Forward-Looking Cooperation Projects 2019 EACEA/36/2018

Deadline: Mar 19, 2019  
CALL EXPIRED

Important: Please note that the standard Grant Agreements of the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (hereafter referred to as 'EACEA' or 'the Agency') are currently under revision due to the entry into force (on 2 August 2018) of the Financial Regulation 2018/1046 (see Section 14.4. below). For this reason, the draft Grant Agreements related to this call are sent as an example and, consequently, the Agency reserves the right to introduce changes or additional details subject to the new provisions of the Financial Regulation. In this case the Agency the will announce the changes as soon as possible and, at the latest, before the signature of the grant agreements.

 

1. INTRODUCTION – BACKGROUND

1.1 Initiatives for policy innovation

'Initiatives for policy innovation' are a strand of Erasmus+ Key Action 3 - Support for Policy Reform1.

They support two different actions: European Policy Experimentations2 and Forward-Looking Cooperation Projects3 (FLCPs), which aim to support reforms and innovation in education, training and youth through trans-national cooperation projects.

The 2019 Annual Work Programme for the implementation of Erasmus+ provides funding for Forward Looking Cooperation Projects under section 5.2.2.b (budget table index reference 3.21)4.

The management of this call is delegated by the European Commission to the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency5, hereinafter referred to as "the Agency".

1.2 Policy context

European societies need to address major challenges such as new demographic trends, the increasing diversity of the population, technological transformations, growing digitalisation and environmentally sustainable growth. While unemployment is high, especially among young people, a high level of inequality in the society risk increasing social exclusion.

Education and training are key to help address these challenges, but also to harness the significant opportunities linked to the current and future transformations. There is a clear need for strong and targeted actions both at the EU and Member States level.

In the European Union, 70 million people lack adequate reading and writing skills, and even more have poor numeracy and digital skills. This situation has been deteriorating during the last few years. Furthermore, 4.5 million young people leave education without upper secondary qualifications. This trend is particularly worrying in some EU Member States, especially for youngsters with a migrant background. There is also evidence that too few people have the transversal skills to deal with the complexity of changes in society and the world of work, which require in particular new skills, competences and attitudes.

 

Education and training systems need to better focus on innovation, equity and inclusion in a lifelong learning perspective, providing skills and competences for employability and entrepreneurship. But they also need to help uphold EU common values and promote active citizenship.

They need to cater for effective teacher education and professional development, including on how to take advantage of technology, digitalisation and new media to improve teaching and learning.

In November 2017, at the Gothenburg Social Summit for Fair Growth and Jobs in Gothenburg President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker stated that "Education and culture are the key to the future – both for the individual as well as for our Union as a whole. It is how we turn circumstance into opportunity, how we turn mirrors into windows and how we give roots to what it means to be 'European', in all its diversity".6

On the same occasion, the Commission President, together with the EU Heads of State and government and the President of the European Parliament, proclaimed the European Pillar of Social Rights7 which establishes as its first principle that "everyone has the right to quality and inclusive education, training and life-long learning in order to maintain and acquire skills that enable them to participate fully in society and manage successfully transitions in the labour market".

In December 2018, the European Council reiterated that education and culture are key to building inclusive and cohesive societies and to sustaining the EU’s competitiveness. It called on Member States, the Council and the Commission, in line with their respective competences, to take the Gothenburg agenda forward.

The European Commission has responded to this mandate by adopting in 2018 a number of new initiatives to pave the way to the creation of a European Education Area by 20258, notably:

- a proposal for a Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, which focuses on promoting entrepreneurial drive and innovation-oriented mindsets in order to unlock personal potential, creativity and self-initiative. It also recommends steps to foster competences in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and motivate more young people to embark on a career in these fields;

- a proposal for a Council Recommendation on common values, inclusive education and the European dimension of teaching, outlining ways in which education can help young people understand the importance of and adhere to common values of the European Union. The proposal also aimed at helping Member States to promote quality education for all pupils and enable children to learn about Europe's common heritage and diversity and understand the functioning of the European Union.

