We are happy to announce the successful completion of our study, entitled “Study to develop EU level Simplified Cost Options (SCOs) and other EU level results-based tools in the programming period 2021-2027 in the sectors of Health, ICT and Environment”. The project was commissioned by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) and led by our partner t33.
Over the last decade, the European Commission has committed to simplifying the implementation of EU funding programmes and adopting result-focused approaches. A significant achievement has been the introduction and expansion of Simplified Cost Options. SCOs were first introduced during the 2007-2013 period and have since gained recognition as a highly effective simplification measure under Cohesion Policy.
Our research focused on the development of SCOs in several areas supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF) in the period 2021-2027, namely Health, ICT and Environment. The study covered all 27 EU Member States and recommended solutions at EU level in the form of unit costs and lump sums.
Key recommendations from our study include the following SCOs:
- Health: unit cost per person covered by improved health services and unit cost to cover the PPE needed during hospitalisation of patients with viral syndromes;
- ICT: lump sum for SMEs completing digital transformation activities and unit cost per person covered by an improved e-governance system/service;
- Environment: unit cost per additional person served by improved water supply and unit cost reflecting the average cost of a green roof installed per m2.
This milestone reflects PPMI's continued commitment to fostering innovative solutions that simplify and enhance the impact of EU funding in key sectors, paving the way for more streamlined and result-oriented EU funding processes in the years to come.