Indexation of hourly rates
Since statistical data on salary increase is available for the year 2023 in both Austria and Hungary, indexation of the hourly rates has become possible. The result of this indexation is a set of increased hourly rates. These new hourly rates for all four performance groups are included in the Eligibility Manual, updated Annex 6.3.
How does this change affect the application process in Jems?
The new indexed hourly rates are already recorded in Jems. If you apply unit costs in your project, be aware that the drop-down list of the hourly rates is longer. It includes the new rates whose names are ending with 2024.
Be aware that the hourly rates defined for 2023 will be kept in the system for projects already approved in the first two selection rounds. Their hourly rates are not going to change, while new applications shall use the updated unit costs. Therefore, greater attention to selecting the right hourly rates is important and highly recommended.
The programme plans to define a pre-submission check on the selection of the correct hourly rates. This feature will help applicants in budget compilation and save resources for the programme while checking the projects.
What does this mean for the current submission deadline?
From the current submission deadline onwards new projects and newly submitted ones that were previously postponed shall apply the new hourly rates.
The next submission deadline is approaching, you can apply for both standard and small-scale projects until 15 November 2024, but this time with higher hourly rates.