The ‘European Universities’ initiative is part of the ‘Partnerships for Excellence’ support provided in the framework of the 2021-2027 Erasmus+ Programme. This initiative has an ambitious mandate aimed to trigger and deepen unprecedented levels of institutional cooperation between higher education institutions, making it systemic, structural and sustainable.

It aims to encourage the emergence of bottom-up transnational alliances of higher education institutions across Europe, taking transnational cooperation to a new level of intensity and scope and offering students opportunities to combine studies in several countries.

By pooling their resources, capacity and strengths together, higher education institutions will reinforce their quality, performance, attractiveness and international competitiveness on all their missions – education, research, innovation, and service to society, for the benefit of students, staff and communities.

In line with the priorities of the European Education Area by 2025 and in line with the European strategy for universities, these European Universities intend to:

• Promote common European values and a strengthened European identity by bringing together a new generation of Europeans able to cooperate within different cultures, languages, and across borders, sectors and academic disciplines;
• Reach a substantial leap in quality, performance, attractiveness and competitiveness of European higher education institutions, and contribute to the European knowledge economy, employment, creativity, culture and welfare by making the best use of innovative pedagogies and striving to make the knowledge square a reality.
• ‘European Universities’ will be key drivers to boost the quality of higher education and where possible to strengthen its link to the research and innovation landscape in Europe and its outreach towards the society and economy.

The scope of this call for proposals of 2024 is to support on one hand higher education institutions in gradually achieving their long-term ambitious vision towards becoming a fully-fledged European University and on the other hand to empower European Universities to share and benefit from each other experiences and to act as role models for the wider higher education sector.

This objective will be achieved through a twofold approach:

• Topic 1 will provide support for applicants wishing to establish deep institutional transnational cooperation in a ‘European Universities’ alliance.
• Topic 2 will provide support for applicants to set-up a Community of Practice of European Universities alliances.

The total budget for the action is EUR 189 200 000.

Detailed information about the European Universities 2024 call is available on the Funding & Tender Opportunities Portal.

The aim of this info session is to provide information about the call for proposals and give you the opportunity to ask questions.  You will have the chance to ask questions via: EACEA-EUROPEAN-UNIVERSITIES@ec.europa.eu  or live via the online tool Slido.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) will be published in the Funding & Tender Opportunities Portal.

 Further Information:

To get you started please refer to the EACEA guide: how to get a grant.

Webinar session: The Funding & tenders Portal for beginners.

The Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal also has a useful online manual  (business guide) and IT How To section.

(IT guide) to help you with the technical aspects of submitting a proposal online.

Please note that in order to be eligible to participate as full partners in alliances funded under the European Universities call, higher education institutions from the Erasmus+ programme countries

and the non-programme countries in the Western Balkans need to hold a valid Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE).

More information on the ECHE call for certifications can be found below:

Join the info session