CALL FOR PROPOSALS — EACEA/37/10

EU-Canada Programme for Co-operation in Higher Education, Training and Youth

Transatlantic Exchange Partnerships — Transatlantic Degree Partnerships

2010/C 323/08

1.   Objectives and Description

The general objectives of the programme and of this Call are to promote mutual understanding between the peoples of the European Union and Canada including broader knowledge of their languages, cultures and institutions and to improve the quality of human resources in the European Union and Canada.

2.   Eligible applicants

Submission of grant requests under this call is open to higher education institutions and vocational education and training institutions. Eligible applicants must be established in one of the 27 Member States of the European Union.

Each project must have one lead institution in the EU and one lead institution in Canada, responsible for submitting the common proposal and for the management of the project. These lead institutions must be higher education or training institutions.

The consortium must be composed of at least four institutions in total — i.e. two from the EU and two from Canada. These institutions may be either higher education or training institutions, as defined above, or a mixture of both, depending on the project.

There is also a requirement that the institutions have to be from two different Member States of the EU and two different Canadian provinces/territories.

3.   Eligible actions

There are two types of actions under this call, namely Transatlantic Exchange Partnerships and Transatlantic Degree Partnerships programmes.

Activities for the Transatlantic Exchange Partnership (TEP) are planned to start 1 October 2011 and to end by 30 September 2014.

Activities for the Transatlantic Degree Partnership (TDP) are planned to start 1 October 2011 and to end by 30 September 2015.

4.   Award criteria

In assessing the overall quality of proposals, the following two award criteria will be applied:

4.1.   The relevance of the project

The relevance of the project criterion represents 30 % of the overall quality score.

4.2.   The quality of the project design and its management arrangements

The quality criterion represents 70 % of the overall quality score and the detailed award criteria are grouped into three groups, as follows: the project innovation and methodology (25 %), the project consortium (25 %) and the Mobility (20 %).

Details concerning the award criteria are available in the Programme Guide under section 7.

In making the final selection, overall attention will be paid to supporting a diverse range of institutions, subject areas and geographic areas within the EU and Canada. Applications for Transatlantic Degree Partnerships are strongly encouraged.

5.   Budget

The EU budget available for the co-financing of projects is estimated to be EUR 1 546 000. It is anticipated that approximately 2 Transatlantic Degree Partnership (TDP) projects and 5 Transatlantic Exchange Partnership (TEP) projects will be funded in 2011. Out of the five TEP projects two are foreseen to be with vocational training focus, if these represent sufficient quality. The maximum amount of funding on the EU side will be EUR 428 000 for a 4-year TDP project and EUR 138 000 for a 3-year TEP project.

6.   Deadline

Applications have to be submitted both to the EU and to Canada. The Applications on behalf of the EU Lead institution must be sent to the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency no later than 31 March 2011. Applications bearing a postmark after this date will not be considered.

Applications must be sent to the following address:

Applications on behalf of the EU lead institution must be submitted on the correct form, duly completed, signed by the person authorised to enter into legally binding commitments on behalf of the applicant organization and dated.

The Canadian applicant should send the application to the following address in Canada:

7.   Further information

The programme guide and the application forms are available on the following website: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/extcoop/canada/index_en.htm. Applications must be submitted using the form provided and they have to include all the annexes and information requested.