ESSnet Training
Part 1 – Administrative Matters
P. Jacques
25-26/11/2010
ESSnet training Budapest
 General ESSnet process
 Financial instruments:
– Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA)
– Multi-beneficiary Grant Agreement (MBGA)
 Administrative forms
 Follow-up of projects
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General ESSnet process (1)
 Step 1: Preparation of the project
– Choice of project at Eurostat level
– Discuss the subject and content of the ESSnet project with
Member States in the different WGs and TFs and get interest and
partnership including co-ordination from involved Member States
– Eurostat develops the yearly ESSnet plan of activities
 Indicative calendar
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New ESSnet selection procedure for 2011 onwards
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General ESSnet process (2)
 Step 2: Programming:
– Eurostat prepares the annual work programme
– Eurostat presents the ESSnet annual plan to the ESSC in May
for discussion
– Eurostat includes ESSnet projects in the Financing Decision (FD)
– Adoption of the FD by the Commission
– ESSnet restricted invitation to submit proposals to be launched
once FD adopted.
 Indicative calendar
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General ESSnet process (3)
 Step 3: Grant award procedure
– Restricted invitations to submit proposals:
• Invitation letter to ESS organisations, with technical specifications (including
evaluation criteria), templates and model contract and deadline for submission of
proposal. No informal contacts between MS and Eurostat once the restricted call
is launched.
– Reception of proposals:
• Detailed projects proposal sent by coordinators to Eurostat (at least 3 weeks for
preparation of the proposal – at the discretion of Eurostat unit)
• Advise to set up a mailbox for exchange of information and documents between
partners
 Indicative calendar
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General ESSnet process (4)
 Step 3: Grant award procedure
– Evaluation:
• Evaluation of proposals and selection of
partners/ beneficiaries according to the eligibility
and exclusion, selection and award criteria,
followed by grant award decision
• Technical Proposal evaluated by Eurostat
(positive, negative or request improvements)
• Use of thresholds.
– Award decision:
• Taken by Authorising officer and documented
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General ESSnet process (5)
 Step 4: Commitment
– Eurostat prepares the contract: two types depending
on characteristics of the action (clearly defined or not)
and duration (more of less than 2 years)
– Multi-Beneficiary Grant Agreement: action clearly
defined and with a duration of less than 2 years.
– Framework Partnership Agreement with multiple
partners. This financial instrument is the solution for
long term projects of about 4 years. They should
however be supplemented by specific grant
agreements.
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General ESSnet process (6)
 Step 5: Implementation
– Pre-financing: if contractually agreed
– Monitoring technical and financial report: On-going
monitoring of grant actions
 Step 6: Closure
– Final payment: Approval of the final payment.
– Ex-post evaluation:
– Feedback: collection of information about issues and
process weaknesses identified during the process
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 General ESSnet process
 Financial instruments:
– Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA)
– Multi-beneficiary Grant Agreement (MBGA)
 Administrative forms
 Follow-up of projects
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Framework Partnership Agreement (1)
 Partnership definition
– partnership is an arrangement for 'long-term cooperation' that
the Commission establishes with certain beneficiaries called
'partners'. It is established and governed by a specific agreement
called the "framework partnership agreement .
 Partnerships involve:
– mutual interest and common general objectives shared by the
Commission and its partner in pursuing a Community policy;
– actions that have been defined and agreed jointly between the
Commission and its partner, on the basis of common general
objectives;
– an ongoing and formalised arrangement between the
Commission and its partner to implement the envisaged actions
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Framework Partnership Agreement (2)
 Instruments
– Partnerships are implemented by a legal instruments:
framework partnership agreements (and specific agreements)
 the first level is the framework partnership agreement
which sets out the conditions governing grants to partners
for carrying out actions, on the basis of an action plan and
jointly agreed general objectives.
– this first-level agreement does not constitute an obligation for
the Commission to award grants.
 the second level is the specific grant agreement which is
based upon the framework partnership agreement and
leads to a Community grant for each partnership action.
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Framework Partnership Agreement (3)
 Duration: For ESSnets longer than 2 years but not
exceeding 4 years, except in exceptional cases.
 Contents:
– Preamble, which justifies establishment of the partnership and
the nature of the actions envisaged.
– Special and General Conditions, which define the respective
roles and responsabilities of the Commission and its partner.
– Annexes:
• Actions planned under the partnership,
• Model specific grant agreement
• Mandates
• Management arrangements (organisation of the team)
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Framework Partnership Agreement (4)
 The technical and financial arrangements are
described in specific grant agreements.
