The New Engineering Contract (NEC) is a modern day family of standard contracts that truly embraces the concept of partnership and encourages employers, designers, contractors and project managers to work together to achieve the client's objectives. Each of the main options is printed as a separate document and contains the Core Clauses merged with the applicable main Option Clauses. Under Option E of the EEC, the Contractor is reimbursed his Actual Costs plus a Fee. Actual Cost for non-subcontracted work is defined in the schedule of Cost Components at the back of the Contract and predominantly covers the Contractor's direct and indirect on-site costs. This contract will be effective when: time or quality are overriding priorities for the Employer or the scope is not sufficently defined at the outset or the contract is subject to a high level of uncertainty e.g. in planning interfaces or risks encountered such that the Contractor is unable to price the works with any degree of accuracy.