How to design an Erasmus+ proposal

The Erasmus+ Programme consists of several Actions and sub-actions that support projects on different themes and involving different sectors. Terms and conditions on the composition of the partnership and areas of intervention often apply.

For a detailed analysis of the E+ funding opportunities for Higher education, please consult the E+ funding opportunities section of the University website.
Further information on E+ Actions, including Actions supporting sectors as School, Youth, Adult Education, Vocational Education and Training, and Sport, can be found in the Erasmus+ Programme Guide.
The official call for all the E+ Actions is published by EACEA once a year, usually in autumn. It sets the deadlines for each Action for the following year.

The staff of the Projects Unit is always available for individual meetings – in person or online – to identify the most suitable funding opportunity to support education and training projects. 

First steps

Faculty members and researchers who want to submit a project proposal within the Erasmus+ framework (Actions 2, 3, and Jean Monnet, except for international mobility projects) must promptly contact the Projects Unit of the International Office and the Research Unit or the Educational Programmes Office of their Department. A file about the deadlines for the submission of an Erasmus+ project proposal or the participation in a collaborative project is available in your Personal Area.

As far as mobility projects are concerned, the procedures are:

• Erasmus+ ICM (non-European mobilities): Every September/October, the Projects Unit sends an email inviting all Ca’ Foscari’s faculty members and researchers to show their interest in submitting ICM mobility project proposals. As described in the invitation email, proposals are selected on the basis of qualitative and quantitative criteria, so that they are compatible with the geographical priorities yearly chosen by the University governance, as well as the workload of the International Office.
• Erasmus+ Europe (mobilities to EU Member States and third countries associated to the Programme): proposals for Erasmus+ mobility agreements with European Universities do not require a project design and competitive evaluation process held by the E+ National Agency. To propose a new agreement, please contact the Mobility Unit of the International Office for further info.

Projects Unit’s support

During the project design phase, the Projects Unit provides useful information and support as to:

• identification of the most suitable funding opportunity;
• analysis of the feasibility/sustainability of the proposals;
• estimation of the budget;
• management of the relations with the coordinator and partners;
• redaction of information sheets and transmission of administrative information to the coordinator;
• presentation of official documents (e.g.: mandate, declaration of honour) to the Rector for their signature;
• technical support in the submission of proposals when Ca’ Foscari is the project coordinator.

The Projects Unit staff cannot guarantee their support in the drafting of project proposals and management of partnerships and stakeholders.

Exception – Erasmus+ ICM: After gathering the main background information from the proposing professor or researcher, the Projects Unit drafts project proposals for non-EU mobility proposals only.

Formal approval for proposal submission

To submit a project proposal with Ca' Foscari, a formal approval is required. It is necessary to obtain a resolution ("delibera") or urgent decree from the governing bodies of the relevant Department or Centre which submit the project proposal. It is therefore essential to contact the secretariat of the relevant Department or Centre (e.g. the Research Unit of the relevant Department) well in advance. The secretariat will ask for specific information to formalise the approval request and start the evaluation/approval process, according to their timelines and procedures.

Detailed information about strategic priorities, eligibility conditions, and administrative and financial regulations can be found in the Erasmus+ Programme Guide.
Documents and additional informative material for Centralised Actions – Actions directly managed by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) – are available in the Reference documents and Guidance and manuals sections of the Funding & Tenders Portal.

Legislation, annual work programme, call documents, grant agreements and contracts, templates, forms, and much more are also available for download on the Funding & Tenders Portal.
Specific information about each Action is included in the Search funding and tenders section of the Funding & Tenders Portal, where it is possible to consult a detailed list of open and closed calls for every sub-action.
A further collection of general information about the Actions and the portal are available in the Funding & Tenders online manual and in the Funding and tenders IT how to section.

As far as Decentralised Actions – Actions whose management is delegated to the Erasmus+ National Agencies (for Italy: Agenzia Nazionale Erasmus+ INDIRE [ITA]) – are concerned, useful material can be found as follows:

• Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility (ICM): The Projects Unit drafts the proposal in collaboration with the proposing professors and/or researchers. Complementary information to those included in the Programme Guide is available in the extra UE mobility [ITA] section of the Italian Erasmus+ National Agency;
• Cooperation Partnerships: Complementary info to those included in the Programme Guide is available in the Cooperation partnershio [ITA] section of the Italian Erasmus+ National Agency. The online application form is available only when the call is open. The Projects Unit can provide a template upon request.

A further collection of general information and functions about the Actions and the portal is available in the Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps guides.

For Centralised Actions, the consortium coordinator submits the proposal on the Funding & Tender Portal by entering the call’s page in the Search Funding and Tenders section and clicking on Start Submission.
The application form consists of a general information part to fill in online (Part A) and a specific section dedicated to the description of the project’s phases (Part B). The latter is an editable Word file available for download from the application webpage. The structure of the Word file is substantially similar for every sub-action.
The projects Unit can provide a template for Part B upon request.
General technical information about the submission of proposals under a Centralised Action can be found in the Proposal Submission Service User Manual.

