It is an interesting fact that for more than 10 years prices in the consulting industry (by which we mean the advisory services that consulting firms provide for the preparation and implementation of EU and national projects) have been shrouded in secrecy. This is not surprising, because, as with construction works, every project is different. One has to assess the complexity of the funding line being applied for, estimate the approximate chances of success, analyse the project idea itself, analyse the applicant (or a consortium, which can make the service more expensive) and try in good faith to estimate the working hours and the number of people who need to be engaged on the project.
In this article we want to analyse one of the more interesting calls from last year, “Support to Enterprises for the Transition to an Energy- and Resource-Efficient Economy for 2024” (Potpora poduzećima za tranziciju na energetski i resursno učinkovito gospodarstvo za 2024. godinu), popularly called TERUG (an acronym formed from the first letters of the key words in the Croatian name of the call). Our aim is to make entrepreneurs and potential future applicants aware of the average prices of services in the consulting industry, given that the publicly available information on the grants awarded under this call also shows, as a separate item, the aid that each company budgeted specifically for advisory services. In this call, we took part in preparing the application documentation for 1 company (contract signed), and we were engaged as external associates in preparing parts of the application documentation for another 6 projects (5 of these clients were awarded aid).
In brief
- The analysis uses public data on the contracts of the call Support to Enterprises for the Transition to an Energy and Resource Efficient Economy for 2024 (TERUG).
- By 29 May 2025, 116 contracts had been signed with EUR 144.8 million in eligible costs and EUR 79.5 million in grants.
- A total of 105 companies budgeted advisory services, EUR 5,415,728.12 in total, an average of EUR 51,578.36 per project, or 5.23% of project value.
- The median cost of advisory services is around EUR 52,000, and the median share around 6% of eligible costs.
- Shares range from 2% to 26%. Projects of EUR 180,000 to 400,000 averaged 14.5%, and projects of EUR 950,000 to 1,100,000 around 5%.
Anyone who has dealt with EU funds before knows that the amounts in projects are budgeted on the basis of quotes or prior consultations with suppliers, so the budgeted prices are in fact the minimum amounts the applicant can expect to pay consultants for preparing and implementing the project. Eligible costs under advisory services also included construction supervision services, public procurement services and/or preparation of procurement documentation for entities not subject to the Public Procurement Act, and audit services for verifying project costs (in principle, consulting firms can mostly offer everything except construction supervision and audit as their own in-house service). In this call, we assume that most clients invested in machinery and equipment and a solar power plant, because this way they could secure enough points to pass, so hardly any applicant budgeted for construction supervision, while for the project audit an amount of up to approximately EUR 7,000 was budgeted, and often much less (depending, of course, on the size of the project and the scope of works). Everything else, we can assume with considerable certainty, falls under “consulting services”.
How much did companies budget for advisory services?
Let us move on to the more interesting part, the figures themselves.
By 29 May 2025, a total of 116 contracts had been signed with a total value (total eligible costs) of EUR 144,794,147.93, and aid (grants) of EUR 79,473,709.41 had been awarded. If we leave out a few companies that implement their projects themselves or simply did not budget advisory services in the project, the total aid for all projects with budgeted advisory services amounted to EUR 62,598,849.64. Of this, the total aid for advisory services amounted to EUR 2,707,864.06 (4.33%).
It should be borne in mind that the aid intensity for advisory services was 50%, which means that the total contracted value of advisory services is twice as high. In concrete terms, 105 companies budgeted advisory services, and the total cost of these items is EUR 5,415,728.12 (EUR 2,707,864.06 is aid, i.e. EU co-financing). This indicates that the average fee for advisory services was EUR 51,578.36 (or 5.23% of the total project value of those 105 firms). Filtering further, when we look at the percentage share by dividing the total cost of advisory services by the total eligible costs of the project, we arrive at interesting figures. If we leave out the outliers, the percentages for advisory services range from as low as 2% all the way up to 26%. It would be logical for the lower percentages to apply to larger projects and the higher percentages to smaller ones. That is the logic in the consulting industry, because realistically the same work has to be done for a project of EUR 1 million as for one of EUR 5 million (the differences in the volume of work the consultant has to do are very small). However, not everything is quite as one would expect.