 Specific grants are lighter documents
containing:
– the duration of the action
– the detailed description of work to be achieved
during the period
– the financial details (funding, repartition between
partners, payments details)
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FPA Procedure (1)
 Preparation of the FPA (once for 4 years)
– Discuss the general subject, the duration and elaborate the activities
to be covered by annual ESSnet projects with Member States in the
different WGs and TFs and get interest and partnership including coordination.
– Start already to discuss the content of the first year of activity of the
annual ESSnet project with Member States in the different WGs and
TFs
– Eurostat develops the yearly ESSnet plan of activities.
– Eurostat prepares the annual work programme.
– Eurostat presents the ESSnet annual plan to ESSC in May for
discussion
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FPA Procedure (2)
 How are the FPA awarded?
– Eurostat launches an ESS restricted call for proposals for
an FPA.
– Coordinator sends on behalf of partnership, a proposal
including the general implementation of the activities and
the general administrative arrangements, partnership and
resources devoted to the action
– Eurostat evaluates the proposal, negotiates points and
generates the contract to be signed by the coordinator on
behalf of the partnership.
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Preparation of the SGA (Specific Grant Agreement)
 Procedure for selection of the proposal and start the project:
– Yearly programme of activity developed and elaborated with MS in WGs or TFs
– Invitation letter only to FPA partners, with technical specifications (including selection
criteria), templates and model contract and deadline for submission of proposal.
– Detailed project proposal sent by coordinators to Eurostat (at least 3 weeks for
preparation of the proposal – at the discretion of Eurostat unit)
– Technical Proposal evaluated by Eurostat (positive, negative or request
improvements)
– Eurostat to prepare the contract (Specific Grant Agreement) and start the project
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FPA/MBGA. Some specificities
 Role of the beneficiaries: A group of multiple partners /
beneficiaries must always have a coordinator, who has
certain responsibilities
 Signature: All partners a power of attorney for the
coordinator to sign the agreement. The mandate must be
annexed to the agreement.
 Organisation of the team: All partners must agree upon
appropriate arrangements between themselves for the
proper performance of the action.
 Financial responsibility: An article (special conditions)
provides the possibility to reduce the financial
responsibility of each beneficiary of the agreement to the
amount of the contribution it is entitled to receive.
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Role of the coordinator (1)
 There is only one coordinator per FPA or MBGA;
 Is the contractual representative of the partnership
 The coordinator (main partner) has full responsibility to
– ensure that the project is implemented according to the grant agreement.
– the technical and financial management of the action, except where
specifically stated otherwise in the grant agreement;
 All communication between the co-partners and the awarding authority
is done through the coordinator.
 Be responsible for supplying all documents and information to the
Commission which may be required under the agreement, in particular in
relation to the requests for payment.
– gather scientific, technical, administrative, financial info from partners and send
them to Eurostat
 Is responsible for receiving the funds and transferring them to the partners
(optional)
 The co-ordinator shall not delegate any part of this task to the cobeneficiaries or to any other party
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Role of the coordinator (2)
 The coordinator shall
– inform the co-partners of any event which could be affect the
implementation of the action;
– inform the awarding authority of transfers between items of
eligible costs;
– establish the payment requests on behalf of the partners,
detailing the exact share and amount assigned to each
partner;
– ensure that all the appropriate payments are made to the copartners without unjustified delay
– shall inform the awarding authority of the distribution of the EU
financial contribution among co-partners and of the date of
transfer of funds to its associates
 The coordinator is responsible, in the event of audits, checks or
evaluations, for providing all the necessary documents,
including the accounts of the co-partners, originals or certified
copies of the original accounting documents and certified and
signed copies of sub-contracts.
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Role of co-partner/co-beneficiaries
 The co-partners shall
– participate in the project to which they contribute financially;
– shall agree upon appropriate arrangements between themselves for the
proper performance of the action.
• The partners are encouraged to conclude an internal co-operation
agreement regarding their internal operation, financial responsibilities
and co-ordination. The co-operation agreement shall include all
aspects necessary for the management of the partners and the
implementation of the action;
– forward to the co-ordinator the data needed to draw up the reports,
financial statements and other documents provided for in the agreement
including its annexes;
– ensure that all information is provided to the awarding authorities via the
co-ordinator, except where the agreement specifically stipulates
otherwise;
– inform the co-ordinator immediately of any event liable to substantially
affect or delay the implementation of the action;
– inform the co-ordinator of transfers between items of eligible costs;
– provide the co-ordinator with all the necessary documents in the event of
audits, checks or evaluations.