For Decentralised Actions, the consortium coordinator submits the proposal in the Open calls section of the Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps Portal by choosing the suitable open call and clicking on Apply.
General technical information about the submission of proposals under a Decentralised Action can be found in the Applicant Guides - Submission Phase section.
The Erasmus+ Programme requires applicants to use the Organization ID (OID) [ITA], a 9-digit code which identifies Ca’ Foscari University among all organisations participating in the Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps actions managed by National Agencies. The OID replaces the Participant Identification Code (PIC) and must be inserted in Part A of the application form.
Ca’ Foscari’s identifying information is:

• Legal name: UNIVERSITÀ CA' FOSCARI VENEZIA
• OID: E10209112
• PIC: 999897341

Every Department and Unit of the University must use this OID and is not allowed to create new ones.

A standard description of Ca’ Foscari University is available in your Personal Area. It can be edited according to the call.
A list of Erasmus+ projects in which Ca’ Foscari has participated in the last four years is also available. 

The project coordinator must detail how they intend to manage the partnership and with which tools.
A check-list for the Work Package devoted to project management activities is available in your Personal Area.

The Logical Framework Approach and the Gantt Chart are two useful tools for structuring a project proposal as a coordinating partner and applicant. It is recommended to include them in the application, even if not explicitly requested.

• The logical framework approach is a matrix that summarises all the objectives, outcomes, and activities of a project, outlining its design, management, monitoring, and evaluation phases.
• The Gantt chart provides a schematic representation of a project timeline. It is used to plan, coordinate, and monitor the activities related to a project. 

The dissemination phase of an Erasmus+ project consists in sharing the project’s results with the stakeholders (other researchers, policy makers, organisations of the business and/or industrial sector, professional/sector associations, …). It must be carefully planned during the project design phase to guarantee that the outcomes will be easily accessible and exploitable by all potential beneficiaries.

A document about Ca’ Foscari’s communication and dissemination activities is available in your Personal Area.

Outcomes exploitation refers to the potential use of the results of a project during and after its implementation. Outcomes can be used to introduce new policies, to develop licences, patents, or spin-offs, or to help solve social and economic issues to a local, national, or international level.

When technology and knowledge transfer are required, the PInK Office - Promoting Innovation and Knowledge Projects supports faculty members and researchers in the protection of research findings (intellectual property rights, data and information confidentiality) and in the valuation of business industrial property.

Erasmus+ Open Access Requirement for educational material

Erasmus+ promotes the Open Access of project outputs to support learning, teaching, training, and youth work. In particular, Erasmus+ beneficiaries are committed to make any educational resources and tools which are produced in the context of projects supported by the Programme – documents, media, software or other materials – freely available for the public under an open licence (e.g. the widely used Creative Commons Attribution or Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike licences for creative works, the GNU Public License and GNU Lesser Public License for software, or the Open Database License for databases).

The materials should be easily accessible and retrievable without cost or limitations, and the open licence must allow the public to use, reuse, adapt and share the resource. Such materials are known as ‘Open Educational Resources’ (OER). To achieve this aim, the resources should be uploaded in an editable digital form, on a suitable and openly accessible platform.

While Erasmus+ encourages beneficiaries to apply the most open licences, beneficiaries may choose licences that impose some limitations, e.g. restrict commercial use by others, or commit others to apply the same licence on derivative works, if this is appropriate to the nature of the project and to the type of material, and if it still allows the public to use, reuse, adapt and share the resource. The open access requirement is obligatory and is without prejudice to the intellectual property rights of the grant beneficiaries.

Erasmus+ Open Access for research and data

Although research should not be an E+ project priority, Erasmus+ encourages beneficiaries to publish research output through open access pathways, i.e. in ways which are free of cost or other access restrictions. Beneficiaries are also encouraged to apply open licences to this research output. Whenever possible, data collected by projects should be published as 'open data', i.e. with an open licence, in a suitable format and on a suitable open data platform.

Communicating projects and their results is a key activity to ensure impact at different levels. To have a full impact, a project should be able to reach out to European citizens. It is therefore crucial to plan an effective communication strategy including digital and multimedia tools. A document about Ca’ Foscari’s communication and dissemination activities is available in your Personal Area.

Discover all the Communication and Public engagement activities Ca’ Foscari promotes. 

How to translate academic qualifications or titles? The Italian-English glossary [ITA] has been developed following the guidelines approved by the Academic Senate with the support of faculty and staff members. It is recommended to use the translations in this glossary to write official documents or create webpages.