Both proposals have been adopted by the Council in May 2018.
The Commission also presented a Digital Education Action Plan9 outlining how the EU can help people, educational institutions and education systems to adapt to life and work in an age of rapid digital change, by making better use of digital technology for teaching and learning and developing the digital competences and skills.

Other Commission initiatives towards developing a European Education Area include 10:
- an overarching Communication on Building a Stronger Europe: the role of youth, education and culture policies11,
- proposals for three Council Recommendations, respectively on High Quality Early Childhood Education and Care Systems to lay the foundations for later success in life12, on the Automatic Mutual Recognition of Diplomas and Learning Periods Abroad to facilitate learning mobility in Europe13, and on Improving the Teaching and Learning of Languages14, to ensure that more young people become proficient other languages than their own;
- a Youth Strategy15 for the period 2019–2027 to empower Europe's youth and give them a stronger voice in EU policy-making, reflecting the importance the Commission attaches to investing in young people and their future.

1.3 Forward-Looking Cooperation Projects

Definition

Forward-Looking Cooperation Projects (FLCPs) are large-scale projects with the aim to identify, test, develop or assess innovative policy approaches that have the potential of becoming

mainstreamed and improving education and training systems.

They should provide in-depth knowledge on target group(s), learning, teaching or training situations and effective methodologies and tools that help policies to develop, as well as

conclusions relevant for policy makers in education and training at all levels.

Unlike European policy experimentations under Erasmus+ Key Action 3, which are led by high-level public authorities and as such follow a "top-down" approach, FLCPs aim at promoting innovation emerging from representative stakeholders in the field ("bottom-up approach").

FLCPs should therefore be led and implemented by high profile representative stakeholders with a proven record of excellence and state of the art knowledge, the capacity to innovate or generate systemic impact through their activities and the potential to drive the policy agenda in the fields of education and training.

 

General Objectives
The general objectives of this call are:

  to promote innovation in education and training fields through European cooperation at both policy and practice levels;

. to empower key stakeholders in the development and mainstreaming policy innovation. 

Developing and testing novel ideas beyond the state of the art, including by pursuing ground- breaking objectives with a clear potential to innovate policies and practices and viable implementation options, is key to generate genuine improvements in delivering learning outcomes, ensuring equity, cost-efficiency and learner satisfaction.

Innovation can drive policy improvement, either incrementally by advancing existing practices or more radically by introducing new practices.

 

Specific Objectives

The specific objectives of this call are:

•   to kick-start longer-term changes and field-test innovative solutions to challenges in the education and training fields, which have the potential of becoming mainstreamed and to generate a sustainable and systemic impact on education and training systems;

•   to support trans-national cooperation and mutual learning on forward-looking issues among key stakeholders;

•   to facilitate the collection and analysis of evidence to substantiate innovative policies and practices.

Expected results

The projects proposed under the present call should lead to proven results in at least one of the following areas:

1. (i)  Development and/or improvement of innovative actions in the fields of education and training in line with the call priorities (see Section 2);

2. (ii)  Improved evidence and understanding on target group(s), learning and teaching situations and effective methodologies and tools that can inspire and stimulate innovation at system level;

3. (iii)  Evidence of potential long-term impact on education and training systems through the mainstreaming of advanced and innovative policy approaches developed by the projects;

4. (iv)  European added-value through reinforced trans-national cooperation and mutual learning among major stakeholders.

 

2. PRIORITIES
Proposals submitted under the present call must address one of the priorities listed under this

Section.
Proposals not addressing any of the 6 call priorities will not be considered. Priority 1 – Acquisition of basic skills by low-skilled adults

The Council Recommendation on Upskilling Pathways was adopted in December 2016. Member States committed to offering adults with a low level of skills, knowledge and competences (e.g. without an upper secondary qualification or equivalent) an opportunity to improve their basic skills (literacy, numeracy, digital skills) and/or progress towards higher qualifications at EQF level 3 or 4, in line with labour market needs.

