Partnerships with third-country higher education institutions (including scholarships)

Deadline: 3rd March 2014

The programme's specific objectives are:

— to promote structured cooperation between higher education institutions and an offer of enhanced quality in higher education with a distinct European added value, attractive both within the European Union and beyond its borders, with a view to creating centres of excellence,

— to contribute to the mutual enrichment of societies by developing the qualifications of women/men so that they possess appropriate skills, particularly as regards the labour market, and are open-minded and internationally experienced through promoting mobility for the most talented students and academics from third countries to obtain qualifications and/or experience in the European Union and for the most talented European students and academics towards third countries,

— to contribute towards the development of human resources and the international cooperation capacity of higher education institutions in third countries through increased mobility streams between the European Union and third countries,

— to improve accessibility and enhance the profile and visibility of European higher education around the world as well as its attractiveness for third-country nationals and citizens of the Union.

The Erasmus Mundus Programme 2009-2013 is open to higher education institutions and to any organisation active in the field of higher education and research as well as to students, doctoral candidates, teachers, researchers and university staff (academic and/or administrative) from any part of the world.

Budget: EUR 78.657.500

For more information, contact us

RAISING PUBLIC AWARENESS OF DEVELOPMENT ISSUES AND PROMOTING DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Deadline for presentation of concept notes: 30 January 2014

The global objective of this Call for Proposals is: to support actions, presented and implemented by

Non-State Actors and Local Authorities, aiming at raising public awareness of development issues and promoting development education in the European Union (EU) and acceding countries, to anchor development policy in European societies, to mobilise greater public support for action against poverty and for fairer relations between developed and developing countries, and to change attitudes to the issues and difficulties facing developing countries and their peoples.

Proposals must address one or several of the following issues:

• Basic living standards
• Drivers for inclusive and sustainable growth
• Sustainable management of natural resources
• Equality, equity and justice
• Peace and security

Detailed newsletter

Call for proposals - Structural support for European public policy research organisations (think tanks) and for civil society organisations at European level - ‘Europe for citizens’ programme (2014-2020)

Deadline Friday, December 20, 2013 

The aim of the present call is to select organisations with European outreach which, through their permanent, usual and regular activities, make a tangible contribution to the objectives of the ‘Europe for citizens’ programme.

The general objectives of the programme are:

• To contribute to citizens’ understanding of the Union, its history and diversity,

• To foster European citizenship and to improve conditions for civic and democratic participation at Union level.

 For 2014, the following thematic priorities have been adopted:

• Strand 1: European remembrance.

• Strand 2: Democratic engagement and civic participation. Categories of organisations

To be eligible for a framework partnership, the organisations must belong to one of the following categories: A. Civil society organisations for European remembrance (strand 1)

B. Civil society organisations working at European level (strand 2)

C. European public policy research organisations (think tanks) (strand 1 and 2)

D. Platforms of pan-European organisations (strand 2)

Budget: 6.76 M€

Applications from non-profit legal entities established in one of the following countries are eligible:

(a) EU Member States

(b) applications from other countries (namely the EFTA countries, the acceding countries, candidate countries and potential candidate countries) are eligible, provided that these countries have signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Commission during 2014

More information - detailed newsletter

CIVITAS 2020: EU FUNDING BOOST TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT

Civitas - an acronym for "cities, vitality, and sustainability" - is an initiative funded by the EU's research framework programme to support cities in their efforts to innovate for more sustainable urban mobility.

Since the start in 2002, Civitas has supported more than 700 demonstration activities in around 60 cities (within a total network of 200 cities who learn from those demonstration activities), with a total investment of more than €200 million from the EU. This leveraged an additional investment of close to €1 billion from local and regional authorities, and from private partners.

On the 30th of September, European Commission signed a grant agreement worth €4 million with a consortium of 14 European research institutes, associations and consulting companies - including 10 SMEs - for a three-year project known as "Civitas Capital".

Civitas Capital will:

 - pool existing knowledge through groups dedicated to specific topics who will produce best-practice guides;

 - issue recommendations on future Research and Development priorities which the Commission will integrate in its 2014–2020 research programme;

 - develop training packages and organise placement and exchange of urban mobility professionals — around 500 professionals will be trained or offered a placement;

 - manage an activity fund of close to €500,000 to support the transfer of measures to other cities, allowing more cities to implement successful urban mobility measures;

 - create five additional national and regional networks and continue to manage the five existing ones — these networks increase the dissemination of know-how and best practice within their language group or geographical group;

 - develop a knowledge centre that will be available to all stakeholders through the Civitas website — a one-stop-shop where all material produced for and by Civitas will be available to all, for learning and reapplication. 

