Growing demand for travel support 

This year, we are delighted to see an increase in the number of requests for travel support ranging from Travel grants (worth up to €3k) to travel costs as part of Coordinator and ERC Proposal support applications. 

To help speed up the processing of these applications, and to reduce the number of applications which are returned with requests for revisions, we have recently updated our guidelines to clarify the information required to allow us to process the applications. 

Providing the following information on applications for travel costs will help to reduce requests for revisions:

1) Who is travelling? In the last year, we have changed the rules to allow a second person to travel so up to two people will be supported per visit – please provide the names and roles of the people travelling. 

2) Destination – what country/city/area are you travelling to? Note that travel outside of geographical Europe is currently ineligible. 

3) Flights – which airport are you flying from? Where are you flying to? 

4) Duration of the trip or number of overnights – this is important detail as you need to specify the number of overnights to calculate the total costs for hotel and subsistence. Note that the overnight rate combines both hotel and subsistence costs – hotel is not a separate cost to subsistence and this is a common error we see in applications. 

5) Please only use the overnight public service subsistence rates to calculate your costs per overnight for the relevant destination. 

6) If you need to make a currency conversion, please use the European Commission currency converter. 

7) Visits will be typically up to three days/overnights duration in Europe. If the visit is longer, explain why this is necessary, for example, flights may be infrequent or an event you are attending may last longer than three days. If you request a visit with more than three overnights and no justification is provided, the application will be returned to you for revisions.

Ineligible Travel Costs 

The following are commonly requested but are ineligible costs:

·       Travel outside of Europe

·       Costs for conferences/seminars

·       Costs for partners

·       Costs for visas/work permits

·       Costs for travel not related to proposal preparation/Horizon Europe programme

·       Domestic travel – bus and rail public transport costs to and from the airport will be covered where it is justified but this does not include taxis. Fuel and parking costs are also ineligible.

·       Travel costs after your proposal has been submitted to the European Commission or after your interview. Only costs relating to proposal/interview preparation are eligible. 

If you have any questions or require further information or would simply like to give feedback, please contact us at [email protected]