REU Grant Competitions: Answers to Additional Questions

As part of the three grant competitions announced under the Resilience and Engagement for Ukraine (REU) project, the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER) received a number of additional questions. Below are our answers. The terms and conditions of all three grant competitions are available on the project page.

Final Round of Clarifications on the Three Grant Competitions

1. What salary or remuneration under a civil-law contract can be included in the project budget? We are planning to involve three people – a project manager, an SMM manager and an accountant. Is there a salary cap or a limit as a percentage of the grant amount?

Answer: There is no fixed percentage of the grant amount. The level of remuneration should be determined in accordance with your organisation’s policies, rules and procedures, taking into account the specialist’s relevant experience.

2. What percentage of the grant can be allocated to rent and utilities?

Answer: There is no fixed percentage of the grant amount. However, the grant cannot be used to cover 100% of the total cost of rent and utilities.

3. The instructions state that if the cost of services exceeds UAH 30,000, price quotations from other service providers must be obtained. However, in Cherkasy, there is an individual entrepreneur who is a psychologist and whose team has developed a unique rehabilitation programme for veterans with no equivalent among other service providers. What should we do in this case?

Answer: If you specify the individual entrepreneur by name at the budget approval stage and provide their CV, you will not need to obtain and compare price quotations from other service providers at a later stage.

4. Can the project manager be another hired person rather than the head of the NGO?

Answer: Yes.

5. Can experts from other NGOs or academic institutions be engaged as individual entrepreneurs (FOPs) to perform work or provide services under the project, or must cooperation with such experts be formalised exclusively through a civil-law contract?

Answer: Yes, it is permissible to enter into agreements with individual entrepreneurs (FOPs).

6. Our project idea includes the purchase of equipment and materials for STEM lessons in schools. These could include simple chemistry or physics experiment kits, robotics kits, rocket models for model rocketry (an area we are developing in Ukraine), etc. Which budget category should these purchases fall under – equipment or other costs? There is a 10% limit for equipment. Does “equipment” refer to technical or other devices used to implement the project, such as PCs, projectors, etc.?

Answer: Yes, there is a 10% limit for equipment, calculated as a share of the total grant amount. If consumable materials need to be purchased for an event or training session, they should be included under Section 5 of the budget – Other Costs, subsection 5.3 – Event Costs.

7. The instructions state that grant funds cannot be used for gifts or souvenirs. Would the purchase and distribution of STEM kits to schools in frontline towns and villages be considered a gift, given that this is not the overall objective of the project but only one of its components or activities?

Answer: Yes, such expenses are not eligible.

8. If a project includes several events, how should the related expenses be presented in the budget – consolidated by expense category or separately for each event?For example, could cell D17 state “organisation of Events 1–2 and Webinars 3–4”, with the other budget lines showing the total consolidated amount? Or should expenses be itemised separately for each event? In the latter case, there is a technical issue, as the budget template does not provide separate lines for each event.

Answer: Expenses related to events should be included in Section 5 of the budget separately by expense category – rent, catering, consumable materials, etc. If the events are of the same type, expenses for several events may be consolidated, provided that the number of events is specified. If the events are of different types (e.g. webinars and training sessions), expenses should be shown separately for each event by adding a line under Section 5 (subsection 5.5).

9. The competition webpage states that projects for youth are to begin on 15 July 2026. Is this date fixed for all grantees, or can it be agreed individually depending on the specifics of the project?

Answer: The date is fixed for all grantees.

10. Are students in grades 10–11, approximately 15–17 years old, considered youth?

Answer: Yes.

11. Can we apply with the following team structure?

Our team consists of five people. Two of them (the head of the NGO and the financial manager) are officially employed by the organisation, while the other three specialists are planned to be engaged as individual entrepreneurs (FOPs) as trainers. However, they are also members of the organisation. The instructions state that this is strictly prohibited, although it was said during the information session that it is allowed if properly justified.

Answer: If two team members are officially employed and three are engaged as FOPs, you may apply for the competition. The remuneration of the FOPs should be included under Section 5 of the Budget, regardless of whether they are members of the organisation. The work of government officials cannot be paid for from the grant. The key requirement of IER is that NOT the entire project team be engaged as FOPs.

12. Question regarding the project timeline. Is the project implementation period limited exclusively to 2026, or can activities and funding extend into 2027? What is the final date by which all activities must be completed?

Answer: Project activities must begin in the first month of project implementation – that is, the month in which the Grant Agreement is signed (around 15 July 2026).

13. What is the application deadline for the competitions: by the end of the day or by 6:00 p.m.?

Answer: By the end of the day.