VRG26 / Eligible costs

Funding should be used to cover the costs for the research group. All costs that are directly attributable to the project and are regarded as commonly required in the respective scientific field are eligible for funding. Please also consider your host institution’s internal guidelines for eligible expenses/costs.

Personnel costs

• WWTF is dedicated to funding researchers. Hence, the larger share of the project’s budget should be allocated to personnel costs for researchers working on the project.
• Eligible forms of employment contracts are full-time and part-time contracts as well as marginal employments (“Arbeitsvertrag”). Contracts for services (“Werkvertrag”) are only permitted if the nature of the work means that it cannot be performed through employment contracts. In general, it is assumed that the funding of individuals will be predominantly through employment contracts at the participating institutions and not through other types of employment.
• All persons employed through a WWTF-funded project should receive a fair employment contract with at least a minimum wage according to the “Kollektivvertrag” (collective agreement) of the Austrian Universities / non-university research institutions or – for staff employed at institutions with no collective agreement – according to the standards of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF, wage scheme available online,"FWF Personalkostensätze").
• Salaries higher than those stipulated in the collective agreement are possible, subject to the agreement of the host institution and justification based on the experience of the group leader and the researchers.
• The budget calculation in the Funding Portal automatically includes an inflation adjustment of 3.5 % p.a.
• Applications for personnel costs must be in one of the following categories:
  • PI/Group leader
  • Senior Personnel: highly qualified scientists, usually permanently employed
  • Post Doc: or equivalent qualification, including senior postdocs
  • PhD Candidate: or equivalent qualification level
  • MA/BA Student: Bachelor or Master students
  • Technician or equivalent (proportional funding only)
  • Data Manager/Steward (proportional funding only)
  • Student Assistant
  • Administrative Personnel (proportional funding only)

Non-personnel costs

• Non-personnel costs should not exceed 30% of the overall budget. If non-personnel costs exceed 30% of the total budget, a justification must be included in the budget. Costs may incur in the following categories:
  • Equipment: Smaller equipment can be purchased within the scope of the grant. General office software is not eligible for funding. This includes devices up to € 1,500 each as well as software specific to the projects. Funding by WWTF under this scheme is not intended to cover investment in general and larger infrastructure, however pro rata depreciation rates over the project duration for equipment necessary to the project may be funded.
  • Consumables: Costs for project-related expenses, such as consumables. WWTF does not fund consumables that are general and not project-specific (e.g., paper, printer toner).
  • Travelling: Costs for travel and accommodation for scientific meetings and conferences, field work, expeditions may be funded. Please also consider the regulations of your host in-stitution for travel costs.
  • Publication costs: Costs incurred for publication activities, such as printing costs, article processing charges (for open access), data management, etc. This also includes costs for archiving research data in open repositories. Please also consult WWTF’s Open Science Policy. 
  • Data management: Costs for data access can be covered. The grant also covers costs in-curred for data preparation in order to make the data accessible via a repository.
  • Workshops and conferences: Costs for organizing events, workshops, and conferences are eligible.
  • Other: Further third-party costs (e.g., external collaboration, consulting, studies, software development), as well as costs for childcare and/or for career coaching for female WWTF-funded personnel may be funded under special conditions to a small degree. Furthermore, the relocation of the VRG leader can be funded up to € 5.000.

Running costs for basic infrastructure (telephone costs, rents) as well as costs for the acquisition of infrastructure and basic equipment are not eligible for funding as these should fall under the category of overhead costs.

Indirect costs (overheads)

Please note, WWTF offers a maximum of 20% overhead lump sum to compensate for all indi-rect/administration costs. Overhead is calculated as 20% of the direct costs of the project.  This means that flat fees for payroll or project accounting charged to the project accounts are non-eligible direct costs. The total funding volume is calculated as direct plus indirect costs. Please consult the WWTF Reporting and Accounting Guideline for further information. 
Applicants are required to comply with the overhead regulations of the involved institutions.

In-kind contributions

In-kind contributions from the applicants should amount to at least 20% of the total project budget. These in-kind contributions must be described in detail. Generally, it should include the salary of the VRG leader after a positive interim evaluation. 
Basic infrastructure (e.g., office premises, telephone, internet, laboratory space etc.) do not count as in-kind contributions. As these are not specific to the project, they should be covered by over-heads. Other in-kind contributions may be in the form of in-kind involvement of project staff, con-sumables/software or monetary contributions.