 5:The maximum grant amount set in the grant agreement can only be modified through an amendment of the grant agreement. The ASR should always reflect the true and actual picture of the implementation. This also applies in case of foreseen lower expenditure by the Action's end date. Early information on possible implementation issues will help finding appropriate remedies according to the Grant Agreement provisions.

For example, in case of significantdelays, there is always a risk that the maximum grant will not be paid out if costs are incurred after the end date of the action. Timely communication and well justified reasoning are essential for possible amendment requests to be considered by INEA

However, as explained in Q2 INEA does not consider the information provided in the ASR as a request for amendment.

Question 6:During the selection procedure, the eligible costs of the Action were reduceddue to budgetary constraints and are lower than in the application form. However, the actual costs are still the same and higher than in the Grant Agreement. Which costshould the Beneficiary in the ASR?

Reply 6:The ASR should reflect the actual costs to implement the Action described in the Grant Agreement, even if these are higher than the costs estimates indicated in the grant agreement (for due to application of ceilings).