No, they are not. To be reimbursed, eligible expenses must have been incurred by research projects directly. However, user fees charged by institutions or shared platforms to research projects to restart research activities (e.g., animal care facilities, digital labs) are eligible as long as they meet the Stage 3 eligible expenses criteria.
For example, an institutional animal care facility has incurred extraordinary costs to sanitize the space before re-opening. These “user fees” charged by the facility to the research projects are eligible if they:
were communicated transparently to the research project leads; and
are traceable through an invoicing process.