Erasmus+ for Higher Education Webinar for KA2 Applicants STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS 2018 Outi Jäppinen Senior Programme Adviser, EDUFI
What are E+ Strategic Partnerships? Flexible projects focused on actual needs and results Transfer, design and implementation of innovative practices concrete and long-lasting results Activities define the scope of projects Links with the HE modernisation strategy and HEI s own strategy Projects between different education sectors are possible 05/12/2017 Opetushallitus 2
Two types of partnerships Depending on the objectives and the composition of the Strategic Partnership, projects may be of two types: A. Strategic Partnerships supporting innovation (relevant for all fields of education) B. (Strategic Partnerships supporting exchange of good practices higher education will not support these types of projects) Priorities Strategic partnership project must address a) at least one horizontal priority or b) at least one field-specific priority
Horizontal priorities Development of relevant and high-quality skills and competences Social inclusion Open education and innovative practices in a digital era Support for educators Transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications Sustainable investment, performance and efficiency Social and educational value of European cultural heritage, its contribution to job creation, economic growth and social cohesion
Field-specific priorities: Higher Education Objectives for the renewed EU Agenda for the Modernisation of Higher Education Tackling skills gaps and mismatches through: a) activities to increase the uptake of subjects where skills shortages exist and improve career guidance, and b) designing and developing curricula that meet the learning needs of students that are relevant to the labour market and societal needs Supporting the further development of graduate tracking systems and exploring options for improving the availability of comparable data on graduate outcomes Encouraging training and exchange to enhance the quality of teaching Promoting and rewarding excellence in teaching and skills development Building inclusive higher education systems Ensuring higher education institutions and research institutes contribute to innovation Fostering effective and efficient system-level funding and governance models Promoting internationalisation, recognition and mobility, supporting changes in line with Bologna principles and tools.
European priorities in the national context Programme countries can specify one or more horizontal or field-specific priority that they have a special focus on (an application submitted for this particular priority can get more points for the assessment criteria Relevance ) As for Finland: no specific national priorities for the 2018 call For more information on priorities of different countries, please visit the website of each relevant National Agency List of National Agencies
Examples of themes and topics Prevent drop-out, facilitate access and inclusion of non-traditional learners Development of support services (guidance, councelling, mentoring) in order to facilitate better permeability and recognition Pedagogical approaches and methodologies, delivering transversal competences, entrepreneurship mindset and creative thinking See Annex I of the Programme Guide (section: Stratecic Partnerships)
Activities, eg. joint study programmes and joint curricula, intensive programmes and common modules including e-modules project-based transnational collaboration between enterprises and students/staff at higher education institutions; pedagogical approaches and methodologies; the integration of a greater variety of study modes (distance, part-time, modular learning, virtual mobility and platforms); new approaches to validation of prior learning; professional guidance and counselling and coaching methods and tools; the engagement of HEIs with local/regional authorities and other stakeholders cooperation and exchange of practice between staff responsible for support services... etc etc 05/12/2017 Opetushallitus 8
Cross-sectoral Strategic Partnerships New, innovative projects searching solutions for the wicked problems in Europe: youth unemployment, school drop-outs, language skills, ICT skills, entrepreneurial skills; Cross-sectoral Partnership enables cooperation over educational sectors Recommendable to include organisations from all the sectors that involved in the project Use the basic Application Form, no separate application form for cross-sectoral applications
General conditions (1) Minimum partnership: 3 organisations from 3 participating countries. In addition to HEIs e.g. enterprises, public authorities and associations Organisations from third countries may also participate if they bring clear added value to the project. Project duration 2-3 years, funding max. 450,000 / 3 years Small scale / large scale projects (proportionality principle in assessment) De-centralised administration (Applications in Finland to the National Erasmus+ Agency, CIMO)
General conditions (2) Calculation of the grant: 7 different cost items, from which applicants will choose the items, accordingly to the project s activities: 1. Management and implementation 2. Transnational project meetings 3. Intellectual outputs 4. Multiplier events 5. Transnational learning/teaching/training activities 6. Exceptional costs (eg. Subcontracting) 7. Special needs support
Calculating the Budget Budget items based on UNIT COSTS (items 1-5): 1. Management: unit cost per MONTH per ORGANISATION 2. Project Meetings: number of mobilities concerning project partner meetings (max 40 mobilities/year) 3. Number of intended working days needed to produce INTELLECTUAL OUTPUTS (4 staff categories, 4 country categories) 4. Organisational costs of multiplier events based on NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS (categories for domestic and foreign participants) 5. Number of mobilities planned for learning/teaching/training activities (depends on DURATION: 5-14days, 15-60 days, 61days-12 months) In the final report: no real costs have to be reported, but how activites, mobilities, events have been carried out.
What budget covers? Self-financing share? How to calculate the budget? Eligible period for costs (24 months: 1.9.2018-31.8.2020 tai 36 kk: 1.9.2018-31.8.2021) The total project grant Will be capped at 150.000 /12months, 300.000 /24months, 450.000 / 36 months but flexibility between years Unit cost approach: support for up to 10 organisations (1+9) Self Financing Share EU support will not cover all the costs. Assumption is that the participating organisations will include their own funding in the implementation. The self-financing share is not defined and the applicants don t have to indicate it in the application Make a shadow budget with real estimated costs for yourself!
