How to apply for Erasmus+ mobilities

Step by step guide to apply for Erasmus+ mobilities

With this step by step guide we want to make your application process smooth, easy and successful. Please be aware that this is just our recommendation & inspiration and that it might not be complete. Also there might be slightly different procedures or priorities according to your country, so please double check with the checklist on your application form and with releases on the website of your country’s national agency. Along the process there might come up questions you cannot solve yourself. If you are confused with something or lack an information, you can either look if you find an answer in the Erasmus+ programme guide (consider only Key activity 1 and ignore the rest) or on the UK Erasmus+ website which is very clear and well-structured or call the national agency of your country. Our experience is that the staff of the national agencies are extremely friendly and helpful.

Step 1: Check if you meet all prerequisites to be eligible for funding

Your organization operates in the field of education
Your organization is a legal entity
Your organization is located in the EU or in one of the countries listed here on page 24
Your planned activities are not in the same county as your organization.

On pp. 23 ff. of the programme guide you find all details of eligibility.

Step 2: Download the e-application form

For adult education staff mobility

Please check out the website of your National Agency if you apply in the fields of higher education, schools, vocational education and training or youth. The procedure is the same, but there are slightly differente application-forms to be taken. This is the e-forms in English. You can also download e-forms in your own language from the website of your national agency. The e-form you need should either be called something with Key action 1 or mobility for education staff. You will need the latest version of Acrobat reader to open the e-form. If you don’t have it download it for free from the adobe website.

Step 3: Get an overview

The deadline for your proposal is 4th of March 2014 (12:00am CET) Here you have a quick and easy visualized overview about the basic structure of Erasmus+ mobility funding:

The work you’ll have to do is:

Complete a proposal
Register at two EU registration platforms.

The registration at the EU databases will take you about 45 minutes. For writing the application we estimate it will take you about 3-5 days of concentrated work. It varies of course according to the amount of mobilities you apply for, the clarity about the needs of your organization and the experience in writing EU proposals. And it is just OUR estimation. To be on the safe side do yourself and your organization the favour to leave plenty time towards the deadline in order not to bring you into unnecessary pressure in case it takes longer than you thought. The deadline is binding, so handing in your proposal one minute late means you’ll have to wait for another year :-(. This is a summary of the questions to get a first impression of what is expecting you:

Contact data and basic info of your organisation and their representatives
Information about the experiences and skills of your organization and key staff involved
The needs of your organization for quality development and internationalization.
Your ideas/plans of what activities abroad will help you to meet those needs.
How you plan to share/integrate the new knowledge within your home organization.
A rough description about the participants involved in the mobilites and the selection process.
What competences should they learn/improve?
Will you use certificates like Mobility pass or ECVET? And how?
How will you prepare the mobilities a) on a practical level (e.g. travel arrangements, insurance etc.) and on a skills level (e.g. intercultural or linguistic preparation)
How will you monitor and ensure quality, e.g. with learning agreements?
A one by one description of each course/activity abroad with number of participants, date, country and costs.
A prognosis of the impact on participants, your organization, your region, Europe.
How you will share the knowledge outside your organization.
How you plan to evaluate the results.
A summary of your activities planned and a summary of the budget.

Have a look at the questions asked in the e-form. Don’t get confused with sections that deal with project partners etc., some questions are not relevant if you merely want to apply to send your staff to a few courses; it is just one form for several purposes, also for more complex projects. And: don’t think you need to do all they propose, keep your measures to ensure quality and dissemination etc light and simple and in a healthy balance to what you apply for.

Step 4: Register at the 2 EU registration platforms

First one person of your organization has to register as a person at ECAS (European Commission Authentication Service). Then you can register your organisation at URF (Unique Registration Facility)which will lead you to the Education, Audio-visual, Culture, Citizenship and Volunteering Participant Portal where you will get a registration number, called PIC. You need this number to apply. You can use your PIC for all future proposals. The PIC of the Visionauts (who are registered under the Name of “Netzwerk für gesellschaftliche Innovationen e.V.”) is: 947161836 In case you need more help, find here a registration guide

Step 5: Get clarity about what you want

Get clarity about what you want to learn (your staff, your freelancers, your volunteers) and how this fits into your general organizational strategy for the next two years. Go through the e-form and collect all the questions that need to be discussed with others. Discuss and brainstorm before you start writing. This makes the writing a lot faster and easier.

Step 6: Write the application

If you write the application with others we recommend you to copy all questions to a google drive document, answer all questions in this document and only copy the answers to the online application form at the very end. (You are welcome to make a copy of this google-doc (for adult education staff mobility – english), update it with the questions in your language and share it with us.) This might help you in that process:

If you want to send your staff to Visionautic courses, you’ll need our PIC number. Here it is again: 947161836.
Let us know (info@visionautic.org) which course/s you want to attend here (Team strategy, multisensual facilitation, hosting innovation, hosting transformation conference) Then we can provide you with argumentation aids for your application.
Use the distance calculator to calculate travel costs
Some National Agencies offer webinars for help and tipps in the application process, like e.g. the UK National agency here
In the Annex of the programme guide you will find more detailed explanations about each question: for higher education staff on page 250, for vocational training staff on page 255, for school education staff on page 260, for adult education staff on page 263, for youth workers on page 265.
In order to set good priorities on the different questions, use this assessment table as a help to know how much credits you get for which question and what you should focus on in the different sections.

Make sure that each section of the application form is completed in full and that the activities conform to the Erasmus+ guidelines and the eligibility criteria (target group, placement duration, partners and financial provisions). You should make sure that each answer refers to the question asked, avoid duplicating information and ensure consistency and clarity. Think of yourself being an assessor and imagine how you would like the application to be written -clearly structured and easy to understand. Remember to proofread your application.

Step 7: Check for completion and extras

EU assesments – in order to give same chances to everybody – are very formalized. So be aware that they are very strict about formal criteria such as having filled out every question (in case of doubt, better write something stupid than nothing) and handing the proposal in in time with all extras. So check very carefully about all those details, it is very annoying to get a rejection of your application just because you forgot to answer one question or to hand in one little extra paper. There’s a checklist at the end of the e-form to assist you here.

Step 8: Hand it in, be proud of yourself and celebrate the completion.

Click the ‘Submit Online’ button. Save the final completed version of the eForm on your desktop in case of any technical issues with submission. We keep our fingers crossed. Celebrating? We assume you will know how to do that best :-)

Step 9: Share your successful submission with us

Let us know for what workshops and how many people you applied here. We will unbindingly reserve course/conference places for you and keep you updated about new information about the courses.

Step 10: Share the EU feedback with us

Please inform us about the result of your application, no matter if it is a approval or a rejection as soon as you get a feedback from the EU.

Step 11: Book the appropriate courses

Book the courses you/your staff want to attend, best before July 1st in order to profit from the earlybird offer.

Step 12: Learn and enjoy

Enjoy an amazing learning experience with us!

If you find any mistakes in this guide please let us know :-) Thanks!