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As part of the Erasmus+ programme, the 2024 call for proposals for the “European Universities” initiative has been published and remains open until 6 February 2024.

The ‘European Universities’ initiative is part of the ‘Partnerships for Excellence’ action supported by Erasmus+ and aims to encourage unprecedented institutional cooperation between higher education institutions by supporting the establishment of transnational alliances between universities across Europe that develop a structural, sustainable and long-term systemic cooperation in education, research and innovation.

Following the calls launched for the years 2019-2023, there are currently 50 alliances of European universities supported by Erasmus+, involving over 430 higher education institutions in 35 countries. With this call, the European Commission aims to reach at least 60 alliances bringing together more than 500 universities by mid-2024, as called for by the European Strategy for Universities.

The 2024 call is divided into 2 topics.

1. Development of deep transnational institutional cooperation (ERASMUS-EDU-2024-EUR-UNIV-1)

The aim is to support higher education institutions that want to develop deeper institutional cooperation, through a step-by-step approach towards deeper institutionalised transnational cooperation and gradually achieving the long-term ambitious vision for European Universities. 

2. Community of Practice for European University Alliances (ERASMUS-EDU-2024-EUR-UNIV-2)

The scope is to support the creation of a Community of Practice to enable alliances of European universities to share and benefit from each other’s experiences and good practices, as well as to serve as models for the wider higher education sector.

The following entities are eligible:

• Higher education institutions holding the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE);
• Any other organisation consisting of higher education institutions, specifically established for the purpose of implementing deep transnational institutional cooperation.

Proposals must be submitted by a consortium consisting of at least 3 higher education institutions from 3 different eligible countries, which are as follows: EU States (including OCTs), EFTA/EEA, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Western Balkan countries not associated to the Programme (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro).

The call has a total budget of €189.200.000, divided as follows: 

• €187.700.000 for topic 1
• €1.500.000 for topic 2

The EACEA Executive Agency has organised an online information session dedicated to the call, which will be held on 10 November, from 14.30 to 17.00.

The deadline for submission is 6 February 2024. All the relevant documentation is available here

Written by: Margherita Genua