Questions on Secondments and Interim check meeting
Hi Danique,
I can only speak from my own experience, so here goes :)
1. Cost for foodi
We have never specifically covered costs for food from the ITN budget, as ESRs would normally also pay for their food from their salary in their hosting country. That being said, our organization covers costs for food during work related travels and I think that many international research organizations have similar coverage, so therefore it's never been an issue in my projects. Maybe some other PMs have more/other experience with this matter?
2. This is relatively straightforward I think: the GA clearly states that the ESR should be hosted on the premises of the seconding host organisation during the secondment. The exeptions during the pandemic for teleworking are no longer applicable, EXCEPT if teleworking is still a standard practice at the seconding host organisation. In case of an audit at the sending organisation, this will be checked by the EC. I would try to keep negotiating to get the ESR to visit headquarters that has the R&D department, as stated in the DoA (and is thus what the company agreed to).
2. I've only had 'Project Check' meetings during my projects, which were online due to the pandemic. We were instructed to simply check the 'Midterm check' milestones/deliverables as finalized based on the Project Check meeting. For the interim period, we only got written feedback from the reviewer after we submitted the interim report. So maybe others can say more about this.
We always offer our Project Officer (PO) to visit our physical meetings, but so far they didn't attend. My main tip is to discuss with your PO, how she would like to attend the meeting and what she would need. Then you can decide how and/or if to combine with the annual meeting. This is also how we approached the Project Check meetings. Horizo2020 also had an unofficial guideline for the Mid-Term meeting, which can still be found online here: https://www.horizon-europe.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/2021-07/h2020---itn---guidelines-mid-term-meeting-3959.pdf Any fe
Good luck with your project!
Kind regards, Kimberley Rentner