Assessment criteria on the budget Budget Elements of analysis The extent to which the project is cost-effective and allocates appropriate resources to each activity The existence and relevance of quality control measures to ensure that the project implementation is of high quality, completed in time and on budget General interpretation of award criteria relevant for all projects The proposal provides value for money in terms of the results planned as compared to the grant requested. The grant request is realistic for a good quality implementation of the planned activities. The proposal foresees appropriate evaluation activities at critical stages of the project, which will allow to measure the progress and quality of the project activities and outcomes, the appropriate use of funds. The quality control measures will allow the project to take any necessary corrective measures in time. Monitoring/Evalutation
What are Intellectual Outputs? Result = capacity building, changes in the mindset/working habits, increasing quality etc. intangible results Output = method, guide, model, study module, survey, specific software etc. tangible results (= intellectual outputs)
What is not an Intellectual Output? A smaller, process -oriented Strategic Partnership results/products can be: Comparative reports, surveys and guidelines intended for internal use for the project Leaflets, websites, blogs, wikis, newsletters, light needs analysis For producing above mentioned products you can not apply for Intellectual Output support
Examples of Intellectual Outputs Application Round 2014-17 (in Finland) The number of Intellectual Outputs has varied between 2-9 Examples of Intellectual Outputs applied in 2014-17: Joint Curricula, study programme or module New methodology, pedagogical approach Analysis, survey, best practice guide Teaching material Guide books/ guidelines (eg. for use of teaching material) Specific web platform for studies / cooperation / sharing information Number of work days applied Smaller projects: 90-600 work days Larger projects 700-900 work days
Work Programme The Application Form: Emphasis on the outputs and results Challenge: to draw a coherent and clear work programme for the project The Part G of the Application Form (Implementation): Please elaborate on the methodology you intend to apply in your project. Please also provide detailed information about the project activities that you will carry out with the support of the grant requested under the item "Project Management and Implementation". MANDATORY: GANTT chart or OTHER ANNEX indicating the timetable of the project activities (Template for the timetable of activities)
Biggest challenge: tough competition for funding Level of funding quite moderate for first 4 years of Erasmus+ programme Size of the country defines the level of funding Finland= small country little money The Budget Tables for different countries for 2018 in the Erasmus+ Annual Work Programme (17 August 2017) is available at: https://ec.europa.eu/education/sites/education/files/c-2017-5652_en.pdf (Part 2, Table 11, pp. 128)
Statistics: KA203 Strategic partnerships in Europe
Statistics 2016: KA203 Strategic partnerships in Europe (1/2) 05/12/2017 Opetushallitus 21
Statistics 2016: KA203 Strategic partnerships in Europe (2/2) 05/12/2017 Opetushallitus 22
Statistics 2017: KA203 Strategic partnerships in Europe (1/2) PRELIMINARY DATA 05/12/2017 Opetushallitus 23
Statistics 2017: KA203 Strategic partnerships in Europe (2/2) PRELIMINARY DATA 05/12/2017 Opetushallitus 24
KA203 Finland: Application Round 2017 FUNDED PROJECTS in 2017 Lahden ammattikorkeakoulu; Healthcare Logistics Education Pathway (HELP), Grant 366 364, Duration 36kk Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu; Learning ICT supported Nursing for Self- Management of Patients (DigiNurse), Grant 330 657, Duration 36kk Number of applications: 21 Applied funding: 7,4M 2 Selected projects Success Rate: 9,5% Total Funding: 697.021 05/12/2017 Finnish National Agency for Education 25
Earlier Application rounds 2016 Hämeen ammattikorkeakoulu; Empowering Eportfolio Process (EEP) Karelia-ammattikorkeakoulu; Entrepreneurship and Communication in Multicultural Teams (ECMT+) 2015 Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu: Future Mathematics Itä-Suomen yliopisto: On the Way Towards a Low-Carbon Society Turun ammattikorkeakoulu: Moving towards Multiprofessional Work 2014 Lapin ammattikorkeakoulu: Learning Tourism: Creating Innovative and Permanent Methods and Practices for Multidimensional Education Collaboration Turun ammattikorkeakoulu: Communication in Mobile and Virtual Work 05/12/2017 Finnish National Agency for Education 26
Finnish institutions participate actively as partners Despite the small national funding capacity, the Finnish HEIs benefit a lot from KA2 Strategic Partnerships: Only in KA203 projects Finnish HEIs participate as partners x 37 times and receive funding ca. 2M In addition, the Finnish HEIs participate in other sectors Strategic Partnerships as partners as well (x 34 times) Altogether: 71 partnerships with 3,1 M. 05/12/2017 Finnish National Agency for Education 27
Strategic Partnerships: Application round 2018 Deadline 21.3.2018 Funding for Finland: 1.000.673 (2017: 887.227,00 ) enough for 3-5 projects External evaluation in April May Results in June-July 2018, Project period begins 1.9.2018
