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Rules of the Budget of Grant Project
1. A grant or research support is the allocation of funds by the Estonian Science Foundation for a specified purpose to carry out research work and the grant shall be awarded within an open competition.
2. A grant shall consist of the expenses of the research and the general expenses of the institution, through which the grant project is to be carried out.
3. The budget of the research expenses consists of staff costs, scholarships, expenses on acquisition of fixed assets, expenses on assignments abroad and other expenses. The expenses on research are clearly required to carry out the project and respectively identifiable.
4. Remuneration may be only paid out of the grant to the grant holder, main participants in the project and auxiliary staff during the period of time they participate in the grant project. Additional remuneration shall not be paid out of the grant of the Foundation to main participants and participants (leading research fellows, senior research fellows and other research fellows) and professors and docents of the subjects under targeted financing financed, who get paid for full-time work.
5. The rules of accounting of fixed assets of the institution shall be considered with respect to the expenses on fixed assets (minimum rate of fixed assets). Pursuant to legislation of the Republic of Estonia and the accounting rules of the institution, fixed assets shall be recognised in the institution, through which the grant project is financed. The grant holder also has a preemptive right to use these fixed assets after the expiry of the grant project until the end of his or her employment in the institution.
6. Scholarship equalling the state grant may be paid out of the grant to doctoral and master’s candidates. The upper limit of the scholarship of the Foundation for a master’s candidate shall be EEK 4,000 and for a doctoral candidate EEK 6,000 a month, considering that the scholarship of the doctoral candidate along with the state education allowance may not exceed EEK 8,500 a month. The scholarship may only be paid during the studies of the first equivalent degree. Remuneration on account of the grants of the Foundation may not be paid to the doctoral and master’s candidates at the same time when the scholarship is paid. The doctoral and master’s candidates are subject to the requirement that one and the same person may not participate in more than two different grant projects. Should a doctoral or master’s candidate participate in several projects financed by the Foundation, the total amount of the scholarship received from different projects may not exceed the aforementioned amounts.
7. It is not allowed to pay personal expenses of the participants in the grant project or expenses not directly related to the performance of project, including equipment and services intended for public use (copying machine or printer publicly used, phone bills, copying service, etc.), on account of the grant. Such expenses shall be covered from the general expenses fee.
8. The Foundation shall demand the funds not used for a specified purpose along with the proportional general expenses fee back from the institution.
9. An amount has been prescribed for institutions to cover general expenses, the rate of which shall be approved by the Council. The sum and distribution of that amount between the institutions involved in the project shall be fixed in the grant agreement.
10. Upon assignments abroad it shall be shown who travels where and for which purpose and why the assignment is necessary in relation to the performance of the grant project. If the expenses on the assignments abroad exceed 25% of the expenses on the research of the grant project, a thorough explanation is required.
11. The use of the grant must comply with the budget fixed in the agreement by expenditure entries up to the accuracy of 10%. The greater and justified changes in the budget are only allowed upon the agreement made prior to the expenditure between the Foundation and the institution which is a party to the agreement. Changes shall be fixed by way of entering into an annex to the agreement.
The Foundation shall not accept expenses not recognised in the agreement incurred without the prior approval.
12. Unless otherwise decided by the Council, the same amount of funds shall be allocated to the project for all years.
15. Upon a project carried out in several institutions, the main institution shall only approve the financial report, which has a right to demand from other institutions involved in the project confirmation on the execution of their part of the budget.
16. All grant holders who have used the grant funds during the year (incl. persons who have applied for the extension of the use of the grant) shall submit for each calendar year a financial report approved by the institution by the 20th of January.
13. Payment of the grant shall be suspended for the period of time the grant holder has failed to submit the final report of the previous project to the Foundation. The annual grant (incl. general expenses of the institution) shall be reduced by the allocation of the instalment of these months.
14. Writing off grant funds shall be effected under the accrual method.
Approved by the Council of the Estonian Science Foundation
21 February 2008
Minutes No. 71 |
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