The European Commission has launched a new set of actions to support schools and VETs: these grants will help teachers, teacher training institutions and schools apply for funding to teach about the EU in Erasmus+ Programme countries.

In this article we will cover everything you need to know to access these funds:

– What are the Jean Monnet actions for schools?;

– The actions financed by the Erasmus 2023 programme;

– Deadline and applications;

Let’s start with the first point!

What are the Jean Monnet actions for schools?

The Jean Monnet actions offer opportunities in the field of higher education, as well as in other fields of education and training. More in detail, the European Union will support these actions:

• Jean Monnet Actions in the field of higher education 
• Jean Monnet Actions in other fields of education and training
• Jean Monnet policy debate (higher education and other fields of education and training)

To find out more about the Jean Monnet actions, click here

The actions financed by the Erasmus 2023 programme

The latest Jean Monnet call, available as part of the 2023 Erasmus+ Programme Guide, contains the following actions to support schools:

Jean Monnet Learning EU Initiatives – for individual schools

Learning about European Union initiatives will support schools & Vocational education and training institutions, enabling them to provide content on European Union-based subjects (democracy, EU history, how the EU works, cultural diversity—among others). Activities could include project weeks, study visits and other immersive activities.

To read more about the objectives of the action and the criteria to be met in order to apply for Jean Monnet Learning EU initiatives click here

Networks of school – 6 schools / 3 programme countries

Networks of schools, Vocational education, training institutions and higher education institutions will participate in the Jean Monnet strand by providing Teacher Training /Education. This would give students an international aspect while also allowing them to experience co-teaching within a group of countries.

To read more about the objectives of The Jean Monnet Networks and the criteria to be met to apply click here

Teaching training – for teacher training institutions

This action will support Higher Education Institutions or Teacher Training Institutes/Agencies to organize activities in order to enable teachers in schools and Vocational Education and Training providers to develop new skills, thus empowering them through a better understanding of the EU and its functioning.

To read more about the objectives of the action and which are the criteria to be met to apply for The Jean Monnet Teacher Trainings click here

Deadline and Application

The call opened on 1 December 2022 and the deadline for submitting proposals is 14 February 2023. You can find out how to apply on the specific sections by visiting this website.

L'articolo The New Jean Monnet Grants to Support Schools and VETs proviene da Youth Networks.

European Universities

The European Universities support systemic, structural and sustainable transnational cooperation among diverse higher education institutions across Europe, covering all their missions:

• education,
• research,
• innovation and
• service to society.

Through cooperation, European universities promote common European values and strengthen the European identity. They support higher education through:

• the high quality they provide;
• high standard performance;
• great attractiveness to young people;
• international competitiveness.

2022 Erasmus Plus European Universities Call

The Call for Proposals builds around 2 topics:

1. Intensification of prior deep institutional transnational cooperation: to provide support for already existing deep institutional transnational cooperation alliances. The aim is to build upon the institutional cooperation achieved so far and to further deepen, intensify and expand the effectiveness of this existing cooperation in order to progress towards the long-term vision of the ‘European Universities’. New higher education institutions have the opportunity to join these existing alliances as full partners.
2. Development of new deep institutional transnational cooperation: to provide support for applicants wishing to establish new deep institutional transnational cooperation in a new ‘European Universities’ alliance.

Further Information

There is an upcoming information session on December 14th, 2021. A chance to ask live your questions about the Call for Proposals 2022 for European Universities. The organizer is EACEA and the information session will be on web streaming.

How To Apply

Find the call for proposals for the 2022 Erasmus+ European Universities.The deadline for applications submission is 22 March 2022.

Read also

Erasmus Plus Programme Guide 2022 Just Published

L'articolo 2022 Erasmus+ European Universities call launched proviene da Youth Networks.

The 2021 Call for Volunteering Teams in High Priority Areas projects closes on October 5th 2021 at 5pm (Brussels time). The online presentation, for anyone who has missed it out, is available for consultation.