Upskilling Pathways comprises three steps:
i) skills assessment to enable adults to identify their existing skills and any needs for upskilling; ii) a tailored offer of learning to meet the needs identified by the skills assessment; and
iii) validation and recognition of the skills acquired, possibly to acquire a qualification.

Delivering these Pathways requires enhancing access in such a way as to ensure wide availability to and take up by all potential learners. This includes effective outreach to target groups, guidance, and support measures such as funding mechanisms.

From the point of view of the learner, the Upskilling Pathway should be one continuous, coherent, comprehensive, easily accessible initiative.

An important challenge for Member States is the often insufficient level of coordination between the existing components (e.g. as they are provided by different organisations) as well as the low take up and access to such pathways for those that need them most.

The forward-looking cooperation project should develop innovative approaches that overcome obstacles to access and take up through coordination that enables the learner to access a single, coherent, comprehensive initiative, in which the learning pathway suits their specific needs. The innovation should include the involvement of outreach, guidance and other support services. Stakeholders responsible for providing the skills assessments, learning offer and validation arrangements, in line with the Upskilling Pathways Recommendation should be involved. The projects should also use the potential of new technologies and digitalisation as a means to improve access, take up and provision of upskilling opportunities (tailored to specific needs), as well as improving coordination.

Priority 2 – Designing and assessing the effectiveness of continuing training to meet current and future skill needs

The European Pillar of Social Rights confirms the importance of everyone continuing to learn and upskill throughout life, stating that: "everyone has the right to quality and inclusive education, training and life-long learning in order to maintain and acquire skills that enable them to participate fully in society and manage successfully transitions in the labour market".16

In today’s fast-changing labour market, continuing training is a necessity for all of the workforce in order to meet current and future skill needs, linked to trends such as automation, digitalisation and globalisation. As the workplace is where employees spend a large share of their time, it is an important environment in which to acquire not only job-related skills but also basic and transversal competences that can improve employability, and to make people more resilient to changes in their career and life. For older workers, learning in the workplace offers a practical alternative route to obtaining higher level, or more relevant, skills.

The Education and Training 2020 Working Group on Adult Learning have recently identified policies that promote and support adult workplace learning. Based on an inventory of national policies, the lessons learned from peer learning, and additional evidence from studies

and reports, the Working Group has identified ten ‘building blocks’ that can be combined to construct effective policies for different contexts17.

Inspired by the findings, the forward-looking cooperation projects under this priority should bring together key stakeholders to develop, test or assess innovative policy approaches that are designed to result in a significant increase in the numbers of employees taking part in learning at the workplace.

As examples, this might involve policies that:

1. encourage employers to have a strategic approach to skills development and transform their organisation into learning workplaces;
2. develop mechanisms or support structures (or enhance existing support structures) to assist small and medium size companies with addressing the learning needs of their employees;

3. support partnerships between employers and VET/training providers to address the learning needs of employees;

4. test sustainable approaches to the co-funding of adult learning in the workplace;

5. develop means to match the learning needs of employees with relevant workplace learning opportunities;

6. develop coordination mechanisms to promote adult learning in the workplace;

7. set up effective monitoring and evaluation systems of adult workplace learning.

Priority 3 - Promoting innovative technology in the field of providing career guidance

Jobs and careers have been transformed by the impact of technology. There is on-going debate and speculation about how we will work, learn and live in the future and certainty that the forms of work and skills required will constantly evolve.

Career guidance services can respond to this transformation by embracing technology. Innovative use of technology can offer new forms of support, easier access to information and reach wider audiences thereby enhancing services offered. Job vacancies describe the skills to be applied in performing tasks at work; education and training programmes can deliver many forms of knowledge, skills and attitudes in specific disciplines and professions. However, very often there is limited attention paid to the skills we need to cope with complexity and change and to understand our own needs and manage our careers (e.g communication, planning, self- assessment of skills, analysing information, decision-making).

The aim of this priority is to:

•   support greater understanding of career management skills; and

•   explore use of innovative technology to support development of career management skills.

