Capacity building in the field of higher education Strand 3

Overview

Objectives

Specifically, the action will:

• Improve the level of competences, skills and employability potential of students in HEIs in the third countries not associated to the Programme by developing new and innovative education programmes;
• Promote inclusive education, equality, equity, non-discrimination and the promotion of civic-competences in higher education in the third countries not associated to the Programme;
• Improve the training of teachers and continuous professional development in order to impact the longer term quality of the education system in the third countries not associated to the Programme;
• Increase the capacities of HEIs, bodies in charge of higher education and competent authorities of third countries not associated to the Programme;
• Stimulate cooperation of institutions, capacity building and exchange of good practice.

Activities/actions supported

The non-exhaustive list of possible additional types of activities related to training and skilling is as follows:

• Foster national ownership by experimenting and mainstreaming positive and best practices in Higher Education at national and/or regional level;
• Contribute to efficient and effective policy making in the field of higher education by involving other stakeholders in the Higher Education field;
• Foster regional academic cooperation and promote voluntary convergence of the third countries not associated to the Programme towards a common regional strategy in the field of Higher Education;
• Enhance the attractiveness of the teaching profession.

The activities can have a specific focus on the topic 'Strengthening the education digital environment for Ukraine'.

Anticipated outcomes

Among the expected outcomes, the non-exhaustive list of those focusing up- and -re-skilling are:

• Improved access to and quality of higher education, in particular for people with fewer opportunities and in the poorest countries in the different regions;
• Increased students sense of initiative and entrepreneurship;
• Increased level of digital competence for students and staff;
• A stronger link and cooperation with the private sector, promoting innovation and entrepreneurship;
• Alignment of the academic world with labour market enhancing employability of students;
• Increased participation of HEIs located in remote areas.

Institution providing the funding

European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA)

Size of funding

Between EUR 600,000 and EUR 1,000,000 per project.

Conditions

Overview of eligibility criteria

Eligible third countries not associated to the Programme cab apply for this action:

• All third countries not associated to the Programme (please see section "Eligible Countries" in Part A of this Guide) in Western Balkans, Neighbourhood East and Neighbourhood West, South-Mediterranean countries, Asia, Central Asia, Middle East, Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Caribbean.
• Exception: organisations from Belarus (Region 2) and the Russian Federation (Region 4) are not eligible to participate in this action.

The applicants (coordinator and partners) must be legal entities:

• higher education institutions (HEIs), organisations of HEIs or recognised national or international rector, teacher or student organisations;
• established in an EU Member State, in a third country associated to the Programme or in eligible third countries not associated to the Programme.
• organisations from Syria are not eligible to participate in this Strand.

Associations, public or private organisations, including their affiliated entities (if any), active in the labour market or in the fields of education, training and youth located in an EU Member State, in a third country associated to the Programme or eligible third countries not associated to the Programme, may also participate, but not as coordinator.

For projects with a specific focus on `Strengthening the education digital environment for Ukraine', look at specifications in the call.

Overview of award criteria

Project proposals will be assessed taking into account the following 4 criteria, for a maximum of 100 points:

• Relevance of the project (30 points);
• Quality of the project design and implementation (30 points);
• Quality of the partnership and the cooperation arrangements (20 points);
• Sustainability, impact and dissemination of the expected results (20 points).

The threshold for individual criteria will be at least half of the maximum score points. The overall threshold, applying to the sum of the individual scores, will be 60.

Procedures

Application procedures

Applications should be sent to the To the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) with:

• Call ID: ERASMUS-YOUTH-2023-CB
• Topic ID: ERASMUS-EDU-2023-CBHE-STRAND-3

For more details about the application process, please see the link to the call below.

Application support available

For more information on the call and the application procedure please consult the Erasmus+ Programme Guide at https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-programme-guide

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

Link to funding opportunity

Link to the programme for more info