The European Commission published in the FAQs section of the Funding & Tenders Opportunities Portal 2 new articles on the interpretation of the rules of the Grant Agreement of H2020 projects during the COVID-19 crisis.
Contribution on salaries of researchers for the time they could not work due to the COVID-19 confinement measures
If the employee cannot telework during the mandatory confinement period set out by national or regional authorities, that period would qualify as a special absence. Under the condition that Horizon 2020 grants can only provide EU funding for the hours actually worked in the action, this means for the calculation of the annual productive hours:
Beneficiaries applying option 2 – individual annual productive hours – to calculate the hourly rates are entitled to remove from the calculation of the annual productive hours all absences of the employee, including the unworked period of confinement. As a result, the number of annual productive hours of the person would decrease in this year and the hourly rate charged by the participant to the Horizon 2020 action would increase. By these means, the Horizon 2020 grant may contribute to the costs of unworked confinement time in proportion to the time worked by the employee in the Horizon 2020 action.
Option 2 is not available for beneficiaries calculating monthly hourly rates. Those beneficiaries would have to change to annual hourly rates for the financial year 2020 if they want to take advantage of this possibility. More here.