1. Projects should develop a comprehensive catalogue of career management skills.

The catalogue of skills should be developed through a defined methodology and research basis, informed by changing practices in the labour market as well as anticipated shifts in the nature of work and how careers might evolve in the future. The catalogue of skills should be clearly described in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes and each skill should be mapped to differing levels of proficiency. The catalogue should be an accessible reference point for career guidance practitioners and other intermediaries offering support to individuals. The project should develop an effective approach to support presentation, reuse and adaptation of the catalogue of skills. The project should consider communication, dissemination and support for use of the catalogue to guidance practitioners and stakeholders.

2. Projects should explore use of innovative technology in supporting development of career management skills

Projects should test, pilot or implement innovative ways to use the catalogue of career management skills to support individuals in their careers. The catalogue should be applied in a holistic way and appropriate technology developed that could identify skills needs, offer guidance, support testing or self-assessment, offer learning in different forms, and recognise skills development or progress – based on the catalogue. The innovative technology (apps, games, online tests) should ensure the catalogue is applied in a relevant way to meet end user needs but also to ensure wide dissemination and accessibility to user groups such as workers who may not have direct access to career guidance.

Priority 4 - Promoting innovative and cross-disciplinary approaches to STE(A)M teaching in education

A move from STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) where subjects are taught in silos with focus on scientific concepts to a STE(A)M approach in teaching and learning where concepts are investigated through interaction between STEM and non-STEM subjects and links to economic, environmental and social challenges is important to: i) increase young people's interest and motivation to study STEM subjects and to choose STEM careers and ii) produce a workforce that is capable of tackling complex challenges through creative and interdisciplinary approaches.

STEM initiatives and actions are in place in Member States. However, the approaches adopted are fragmented and the quality of provision is unevenly developed. As a result, current STEM initiatives on education lack outreach and impact. Therefore, the priority will address the need for better coordination between stakeholders and for more strategic approaches to be developed.

The priority is in line with the Renewed EU Agenda for Higher Education18 to promote the modernisation and uptake of relevant STE(A)M subjects through more multi-disciplinary programmes. It is also in line with the Communication on School development and excellent teaching for a great start in life19 which called for Erasmus+ action to address gender gaps and stereotypes in STEM. Both Communications also stressed the need for better cooperation between different education sectors, research, business and public sectors. The teaching and learning of STEM is part of the key competences outlined in the Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning20.

The project should support the establishment of an EU level action to promote a STE(A)M approach to STEM education. The action will support Member States to reform their education systems with a lifelong learning approach to improve the quality of STEM education, to increase enrolment and academic success of students, address gender segregation and to produce a well- qualified and diverse workforce with the right STEM skills.

By developing frameworks and/or recommendations, the action will aim at:

•   Developing and aligning local and regional initiatives to national strategies and objectives with special focus on producing well-qualified and diverse workforce;

•   Reforming curricula for STEM with a STE(A)M approach including real-world applications, inquiry-based and ICT-enriched learning, collaborative practices, with a transdisciplinary focus and the use of extra-curricular activities in order to deliver the wider range of skills that drive innovation and creativity and nurture forward-looking skills, including entrepreneurship skills;

•   Initial and continuous teacher training in innovative pedagogies with cross-disciplinary approaches that include exposure to industry.

To deliver on the above-mentioned objectives, the action will build on ongoing national and European initiatives, and work together with different education sectors, private and public sectors to facilitate the exchange of mutual learning, experiences and good practice.

Priority 5 - Promoting the use of self-reflection tools to support innovation and systemic change in education and training institutions

Innovation and systemic change in education can be slow to take root. Developing the innovative and entrepreneurial potential of education institutions, or successfully integrating digital technologies, requires a holistic approach. This means planning for innovation and change in, for example, pedagogies, infrastructure, organisational capacity, human resource management and institutional strategies.

 

There is a considerable need to support and involve a broad set of stakeholders (eg educational leaders, educators, administrative staff, students and external stakeholders) so that each institution can respond to the need for institutional change and development in a meaningful, comprehensive and strategic way.

