Guide to Financial Issues relating to FP7 Indirect Actions - KoWi

1. either any legal entity established as such by national law 31 ,
2. or an international organisation, which is an intergovernmental organisation
(for instance, the UN), other than the European Union /Euratom, which has
legal personality under international public law, as well as any specialised
agency set up by such an international organisation 32
secondary and higher education establishments (for example, universities whether
or not public/or for profit)
research organisations: this means a legal entity which:
• is established as a non-profit organisation; a legal entity is qualified as "nonprofit"
when considered as such by national or international law.
Associations or explicit non-profit making legal entities would fit here (see
below); and
• carries out research or technological development as one of its main objectives
In most cases the type of legal entity will be determined by the participants' national
law. It will be up to the legal entity to prove it. In certain cases, a legal entity may find
it difficult to determine its status. In these cases other indicative facts or evidence
should be established.
Example:
A beneficiary could indicate its status under national tax law to support its claim to be a nonprofit
research organisation.
SMEs: means small and medium size enterprises within the meaning of
Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC in the version of 6 May 2003.
According to Article 2 of the Annex, an SME (Micro, Small or Medium-sized
Enterprise) is an enterprise which:
• has fewer than 250 employees,
• has an annual turnover not exceeding 50 million EUR, and/or
• has an annual balance-sheet total not exceeding 43 million EUR.
According to the new SME definition, possible relationships with other enterprises
must be taken into account when calculating the data of the enterprise. For further
information check the full text of Recommendation 2003/361/EC in the version of
6 May 2003.
Research centres, research institutes, contract research organisations or
consultancy firms will not be considered eligible SMEs for the purposes of the Cooperative
and Collective research schemes.
The Commission will assist in providing some indicators for assessment, support and
registration of the legal entities in a unique Commission database. This database will
recognise the particular legal status of each beneficiary, which will be used for all its
participations in projects under the 7 th Framework Programme.
31 To be noticed that the concept of "public body" in FP7 is more restrictive than in FP6
32 For these and the following definitions please see Article 2 of the 7 th Framework Programme "Rules for the
participation of undertakings, research centres and universities …(..)", Regulation (EC) N° 1906/2006 of the
European Parliament and the Council of 18 th December 2006
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