Volunteering Teams in High Priority Areas

Volunteering Teams in high priority areas are large scale, high impact projects supporting voluntary activities carried out by young people from at least two different countries coming together to express solidarity by implementing short-term interventions that address common European challenges in policy areas defined each year at EU level.

This year’s priority is focused on COVID-19 impact and recovery, particularly through supporting the health and social care systems with activities tackling prevention, promotion and support in the field of health; addressing major health challenges (i.e. life-threatening illnesses like cancer) and promoting health, healthy lifestyle, physical activity and well-being overall.

For the purpose of this call, applications for funding could:

• contribute to the improvement of health and well-being of vulnerable people, including persons affected by chronic or life-threatening diseases (e.g. cancer);
• contribute to building inclusive societies.

How To Apply

The 2021 Call is still open and your organisation can apply through the EACEA website.

Prior to application, it might be useful to go through the EACEA informative session, as such provides organisations with information on the proposals submission procedure in e-grant.

Read also

The Youthpass Strategy is Out

KA2 Cooperation Partnership: Training Course

L'articolo Volunteering Teams in High Priority Areas proviene da Youth Networks.

• Eastern Partnership Window Project: Civil Society Fellowships for Youth
• Eastern Partnership Window Project: Partnership for Entrepreneurship
• Capacity Building in the field of Youth – ACPALA

The projects cover the following action:

• Key Action 2: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices
• Capacity Building in the field of youth

Have a look at the list of the beneficiaries here.

L'articolo Selection results – Capacity Building in the Field of Youth 2019 extra EU proviene da Youth Networks.

The projects cover the following action:

• Key Action 2: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices
• Capacity Building in the field of youth

Have a look at the list of the beneficiaries here.

L'articolo Selection results – Capacity Building in the field of youth 2019 proviene da Youth Networks.

The projects will be evaluated by the Programming Committee on Youth, the co-managed body taking decisions on the programme of the youth sector (including the grants awarded by the European Youth Foundation).

Access to rights

The first goal is supporting young people and youth organisations in accessing their rights and advocating education for human rights and democracy.

The steps through which accomplish this priority are:

• A roadmap on the dissemination of Committee of Ministers’ Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)7 on young people’s access to rights;
• Support measures to member states, local authorities and youth organisations to follow-up the conclusions of the review of Committee of Ministers’ Recommendation CM/Rec(2015)3 (access of young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods to social rights);
• The continuation of the Human Rights Education Youth Programme;
• Indentification and remedies for the shrinking civic space on young people and youth organisations. Young people’s access to rights requires the removal of legal, political and social barriers.

Youth participation and youth work

The second of the youth priorities is the empowerment of young people and youth organisations. They shall be given the chance to develop youth policies and youth work, as well as to get involved and make an impact in the community they live in. Hence, any barrier or obstacle should be removed. This can be achieved through:

As for the young people:

• Supporting young people to access their rights to assemble and freely form, join and be active in associations; enhancing young people’s meaningful participation in political processes;
• Supporting youth participation in internet governance processes;
• Promoting the Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life and supporting member states and youth organisations to implement its principles;
• Further disseminating the “Have your say” manual to public authorities and the non-governmental sector.

As for the youth work:

• Pursuing the dissemination and implementation of Committee of Ministers’ Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)4 on youth work, developing and promoting a European youth work agenda;
• Supporting the quality development, sustainability and recognition of youth work and non-formal education and learning, notably through the use of Council of Europe instruments in the member states (e.g. through the Council of Europe Quality Label for Youth Centres and the Council of Europe Youth Work Portfolio).

Inclusive and peaceful societies

The third priority aims at supporting young people and youth organisations in their work on peace building and social cohesion, to prevent and combat discrimination and exclusion. This will develop in two directions: first, by promoting social inclusion, fostering active participation, gender equality and combating all forms of discrimination on the grounds of Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The specific targets are:

• Roma youth and other minority groups;
• Young refugees and their transitionfrom childhood to adulthood;
• Young people with disabilities;
• LGBTQI young people;
• Young women and girls.

