Two minute Tuesday #3 - Priorities and topics
The first section of the Erasmus+ application form for a strategic partnership project in the field of education, training and youth, is dedicated to the description of the priorities and topics related to your project.
The European Commission sets the Erasmus+ Programme priorities according to the lines of action defined in the Work Programme. Priorities are defined and described in the section “What are the aims and priorities of the Strategic Partnership” of the Programme Guide and can slightly vary from year to year.
What you need to know
– There are two types of priorities: horizontal (general priorities relevant for all the fields) and specific priorities relevant to the different fields (education, training and youth).
– Every year the European Commission selects one or more priorities considered as highly relevant to the action as it is addressing a particularly important and urgent European issue.
– Among the priorities, National Agencies may give more consideration to those that are particularly relevant in their national context (“European priorities in the national context”)..
– To be funded, Strategic Partnerships must address either a) at least one horizontal priority or b) at least one specific priority relevant to the field of education, training and youth
What you must do
– check the Erasmus+ priorities every year. You can find the priorities in the section “What are the aims and priorities of the Strategic Partnership” of the Programme Guide.
At the moment there is no news about the priorities for the next Erasmus+ Programme 2021-2027. Rumors, confirmed by some national Agencies, are saying that they will be related to three main topics: digital transition, green transition and inclusion.
– Check the most relevant ones for the European Commission and your National Agency.
National Agencies must duly inform potential applicants through their official websites or through Infodays. If it is not your case, we suggest you contact your National Agency asking for information about it.
Field 1: The section starts with the selection of the most relevant horizontal or sectoral priority according to the objectives of your project
Usually this is a drop-down menu through which you must select what is the most relevant priority for you. It can be horizontal or field specific.
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Field 2: The application form follows asking for up to two additional priorities according to the objectives of your project
Remember: it is much better to include only one priority, that really fits your project idea, than more priorities with no well founded connections. In the first case your proposal will have the requirements for being evaluated, in the second case it will be rejected, or at least the evaluator will start thinking your proposal is not so focused on the problem you want to solve.
Focus on the priority which really fits with your project idea and discard those not perfectly related to your project. A common mistake is trying to add priorities at any cost. This is definitely a bad choice
Field 3: Please comment on your choice of priorities
This is a very important field. You must describe to the evaluator why your project addresses the priorities selected. The evaluator cannot be so expert on the project topic and should have all the information needed for assessing if your project can impact on the selected priorities.
If the project addresses a horizontal priority, it must clearly prove the impact in the field under which the application is presented.
If the proposal addresses one or more “European Priorities in the national context”, as announced by the National Agency, it will be considered as highly relevant to the action as it is addressing a European issue of particular importance in the national context.
If the proposal does not provide convincing evidence that is relevant to at least one priority, the proposal must be scored as “Weak” (score between 0-9 points) for the award criterion “Relevance of the project” as a whole, and rejected as a consequence.
Field 4: Select up to three topics addressed by your project
This is a drop down menu through which you have to select up to 3 topics related to your project. This will help the evaluator in understanding your project idea and the topics addressed.
A good practice is to validate your project idea based on the Erasmus+ Priorities just at the beginning of the idea development process, so to be sure your project addresses the issues selected by the European Commission.
Filling in this section shouldn’t be difficult if you have a clear project idea behind, but you have to provide evidence as clearly as possible in order to help the evaluator and valorise your project.