Horizon 2020, the new EU's research framework programme will support several initiatives on sustainable mobility and transport

Civitas Brochure

Promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights — universal access to reproductive health

Deadline for submission of Concept note: 10 December 2013 

The overall objective of this call for proposals is to contribute to poverty reduction and to improving the wellbeing of populations in developing countries through better reproductive health and informed family planning choices. 

 Priority will be given to measures that 

 1. clearly identify and target the most vulnerable people with the least access to reproductive health; 

 2. collaborate closely with the public sector in the country where the action takes place, including them as a partner,and support the implementation of public policy and capacity building designed to give better access to Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH).

Contribution : € 2 000 000 - € 6 000 000 

funding: 80% of the total eligible costs of the action 

In order to be eligible for a grant, the applicant must: 

• be legal persons and 
• be non-profit-making ands
• be a non-governmental organisation or a local authority and have at least five years’ experience of working in the field relevant to this call for proposals and 
• be established in a Member State of the European Union or in a developing country where the action is taking place

In addition to the categories listed above, applicants from the following countries are also eligible: Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway;  Turkey, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia. 

Furthermore, for actions proposed and taking place exclusively in the least developed countries, applicants from Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland and United States may also apply. The specific objective is to contribute to improved universal access to reproductive health, in developing countries which have the worst indicators.

European Internship in Cultural Heritage & Virtual Museums

Within V-MOVE, the international training programme undertaken by V-MUST.NET,  8 Internship placements are offered by Europe partner institutions of the European Transnational Virtual Museum Network in the field of digital Cultural Heritage or Virtual Museum development.

Beneficiaries will be worldwide post-graduate or early career professional/ researcher, not applying for position offered with their own country.

The Funding amount will be up to € 2000 towards travel and accommodation costs.

Registration Deadline must be completed by 15th December 2013.

Application Form and more Details about the Call for Applications are available at: www.v-must.net/opportunities/call-mobility-2013-2014 

The YouPro Project – Helping Young People to Promote EU Businesses through Social Networking

The You.Promote Business Project (YouPro Project) pairs young people not employed or in education or training (NEET) who have social media marketing skills with small-to-medium sized enterprises who are seeking to improve their competitiveness. 

The project aims to get NEETs back into work by training them as social media marketing and promotion consultants for SMEs. The project involves six educational institutions across Europe and is funded by the European Community. 

The purpose of the project is to tackle three of the European Union’s biggest challenges: 

- Ability of young people to access the job market 

- Inclusion of young people in society 

- Competitiveness of small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro-sized organisations 

The project aims to tackle these issues by creating a training and work placement scheme that pairs young people not in education, training or employment (NEETs) with SMEs seeking to create or improve their presence in online and social media.

More information

Eurotransbio programme

Deadline for submitting the project proposals is 31st January  2014 

Eurotransbio (ETB) programme calls for innovative near to the market Research, development and innovation projects in all fields of modern biotechnology (health, agro/food, industrial biotech, environment, marine/aquatic solutions) 

ETB’s mission is to foster the competitiveness of the European biotechnology industry by supporting research intensive SMEs and their strategic partners (large industries, public and private research organizations/universities) with the aim of achieving a thriving European biotechnology industry. 

Consortia coordinated by an SME and consisting of at least two enterprises belonging to two different countries participating in the 9th ETB Call [Austria, Belgium (represented by the regions of Flanders and Wallonia), Finland, France (represented by the region of Alsace), Germany, Italy, Russia, and Spain (represented by the regions of Andalusia and Basque Country)]  and coordinated by an SME can apply for ETB funding.

A consortium may involve as many additional partners (e.g. SMEs, Large Industries (LI), and Research Organisations (RO) belonging to the participating countries/regions) as necessary to achieve the project goals.  

Budget: EUR 21.000.000

For more information, contact us

Second European Social Innovation Competition

Do you have an idea to fight high unemployment? Do you think you could improve the working conditions of people stuck in low-paid jobs – whether because of their gender, age, social status or handicap? Do you know how to enhance opportunities for the 27 million Europeans currently out of work? Then the second European Social Innovation Competition is for you! 

