The EC published the Erasmus+ Call for Proposals and the Programme Guide 2020. The €3 bn budget is a 12% increase compared to 2019.
The Erasmus+ Programme Guide constitutes an integral part of the Erasmus+ call for proposals (CfP) and contains the detailed conditions, including priorities. As already outlined in the Work Programme that was published in August, the programme will provide more support to current actions but will also specifically strengthen some initiatives (see SwissCore article). Switzerland – as partner country – remains in category 14 and has corresponding possibilities to engage in Erasmus+ actions. As in the past, Swiss organisations cannot participate in most Key Action 1 activities, i.e. learning mobilities, but are eligible to participate in some of the Key Action 2 instruments, particularly in Strategic Partnerships and Knowledge Alliances.
In Vocational Education and Training (VET), Erasmus+ will focus on the set up of pilot transnational vocational education and training Centres of Excellence (CoVE), but also on long-term mobility via ErasmusPro, i.e. opportunities for learners and apprentices to spend between three months and a year abroad. Since ErasmusPro is an instrument under Key Action 1, Swiss organisations cannot participate in the European programme but are invited to use the Swiss solution (see Movetia). A call for proposal for pilot CoVEs was published on 15 October, and Swiss organisations are eligible to participate (see SwissCore article).
In the school sector, the programme intends to support 9’000 schools through the School Exchange Partnerships in 2020 – in the past two years, i.e. since the launch of the instrument, 15’000 schools have already participated. This is most probably the last year that School Exchange partnerships are implemented under Key Action 2 before they will move to Key Action 1 under the next Erasmus+ programme. Nevertheless, also in 2020, the instrument is officially open to schools in the Erasmus+ programme countries only.
In adult learning, the focus is on establishing and strengthening regional or national networks of adult learning providers. A Key Action 3 call for proposals to support policy reform in the area of social inclusion and common values was launched on 22 October, including a specific lot for adult education. For this specific call, Swiss organisations are not eligible to participate.
In Higher Education, specific opportunities are provided to support exchanges for African students and staff to participate in Erasmus+ and thereby working towards achieving the goal of the Africa-Europe Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs, that is, to support 35’000 African people by 2020. Additionally, a second pilot round of the European Universities initiative will be implemented. The EC intends to select another 24 alliances with the budget of €120 million. The 2020 programme guide provide clarifications on some aspect, while there are no major changes compared to the 2019 call. As expected, the clarifications also concern the eligibility criteria: It is now very explicit that full and associated partners must be from Erasmus+ programme countries and that the scheme is not open to organisations from other countries such as Switzerland.
The EC formally launched the first 17 pilot alliances funded under the European Universities scheme during an event in Brussels. Amongst others, representatives of alliances and ministries discussed the future of the initiative. Government representatives underlined their support to the initiative. Stronger collaboration with the research funding programme and openness towards European higher education systems beyond Erasmus+ countries were some of the demands raised during the event.
On 7 November, the EC also announced that the EU will once again be offering free travel passes for 18-year-old EU citizens through the DiscoverEU scheme. The EC launched DiscoverEU in June 2018 following a proposal from the European Parliament for a Preparatory Action, and integrated the scheme in its proposal for the Erasmus+ programme for 2021-2027. While EP, Member States and the EC are currently negotiating the Erasmus+ legal basis in the so-called “trilogue”, the DiscoverEU is not part of the negotiations. The fate and shape of this scheme will depend on the final Erasmus+ budget and subsequent Erasmus+ negotiations among the EU institutions. An agreement on the Erasmus+ budget is not expected before spring 2020.