Three projects at one chair, three different ideas of what counts as an eligible expense.
A chair runs projects from two federal funding programmes and one state programme at the same time, each with its own guideline on staff, equipment, consumables, travel and contracts. The institute office does the account coding, with no specialist next door. If an item is rejected in the final report, it has to be moved to another account, and the money is then missing elsewhere for the rest of the project term.
3funding bodiesTwo federal programmes and one state programme run at the same chair.
5expense categoriesStaff, equipment, consumables, travel and contracts are treated differently by every guideline.
36project monthsThroughout the term, spending has to be on track every quarter.
1final reportIn the end, a single statement is what counts, and every entry in it has to stand up.
The three years end with a final report in which each of the fifteen rule combinations has to stand up on its own; the 50% less administrative effort is earned before that, on every single booking.
The 50% reduction in administrative effort is this agent's headline figure. Whether a chair runs two projects or seven varies; three funding bodies over 36 project months are assumed here to keep the calculation easy to follow.