Education: a record budget of €272 million to support alliances between European universities

The Commission has announced a new Erasmus+ call for proposals to support the further deployment of the “European Universities” initiative. With a total budget of €272 million, the 2022 call for European Erasmus + universities will end on 22 March, 2022. Margaritis Schinas, vice president in charge of European lifestyle, said: “Thanks to innovative and diversified models of long-term integrated cooperation, European universities promote common European values ​​and a strengthened European identity, and help higher education institutions achieve a considerable leap in terms of quality, performance, attractiveness and international competitiveness.

This call is an essential step in supporting higher education for a sustainable, resilient and successful future. Mariya Gabriel, commissioner responsible for innovation, research, culture, education and youth, said: "Today, we are helping European universities more to strengthen their partnerships between higher education institutions or to create new ones, by pooling their strengths. Strong European universities are beneficial in many ways: they equip their students, staff and researchers with the skills they need to meet today's societal needs. Strong European universities are also essential for developing a strong sense of belonging to Europe, fostering regional development and making Europe more competitive and attractive on the world stage."

European universities support systemic, structural and sustainable cooperation between various higher education institutions across Europe, covering all of their missions: education, research, innovation and services to society. Building on the success of the pilot calls launched in 2019 and 2020, supported by Horizon 2020 for their research dimension, the 2022 call aims to facilitate the continuation of the co-operation efforts of higher education institutions already engaged in partnerships advanced at institutional level, such as those selected under the Erasmus + 2019 European Universities call. It will offer the possibility of creating completely new alliances. Higher education institutions also have the opportunity to join existing alliances. For this new 2022 call, the countries of the Bologna process which are not associated with the Erasmus+ programme are invited to join the alliances as associated partners.

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