Application advice
session for schools:
KA2 Strategic
Partnerships
What is Key Action 2?
Key Action 2 will focus on sharing, developing and
transferring innovative practices in education,
training and youth provision between participating
countries
How? Through Strategic Partnerships (SPs)
UK organisations can apply for funding to run collaborative
projects which address:
• EU policy objectives and priorities
• Challenges (within school)
• Needs of one or more specific field of education
Summary of basic features
• Can last 2 or 3 years
• Can focus on one specific field of education eg school
education
• Can promote cross-sectoral cooperation i.e. involve more
than one field of education
• Grant is not a simple lump sum for mobilities (as
Comenius) but a mix of lump sum (unit costs) and real
costs
Who can apply/participate?
• Any organisation from the list of Programme Countries
can apply
• Organisations from Partner Countries (wider world)
can take part as project partners (not as applicants) and
only if they add value to the project
Programme countries
Number and profile of partner organisations
• Minimum of two partner schools from
two programme countries
• Up to a max. of ten partner organisations
from funded programme countries can be
involved per SP
Acronyms galore: ECAS, URF, PIC
• Before applying, all schools will need a Personal
Identification Code (PIC) …
• … to get a PIC, a school must use the Unique
Registration Facility (URF) …
• …and to access the URF, a school must register with the
European Commission Authentication Service (ECAS)
ECAS
• Start at
URF
PIC
http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/onlineservices/pador/register_en.htm
Selection and grant agreements
• One application per project, assessed by coordinating
National Agency
• School to school only SPs = individual Grant Agreements
as per current Comenius partnerships
• If schools partner with other organisations (eg Local
Authority), the applicant organisation holds the grant
agreement with their National Agency and hence the
funds for the whole partnership
What happens when you apply?
• a formal check is made to verify against the eligibility and
exclusion criteria
• a quality assessment evaluates how well the participating
organisations meet the selection criteria and the project
meets the award criteria
• Notification of result of application is within 4 months of
the submission deadline (30 April 2014)
Award CriteriaEach application is scored out of 100 points
• 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)
A project must score at least 60 to be considered
AND score at least 50% in each category
Relevance of the project (30 points)
Relevance of the proposed project to:
•
•
one of more of the EU policy priorities for education & training
and/or the school education priorities
Education and training priorities:
• developing basic and transversal skills, e.g. entrepreneurship, digital
skills, multilingualism
• enhancing Information and Communication Technologies
(ICT) uptake in teaching and learning
School priorities
•
•
•
•
Improving the attainment of young people, particularly
those at risk of early school leaving (ESL)
Improving the attainment of young people with low basic
skills in Maths, Science and Literacy
Developing high quality and accessible Early Childhood
Education and Care services
Revising and strengthening the professional profile of the
teaching professions
The application eform
http://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/key-action-2/strategic-partnerships-for-schools
• Completed on-line only (no paper)
• You’ll need the most up-to-date version of Adobe Reader
• To submit and complete in full, you will need to be
connected to the internet
• It must be saved to your desktop (not USB!)
before starting
Application process
1. Complete form
2. Validate
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Print declaration
Have it signed (by Headteacher)
Attach the declaration (electronically)
Attach the time table of activities (Gantt chart)
Submit the application online
You must also upload the following documents
in the Participant Portal:
• the Legal Entity form as proof of legal status (this form
can be downloaded from the European Commission’s
website at:
• http://ec.europa.eu/budget/contracts_grants/info_contrac
ts/legal_entities/legal_entities_en.cfm);
• the Financial Identification form. This form can be
downloaded at:
• http://ec.europa.eu/budget/contracts_grants/info_contrac
ts/financial_id/financial_id_en.cfm)
It should look like this
The application form content overview
• Context: background
• Participating organisations: basic information
• Description of the project: rationale for project and
partnership, objectives
• Preparation and project management: including m&e;
• Project activities: details of all outputs and activities
The application form content overview
•
•
•
•
Follow-up: dissemination, use of results, sustainability
Budget: management and activities
Project summary
Formal aspects: data protection, sign off
Context and participating organisations
•
•
•
•
Basic information
Applicant organisation cf. coordinator in Comenius
Details fill in automatically when ‘PIC’ input
Partners – as above
Description of the project, objectives
• Rationale, issues and needs ie why this project?
• Innovative or complementary: how does it fit with other
activity/ies?
• Partners: how chosen? skills, knowledge, experience?
