In 2020, the European Universities and Centres of Vocational Excellence pilot schemes will be reinforced.
The European Commission (EC) adopted the Erasmus+ Work Programme 2020, i.e. the outline for the last year of activities under the current funding period. The total budget available is as high as never before during the current programme period and amounts to EUR 3.38 bn.
The European Universities initiative, which was piloted for the first time in 2019 and will be fully rolled-out under the next programme generation post-2020, will have an earmarked budget of EUR 120 million. This is a substantial increase compared to the EUR 85 million for the 2019 pilot. In 2019, 17 alliances could be funded with the EUR 85 million, resulting in around EUR 5 million per alliance for three years each (see SwissCore article). Like in the first round, Swiss Higher Education Institutions will not be eligible to participate in the initiative in 2020, neither as full nor as associate partners, because Switzerland is not associated to the Erasmus+ programme.
The Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) initiative will be implemented under Key Action 3 (KA3) in 2020 and not as part of the Key Action 2 Sector Skills Alliances as for the first and limited pilot in 2019. The CoVE pilot will be equipped with an earmarked budget of EUR 20 million compared to the EUR 4.6 million in 2019. This will allow the EC to refine the concept and fully pilot the initiative in view of its full roll-out post-2020. In 2019, five alliances received funding (see SwissCore article), each receiving around EUR 1 million for 2 years. Like in 2019, Swiss organisations will be eligible to participate in the 2020 call as associate partners (not as applicants) with own funding. Organisations from countries that are not associated to Erasmus+, i.e. Erasmus+ Partner Countries, however need to convincingly demonstrate that their participation brings an added value to the consortium. As KA3, the CoVE will not be included in the general Call for Proposals, but a specific Call for Proposals will be issued in October 2019.
The Erasmus+ Work Programme 2020 includes many more insights into actions planned and thematic priorities for 2020. The general Call for Proposals and the Programme Guide 2020 with the specific guidelines will be published in October.