Cooperation Partnership Calls
First call
The first call is titled “Partnerships for Cooperation – Cooperation Partnerships in the fields of Education and Training submitted by European NGOs” (ERASMUS-EDU-2024-PCOOP-ENGO).
Priorities in the field of vocational education and training:
- Adapting vocational education and training to labour market needs
- Increase the flexibility of opportunities in vocational education and training
- Contributing to innovation in vocational education and training
- Increasing attractiveness of VET
- Improving quality assurance in vocational education and training
- Creation and implementation of internationalisation strategies for VET providers
- Supporting response of European education and training systems to the war in Ukraine
Priorities in the field of adult education:
- Increasing take-up and improving inclusiveness and accessibility of adult education
- Improving the availability of high quality, flexible and recognised learning for adults
- Promoting local learning centres and innovative learning spaces
- Creating upskilling and reskilling pathways
- Enhancing quality assurance in adult learning opportunities
- Supporting response of European education and and training systems to war in Ukraine
Second Call
The second call is titled “Partnerships for Cooperation – Cooperation Partnerships in the field of Youth submitted by European NGOs” (ERASMUS-YOUTH-2024-PCOOP-ENGO).
Priorities in the field of youth:
Priority will be given to actions that contribute to the core areas of the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027: engage, connect and empower young people. A particular focus will be on strengthening cross-sectorial cooperation that allows for greater synergies across different areas of actions that matter for young people, promoting youth participation in various scales and formats and supporting active citizenship of young people, notably youth at risk of social exclusion.
- Promoting active citizenship, young people’s sense of initiative and youth entrepreneurship, including social entrepreneurship
- Increasing quality, innovation and recognition of youth work
- Strengthening the employability of young people
- Reinforcing links between policy, research and practice
- Supporting response of the youth field in Europe to war in Ukraine
About Cooperation Partnerships
The primary goal of Cooperation Partnerships is to allow organisations to increase the quality and relevance of their activities, to develop and reinforce their networks of partners, to increase their capacity to operate jointly at transnational level, boosting internationalisation of their activities and through exchanging or developing new practices and methods as well as sharing and confronting ideas.
They aim to support the development, transfer and/or implementation of innovative practices as well as the implementation of joint initiatives promoting cooperation, peer learning and exchanges of experience at European level. Results should be re-usable, transferable, up-scalable and, if possible, have a strong transdisciplinary dimension.
Cooperation Partnerships aim at:
- Increasing quality in the work, activities and practices of organisations and institutions involved, opening up to new actors, not naturally included within one sector;
- Building capacity of organisations to work transnationally and across sectors;
- Addressing common needs and priorities in the fields of education, training, youth and sport;
- Enabling transformation and change (at individual, organisational or sectoral level), leading to improvements and new approaches, in proportion to the context of each organisation.
A Cooperation Partnership is a transnational project and must involve minimum three organisations from three different EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme. There is no maximum number of participating organisations in one partnership.
For applications submitted by European NGOs, the submission will go via the Funding and Tender Portal. For applications submitted by other types of organisations in the field, the submission will go via the National Agency of the country in which the applicant organisation is established.
Budget
The proposed funding model consists of a menu of 3 single lump sums, corresponding to the total grant amount for the project: 120 000 EUR, 250 000 EUR and 400 000 EUR. Applicants will choose between the 3 pre-defined amounts according to the activities they want to undertake and the results they want to achieve.
The deadline for submission is the 5th of March 2024.
For more information on the call for cooperation partnerships in the field of education and training, please click here.
For more information on the call for cooperation partnerships in the field of youth, please click here.