Improving and modernising education and training systems is a key priority for the EU. The Europe 2020 strategy acknowledges that a fundamental transformation of education and training is needed to provide the knowledge, skills and competences required for Europe to remain competitive.

Educational organisations such as schools and universities have to evolve and adapt in order to achieve their core mission: to educate students to be successful in a complex and interconnected world that faces rapid technological, cultural, economic and demographic change.

The use of self-reflection tools can be a way to support organisational change towards identifying goals of sustainable innovation, defining actions and achieving improved learning outcomes.

Projects under this priority should focus on how self-reflection tools can be used by educational institutions as a vehicle for organisational change and innovation. Projects will highlight good practice in using and, in particular, following-up results from the two self-reflection tools developed by the European Commission, namely HEInnovate21 for higher education institutions and SELFIE22 for schools.

Projects will look at how institutions can be supported in using these tools to understand the current position of the organisation and build on the results to define and implement suitable action plans.

Projects can include (indicative list): exchange of good practice; peer-to-peer support; developing communities of practice; toolkits and support materials; training activities; workshops; conferences/seminars; support for the design and implementation of action plans and their follow-up as well as external evaluation and accreditation. A further focus could be on extending the tools to new sectors of education (eg non-formal learning, adult education, VET), exploring synergies between HEInnovate and SELFIE or interconnecting the tool with similar programmes or initiatives at regional, national or international level.

Priority 6 - Higher education – achieving the aims of the Digital Education Action Plan, including Open Science, and assessing learning outcomes for the purpose of benchmarking among higher education institutions

This priority aims to contribute to the objectives of the Renewed EU Agenda for Higher Education23 and the Digital Education Action Plan24. Both of these communications aim to promote forward-looking skills in an era of technological and demographic changes to organise new ways in which teaching and learning are structured and delivered. Projects submitted under this priority should address one of the following topics: Open Science Skills, Artificial Intelligence in Education, assessing learning outcomes in Higher Education.

 Open Science skills

Open Science skills form part of the wider range of digital skills that are crucial for students to engage and harness the potential of digital technologies to co-design and co-create innovative solutions. It covers a broad span: from data management to legal aspects, including technical skills such as data stewardship, data protection, scholarly communication and dissemination. It also includes Citizen Science i.e. digitally informed and skilled citizens and end-users who can co-design and co-create knowledge to tackle societal and technological challenges.

Forward-Looking Coooperation Projects should develop open access curricula and training courses for undergraduates and master level students, researchers and educators, as well as demonstrate proof of concept and initial impact of training on one or a combination of the following:

• analysis/use/reuse of open data, open access, open and FAIR25 management, publishing and dissemination of knowledge and scientific output;

• use of openly available tools, platforms;

• citizen science, including design, development processes, collection, analysis and communication of co-created knowledge, including scientific data.

The courses, learning material and training guides will be open educational resources (OER), therefore being openly licensed. This will ensure that they can be reused, adapted and remixed by third parties, thus scaling up their use and reach. They will also be made available in platforms that comply with interoperability standards, respecting open formats for easier reuse of the content. The training courses and curricula developed for undergraduates and master level students should not only provide a foundation for further training at PhD level and beyond, but also prepare students who do not pursue academic career to understand and use scientific information in their professional and personal life. For educators in higher education at all career levels, “Train the trainer” continuous professional development courses will be developed.

 Artificial Intelligence in Education

The exponential growth in computing power, availability of data and progress in algorithms is turning Artificial Intelligence (AI) into one of the most important technologies of the 21st century26. AI refers to digital systems that display intelligent behaviour by analysing their environment and taking actions - with some degree of autonomy - to achieve specific goals.

The use of AI in education is still at its infancy, with AI mainly being used to generate teacher interfaces for allowing monitoring students and learning (e.g. learning analytics). It is important for educational stakeholders to understand AI in the broader context of digital transformation (which goes beyond monitoring learning progression) and think about ways in which AI can be used to harness teaching and learning everyday practices.

