CALL FOR PROPOSALS EACEA/38/2019

Under The Erasmus+ Programme

Key Action 3: Support for policy reform

European Policy Experimentations in the fields of Education and Training led by high-level public authorities

(2019/C 410/06)

1.   Description, Objectives and Priority Themes

European policy experimentations are trans-national cooperation projects led by high-level public authorities from the Programme Countries. They involve testing the relevance, effectiveness, potential impact and scalability of policy measures through parallel field trials in different countries, based on (semi-) experimental approaches and common evaluation protocols. By combining strategic leadership, methodological soundness and a strong European dimension, they enable mutual learning and support evidence-based policy at European level.

The specific objectives of this call are to:

—	Promote trans-national cooperation and mutual learning among public authorities at the highest institutional level of the eligible countries in order to foster systemic improvement and innovation in the education and training fields,

—	Enhance the collection and analysis of substantive evidence to ensure the successful implementation of innovative measures,

—	Facilitate the transferability and scalability of innovative measures.

The priority themes for this call are:

LOT 1 — Digital education and competences — Teaching and teachers

LOT 2 — Funding mechanisms for upskilling and reskilling, including schemes similar to Individual Learning Accounts — Policy and processes to support the validation of non-formal and informal learning, including through effective guidance

2.   Eligibility

2.1.   Eligible applicants

Applicants considered eligible to respond to this call are:

a)

Public authorities (Ministry or equivalent) responsible for education and training at the highest level in the relevant context (national or decentralised). Responsible public authorities for sectors other than education and training (e.g. employment, youth, finance, social affairs, home affairs, justice, health, etc.) are considered eligible as long as they demonstrate that they have a specific competence in the area in which the experimentation is to be carried out.

b)	Public or private organisations active in the fields of education or training or other relevant fields.

c)

Public or private organisations or institutions carrying out cross-sector activities linked to education and training in other socioeconomic sectors (e.g. NGOs, information or guidance services, public authorities, agencies or services responsible for: education, training, youth, employment, social affairs, home affairs, justice, quality assurance, recognition and/or validation; career guidance, chambers of commerce, business and social partners, trade organisations, civil society, cultural or sport organisations, evaluation or research entities, media etc.).

National Agencies or other structures and networks of the Erasmus+ Programme, receiving a direct grant from the Commission in accordance with the legal basis of the Erasmus+ Programme are not eligible to participate. Nevertheless, the legal entities hosting the Erasmus+ National Agencies or the structures and networks mentioned above are considered eligible applicants.

Only applications from legal entities established in the following programme countries are eligible:

—	Member States of the European Union;

—	the EFTA/EEA countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway;

—	EU candidate countries: North Macedonia, Turkey and Serbia.

For British applicants: Please be aware that eligibility criteria must be complied with for the entire duration of the grant. If the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU during the grant period without concluding an agreement with the EU ensuring in particular that British applicants continue to be eligible, you will cease to receive EU funding (while continuing, where possible, to participate) or be required to leave the project on the basis of Article II.17 of the grant agreement.

Proposals from applicants in candidate countries may be selected, if on the date of award, agreements have entered into force setting out the arrangements for the participation of those countries in the programme.

Partnership composition requirement

The minimum partnership composition requirement for this call is 4 entities representing 3 different programme countries. Specifically:

—	At least three public authorities (Ministries or equivalent) each from a different Programme country, while at least one of the three public authorities must be from a Member State of the European Union and

—

At least one public or private entity with expertise in analysis and policy impact evaluation (‘researche r’). Such entity shall be responsible for the methodological aspects and the field trial protocols. The partnership can involve more than one such entity, as long as the work is coordinated and consistent.

Coordination requirement

A project proposal can only be coordinated and submitted, on behalf of all applicants, by one of the following:

—	A public authority (Ministry or equivalent) as described under section 2.1.a);

—

A public or private entity delegated by a public authority. Delegated entities must have an explicit endorsement in writing (a delegation letter) by a public authority to submit and coordinate the project proposal on their behalf. Only delegated entities that are in a position to demonstrate their existence as a legal person for at least 3 years on the date of the deadline for submission of pre-proposals referred to in section 6 are considered eligible as ‘coordinator’ for the purpose of this call.

2.2.   Eligible activities and project duration

Eligible activities must be in line with Annex to the guidelines for applicants. The field trials must take place at least in three countries whose public authorities/Ministries are involved in the project.

Activities must start between 1 January 2021 and 28 February 2021.

Project’s duration must be between 24 and 36 months.

3.   Expected results

The proposed projects should lead to significant results in the following areas:

—	Support to the priorities for policy cooperation at EU level set out in the ET 2020 Framework, as appropriate.

—	Improved knowledge and evidence base for reforms with potentially high systemic impact in the sectors concerned in the eligible countries.

—	European added value by jointly identifying best practice and lessons on ‘what works’ and ‘what does not work’.

—

Scalability and transferability of innovative measures. Scaling up does not necessarily only mean duplicating the tested measures on a larger number of beneficiaries. It should rather be understood as creating the best conditions for making the successfully tested measures part of a policy or a system.

—	Sound consistency and complementarity between theory and practice; between EU policies and funding programmes; between European, national and regional measures; between the roles of policy makers, stakeholders and researchers.

4.   Budget available:

The total budget available for the co-financing of projects under the present call is EUR 14 000 000 allocated as follows:

—	Lot 1	EUR 12 000 000
—	Lot 2	EUR 2 000 000

The financial contribution from the EU cannot exceed 75 % of the total eligible project costs.

The maximum grant per project will be EUR 2 000 000.

The Agency reserves the right not to distribute all the funds available.

5.   Award Criteria

Proposals will be submitted and evaluated in two stages, involving a pre-proposal stage and and a full proposal stage.

Pre-proposal stage
	Criteria	Max. Points
1	Relevance of the project	20 points
Full proposal stage
2	Quality of the project design and implementation	30 points
3	Quality of the partnership and the cooperation arrangements	20 points
4	Impact, dissemination, and sustainability	30 points

Only eligible applicants reaching the minimum threshold of 12 points on the score for the award criterion Relevance of the project at the pre-proposal stage will be invited to submit a full proposal and to elaborate further on their proposal.

The calculation of the total score for the full proposal will include the score obtained for ‘Relevance of the project’ at the pre-proposal stage. Only full proposals having reached at least the threshold of 60 points of the total score (i.e. score on the award criterion ‘Relevance of the project’ assessed in the first stage plus scores on the other three award criteria assessed in the second stage) will be considered for EU funding. Applicants falling below this threshold shall be rejected.

6.   Submission Procedure and Deadlines

The submission deadline is:

—	Pre-proposals: 21 April 2020 – 17.00 (Brussels time)

—	Full proposals: 24 September 2020 – 17.00 (Brussels time)

Applicants are requested to read carefully all information about the call for proposals EACEA/38/2019 and the submission procedure and to use the obligatory documents, which can be found under:

https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/funding_en — Call reference EACEA/38/2019

The application and its annexes must be submitted online using the designated e-form.

7.   Call information

All information on the Call EACEA/38/2019 is available from the following website:

https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/funding_en — Call reference EACEA/38/2019

Email contact: EACEA-Policy-Support@ec.europa.eu