How to write a KA2 project, hoping it will be successful!

SPACE Conference

Team Luc Broes, Julie Verstraeten, Annemie Van den dries

You have a wild idea?

• Excellent!

• But develop it to become relevant for the EU, and not only for yourself… cfr. Luke 20 : 25

To start…although we are rather early to reflect already on a new project…but…• End of July: look out for the New Call 2018…

• Read in the mean time the speeches of the EU

commissioner for Education and Culture Tibor Navracsics

e.g. Brussels, 06/04/2017 at the 7th University Business Forum –

"University-Business Cooperation for Innovation and Modernisation"

“There is no alternative to closer cooperation between education, research and business – it is the only way to ensure that Europe stays competitive in the global race. And it is the only way to give our young people a real chance at making the most of their lives”.

And he points out: the skills mismatch – the innovation gap – the missing link between HE and regional development – social divisions (academics are often perceived as detached from the rest of society)…

Buzz-words indeed!

And we keep on brooding….

And we look for guidelines by searching and re-searching the website of EACEA and of the NAs or NEOs: a wealth on information!

• The European Commission works with DG Education and Culture, the DG for the policies related to the fields of Education, Training and Youth.

• The actions of the Erasmus + programme are divided into decentralised actions and centralisedactions.

• The centralised actions are managed at a European level by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) located in Brussels.• EACEA is in charge of the complete life-cycle management of projects, from the promotion of the programme,

the analysis of the grant requests, the on-the-spot • https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/homepage_en

• The decentralised actions are managed in each programme country by National Agencies that are appointed by their national authorities and in each partner country by National Erasmus+ Offices.• http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/contact_en#tab-1-0• https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/contacts/national-erasmus-plus-offices_en

And once the new Call 2018 is published(July-August 2017? More realistic …October 2017)

• ….we’ll download probably more than the current 327 pages…of the Erasmus+ programme guide…

• http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/sites/erasmusplus/files/files/resources/erasmus-plus-programme-guide_en.pdf

But we can restrict it to• Part A: General information about the programme• Part B: Information about the Actions covered in this Guide

• We limit ourselves to KA2 for HE

• And then there is another interesting document to dowload from the web 2017 Erasmus+ Guide for experts on Quality assessment.• https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/sites/erasmusplus/files/2017-

expert-guide_en.pdf• Specifically: Key Action 2 and Annex III (refrence policy documents)

Experts? Indeed….(spec. Strategic partnerships in the field of Education, Training and Youth)

Award criteria

• Relevance of the project : 30

• Quality of the project design and implementation: 20

• Quality of the project team and the cooperation

arrangements: 20

• Impact and dissemination: 30

• When assessing applications against award criteria, experts make a judgment on theextent to which applications meet the defined criteria.

• This judgment must be based on the information provided in the application. Experts cannot assume information that is not explicitly provided. Although it must be saidthat information relevant for a specific award criterion may appear in different parts of the application and experts take all of it into account when scoring the award criterion

ECTS for experts…

• ECTS for experts? • 30 very good (26-30) good (21-25) fair (15-20) weak (0-14)• 20 very good (17-20) good (14-16) fair (10-13) weak (0-9)• The threshold is 60/100

• The comments of the experts must have the following characteristics: clarity, consistency and appropriate level of detail, as this can be used by the NA to provide feedback to applicants.

• Number: generally two experts ( an expert and an expert consolidator / reviewer)

To-day we are focusing on KA2

• Decentralised activities:• Strategic Partnerships for higher education• Strategic Partnerships for VET• Strategic Partnerships for schools• Strategic Partnerships for adult education• Strategic Partnerships for youth• Strategic Partnerships in more than one sector

• Centralised activities:• Knowledge Alliances• Sector Skills Alliances• Capacity Building in the field of higher education (+ partner countries)• Capacity Building in the field of youth

But not with the application document in front of us…• At this stage we are not worrying about filling in :

• A, B, B1 (Project identification), D1 (applicant organisation), D2 (partner organisations with their key-persons), E (Description of the project) E1 (participants), F (preparation),G (Project management and implementation), G1 (Intellectual outputs), G2 (multiplier events), G3 (Learning, teaching, training activities), H (Follow-up), H1 (Impact), H2 (Dissemination and use of projects’ results), H3 (Sustainability), I (Budget), J (Project summary)

• But C Priorities are kept in mind – please repeat them as a mantra

• …

Priorities 2017: see also Annex III of the Guide forExperts on Quality assessment (NA)• Horizontal:

• Supporting individuals in acquiring and developing key competences (also transversal, language and digital skills) to fosteremployability