Forward-Looking Cooperation Projects should identify, test, develop or assess the use of AI to support students’ learning needs and targeted practices and feedback, to improve learning outcomes and to foster effective personalised learning environments.

 Assessing learning outcomes for benchmarking among Higher Education Institutions

Information on the performance and the level of skills of students and graduates at European level is so far limited. The availability of such data, as stated in the Council Recommendation on tracking graduates27, is essential in order to both understand the causes and find solutions for skills shortages in particular regions, economic sectors and to raise the quality and relevance of particular higher education courses and institutions. Availability of comparable data on knowledge, skills and competences of graduates upon leaving education would allow EU countries to benchmark the quality of their higher education systems.

Forward-Looking Cooperation Projects should build on the 'Key Action 3-Support for Policy Reform' funded project on 'Measuring and Comparing Achievements of Learning Outcomes in Higher Education in Europe' (CALOHEE)28. Projects should increase the practical uptake of the available resources - Subject Area Qualifications Reference Frameworks; Assessment Reference Frameworks and Guidelines and Reference Points Brochures. Projects may include one or a combination of the following:

- Test the fitness for purpose of the frameworks by piloting their practical application in contexts for which they were intended, in particular in quality assurance and accreditation, internal quality assurance, curriculum development, qualification frameworks/standards and teaching improvement;

- Extend the frameworks into new subject areas not covered by this project, in particular the areas where biggest skills shortages are reported, e.g. STE(A)M and the digital occupations;

- Prepare a blueprint of transnational skills tests by identifying testable aspects of learning outcomes and grading schemes and overcoming the challenges of the cultural, disciplinary and educational specificities.

 

 

3. TIMETABLE

Date and time or indicative period

1 Publication of the call
December 2018

2 Deadline for submitting applications
19 March 2019 - 12.00 noon CET

3 Evaluation period
End of March to June 2019

4 Information to applicants
July 2019

5 Signature of grant agreement
October 2019

6 Project start date
Between 1 November 2019 and 1 January 2020

 

4. BUDGET AVAILABLE

The total budget available for the co-financing of projects under the present call is EUR 12.000.000.

Financial contribution from the EU cannot exceed 75% of the total eligible project costs. The maximum grant per project is EUR 500.000.
The Agency reserves the right not to distribute all the funds available for this call.

 

5. ADMISSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

Applications shall comply with the following requirements:

• -  they must be submitted no later than the deadline for submitting applications referred to in Section 3 of the present guidelines;

• -  they must be submitted online (see Section 14 of the present guidelines), using the electronic application form and its compulsory annexes (using only the provided templates);

• -  they must be drafted in one of the EU official languages.

Please note that only typed applications will be considered.

The application form must be accompanied by a balanced budget using the compulsory template.

Failure to comply with those requirements will lead to the rejection of the application.

In order to submit an application, applicants must provide their Participant Identification Code (PIC) in the application form29. The PIC can be obtained by registering the organisation in the Unique Registration Facility (URF) hosted in the Education, Audiovisual, Culture, Citizenship and Volunteering Participant Portal. The Unique Registration Facility is a tool shared by other services of the European Commission. If an applicant already has a PIC that has been used for other programmes (for example the Research programmes), the same PIC is valid for the present call for proposals.

The Participant Portal allows applicants to upload or update the information related to their legal status and attach the requested legal and financial documents (see Section 14.2 for more information).

Only applications that comply with admissibility requirements will pass at evaluation stage.

 

6. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

The proposals which comply with the below criteria will be the subject of a content evaluation. Only applications that fulfil the eligibility criteria will be considered for a grant. If an application is deemed ineligible, a letter indicating the reasons will be sent by email to the coordinator.

The eligibility criteria will be assessed on the basis of the information provided in the application form.

6.1 Eligible applicants

Eligible applicants are public and private organisations active in the fields of education, training and youth or other socio-economic sectors, or organisations carrying out cross-sector activities (e.g. recognition centres, chambers of commerce, trade organisations, civil society and cultural organisations, stakeholders networks, NGOs, education ministries, training providers, etc.). Natural persons are not eligible.

