- The implementation of the simplified cost system will reduce the time for aid collection and expense justification procedures in subsidies
- The estimation of the project amount is based on the hours attributed to personnel as the only variable, which will prevent the beneficiary from having to submit expense receipts
- It will be applied in R&D projects and later in Strategic Plans and Technological Centers
February 16, 2025
Castilla y León |
Department of Economy and Finance
Castilla y León is the first autonomous community to implement the simplification system in aid processing and justification procedures. This will represent a significant administrative simplification by reducing the time for aid collection and expense justification, as only the variable of hours worked will be considered.
The first projects to benefit from this change will be those related to R&D, and it will soon also apply to Strategic Plans and Technological Centers.
The simplified cost option represents a change from the traditional system of subsidy justification. Instead of reimbursing actual costs incurred by the beneficiary with the submission of expense receipts, the amount has been previously calculated using a predefined method based on a unitary module that summarizes all the different expense concepts of a project (personnel expenses, depreciations, external contracts, general expenses).
The project budget will, therefore, be obtained by multiplying the hours worked by the BECU (Standard Unit Cost Rate). With this new system, the submission of payroll, invoices, payments, and accounting, which made the process tedious, is no longer required.
Three years ago, Castilla y León, along with Galicia, participated in a pilot study for the implementation of the simplified cost option in R&D&I projects of the Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y León (ICECYL). The study was led by DG-Regio of the European Commission, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Finance and Public Function, and concluded that this option has the greatest impact on effectively reducing management and payment deadlines for the beneficiary.