Secondly, by enabling young people to promote peaceful societies by providing them with opportunities to play an active role in:

• Intercultural dialogue/learning;
• Peacebuilding and conflict transformation;
• Challenging the rise of nationalism and populism;
• Co-operation with neighbouring and other world regions.

Read more about the Council of Europe priorities on their dedicated page.

For an overview of the funding possibilities and calls by the CoE, click on the following link (or have a look at ournews section).

L'articolo Youth priorities: the document of the Council of Europe 2020-21 proviene da Youth Networks.

The aim of the project

The call aims at promoting global citizenship and strengthening the active citizenship’s skills of youth diaspora. Not only they should be recognized, but they must also have the possibility to contribute to the peace-building process in Europe and to create a more inclusive society.

Its specific objectives are:

• to provide knowledge and competences on Global Education;
• to map successful initiatives and policiesthat address diaspora youth’ needs and challenges;
• to strengthen the capacity of the participants to better understand structures, mechanisms and strategies of advocacy and decision/policy making at local, national and international level;
• to promote the use of the main international tools;
• to identify potential follow-up actions and proposals to influence policy and/or raise awareness on the topic of the training course.

A definition

Nowadays, within the context of new migration flows and routes, the issue of people fleeing from their home countries is particularly sensitive. Nevertheless, there are four main factors that make a movement of people recognized as a disaspora:

• dispersal to two or more location;
• relationship to an actual or imagined homeland;
• self-awareness of the group’s identity;
• multi-generational dimension.

The context

The training course will take palce within the framework of the 7th Mediterranean University on Youth and Global Citizenship (MedUni), and will be facilitated and coordinated by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe in partnership with l’Observatoire National de la Jeunesse (ONJ) and other European and Southern Mediterranean stakeholders.

For further information on the training course, the application process and the actors involved, please refer to the following link. The deadline for this call is on 12 May 2019.

L'articolo Call for young leaders working with youth diaspora communities in Europe proviene da Youth Networks.

The call for theHorizon impact award wants to give an answer to all these questions. The European Commission aims at recognizing and celebrating with this “outstanding projects that have used their results to provide value for society”, as one can read on its official website. The mission of the award is to demonstrate the importance of the benefits and investment provided by the EC to the innovation field. Although the results may not be immediate, in fact, and the real changes can often be apreciated only in the long-term, this doesn’t neglets the importance of such measures to foster innovation and research.

Through the sharing of good practices, results and achievements, it will be possible for other workers in the field to exploit better their projects as well, enabling them to have a better vision and a better focus on what their work is for. “They can do this by directly exploiting results or by playing an active role ensuring stakeholders effectively use the results “.

Participation criteria

The projects must have been funded by FP7 and Horizon 2020 funding programmes and they must be closed by the time of application.

The contest is open to all legal entities, individuals or teams, that have completed a FP7 or Horizon 2020 project.

Project’s requirements

The applications must address the following cumulative criteria:

• From results to societal benefits – proven link between funded project results to their uptake and creation of societal benefits.
  The results should also benefit or address a well-defined target audience.
• Impact – potential longer-term impact for society, the economy and/or policymaking
  The applicants will be required to submit a letter of support from at least one user or user community, stating the importance of the research and how using it created concrete benefits for the specific user-community.
  

Evaluation

Two different panels of experts will evaluate applications

• internal European Commission experts for the eligibility check and pre-selection
• external high-level experts for final selection

The winners will be invited to an award ceremony, which will include a selected audience of high-level representatives and promoters of innovation in industry and the public sector. The Horizon Impact Award will provide the winners with high visibility in the form of public interest and increased media coverage. There will be five prizes on offer, each 10.000 EUR worthy.

Deadline

For more information about the contest, visit the official page, read the rules and apply. The deadline is on 28th May 2019.

L'articolo Call for participants: Horizon impact award proviene da Youth Networks.