Calls for proposals on Small-Scale Partnerships
Small-scale Partnerships are designed to widen access to the programme to small-scale actors and individuals who are hard to reach in the fields of school education, adult education, vocational education and training, youth and sport. With lower grant amounts awarded to organisations, shorter duration and simpler administrative requirements compared to the Cooperation Partnerships, this action aims at reaching out to grassroots organisations, less experienced organisations and newcomers to the Programme, reducing entry barriers to the programme for organisations with smaller organisational capacity. This action will also support flexible formats – mixing activities with transnational and national character although with a European dimension – allowing organisations to have more means to reach out to people with fewer opportunities. Small-scale Partnerships can also contribute to the creation and development of transnational networks and to fostering synergies with, and between, local, regional, national and international policies.
Objectives
- Attract and widen access for newcomers, less experienced organisations and small-scale actors to the programme. These partnerships should act as a first step for organisations into cooperation at European level.
- Support the inclusion of target groups with fewer opportunities
- Support active European citizenship and bring the European dimension to the local level
A Small-scale Partnership is transnational and involves minimum two organisations from two different EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme. There is no maximum number of participating organisations in one partnership.
Budget
The proposed funding model consists of a menu of two possible lump sums, corresponding to the total grant amount for the project. Applicants will choose between the two pre-defined amounts according to the activities they want to undertake and the results they want to achieve: Single lump sum amounts:
- 30 000 EUR
- 60 000 EUR
When planning their projects, the applicant organisations – together with their project partners – will need to choose the single lump sum amount more appropriate to cover the costs of their projects, based on their needs and objectives. If the project is selected for funding, the requested lump sum amount becomes the overall grant amount.
For Small-scale Partnerships in the fields of vocational education and training, school education, adult education and youth submitted by any organisation in these fields:
Applicants have to submit their grant application
- by 05 March at 12:00:00 (midday Brussels time) for projects starting between 1 September and 31 December of the same year
- by 1 October 12:00:00 (midday Brussels time) for projects starting between 1 January and 31 August of the following year.
For small-scale partnerships in the fields of vocational education and training, adult education and youth, the applications will be submitted via the National Agency of the country in which the applicant organisation is established. To see which National Agency is responsible for Erasmus+ in your country, please click here.
Call for proposal on ‘Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills (Implementing the Blueprint)’
Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills seek to tackle skills gaps on the labour market that hamper growth, innovation and competitiveness in specific sectors or areas, aiming both at short term interventions and long term strategies. These Alliances will be implemented in the 14 industrial ecosystems identified in the New Industrial Strategy for Europe.
Alliances have to choose for their proposal the single industrial ecosystem which their project will address:
- Mobility-Transport-Automobile
- Textile
- Renewable energy
- Electronics
- Retail
- Construction
- Aerospace and defence
- Low-carbon energy intensive industries
- Tourism
- Agri-food
- Creative and cultural industries
- Digital
- Proximity and social economy
- Health
The following activities should be implemented:
- Developing a strategic approach to sectoral cooperation on skills
- Designing a European sector-wide agreed ‘core’ curricula and training programmes
- Delivering the ‘core’ curricula and training programmes
- Designing a long term action plan for the progressive roll-out of project deliverables after the project has finished
Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills (Blueprint) must cover at least 8 EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme and involve at least 12 applicants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities). The consortium must include at least 5 labour market actors (enterprises or companies, or representative intermediary organisations, such as chambers, trade unions or trade associations) and at least 5 education and training providers (VET and HEIs) as applicants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities). There should be at least one HE institution and one VET provider involved as applicants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities) in each proposal. Affiliated entities and associated partners do not count towards the minimum eligibility criteria for the consortium composition, and cannot be coordinator.
Budget
This action follows a lump-sum funding model,. The amount of the single lump-sum contribution will be determined for each grant based on the estimated budget of the action proposed by the applicant. The amount will be fixed by the granting authority on the basis of the estimated project budget, evaluation result and a funding rate of 80%.
The EU grant is 4 million euros for a 4 year project.
The deadline for submission is the 7th of March 2024.
For more information, please visit the Commission’s website.
