Alliances for STEM Skills Foundries

Overview

Objectives

Alliances for STEM Foundries aim to foster innovation, create entrepreneurial mindsets, provide young student entrepreneurs access to laboratories, technical infrastructures and equipment, support the development of intellectual property (IP), as well as facilitate access to venture capital in the strategic sectors identified in the Competitiveness Compass. Projects will aim to boost innovation through cooperation among higher education and VET providers with labour market and entrepreneurial actors with a possible participation of venture capital funds, facilitated by EIT KIC.

Activities/actions supported

Projects should normally last 24  months (with the duration chosen at application stage) and cover at least one of the following activities: developing curricula that emphasize STEM skills needed in strategic sectors; setting up incubators focused on strategic sectors; fostering partnerships among students, academia, and industry in strategic sectors.

For more details on the activities to be implemented, please see the text of the call.

Anticipated outcomes

The Alliances are meant to strengthen synergies between stakeholder, fostering innovation, new skills, a sense of initiative and entrepreneurial mind-sets. Moreover, Alliances are expected to contribute to the development of regional innovation eco-systems and directly provide a valuable input to the economy, integrating work-based learning. At a larger scale, Alliances for Innovation are expected to target societal and economic challenges, both in education and employment, and to address key areas such as innovation challenges, skills provision, addressing severe skills gaps, climate change, green economy, demography, digitisation and artificial intelligence.

Alliances are meant to have a short- and long-term impact on the wider range of stakeholders involved, at individual, organisational and systemic level, including beyond the project's lifetime.

Institution providing the funding

EACEA

Size of funding

EUR  1.5 million per 2-year project

Conditions

Overview of eligibility criteria

The applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities, if applicable) must be public or private organisations legally established in an EU Member State or third country associated to the programme. Organisations from third countries not associated to the Programme may also participate but only as associated partners. Higher education institutions established in an EU Member State or third country associated to the Programme must hold a valid Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE).

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.

Overview of award criteria

Award criteria include the following:

• Relevance of the project (maximum score 25 points): this includes, among others, the relevance of the proposal to EU-level policy priorities; the quality of the project's needs analysis; complementarity with other actions and innovation;
• Quality of the project design and implementation (maximum score 30 points): this includes, among others, the coherence between the project's objectives and activities; the quality of the methodology and approaches to management; the workplan and quality control measures; as well as the appropriateness of the budget and financial control measures;
• Quality of the partnerships and cooperation arrangements (maximum score 25 points): this includes, among others, whether the project involves complementary organisations with the necessary profile, competences, experience and expertise; proposed approach to collaboration and decision-making;
• Impact (maximum score 20 points): this includes, among others, the potential positive impact on participants and participating organisations, as well as other individuals; approaches to ensuring the dissemination and sustainability of project results and outcomes.
   

Project proposals have to score a minimum of 70 points in total to be considered for funding.

Procedures

Application procedures

Applications to be submitted to EACEA via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Call ID Lot 3: ERASMUS-EDU-2026-PI-ALL-INNO-STEM.

Application support available

For help related to this call, please contact EACEA-EPLUS-ALLIANCESec [dot] europa [dot] eu (EACEA-EPLUS-ALLIANCES[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)

For additional information, please consult the 2026 Erasmus+ Programme Guide.

Useful links

Link to funding opportunity

Link to the programme for more info