• Social inclusion – innovative integrated approaches – combting discrimination, segregation and rcism• Open and innovative practices in a digital era – promoting new technologies• Educators: priority will be given to actions that strenghten the development of the best professionals also learners from

disadvantaged backgrounds• Transparanecy and recognition of skills and qualifications - information/guidance on skills and qualifications – recognition

and supporting validation• Supporting the Investment Plan for Europe https://ec.europa.eu/commission/publications/brochure-investment-plan-

europe_en (results so far: 10/04/2017)

• Spec. Higher Education: based on the EU Modernisation Agenda for Higher Education https://ec.europa.eu/education/news/20160613-public-consultation-modernisation-higher-education_nl

• Enhancing quality and relevance of studnets’ knowledge and skills• Promoting intercultural and civic competences of students• Supporting innovation and creativity (transdiciplinary!)• Incentivising and rewarding good teaching• Improving institutional governance• Promoting internationalistaion, recognition and mobility, supporting changes in line with Bologna principles and tools.

(30) After our brain washing we comeback to Your wild idea (slide 2)…? And…. • Is my idea relevant?

• What about referring to the horizontal priorities of the Call? Andspecifically for HE?

• Did I do a needs analysis? And how is this linked to the EU priorities?

• Are the objectives of the project realistic? Are they related to thetarget groups?

• Can we trigger synergies?

• Is it innovative or is complementary to actions/projects that thepartners have already set up?

• Where is the added value for the EU???

(20) How is the project design?

• Is there consistency between your

objectives and the activities you want to develop?

• Are you sure about the quality of the activities and is it all feasable?

• One project writer or several???....

• How will you implement quality control? What about the timing?

• What about the budget??? The amount you have in mind, is it realistic (too much, too little?), is it cost-effective? Do “we EU” get value for our money???

• Do you plan teaching, training and learning activities? How to budget these activities? When and where will they take place? Are you planning touristic trips or are you going for recognition and validation of these activities??? Do you useyour ECHE and ECTS?

• You wish to collaborate with other organisations! (what about their profile, theirexperience, their expertise)

(20) What about your team? How are yougoing to organise it? • Who is who? What is special about the key-persons?

• How did you find them?

• Why did you bring them together?

• Are you sure they will all be active?

• Are there Newcomers?

• How will you communicate and collaborate?

• KA2 NA! Are there partners from “Partner countries” . Why did you ask them to join? What will be their added value for the project (not vice-versa)

• KA2 EACEA! Are there partners from “Partner countries” ? = special studyabout the different rules and different budgets related to the Regions involved…

• How will you evaluate the team activities? What about potential conflicts? Whatabout a manual on team management….

(30) And your project? nine days ' wonder? Or will it be sustainable in the years ahead?• What will be the impact on the partners’ organisations?

• What will be the impact outside these organisations? And please bespecific: at local, regional, national,

European levels…Mars?

• Have you already developed your

dissemination plan?

• And are you sure that all materials (documents, media) produced will bemade free available to everyone? Promoted via free licences…

• How are you sure about the perspective that goes beyond the lifetime of the project, i.e. without EU-funding, but could you have access to externalco-funding?

And we gather and gather precious ideas….

Call 2017 – first results (20/04/2017)The field of School Education received the largest number of applications (more than 9 500), followed by Vocational Education and Training, and Youth (with 7 400 and 6 900 applications respectively).

Background information

• Erasmus+ (2014-2020), also called Erasmus Plus, is the current 14.7 billion euro catch-all framework programme for education, training, youth and sport. 4 million Europeans are expected to study, train, gain experience, and volunteer abroad.

• The Erasmus+ programme combines all the EU's current schemes for education, training, youth and sport, including the Lifelong Learning Programme (Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci, Comenius, Grundtvig), Youth in Action and five international co-operation programmes (Erasmus Mundus, Tempus, Alfa, Edulink and the programme for co-operation with industrialised countries).

• The Erasmus+ regulation was signed on 11 December 2013.

• So were are mid-programme! Calls to come: 2018, 2019, …

Some extra input…

• We are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Erasmus Programme in 2017 - a milestone for Europe!

• In March 25th we also celebrated the 60th Anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.

• A New Skills Agenda for Europe - Working together to strengthen human capital, employability and competitiveness. (10.06.2016)

• Brexit: https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/article-50-update-0 Updated 0/04/2017

The National Agency for Erasmus+ in the UK, a partnership between the British Council and Ecorys UK, remains wholly committed to the programme and its benefits. The National Agency strongly supports continued full membership of the programme for the UK through to 2020, so that at least 250,000 people across the UK have the chance to study, train or volunteer abroad, and that UK organisationscan continue to collaborate on international projects.

Best of luck!