What is Match Funding?

Projects using Structural Fund monies, such as ESF and ERDF have to provide some of the money from the country itself (not from Europe). This is often referred to as match funding. It can come from central government departments or local government, but often there are ways to use NGO or Private Sector monies, and in some cases bank loans. The intention is to encourage local involvement, rather than just funding everything from Europe (and it makes the money go further). The percentage is usually referred to as the intervention rate, so a 50% intervention rate means that the European and Member State amounts will be the same, while an 80% intervention rate means Europe will conribute 8 euros for every two euros from the Member State.  Operational Programmes will generally have several Priorities, and in the current programming period, the financial tables will show how much match funding will be required. Projects can be approved at higher or lower amounts, provided the average for the Priority as a whole is correct.

The complete project (including the match) has to be approved, so the whole spend has to be eligible, and the whole activities have to be auditable.

What is ORI?

European Projects use a methodology where Inputs (money) lead to Outputs, which lead to Results, and finally to Impact. There is a great deal of information and research as to how this brings about structural change, and different ways of measuring this effectively and efficiently, including the use of proxies.

Outputs are what are directly deliver by the project, for example kilometres of road, training places, numbers of businesses supported. Results are what happens following on from the outputs - for example shorter journey times, jobs, or increased business turnover. Impact happens later, it is often difficult to identify what has caused it. So it could be better links between towns, reduced unemployment, more businesses.
 

Can volunteering be included as match funding?

All funding must have a clear audit trail, to measure the amount and show what it has been used for. It staff from another organisation spend time on the project, then it can be possible to use their time as match, providing this is part of their normal hours of work, and their salary, and the amount of time on the project can be proved. It is also possible to use volunteer time as match. This may or may not be implemented in different member states. Where it is implemented, one mechanism is to have several chargeable rates (office, trainer, administrator etc) and allocate time at this notional rate.
 

What is so important about "post-2013"?