Small-scale Partnerships

Overview

Objectives

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. More specifically, objectives include:

• Attracting and widening access for newcomers, less experienced organisations and small-scale actors to the programme.
• Supporting the inclusion of target groups with fewer opportunities.
• Supporting active European citizenship by bringing European dimension to the local level. 

Furthermore, Small-scale partnerships aim to achieve the following horizontal priorities:

• Increasing quality in the work and practices of the 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, in proportion to the context of each organisation.

Activities/actions supported

This call is open to any type of organisation is active in any field of education, training youth, sport, or other socio-economic sector that carry out activities that are transversal to different fields. For example; local, regional and national authorities, recognition and validation centres, chambers of commerce, trade organisations, guidance centres, cultural and sport organisations. Small-scale partnerships should involve appropriate and diverse partners to benefits from different experiences and expertise. To be considered for funding, Small scale partnerships must address either at least one horizontal priority and/or at least one specific priority relevant to the field of sport.

Projects should last between 6 and 24 months.

Anticipated outcomes

In 2024, all Partnerships for Cooperation supported by Erasmus+ (Cooperation Partnerships and Small-scale Partnerships) must address one of the following priority areas:

• Inclusion and diversity in all fields of education, training, youth and sport: the Programme will support projects that promote social inclusion and aim at improving the outreach to people with fewer opportunities.
• Environment and fight against climate change: the Programme aims to support, across all sectors, awareness-raising about the green transition, environmental and climate-change challenges.
• Addressing digital transformation through development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity: The Programme will support digital transformation plans of primary, secondary, vocational education and training (VET), higher, and adult education institutions.
• Common values, civic engagement and participation: The Programme will support active citizenship and ethics in lifelong learning; it will foster the development of social and intercultural competences, critical thinking and media literacy.

Additional specific priorities relevant to the field of education, training, youth and sport can be found in the Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2024 at  https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-programme-guide

Institution providing the funding

European Commission

Size of funding

Lump sums of either EUR 30 000 or EUR 60 000, as chosen by the applicants

Conditions

Overview of eligibility criteria

Applications can be submitted by any participating organisation established in an EU Member State or third country associated to the Programme can be the applicant. This organisation applies on behalf of all participating organisations involved in the project.

In order to be eligible, applicants must be public or private organisations, established in an EU Member State or third country associated to the Programme and active in any field of education, training, youth, sport or other socioeconomic sectors. Small-scale partnerships are open to any type of organisation active in any field of education, training, youth, sport or other socio-economic sectors as well as to organisations carrying out activities that are transversal to different fields (e.g. local, regional and national authorities, recognition and validation centres, chambers of commerce, trade organisations, guidance centres, cultural and sport organisations).

As these partnerships are meant to be transnational, they must involve a minimum of two organisations from two different EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme.

Overview of award criteria

Evaluation criteria include:

• Relevance (30 points)
• Quality of the project design and implementation (30 points)
• Quality of the partnership and the cooperation arrangements (20 points)
• Impact (20 points).

To be considered for funding, proposals must score at least 60 points. Furthermore, they must score at least half of the maximum score points in each of the award criteria.

Procedures

Application procedures

Depending on the field of the project proposed or on the type of applicant, Cooperation Partnerships are managed either by the National Agencies or by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). 

For Small-scale Partnerships in the fields of vocational education and training, school education, adult education and youth, applications must be submitted to the Erasmus+ National Agency of the country in which the applicant organisation is established.

For Small-scale Partnerships in the field of sport, applications must be submitted to the European Education and Culture Executive Agency.

Please note that deadlines vary, depending on the field of application:

• VET, school education, adult education: Applicants have to submit their grant application either by by 05 March at 12:00:00 (midday Brussels time) for projects starting between 1 September and 31 December of the same year; OR by 1 October 12:00:00 (midday Brussels time) for projects starting between 1 January and 31 August of the following year.
• Sport: Applicants have to submit their grant application by 5 March at 17:00:00.

Application support available

For help related to this call, please contact: eacea-sportec [dot] europa [dot] eu (eacea-sport[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)

For further information on this funding opportunity please check:

• Erasmus+ calls for proposals 2024: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:C_202301262
• Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2024: https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-programme-guide

Link to the funding opportunity

Link to the programme for more info