National Agencies or other structures and networks of the Erasmus+ Programme (hereafter 'Programme'), receiving a direct grant from the Commission in accordance with the legal basis of the Programme30 are not eligible to participate. Nevertheless, the legal entities hosting the Erasmus+ National Agencies or the structures and networks mentioned above, as well as entities affiliated to these legal entities, are considered eligible applicants. However, they have to demonstrate, before being awarded a grant, that they are not in a conflict of interest either because precautionary measures are taken by them or because their internal organisation is such that there is a clear separation of interests.(e.g. a minimum separation of accounts, separation of reporting and decision making lines, measures to prevent access to privileged information). Furthermore, costs and revenues of each action or activity for which the EU funds are awarded must be identified.

Legal entities having a legal or capital link with a beneficiary, which is neither limited to the project nor established for the sole purpose of its implementation may take part in the project as affiliated entities, and may declare eligible costs as specified in Section 11.2. For that purpose, applicants shall identify such affiliated entities in the 'Detailed Project Description' which is part of the Application Package and confirm this list at the stage of notification of project results. Supporting documents proving the affiliation (legal or capital link), as well as that they comply with the eligibility and non-exclusion criteria must be submitted.

Applicants should clearly demonstrate that the partnership includes partners that are key actors active in the fields of education and training; such as public authorities or European stakeholders' networks, being able to build partnerships bridging analysis, practice and policy making; possessing a state of the art knowledge and proven record of experience in the fields of education and training; having the capacity to provide results that have the potential to be transferred into policy making and influence the European policy agenda.

Only applications from legal entities established in the following Programme Countries31 are eligible:

•   the 28 Member States of the European Union;

•   the EFTA/EEA countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway;

•   EU candidate countries: the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey and Serbia32.

For British applicants: Please be aware that eligibility criteria must be complied with for the entire duration of the project. If the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU during the project period without concluding an agreement with the EU ensuring in particular that British applicants continue to be eligible, you will cease to receive EU funding (while continuing, where possible, to participate) or be required to leave the project on the basis of Article II.16.3.1 (a) of the Grant Agreement.

The minimum partnership composition requirement for this call is 3 organisations representing 3 Programme Countries.

In order to assess the applicants' eligibility, the following supporting documents are requested (via the Participant Portal):

- for a private entity: extract from the official journal, copy of articles of association, extract of trade or association register, certificate of liability to VAT (if, as in certain

31 See Annex I - Glossary
32 Serbia: The budgetary adaptations determined by Serbia's becoming a Programme Country of the Erasmus+

Programme shall apply from 1 January 2019 subject to the adoption of the Commission Decision approving the (amendment to the) Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Serbia on the participation of the Republic of Serbia in "Erasmus+": the Union programme for education, training, youth and sport as of 1 January 2019.

 

Programme Countries, the trade register number and VAT number are identical, only one of these documents is required);

- for a public entity: copy of the resolution or decision establishing the public company, or other official document establishing the public-law entity;

- entities without legal personality: documents providing evidence that their representative(s) have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf.

The coordinator must submit mandate letters with original signatures (attached to the eForm) from all partners involved in the proposal confirming their participation (see Section 14).

6.2 Eligible activities and project duration

Only activities taking place in Programme countries (see Section 6.1) will be considered eligible for funding. Any costs relating to activities undertaken in Partner Counties33 or by organisations that are not registered in the Programme Countries are not eligible unless they are necessary for the completion of the project and duly explained and justified in the application form. Any Amendment to the activities that involves Partner Countries must have the prior specific authorization from the Executive Agency.

Activities must start on 1 November 2019, 1 December 2019 or 1 January 2020.

The project duration must be between 24 and 36 months.

However, if after the signing of the agreement and the start of the project it becomes impossible for the beneficiaries, for fully justified reasons beyond their control, to complete the project within the scheduled period, an extension to the eligibility period may be granted. A maximum extension of 6 additional months will be granted, if requested before the deadline specified in the grant agreement.

Public link:   Only for registered users