TERUG call 2024
Advisory services in 116 contracted projects
How does the share of advisory services change with project size?
Sorting the data led us to some interesting information. In the case of projects above EUR 2 million (COMPANY 1 and COMPANY 2), both projects received almost identical aid (around EUR 995,000), but the cost of advisory services was 2.59% on one project and 6.79% on the other. It would be interesting to know whether these projects involved infrastructure works and whether this price difference is justified, that is, that one company budgeted some EUR 60,000 for advisory services and the other EUR 140,000.
The percentages are most consistent for projects of EUR 950,000 to 1,100,000. Here they are around 5%, i.e. advisory services costs were budgeted at around EUR 52,000.
We can also see significant differences for projects of EUR 180,000 to 400,000. Here the percentages were agreed on the APP principle (ako prođe prođe, roughly “if it passes, it passes”). On average the percentages were 14.5%, the lowest were around 5% and the highest as much as 26%. As an example, we take COMPANY 3, which has a project of EUR 240,000, of which over EUR 62,000 is budgeted for advisory services, which is very interesting.
Looking only at the amounts budgeted for advisory services, the costs range from as low as EUR 20,000 (when we leave out a few outliers) up to, as mentioned above, EUR 140,000.
The median cost, when we leave out a few outliers, is around EUR 52,000, and the median percentage is around 6%, which we consider realistic for this type and complexity of call.
Share of eligible costs
How much of a project goes to advisory services
Average and median
The five highest shares
Which projects had the highest shares?
The firms that very probably budgeted excessive amounts are, in order (by the percentage share of advisory services in the project):
- COMPANY A (total eligible costs: EUR 383,740.50, of which total cost of advisory services: EUR 85,000, i.e. 22.15%),
- COMPANY B (total eligible costs: EUR 544,272.00, of which total cost of advisory services: EUR 92,472.00, i.e. 16.99%),
- COMPANY C (total eligible costs: EUR 643,000.00, of which total cost of advisory services: EUR 80,000.00, i.e. 12.44%),
- COMPANY D (total eligible costs: EUR 882,521.22, of which total cost of advisory services: EUR 86,500.00, i.e. 9.80%)
- COMPANY E (total eligible costs: EUR 1,368,325.00, of which total cost of advisory services: EUR 130,000, i.e. 9.50%).
As the data are publicly available, anyone interested in more information can find it at the following link: https://fondovieu.gov.hr/pozivi/108 (information on the signed contracts is further down the page).
Why is it useful to publish the cost of advisory services?
It would be very interesting and useful if every future EU call had publicly available and transparently presented data on advisory services, because this would allow future applicants to research the market better and more thoroughly, and would also ensure that fair and realistic prices are agreed for advisory/consulting services.
We track which grant calls are open or announced in the guide Grants and EU funds for entrepreneurs 2026. The introductory call with us is free.
Frequently asked questions about consulting fees
How much do consulting services for EU projects cost?
In the call for the transition to an energy and resource efficient economy for 2024, 105 companies budgeted advisory services at an average of EUR 51,578.36 per project, or 5.23% of the project value. The median cost was around EUR 52,000 and the median share around 6%.
What share of a project usually goes to advisory services?
Leaving out outliers, the shares ranged from 2% to 26% of the project’s eligible costs. For projects of EUR 950,000 to 1,100,000 they were around 5%, and for projects of EUR 180,000 to 400,000 they averaged 14.5%.
What do advisory services on a project include?
In this call, advisory services also included construction supervision, public procurement services or procurement documentation for entities not subject to the Public Procurement Act, and audit services for verifying project costs. Around EUR 7,000 or less was budgeted for the audit.
Where can the data on contracted projects be checked?
The data on the signed contracts for this call are publicly available on the call page of the fondovieu.gov.hr portal.
About the author
Matija Vlahovski, MSc in Economics
Co-founder and director of Omnia Solutions. He has more than ten years of experience in business financing, mostly with HAMAG-BICRO loans, HBOR loans, investment studies and tax incentives. He has taken part in more than 90 projects, through which clients were awarded more than EUR 12 million in grants and more than EUR 2 million in tax incentives. Before consulting, he worked at Privredna banka Zagreb, preparing loan proposals for small and medium-sized enterprises. He holds a HANFA licence.