This budget category refers to the costs of the staff who dedicate a percentage of their total working hours to the implementation of the project.

Every project proposal should include a staff share for the support staff who will manage the administrative and financial aspects of the project (e.g. accounting, event planning, …) or provide digital services (e.g. web design, app development, virtual machine, database, …). In some cases a Project Manager is also required.

To estimate staff costs and draft a budget for a project proposal, some references can be found as follows:

• Unit Costs provided by the Erasmus+ Programme 14-20 are available in your Personal Area;
• summary tables [ITA] of teaching, administrative and research staff costs are available in your Personal Area:

Travel and accommodation costs

This budget category refers to travel, accommodation, and subsistence costs expected to participate in meetings and activities related to the project. The costs incurred by the beneficiary's employees involved in the project and the travel expenses of invited speakers can be reported in this category.
Unit Cost for travel proposals provided by the Erasmus+ Programme to estimate this budget category are available in your Personal Area. For specific procedures and possible restrictions on work missions within an Erasmus+ project, please refer to the University Regulations for Work Missions [ITA].

Other goods, works and services

This budget category refers to the cost of consumable goods, i.e. non-durable and disposable commodities. 
Consumables should not be confused with indirect costs (overheads) which include the purchase of material not directly related to the project.
This category also includes the costs of specific goods and services purchased for the implementation of project activities, such as dissemination costs, costs related to intellectual property, translations, audit costs, conference fees.
Unit Cost for dissemination events proposals provided by the Erasmus+ Programme to estimate dissemination events expenses are available in your Personal Area.

This category refers to services subcontracted to third parties when the beneficiary organisation is unable to carry out itself. The subcontracted service must not be related to the project’s core activities (e.g. project coordination, creation of softwares, implementation of MOOCs or teaching resources in general). The E+ Programme often imposes limitations on the impact this costs can have on the overall budget. Costs are eligible when the subcontracting complies with national and internal regulations in force.

Typically, the funding institution acknowledges that the beneficiary organisation may incur a range of expenses while carrying out project activities that are not easily attributable to the implementation of the project itself. These expenses may include telephone usage, postage fees, stationery, rent, heating, electricity, cleaning, and so on. Accounting for these expenses and directly reporting them to the project can be significantly challenging and would require a substantial amount of expensive and time-consuming work. Therefore, the funding institution grants the beneficiary a flat rate to cover these costs as a percentage of the direct costs, which will not need to be accounted for at the end of the project.

When estimating the budget, it is important to remember that the Value Added Tax - VAT (IVA in italian) is not always considered an eligible cost and depends on the rules of the funding programme. Specifically, for the Erasmus+ Programme, VAT is an eligible cost only when it is non-recoverable/non-deductible, as is the case for a public institution like Ca' Foscari University. The certification of non-deductibility of VAT [ITA] is available in your Personal Area.

Furthermore, according to DPR 663/72, costs incurred in research projects funded by the European Commission are not subject to VAT. However, for education and training projects within the Erasmus+ Programme framework, this principle does not apply, and all costs must be subject to VAT.

The Regional Production Tax (IRAP) imposed on staff salaries is non-recoverable. In the case of staff hired specifically for the project under an employment contract, the IRAP amount must be covered by project overhead or other funds.

The IRAP certificate [ITA] is available in your Personal Area.

For the majority of the Erasmus+ Actions, the contribution of the funding institution does not provide full coverage for the project budget, and the remaining percentage needs to be covered by the beneficiary.
However, co-funding does not necessarily imply additional costs. For instance, the co-funding amount may be covered by reporting costs for internal staff participating in the project.

When Ca’ Foscari University is the project coordinator, once the proposal is ready and the budget estimated, it is necessary to upload the documentation to the programme’s portal, paying attention to the following:

• documentation required for the eligibility of the proposal;
• required signatures: in many programs, the legal representative must sign one or more declarations. In this case, the Projects Unit will handle obtaining the signatures from the Rector. As this procedure may take some time, it is important to request the signature at least 3 weeks in advance of the call deadline. 
• validation of all data and documents uploaded.

Printing or saving a copy of the receipt generated by the portal is recommended.

The evaluation of proposals takes several months and is carried out by external evaluators appointed by the funding institution (European Commission, Erasmus+ National Agency) based on their area of expertise. 

The proposal is evaluated in terms of formal eligibility and qualitative aspects. 

The evaluation criteria are described in the Erasmus+ Programme Guide and in the calls. At the end of the process, the applications will receive a detailed assessment with scores for each criterion. 

Understanding the evaluation process is highly beneficial for improving future project proposals. An unsuccessful proposal can be resubmitted, and with improvements based on the analysis of the assessment, it has a higher chance of receiving funding. 

Instructions about Erasmus+ proposals can be found in the Funding and Tenders Online Manual (Evaluation & Grant Signature section).