Horizon Europe budget calculator

A proposal budget is not a free-form estimate but a breakdown across defined cost categories, each with its own calculation rules.

Personnel

The main category in most projects. Costs are calculated from actual salary and hours actually worked on the project, not from a desired rate.

A check worth knowing about: experts compare against a dashboard showing the spread of personnel costs between the 20th and 80th percentile by country and organisation type. Higher figures are not forbidden but need justification, or the amount is cut.

Equipment

Not the full purchase price but depreciation over time and in proportion to project use. Buying an instrument on the grant and writing it off entirely does not work, except where conditions expressly allow it.

Subcontracting

Passing part of the work to an external provider. It must be described in the proposal and stays limited: subcontracting may not cover the core of the project, and the coordinator may not subcontract its own duties at all.

Indirect costs

A flat rate of 25% of direct eligible costs. No justification is required – but neither can it be raised. Subcontracting, financial support to third parties and amounts already containing indirect costs are excluded from the base.

What cuts budgets most often

The guidance is unambiguous: unjustified budgets will be reduced. You must set out all categories, the team composition with roles, a technical description of equipment and how heavily the project uses it, a realistic estimate of open access costs, and existing resources that need no EU funding.

And separately: a seriously inflated budget lowers the implementation score rather than simply being corrected.