ENSEMBLES Project Reporting
Mandatory Reporting to the Commission
Every twelve months, the consortium will submit to the Commission the following four reports for the previous 12-month period, as well as a plan for the forthcoming 18-month period. The simultaneous submission of these documents allows optimal monitoring of progress by the Commission services and furnishes a solid basis for the payment of the periodic advances.
The figure below is taken from some guidance from the Commission and shows an example for a four-year project (note: ENSEMBLES is a five-year project). The initial advance is 85% of the estimated requested EC contribution for the first 18 months. Click on the thumbnail to view diagram.
1) An activity report for the previous twelve months, containing:
- a management-level overview of the activities carried out by the project
during the period;
- a description of progress toward its scientific and technological objectives
and associated innovation-related activities;
- a description of progress toward the milestones and deliverables foreseen;
- a description of training activities, if any;
- identification of problems encountered and corrective action taken.
2) A management report for the period, containing:
a) a management-level justification of the resources deployed by each participant,
linking them to activities implemented and justifying their necessity;
b) a financial part, consisting of:
- a financial statement prepared by each participant, showing the total
eligible costs incurred broken down by type of activity;
- an audit certificate per participant, furnished by an independent external
auditor or, in the case of a public body or international organisation,
by a competent public official, certifying the overall total of eligible
costs incurred by that participant;
- a summary financial report prepared by the co-ordinator, consolidating
the incurred costs of the consortium and the requested Community contribution,
broken down by type of activity;
- a report on the allocation of the Community financial contribution to
each participant made during that period.
3) An updated implementation plan, including a detailed description of the implementation plan for the eighteen months following the twelve-month period covered by the reports above, and a revision of the overall implementation plan if needed.
4) An associated financial plan, containing an estimate of the costs to be incurred by each participant during the coming eighteen-month period, broken down by type of activity.
Deliverables
The project will submit deliverables to the Commission, through the Co-ordinator using the Deliverables cover page (Word document). Please see milestones/deliverables for further information.
6-month Internal Reporting
- 6-month RT report for completion by RT leaders (sent to coordinator)
- 6-month WP report for completion by WP leaders (not sent to coordinator)
- 6-month Partner report for completion by Partners for each relevant work package (not sent to coordinator)
The project produces brief internal reports for each of the 10 RTs covering the first 6 months of each project year (September to February inclusive) as a useful and prudent means of monitoring progress. These reports are in addition to the more comprehensive annual reports that we produce at the end of each project year, around September.
These 10 RT reports are mandatory and are sent to the project coordinator, who will place them on the project's members' site, accessible to all project participants and our Project Officer. Other reports (e.g. WP reports, partner reports, cost information) are optional for internal use within RTs, if they consider them to be useful, and will not be sent to the coordinator. They may appear on RT internal web sites if the RT leaders choose to do so.
Different RTs have different ways of producing their RT report – the RT leaders choose the method that they wish to use. The project coordinator suggests the following:
- RT leaders ask each of their WP leaders to produce WP reports (using the template 6-month WP report which can be modified if needed).
- If needed, WP leaders then ask each of their partners to complete a report (using the template 6-month partner report). The template contains estimates of person months effort and approximate total costs to help partners and RT/WP leaders monitor resource usage if the RT/WP leaders want to do so - if not, then it is suggested that the RT leaders simply delete this table from the template before distributing.
An alternative to the above WP-specific approach is for each RT leader to ask each of their partners to complete a report (using the template 6-month partner report).
To reiterate, the project coordinator will only receive the 10 RT reports. The RT leaders will communicate with their WP leaders and/or partners as to how their RT will produce their report, and any WP or partner reports are internal to the RTs.
Project reporting guidance
Fourth year project reporting. Please see the Year 4 Guidance notes page for completion of fourth year reports.
Third year project reporting. Please see the guidance notes - year 3 page for the completion of the third year reports.
Second year project reporting. Please see the guidance notes - year 2 page for the completion of the second year's reports.
Please see the "lessons learned" document for a summary of lessons learned from the previous year's reporting. This document should help reduce problems for subsequent annual reports so please provide us with any comments.
First year project reporting
Please see the guidance
notes page for the completion of the first year's reports.
Useful links
- Project reporting in FP6 Guidelines
- National Contact Points (who might be able to help with any specific queries you may have)
- The Model
Contract site
- Reports and Deliverables (see Article II.7 in Annex II)
- Guidance for financial reporting
- Form C - financial statement per activity for an IP
- Management FAQs from http://www.hyperion.ie