What for?

The Youth Advisory Councili is the non-governmental partner in the co-managed decision-making system used in the Council of Europe youth sector. Together with the The European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ), the governmental part, they form the Joint Council of Youth (CMJ), which sets the priorities, objectives and budget of the youth sector. There are 30 members in total in the Youth Advisory Council, that should reflect as much as possible the reality of young people and youth work in Europe. They are representatives of international non-governmental youth organisations, of national youth councils, and of non-governmental youth organisations or networks from the 50 States Parties to the ECC.

Which are the tasks?

Providing expertise to the CoE’s bodies that deals with youth issues, raising awareness on the work of the Council, giving information to organisations, networks, peers, social media, etc. about the Council of Europe’s work and standards, gathering opinions, information and proposals from their organisations/networks and their target groups and inform the youth sector.

The candidates should be:

• aged between 18 and 30;
• nominated by their organisation/network which must be situated in one of the 50 States Parties to the European Cultural Convention;
• committed to participating actively in the work of the Advisory Council on Youth;
• motivated, available and committed to attending the statutory meetings and to representing the Advisory Council in activities relevant to its work, as well as to contributing in writing to consultations and opinions;
• able to work in English;
• preferably have experience in at least one of the priority areas of the youth sector.

For further information, please refer to the following link with the official call and the guidelines to submit the online application.

The deadline is 28 April 2019 (23.59 hrs).

L'articolo Open call for CoE Advisory Council on Youth seats proviene da Youth Networks.

Young entrepreneurs have the chance to be hosted by small and medium enterprises all over the European Union, with no extra costs – the programme is co-funded by the European Commission through its COSME (Competitiveness of SMEs) programme. It’s the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Programme, that turns 10 this year.

The programme was created in 2009 and it allows young entrepreneurs to get a cross-border field training, enabling them to spend a period of time at another European small or medium enterprise. The call currently running covers the period 2016-2021 and, in this period alone, over 250 new companies and more than 2,000 jobs were created thanks to the EYE experience. As it’s stated in the call, “Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) play a crucial role in reaching the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy” (here further infrmation about this last initiative).

EYE is a combination of fostering the entrepreneurial activities in the EU and, at the same time, their internationalisation, to exploit every aspect of the Single Market – one of the pillar ot the European Union. SMEs make up for “99% of businesses in Europe and contribute to 60% of European private sector employment, creating 85% of new jobs”, as reported on Forbes. Developing the skills of the young entrepreneurs is then fundamental to improve European economic performance as well, not last in terms of employability.

How to do so?

It works trhough a call for proposal. The main characters are the new and young entrepreneur, the hosting enterprise and intermediary organisations (IOs), that are selected to manage the programme local level.

What’s the role of such organisations? The call specifies nine main tasks:

• Promotion of the programme;
  
• Enrolment of entrepreneurs;
• Assessing applications from NEs (new entepreneurs) and HEs (hosting entepreneurs);
• Building relationships;
• Management of grants, commitments and financial support to new entrepreneurs;
• Preparation of the exchange;
• Follow up of the exchange;
• Active networking;
• Reporting.
  

Further details are available in the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Implementation Manual for Intermediary Organisations (Quality Manual).

How much is the budget?

The total budget for the whole programme amounts to 80 million for the years 2016-2020. However, the allocation for each single year depends on the annual budget adopted for that year.

As stated in the call, during the first SGAs (specific agreements) arranged from 1 February 2017 to 31 January 2019, “Financial assistance to new entrepreneurs participating in a mobility action shall take the form of a scale of unit cost of maximum EUR 6.600 per entrepreneur. The maximum grant amount per Specific Agreement resulting from the first consultation for SGAs will be EUR 800.000“.

Speaking of which…

If you’re interested in youth entrepreneuership, have a look at some of the project results available here on the dedicated page.

L'articolo Erasmus for young entrepreneurs 2009-2019: ten years of innovation proviene da Youth Networks.