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Role of EUROSTAT in ESSnets
 Project Manager/Officer
– Are the interface between the project (Coordinator) and the Commission
(Eurostat)
– Ensure administrative and technical follow-up of the project
– Check project on schedule, should be informed of all problems, admin and
technical
– Validate technically the deliverables and ensure they are relevant
– Responsible for the Commission of the project achievements
– Report achievements, problems, delays to governance structure
– Is responsible for the final evaluation of the project (May be helped by
colleagues or external experts)
– Sign the final payment
 Steering Group
– monitor the main achievements
– help the Eurostat project manager to validate key results and options or
developments
 Directors Group
– Validation of the results
 DIME (Directors of Methodology)
– annually on the achievements of all the ongoing ESSnet projects.
– validates of annual ESSnet achievements before presentation to the ESSC in
May
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Restricted Call for proposal MBGA/FPA/SGA
 Invitation Letter to 27 NSIs + Iceland, Liechtenstein
and Norway + Switzerland
– In case of SGA, invitation letter only to FPA partnership
members
 Annexes :
–
–
–
–
–
–
Technical Specifications
ESSnet MBGA/FPA/SGA application
Budgetary details – excel sheet
Template of MBGA/FPA/SGA contract
Guidelines
Template for technical implementation reports and financial
statements (if applicable)
– Template of audit certificate (if applicable)
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Technical Specifications:
Evaluation criteria
 Eligibility criteria : The eligibility criteria shall determine the conditions for
participating in a call for proposals
– National Statistical Institutes or other authorities empowered to produce
official statistics
– minimum of two partners
– The Solemn Declaration concerning situations which would exclude the
applicant from the participation. It is sufficient to send this once a year.
– Applications must be signed, dated and complete, using the standard
submission set;
– Applications must be submitted before the closing date mentioned in the
invitation letter;
– Applications must respect the maximum duration of projects (see part A).
– Applications must be in line with the scheduled start date (see part A).
– Applications must respect the maximum EC contribution as laid out in the
invitation letter.
 Exclusion criteria
– Grants may not be awarded to applicants who are, at the time of a grant
award procedure, in one of the situations referred to in Articles 93 (1), 94
and 96(2)(a) of the Financial Regulation.
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Technical Specifications:
Evaluation criteria
 Selection Criteria
– applicants must have access to solid and adequate funding sources. Not
necessary to justify for public bodies.
– Applicants must show that they have the operational (technical and
management) capacity to complete the operation
– The following are supporting documents to justify the operational capacity:
• Grant agreements awarded by the Commission in the last three years for
actions ( this information is collected once per year at central level)
• Grant applications submitted during the current year.
• Curriculum vitae of the person coordinating the action, the work package
leaders and the rest of the staff involved in the ESSnet.
• If applicable, letter of commitment from any external sponsors, specifying
the amount
 Award Criteria: will be defined in order to assess the quality of proposals and
to maximise the overall effectiveness.
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General Award Criteria (1)
Criterion
Score
Content of the action and deliverables (description of the planned results
in accordance with the aims and objectives), understanding of tasks and
quality of proposed approach
(0-XX)
Plan for communication/networking with external national authorities
(0-XX)
Presentation of expected results, expected impact and sustainability of the
action
(0-XX)
Network organisation and capacity (quality of the organisation and
coordination)
(0-XX)
Time schedule of the action (work plan) and evaluation of progress of the
action
(0-XX)
Overall and detailed budget:
Applicants must ensure that the budget is relevant, appropriate, balanced
and consistent in itself, between partners and with the specific
objectives of the project. Budget should be distributed within partners
at a minimum reasonable level, avoiding excessive fragmentation
(0-XX)
Maximum total score
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General Award Criteria (2)
 From 2010 onwards, Eurostat has improved the
evaluation process to ensure that the award
criteria maximises the overall effectiveness of
the Community actions by means of the
specifications in the invitations to submit
proposals:
– If a proposal is to be classified as worth funding, the grand
total of the marks for all the award criteria should be
equal to or greater than 60% of the maximum total
score. In addition, a mark of over 50% will be required
for each criterion. The Proposal that passes these
thresholds might be considered for funding.
– Detailed and, as far as possible, harmonised criteria to
assess the proposals (evaluation criteria)
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Simplifications from 2010
 Options for signing:
– power of attorney for signing the contract or
– signature for each co-beneficiary
 Role of the coordinator: it is very heavy.