The Competition, launched in memory of Diogo Vasconcelos, invites Europeans to come up with new solutions to reduce unemployment and minimize its corrosive effects on the economy and our society both now and in the future.

The three winning projects will be awarded financial support of EUR 30,000. 

But there's more. Winners of the first edition emphasize that the Competition has given them the chance to develop a great idea, to bring legitimacy to their work, and last but not least, to make their solution accessible to more people. Don’t keep your great ideas to yourself. 

As one of the winners says: "Should you have an idea, work on it and take your chance. The same could happen to you. You could end up winning."

Delivering on skills for growth and jobs

Progress call for proposals

Deadline: 15th January 2013

The overall objective of the Call is to is to encourage new forms of collaboration through partnerships between public and private actors on the labour market (such as public and private employment services, companies including SME’s, chambers of commerce, training and education providers, social partners, labour market intelligence entities) to address persistent skills shortages and mismatches to help fill the gap between labour supply and demand in the EU. 

The activities should aim to achieve the following technical objectives: 

1. Delivery to the end users of specific employment service(s) leading to sustainable placements in jobs and apprenticeships or other measureable outcomes by a mixed set of actors, including measures to support labour mobility at national and European level. 

2. Provision of analytical and methodological evidence based findings related to the form and working method of the partnership between the co-operating organisations experienced during the development and implementation of the actions, including an assessment of success and failure factors, challenges and solutions for shortcomings. 

3. Development of concrete labour market intelligence tools, allowing for the identification of skills gaps and needs resulting from structural shifts to a low carbon economy, as well as their impact on changing skills sets. Measures to be financed under this call should be concrete and action oriented and carry a true added value in terms of making a difference where rolled out.

Detailed newsletter

Grants for Information measures relating to the common agricultural policy (PAC)

Deadline: 30 November 2013

The European Commission co-finances information measures relating to the common agricultural policy that aim, in particular, at:

a. explaining, contributing to, implementing and developing the policy, 

b. promoting the European model of agriculture and helping people understand it, 

c. informing farmers and other parties active in rural areas, 

d. raising public awareness of the issues and objectives of that policy. 

The Commission accepts applications only from legal entities that have been established for at least two years in an EU member country 

Examples of eligible organisations: 

•  non-profit organisation (private or public), 
• public authorities (national, regional, local), 
• European associations, 
• universities, 
• educational institutions, 
• research centres,
•  companies (for instance communication media companies)

 For citizens, the priority themes will deal with general topics about the CAP and should focus on its three core elements: food safety, sustainable management of our natural resources and the development of our rural areas. 

The objective of these actions is to inform a large number of people about the basic issues of the reformed CAP. 

The actions should include several of the communication activities or tools listed below (the list is not exhaustive): 

• production and distribution of multimedia or audiovisual material, 
•  production and distribution of printed material (pub­lications, posters, etc.), 
• setting up Internet and social network tools, 
• media events,
• conferences, seminars or workshops, 
• events type ‘city farm’ which help to explain the importance of agriculture to the urban population, 
• events type ‘open doors’ aiming at showing to the citizens the role of agriculture, 
• static or mobile exhibitions or information points.

Budget: EUR 3,000,000

For further information contact us

New 2014 2020 Erasmus + programme

Erasmus+ is the new EU programme for education, training, youth and sport proposed by the European Commission on 23 November 2011. The proposal is now under discussion by the Council (28 Member States) and the European Parliament who will take the final decision.

It would start in 2014 and would significantly increase the funds allocated for the development of knowledge and skills. Erasmus+ is based on the premise that investing in education and training is the key to unlocking people's potential, regardless of their age or background. It helps them to increase their personal development, gain new skills and boost their job prospects.

Erasmus+ would bring together all the current EU and international schemes for education, training, youth and sport, replacing seven existing programmes with one. This will increase efficiency, make it easier to apply for grants, as well as reducing duplication and fragmentation. It is due to start in 2014. Up to 5 million people, almost twice as many as now, could get the chance to study or train abroad with a grant from Erasmus+. Among them would be nearly 3 million higher education and vocational students. Full-time Masters' students would also benefit from a new loan guarantee scheme set up with the European Investment Bank Group.

Erasmus + Leaflet