With an estimated budget of about €26.2 billion, the Erasmus+ programme is much more exciting. The 2021-2027 term project promises more features implemented to enhance the benefits and objectives. Doubling the efforts of its predecessor (2014-2020 Erasmus Programme).
The Erasmus+ Programme Guide should be the first step to understanding Erasmus+. This is why Crom Internship has made it quite easy for you to understand how Erasmus+ Programme Works and to help you apply.
What Is The Erasmus+ Programme
The Erasmus+ programme is the European Union’s programme implemented to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe. You can consider Erasmus+(2021-2027) an improved version of the predecessor Erasmus 2014-2021.
Ultimately the Erasmus+ programme aims to improve employability through enhancing skills as well as the availability of Education, Training and Youth work. The seven-year programme has focused on making more impact than the programme in the period 2014-2020, strengthening its efforts to expand its reach. The Erasmus + programme provides more opportunities to allow access by more participants as well as more organisations.
Opportunities
The Erasmus+ offers mobility and cooperation opportunities in
- Higher education
- Vocational education and training
- School Education
- Adult education
- Youth
- Sports
Objectives of The Erasmus+ Programme
The Erasmus programme has the following specific objectives:
- Erasmus aims to enhance the learning mobility of individuals and groups, as well as cooperation, quality, inclusion and equity, excellence, creativity and innovation at the level of organisations and policies in the field of education and training;
- To promote non-formal and informal learning mobility and active participation among young people, as well as cooperation, quality, inclusion, creativity and innovation at the level of organisations and policies in the field of youth;
- Promote learning mobility of sports staff, as well as cooperation, quality, inclusion, creativity and innovation at the level of sports organisations and sports policies.
How The Erasmus+ Program Works
The Erasmus programme allows its beneficiaries to have free movement and education exchange between registered universities and institutions.
The Erasmus+ programme is designed for students and interested people who qualify for the programme and can be a part of periodic education programs in a chosen country in Europe. This allows them to deepen their knowledge of the foreign language and widen their horizons while sticking to the subject of their choice.
Academic teachers are however not left out. Erasmus youth exchange includes students as well as teachers.
Currently, Erasmus consists of over 5,000 participating institutions across 35 countries to provide the program to students. Since its implementation in 1987, over 7 million students have been a part of it and benefitted.
Eligible countries
EU Member States are eligible to fully partake in all actions of the Erasmus+ Programme. Additionally, the following third countries can also be associated with the programme:
- Members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) which are members of the European Economic Area (EEA): Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein;
- Acceding countries, candidate countries and potential candidates: North Macedonia, the Republic of Türkiye and the Republic of Serbia;
Structure Of The Erasmus+ (2021-2027) Programme?
As already established in the previous Programme, the new Erasmus+ programme supports the Key Actions (KA) for the education sectors (formal, non-formal and informal).
To achieve the programme’s objectives, the Erasmus+ Programme implements the following Key Actions:
KEY ACTION 1 – MOBILITY OF INDIVIDUALS
This Key Action supports:
- Mobility of learners and staff: opportunities for participants to undertake a learning and/or professional experience in another country;
- Youth participation activities:
- Mobility for sports coaches:
- DiscoverEU: This module offers participants over 18 years the opportunity to have an individual or group travel experience throughout Europe for a short term. Young people can apply here.
- Language learning opportunities for participants carrying out a mobility activity abroad. Offered via the Erasmus+ Online Language Support (OLS) tool.
- Moderated virtual exchanges for participants in higher education and youth:
KEY ACTION 2 – COOPERATION AMONG ORGANISATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS
This Key Action supports:
- Partnerships for Cooperation, including:
- Cooperation Partnerships
- Small-scale Partnerships
- Partnerships for Excellence, including:
- European Universities:
- Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVE):
- Erasmus+ Teacher Academie
- Erasmus Mundus Action:
- Partnerships for Innovation, including:
- Alliances for Innovation
- Forward-looking Projects
- Capacity Building projects, including:
- Capacity Building projects in the field of higher education
- Capacity Building projects in the field of vocational education and training
- Capacity Building projects in the field of youth
- Capacity Building projects in the field of sports.
