Apply for school partnership funding

Under Key Action 2, funding is available for School Exchange Partnerships and also Strategic Partnerships between other education and training organisations working in the field of school education. For 2018, around €24m is available to UK schools for this activity.

This part of Key Action 2 is managed in the UK by the British Council as part of the UK National Agency.

     How to apply     

What activities are possible?

Organisations and schools can choose to be the lead organisation or a partner in a project led by an organisation from another participating programme country. The lead organisation applies to the Erasmus+ National Agency in their country for funding on behalf of the project as a whole.

There are two types of school partnership projects, with two different application forms:

1. School Exchange Partnerships

Erasmus+ school-only partnerships have changed to School Exchange Partnerships for 2018. If your school wants to expand its international outlook, improve language learning through real life experience, visit eTwinning partners or start a new partnership with a European school, it’s now even easier to arrange exchanges of pupils and staff, through a streamlined application process. Here are some details:

• Eligible schools, plus colleges involved in secondary education, can send groups of pupils on short-term exchanges, accompanied by staff, lasting from three days to two months excluding travel days, instead of the minimum five day period offered before. For long-lasting partnerships and bigger life experiences, schools can also offer long-term exchanges of between two months and a year for pupils aged over 14.
• Schools can send staff on short-term joint training events of three days to two months, excluding travel days, and long-term teaching or training assignments of between two months and one year.
• Partnerships must involve a minimum of two and a maximum of six schools, from at least two programme countries.
• Funding is limited to €16,500 per school per year of the project.
• Projects will last between 12 and 24 months, except projects organising long-term exchanges of pupils, which may last up to three years.
• Projects should start between 1 September and 31 December 2018.

2. School Education Partnerships

These are projects across a minimum of three countries, supporting exchange of practices or supporting innovation and can cover partnerships between organisations working in the field of school education, such as universities, local authorities, charities, schools and schools co-ordination bodies. 

School Education Partnership activity can involve:

• testing and implementing innovative practices for pupils, staff and organisations;
• cross-sectoral co-operation between schools and other organisations leading to curriculum development, reinforcing basic skills, combating violence in schools, as some examples;
• local consortia between local/regional authorities and schools to improve the educational offer for young people;
• facilitating the recognition and certification of skills and competences;
• the encouragement of active citizenship and entrepreneurship;
• activities to promote the integration of refugees, asylum seekers and newly arrived migrants and raise awareness about the refugee crisis in Europe;
• the use of eTwinning for online collaboration between partners and/or students and for teacher, student teacher and teacher educator professional development; and 
• the use of the International School Award to plan and record the impact of your international work on curriculum teaching. Your school will then receive the foundation, intermediate or full accreditation level of the award.

More details:

• Strategic Partnership funding can be up to a maximum of €150,000 per year.
• There is no maximum number of partners, however, the budget for management costs is capped and equivalent to 10 partners.
• Projects can last from 1 to 3 years.
• Projects should start between 1 September and 31 December 2018.

If you have not applied for funding before, please visit our before you apply webpages for more information, and sign up to eTwinning and the European Commission's School Education Gateway portal.

Who can apply?

For School Exchange Partnerships, please check the list of eligible institutions on our eligible schools and authorities page.

Any UK organisation involved in school education can participate in a Strategic Partnership for school education, either as the lead or as a partner. One organisation must lead the project and make the application for funding. UK organisations leading a project must apply to the UK National Agency on behalf of the partnership.

If the applicant is successful in obtaining funding, you will be asked to complete a Child Protection checklist before you are issued with a grant agreement. Failure to comply with this checklist could mean that the offer of funding is withdrawn. The checklist will detail the legal and regulatory requirements that must be adhered to when working with children [those aged under 18] directly or when delivering work that has an impact on children. All requirements must be in place and the UK National Agency has the right to request a copy of all Child Protection documentation at any time.