Call for proposals on “Capacity Building in the Field of Vocational Education and Training”
Capacity building projects are international cooperation projects based on multilateral partnerships between organisations active in the field of VET in EU Member States and third countries associated to the Programme, and third countries not associated to the Programme. They aim to support the relevance, accessibility, and responsiveness of VET institutions and systems in third countries not associated to the Programme as a driver of sustainable socio-economic development.
Through joint initiatives that foster cooperation across different regions of the world, this action intends to increase the capacity of VET providers – especially in the fields of management, governance, inclusion, quality assurance, and innovation – so that they are better equipped to engage with private sector/enterprises/business associations to explore employment opportunities and jointly develop responsive VET interventions. International partnerships should contribute to improving the quality of VET in the third countries not associated to the Programme, notably by reinforcing the capacities of VET staff and teachers as well as by strengthening the link between VET providers and the labour market.
Objectives
Specifically, the action will:
- Build capacity of VET providers to strengthen cooperation between private and public stakeholders in the field of vocational education and training for demand-oriented and opportunity-driven VET interventions;
- Improve the quality and responsiveness of VET to socio-economic opportunities and social developments to enhance the labour market relevance of skills provision;
- Align VET provision to local, regional and national development strategies.
Thematic Areas
Features that characterise capacity building in VET include some thematic areas presented below. Proposals should focus on one or more of the following themes:
- Work-based learning (for young people and/or adults);
- Quality assurance mechanisms;
- VET teachers/trainers professional development;
- Key competences, including entrepreneurship;
- Public Private Dialogue and Partnerships in VET;
- Innovation in VET;
- Green and digital skills for the twin transition;
- Skills matching with current and future job opportunities, including in promising value chains under development.
In addition, the applicants can cover thematic areas that are not presented above. These must demonstrate that they are particularly appropriate to meet the objectives of the call and identified needs.
Funded projects will be able to integrate a wide range of cooperation, exchange, communication and other activities including for example:
- Creating and developing networks and exchanges of good practice between VET providers in third countries not associated to the Programme and in EU Member State or third country associated to the Programme;
- Creating tools, programmes and other materials to build the capacity of institutions from third countries not associated to the Programme (practical training schemes training programmes and tools for assessing and validating learning outcomes in VET, individual action plans for participating institutions; professional guidance and counselling and coaching methods…);
- Creating mechanisms to involve the private sector both in the design and delivery of curricula and to provide VET learners with high quality work-based experience;
- Developing and transferring pedagogical approaches, teaching and training materials and methods, including work based learning, virtual mobility, open educational resources and better exploitation of the ICT potential;
- Developing and implementing international (virtual) exchange activities for staff primarily (including teachers and non-teaching staff such as school leaders, managers, counsellors, advisors, etc.).
Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least 4 applicants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities) from minimum 3 eligible countries:
- at least 2 EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme;
- each of these participating countries must involve at least 1 organisation.
- at least 1 eligible third country not associated to the Programme:
- at least 2 organisations from the participating eligible third country/countries not associated to the Programme from the same region
- Organisations from different eligible regions cannot participate in the same projects. Cross-regional projects are not eligible.
The consortium must include at least one VET provider at non-tertiary education level. The number of organisations from EU Member States and third countries associated to the Programme may not be higher than the number of organisations from eligible third countries not associated to the Programme.
Projects should normally last 12, 24 or 36 months.
Budget
This action follows a lump-sum funding model. The amount of the single lump-sum contribution will be determined for each grant based on the estimated budget of the action proposed by the applicant. The amount will be fixed by the granting authority on the basis of the estimated project budget, evaluation result, and a funding rate of 80%. The EU grant per project will vary from a minimum of 100.000 EUR to a maximum of 400.000 EUR
The deadline for submission is the 29th of February 2024. For more information, please visit the Commission’s website.
To learn more about current calls for proposals or Eurodiaconia’s funding events, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Projects and EU Funding Officer Giorgia Signoretto at giorgia.signoretto@eurodiaconia.org and our Research and Projects Assistant Alice Widerberg at alice.widerberg@eurodiaconia.org.