General aid – Producing a financial report (e–report) for research and development and innovation aid

Any entity (company, research centre, institution) that has signed a research, development and innovation aid agreement with the Walloon Region.

How to do it?

For aid granted before 2023:

1. You must first download a statement of expenditure (see section "Forms to download" below) ;
2. You then need to complete this statement based on the expenditure incurred over a given period (6 months). An explanatory leaflet is also available at the bottom of the page ;
3. Once this file has been completed, simply send it, together with the statement of receivable, as indicated in the explanatory note, by email to the Financial Management Department.

NEW: from January 1, 2025, if you do not wish to send your statement of receivable by email, you can submit it from the My Space window. All the useful information concerning this change can be found in the explanatory note below (Useful documents). Your previous files will not be lost and you will still be able to consult them.

For aid committed from 2023 onwards:

You log on to our new "e-report" platform.

For the first connection:

• If you are the person authorized to submit the expenditure incurred, you request access as the main validator using the form to be downloaded below, entitled "Main contact certificate". This certificate must be signed and sent to the Financial Management Department:
  • handwritten signature and postal mail ;
  • electronic signature and email.
• If a main validator has already been appointed within your organisation, he or she can grant you access directly on the plateform.

Control and payment procedures

In addition to these practical arrangements, there is a precise financial control procedure and a clear definition of the eligible expenditure summarised in a guide that sets out the budgetary structure of research funding agreements and the supporting documents required. It also specifies the flat rates applied in the context in order to simplify the justification of expenditure.

This guide, which is known as the Eligible expenditure guide, is strictly applicable. The research agreement signed with Wallonia explicitly refers to the applicable version of the guide.

Statements of expenditure are subject to consistency checks and targeted checks,  after which any comments are sent to you. Once these checks have been carried out, an official letter/email is sent to you, specifying the amount to be received. Determination of this amount will depend, in particular, on the advance of funds received at the start of the research (working capital fund), the amount of expenditure accepted during the period analysed and the timing of this expenditure in relation to the duration of the research.

Budget-expenditure reconciliation checks and cross-functionnal checks (‘multi-project beneficiary’) are also carried out. In addition, on-the-spot checks enable the accounting books to be consulted and the processes implemented within the framework of the research to be identified.

As long as the research file has not been closed, checks may be carried out, resulting in corrections to the amounts previously accepted.

• Decree of 3 July 2008 concerning support for research, development and innovation in Wallonia
• Decree from the Walloon Government of 18 September 2008 concerning support for research, development and innovation in Wallonia, which was amended on 15 May 2014
• Text concerning the management of State aid for research, development and innovation (2014/C 198/01)
• General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) - State aid (Wallonia.be)