- Not-for-profit sports events:
This action supports the preparation, organisation and follow-up of not-for-profit sports events, organised either in one single country or in several countries by not-for-profit organisations or public bodies active in the field of sport.
KEY ACTION 3 – SUPPORT TO POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND COOPERATION
This Key Action supports centralized Erasmus+ activities, projects that may be high-level and funding.
The National Agencies usually do not deal with these activities since it makes them less important for educational institutions. Instead, the Executive Agency (EACEA) manage them through specific calls for project applications.
JEAN MONNET ACTIONS
The Jean Monnet Actions support:
- Jean Monnet’s Action in the field of Higher Education
- Jean Monnet Action in other fields of education and training
- Jean Monnet policy debate
- Support to designated institutions
Who Implements The Erasmus+ Programme?
- THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
The European Commission is ultimately responsible for the running of the Erasmus+ Programme. Managing its budget and setting priorities, targets and criteria for the Programme on an ongoing basis.
- THE EUROPEAN EDUCATION AND CULTURE EXECUTIVE AGENCY (EACEA)
At the European level, the European Commission’s European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) is
responsible for the implementation of several actions of the Erasmus+ Programme. EACEA implements the
programme in direct management and is in charge of the complete life-cycle management of projects along with the following:
- promotion of the Programme,
- the evaluation of the grant applications,
- the monitoring of projects, to the dissemination of the project and Programme’s results.
- Launching specific calls for proposals
The European Commission, notably through the Executive Agency is also responsible for:
carrying out studies in the fields supported by the Programme;
- THE NATIONAL AGENCIES
The implementation of the Erasmus+ Programme is mainly done indirectly, meaning that the
European Commission entrusts budget implementation tasks to National Agencies. The rationale of this approach is to bring Erasmus+ as close as possible to its beneficiaries and to adapt to the diversity of national education, training and youth systems. For this purpose, each EU Member State or third country associated with the Programme has appointed one or more National Agencies (for the contact details, please consult the following link:
https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/contact_en).
How To Submit Erasmus+ Application?
To submit an Erasmus+ project, applicants must follow the four steps described below:
- Registration.
- Check compliance with the programme criteria for the relevant Action/field;
- Check the financial conditions;
- Fill in the application form and submit
The process can be a bit rough especially when you do not fully understand the terms and criteria. You can reach out to Crom Internship to help you apply.
To Register for the Erasmus+ programme, please visit this website:
- All applicants must be registered at https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-esc if not already done.
To register in the Electronic Submission System Funding & Tender Opportunities Portal, the legal representative of the applicant must carry out the following steps:
- Create a user account, the EU Login account (unless the person representing the applicant already has an account). New EU Login accounts can be created via the following website: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/cas/
- Access the Funding & tender opportunities portal at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/home and register (if applicable) on behalf of the organisation/group they represent. Guidance and Frequently Asked Questions are available on the portal.
The applicant needs to register only once through the European Commission’s Participant Register.
Once the registration is completed, the applicant will obtain a PIC. The PIC, which is a 9-digit unique
identifier and is necessary for the submission of applications enables the applicant to fill in the
application form in a simpler manner (i.e. by inserting the PIC number in the form, all the information
provided by the applicant at the registration stage will be automatically displayed in the form).
Proof of legal status
As part of the registration process, applicants must also upload the following documents:
- The Legal Entity form (to be downloaded from the European Commission’s website at:
http://ec.europa.eu/budget/contracts_grants/info_contracts/legal_entities/legal_entities_en.cfm). In the case of
a consortium, the Legal Entity Form should be provided by all members of the consortium; - The Financial Identification form (to be downloaded from the European Commission’s website at:
http://ec.europa.eu/budget/contracts_grants/info_contracts/financial_id/financial_id_en.cfm). Please fill in the form relating to the country in which the bank is located, even if the applicant is officially registered in another country. In the case of a consortium, the Financial Identification form should be provided only for the coordinator.