How can you get your application through? Follow the assessment criteria! Strong performance in each category! Guide for Quality Assessment 1. Relevance of the project (maximum 30 points) 2. Quality of the project design and implementation (maximum 20 points) 3. Quality of the project team and the cooperation arrangements (maximum 20 points) 4. Impact and dissemination (maximum 30 points)
How to apply: DEADLINE 21.3.2018 Application Package Electronic Application Form (or Pdf) - no hard copies Annexes (to be appended to the electronic application): Mandate Letters from the partners (Model available) (signed and scanned) Declaration of Honour from the coordinator (signed and scanned) GANTT chart or other annex indicating the timetable of the project activities In order to fill in the electronic application form all the participating organisations (partners) need a PIC number DEADLINE: 21.3.2018 at 13:00 (1 PM) (GMT +2 Finland, 12:00 CET Brussels time)
New Electronic Application no paper hard copies Part of the Erasmus+ Application forms are moving from an old, PDF-based format to a web format. Pdf-based form Functional only with the Adobe Reader programme. (NB! Not functional with the Adobe Reader DC or the Version 15.8 of the Adobe Acrobat) Technical Guidelines for completing application e-forms 2018 Online-form Will function with the newest versions of the web browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox ja Chrome. EU login identification (ECAS) required to fill in the application Erasmus+ Application forms and guidelines: www.cimo.fi/ ohjelmat/ erasmusplus/ hakuprosessi 31
Electronic Attachments to the application form Mandate Letters from the Partners Model Template Signed and Scanned Preparation of the Mandate Letters is recommended to be done only after the planning of the project workprogramme. Timeschedule of the activities eg. GANTT Chart Declaration of Honour (DoH) ONLY from the applicant organisation A page in the application form that has to be printed, signed and scanned 32
GANTT Chart FEEL FREE TO USE A SCHEDULE TEMPLATE THAT BETTER SUITS YOUR PROJECT PLAN!
Erasmus+ Programme Guide https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/programmeguide/introduction/how-to-read-programme-guide_en PART A: General information of the programme PART B: Specific information about the actions PART C: Detailed information on procedures for grant application and selection of projects as well as financial and administrative provisions Annex I: Additional Rules and information relating to Actions Annex II: Dissemination Guidelines for beneficiaries Annex III: Glossary of the key terms Annex IV: Useful references and contact details 05/12/2017 Opetushallitus 34
Get aqcuainted with the reference documents 2018 Call for Proposals Erasmus+ Programme Guide (online version) Erasmus+ Programme Guide (pdf printable version) Documents for Applicants (incl. Application Form models) Application forms and guidelines (EDUFI s Web Service) Actions managed by the Finnish National Agency (EDUFI): http://www.cimo.fi/ohjelmat/erasmusplus/korkeakoulutukselle http://www.cimo.fi/ohjelmat/erasmusplus/hakuprosessi Actions managed by EACEA: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/funding_en 05/12/2017 Opetushallitus 35
PIC (Participant Identification Code) URF (Unique Registration Facility) URF is a common participant portal for the EU funding programmes (eg. Erasmus+, Creative Europe, Horizon2020) Upon registration each organisation gets a 9-digit identification code (PIC). PIC-code is given for organisations (Organisation = Y- tunnus) organisaatiolle. The Organisation makes the registration in the URF ONLY ONCE. Erasmus+ application form: Both the coordinator and the partners need their PIC codes to fill in the application! NB! All Finnish HEIs have already a PIC! Do not create a new one! Consultate your HE administration (e.g. international office) BUT: All the project partners must have their own PIC number (also enterprises, NGOs etc.) 36
URF/PIC: Participant portal http://ec.europa.eu/education/participants/portal/desktop/en/home.html URF/Instructions for registration: http://www.cimo.fi/ ohjelmat/erasmusplus /hakuprosessi 37
Information Webinars for Applicants (Strategic Partnerships) Wednesday 17.1.2018 at 12.30-15.30 Webinar for Strategic Partnerships PART 2 (for all sectors, in Finnish): Kumppanuushankkeen tuotokset työsuunnitelma, levityssuunnitelma, hakemuslomake Tuesday 13.2.2018 at 12.30-15.30 Webinar for Strategic Partnerships PART 3 (for all sectors, in Finnish): Kumppanuushankkeen budjetti Thursday 8.3.2018 at 13.00-15.30 Questions&Answers webinar for Strategic Partnerships PART 4 (in English/Finnish) Check also info sessions and materials for KA2 for VET in Finland: http://www.cimo.fi/ohjelmat/erasmusplus/ammatilliselle_koulutukselle/avaintoimi_2_kump panuushankkeet/hakijalle
Thank you!
Get aqcuainted with the reference documents Objectives and activities: Programme Guide pp. 105-126 and 289-300 Read in the Erasmus+ Programme Guide: Priorities for the Action(Horizontal ja Field-specific priorities): pp. 105-106 ja 108 Get familiar with the Assessment Criteria: s. 114-115 Tutustu EU:n koulutuspolitiikkapapereihin. Linkkikokoelma s. 322-323. 40