Deadline: 22-Feb-22
The European Commission (EC) has launched a call for proposals for the Virtual Exchanges Program with the Western Balkans.
Objectives
The specific objectives of this call are the following:
- encouraging intercultural dialogue with third countries not associated to the program and increasing tolerance through online people-to-people interactions, building on digital, youth-friendly technologies;
- promoting various types of virtual exchanges as a complement to Erasmus + physical mobility, allowing more young people to benefit from intercultural and international experience;
- Enhancing critical thinking and media literacy, particularly in the use of internet and social media, such as to counter discrimination indoctrination, polarization and violent radicalization;
- fostering the digital and soft skills development of students, young people and youth workers, including the practice of foreign languages and teamwork, notably to enhance employability;
- promoting citizenship and the common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education;
- strengthening the youth dimension in the relations of the EU with third countries.
Funding Information
The available call budget is EUR 4,000,000. This budget might be increased by maximum 20%.
Activities
Projects will be funded based on work plans that may integrate a wide range of online cooperation activities, including for example:
- online-facilitated discussions between young people of youth organizations based in different countries, as part of youth projects. They could include role playing simulations. Participating organizations must arrange virtual exchanges for people in the 13-30 age-range. If a project involves people under 18, participating organizations are required to obtain prior authorization from their parents or those acting on their behalf;
- training for youth workers willing to develop a virtual exchange project with colleagues from other countries;
- online facilitated discussions between students of Higher Education institutions based in different countries, as part of higher education degrees;
- training for university professors / staff willing to develop a virtual exchange project with colleagues from other countries;
- interactive open online courses including traditional course materials such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets (like the well-known MOOCs, Massive Open Online Courses, but putting an emphasis on interactive user forums in small groups to support community interactions among students, professors , teaching assistants, young people and youth workers).
Eligibility Criteria
In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- be legal entities (public or private bodies)
- be established in one of the eligible countries, ie:
- Erasmus + Program Countries:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
- non-EU countries:
- listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Erasmus + Program or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature
- Erasmus + Program Countries:
- Erasmus + Partner Countries
- For higher education institutions (HEIs) established in Erasmus + Program Countries: be holders of the ECHE certificate (Erasmus Charter for Higher Education)
- Public or private organizations active in the field of higher education or youth (non-formal education) in Program Countries or the relevant Partner Countries
- Only applicants from Erasmus + Program Countries can take the role of coordinator
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3mXZV1F