–
Proposal: Modify article I.3.1 of the MBGA. The coordinator in
charge of the “technical" coordination and a specialised firm in
charge of the administrative coordination (subcontracting),
under supervision of the coordinator. To be discussed with
Commission central services.
 Threshold regarding transfers between items of
eligible direct or transfers between partners
without amendments ( article I.4.4 MBGA) :
increase to 20%.
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 General ESSnet process
 Financial instruments:
– Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA)
– Multi-beneficiary Grant Agreement (MBGA)
 Administrative forms
 Follow-up of projects
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MBGA/FPA/SGA application
Part B – Administrative forms
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
General Information on the Co-ordinator (C)
Information on Co-partners (CP) involved in carrying out the ESSnet
project
Other community funding
Involvement of third parties in the action
Excel sheet: grant budget – estimated costs (application)
Financial information sheet (bank details, C only or all partners)
Declaration by the C (application is correct)
Contracts for implementing the action (Subcontracts !!!! 20% rule)
Financial support for third parties
Curriculum vitae of the person coordinating the action and the work
package leaders
Solemn Declaration (sent only once a year to Eurostat)
Mandate conferring powers of attorneys from the CP to the C
Letter of commitment from any external sponsors
List of grants obtained from the Commission in the least three years (sent
only once a year to Eurostat)
List of grants submitted during the current year
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 General ESSnet process
 Financial instruments:
– Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA)
– Multi-beneficiary Grant Agreement (MBGA)
 Administrative forms
 Follow-up of projects
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Reporting
 Contractual reports
– Intermediate (template available) and final report (template
available)
– Quarterly reports (template available)
– Cost statement
– Manuals, web site, etc.






Project Officer (Eurostat)
Steering committee
Network of methodologist
Final Review
Audits
Evaluation by Directors Group in charge (BSDG, SDG,
CPSA, ITDG, DIME…)
 Annual evaluation of results and screening by DIME
 Reporting to ESSC
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Follow-up of ESSnets
 Depending on the importance and duration of the project
– Steering group:
• Eurostat staff members from the interested units + one member of
the ESSnet (preferably the coordinator) at least one member of the
ESS not participating in the project (+ eventually, external experts)
• For continuous monitoring + mid-term and final evaluation.
• To assure knowledge transfer and dissemination
– A responsible staff member from Eurostat unit in charge to be
designated for follow-up and good execution of the project.
– Continuous information and involvement of the network of
methodologists for validation/support/advice and transfer of results to
other domains/areas.
– General report to ESSC on proposals retained, agreements signed and
results (preliminary/final)
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Evaluation criteria (1)
 Criteria to be used for:
–
–
–
–
–
Ex ante documentation
Evaluation of the interest to launch the project
Continuous monitoring
Final evaluation
Ex post assessment
 Quality of the project proposal
– Interest from ESS members in the outcomes. (Does the project
answer a need that is shared by the ESS?);
– Clarity of the objectives, the approach and the definition of
operational results. (Are the objectives, approach and methodology
defined in such a way that they give a sufficient assurance on the
added value for the ESS? Is the output product clearly identified?);
– Complementing not duplicating ongoing or planned actions
(research, ESTAT work, other ESSnets). (Is the project compatible
with other existing actions in the same area of GSBPM?).
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Evaluation criteria (2)
 Potential impact of the project proposal
– Potential impact for the improvement of a GSBPM step in
the ESS (GSBPM step(s) involved should be identified. An
assessment will be made on the potential gain in the
GSBPM assessing whether the project can be generalised
in the GSBPM step, it is innovative and it contributes to
integration, harmonisation and comparability of outputs)
– Compliance with the "vision". (Is the project in line with the
"vision"?)
– Compliance with Code of Practice (CoP). (Does the project
improve compliance with the CoP?)
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Evaluation criteria (3)
 Operationalisation and cost-effectiveness
– Capacity and knowledge of the partnership to successfully
achieve the proposed results. (Is the partnership identified?
Does it have the knowledge in the domain?)
– Promotion of results and implementation facilities provided. (Is
the promotion phase presented sufficient, taking into account
that sharing of results is the main characteristic of an
ESSnet?)
– Resources involved vs. expected results, cost-benefit analysis.
(Is the project cost effective?)
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Part 1 – Administrative Matters
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
For further questions:
ESTAT-ESSNET@ec.europa.eu
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