As every year, the Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2019, released on 24th of October, provides all the infos and the actions that individuals and organizations can put in place in order to participate to the Programme. However, this year there is something different: the date by which organizations can apply for a project of Capacity Building in the Field of Youth has been anticipated of over 40 day. So far, for projects starting between 1st of August and 31st of December 2018, it was on early March of the same year, while now it has been settled for 24 January – even if the starting of project eligibility period has not changed (see page 181 of the Programme Guide 2019 and page 175 of the Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2018).
This immediately caught the eye of the Joint Association, as it deviates from the previous versions. In fact, such a change of plan implies that the process of managing the grant application for a Capacity Building should have been anticipated too; but, as it is the case of most of the associations and actors that usually take part in these Key Actions, the process is often long and therefore should have required a different kind of timing.
The only other major change relates to the distribution of the points in the evaluation table. While in 2018 the Relevance of the project accounted for 20 points, in 2019 it is 30 points worthy. On the other side, in 2018 the Quality of Project Team and Cooperation arrangements accounted for 30 points while in 2019 it is only 20 points worthy (see page 183 of the 2019 Guide). As for the rest, the points given for the Quality of the project design and implementation stayed the same (for a maximum of 30), as well as the points for the Impact and dissemination of the project (for a maximum of 20).
Moreover, it results from the 2019 annual work programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport that the total budget has been distributed slightly differently: 9 billion (one less than in 2018) for the Capacity Buildings in the field of youth, but over 117 million for the one in the field of higher education – two more than the previous year, when the amount accounted for nearly 115 million. Eligibility and award criteria stayed the same, even though an additional award criterion has been added: the feasibility of the project in the targeted regions (see pages 56 – 58 of the programme). In fact, European delegations will assess the feasibility of the projects together with the evaluation committee, taking into account the local context where it shall take place, the geographical representation of the countries taking part to the program and the proportion of the number of projects per country.
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