New partners? EU added value
• Communication and meetings, partners and stakeholders
• Relevant Priorities - drop down
• Relevant Topics - drop down
• Results: outputs, products, changes
Preparation and project management
• Preparation: analyses, planning, building engagement,
possibly before funding starts;
• Budget and timelines: management and monitoring
budget between partners, monitoring timelines, rectifying
• Quality of activities: monitoring quality of delivery; who,
how, when?
• Risks: internal and external, how monitored and mitigated
• Assessing achievement: qualitative and quantitative
indicators and activities (outputs, results, objectives)
Implementation
• Organisation of activities: who, what, where, how
coordinated, timings?
• Target groups: who? cf. “needs”, above
• Participants with fewer opportunities: number; proportion of
participants
• support for them
• why is participation difficult?
Project activities (and outputs)
• Menu caters for a range of projects in terms of in type and
scale
• Divided into types:
Intellectual outputs
Multiplier events
Learning/Teaching/Training Activities
Mobilities
1. Transnational Project Meetings – no minimum stay;
2. Learning, Teaching and Training Activities:
•
•
Short term staff training events (5 days – 2 months)
Short term pupil visits (5 days – 2 months)
Both must clearly contribute to overall objectives of project
Follow up - impact
• Impact (effects, results, changes) on participating
individuals and organisations, systems and practices and
other stakeholders
• Impact beyond the project; local, regional, national,
European
• Measurement – who, what, how?
Follow up – dissemination & sustainability
• Important in Erasmus+ - added value of EU funding, wider
reach and impact
• Communicating successes and results widely: for use by
others including other sectors; to influence policy; into the
future
• Measureable, realistic objectives (timetable)
• Resource planning
• Involvement of target groups if possible
Budget
• Menu of different cost items: different funding levels and
structures
• Most payments conditional on justification in application
• Unit costs/flat rates (with maximums)
• Two cost items are common to any project:
1. Project management and implementation
2. Transnational project meetings
Project management and implementation
• 500 EUR per month to the coordinator, and 250
EUR per month to each other partner
• project management e.g. contribution to tasks such
as planning, managing finances, coordination,
communication, promotion and dissemination
• Virtual cooperation and local activities
• Information/promo/dissemination (e.g. production
and dissemination of brochures, web info…)
Transnational project meetings
• Travel and subsistence costs for project meetings
between partners, hosted by one of the participating
organisations
• Distance bands as crow flies, - use European
Commission distance calculator
100km – 1,999km = 575 EUR per participant
2,000km and above = 760 EUR per participant
• Maximum 23,000 EUR per year in total (for all
partners)
Optional cost items linked to activities
Transnational learning/teaching/training activities:
• Travel by distance (275 EUR/360 EUR)
• Subsistence per pupil (55 EUR) and staff (100
EUR) per day for first 14 days
Special needs (optional)
• Additional actual costs incurred to support
participants with special needs.
• Please enter actual costs as far as you know
them, it may not be possible to provide extra
funding for participants with special needs which
has not been included in your original budget
request
Exceptional costs (optional)
• 75% actuals , subcontracted goods and services
which partners cannot provide
• Office equipment or other equipment normally
used by partners will not be funded
Project Summary
• Synopsis: to be used for publicity, uploaded to EC
dissemination platform
• Context
• Objectives
• Participants
• Activities
• Methodology
• Results, impact, longer term benefits
• Summary of participating organisations and budget
Example of a Strategic Partnership
between schools
• Three schools in 3 programme countries
• developing learning materials together on how to
interest pupils in the subjects of Maths and Science in a
creative and appealing way.
• The expected output is the creation of a number of
learning materials to be used in Maths and Science
classes
• The activities would involve the direct cooperation of
pupils in those classes both virtually (e.g. using
eTwinning) and live for a project week.
For a two-year project the schools would
apply for a grant covering:
• Project management and implementation: a unit cost/flat
rate grant per school
• Transnational project meetings: 4 meetings including 24
mobilities
• Transnational learning/training activity: a joint project
week for which a group of 15 pupils each from two of the
schools would travel to the third school and work
together during a week with the materials, closed by an
exhibition open to local schools and the local community
of the hosting school.
Finding out more
• www.erasmusplus.org.uk
– Application guidance,
– Forms,
– Deadline (11am UK time on 30th April),
– Programme guide,
– Links and guidance for ECAS and PIC,
– Everything else to do with Erasmus+
erasmusplus.enquiries@britishcouncil.org
• 0161 957 7755