Erasmus+ Scholarship

Støtter

Type of action: ERASMUS-LS ERASMUS Lump Sum Grants Type of MGA: ERASMUS Lump Sum Grant [ERASMUS-AG-LS] Opening date: 03 March 2026 Deadline date: 28 May 2026 17:00:00 Brussels time Topic description Expected Impact: Promote European top talents, with focus on those from a disadvantaged socio-economic background, by facilitating access to innovative, multidisciplinary and compelling European higher education or tertiary VET study programmes equipping them for successful careers and tapping into their innovative potential for bolstering strategic sectors crucial for Europe’s competitiveness ; Support the development of compelling and innovative study programmes targeting the needs of the strategic sectors and advancing the Choose Europe objectives. Foster synergies with other higher education initiatives, such as the European Universities Initiative, the joint European degree label and the European degree in engineering. Reduce labour and skills gaps in strategic sectors, thereby increasing Europe’s competitiveness in alignment with the Union of Skills strategy. Contribute to the higher education targets of the STEM Education Strategic Plan. Contribute to the learning mobility targets defined in the ‘Europe on the move’ Council Recommendation. Increase cooperation with industry and key stakeholders operating in strategic sectors Expected Outcome: Enhance the visibility and attractiveness of high-quality higher education programmes in strategic educational fields for talented students. Improve inclusion and diversity in strategic educational fields where certain groups remain underrepresented. Generate evidence to inform the design of a future Erasmus+ scholarship scheme in strategic educational fields under the Erasmus+ programme 2028–2034. Objective: The general objectives are: Retain Europe’s top talent to study strategic fields in European higher education and tertiary VET institutions in particular with strong EU dimension such as provided through joint study programmes Increase access of talented students from disadvantaged backgrounds to high-quality STEM programmes and pursue meaningful careers in strategic sectors for Europe’s competitiveness. Reduce skills-gaps in Europe in priority STEM areas aligned with EU strategic sectors, ensuring that scholarship recipients specialise in identified high-demand fields. Strengthen employability outcomes by facilitating traineeships, mentorships, or industry placements for scholarship recipients before graduation. Increase EU dimension of study programmes through support for mobility and collaboration by providing study or exchange opportunities abroad for scholarship recipients. The specific objectives are: Evaluate the pilot’s outcomes and processes by identifying success factors, barriers, and the added value of the integrated mobility and traineeship components. Produce policy-relevant conclusions and actionable recommendations to inform the potential scaling up of a European-level Erasmus+ scholarship scheme in strategic educational areas. Erasmus+ scholarships awarded under this call will support talented students to complete their studies in programmes accredited according to European Qualifications Framework (EQF) Levels 5 (short cycle), 6 (first cycle), and 7 (second cycle), for a maximum duration of three academic years. Consortia are encouraged to test the scholarship scheme at all three levels. Scope: The Erasmus+ scholarship initiative seeks therefore to design, pilot, and evaluate a scholarship scheme that promotes excellence and supports talented students in key strategic fields, helping to meet the growing demand for highly skilled professionals. The scheme will focus on students with fewer opportunities. It will also generate evidence on the most effective approaches for implementing the scheme and assess its potential for broader scale-up. Through the funding of scholarships, this call aims at retaining talented European students to study in Europe by facilitating their access to study programmes of high quality and to joint study programmes with embedded mobility and best prepare graduates to adapt to a fast-evolving society. It will contribute to developing a pool of future highly skilled professionals in strategic educational fields identified in the Union of Skills, competitiveness Compass and the STEM Education Strategic Plan such as clean and circular technologies, bioeconomy, transport, digital technologies—including Artificial Intelligence—energy, water resilience, healthcare, aerospace, and defence. Within these strategic domains, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programmes are recognised as essential study fields to increase EU’s competitiveness and innovation goals. While scholarships should be awarded to academically excellent students based on merit, inclusion and diversity aspects will be an important asset to ensure the selection of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and equitable gender representation. Topic conditions and documents Conditions 1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout described in the call document. Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. 2. Eligible Countries described in the call document. 3. Other Eligible Conditions described in the call document. 4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion described in the call document. 5a. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes described in the call document. 5b. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds Evaluation criteria, scoring, threshold and process are described in the call document. 5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement described in the call document. Publication of the call: March, 3 2026. Deadline for submitting applications: May, 28 2026 17:00 (Brussels time). Evaluation period: End of May - End of July 2026. Information to applicants: November 2026. Signature of grant agreement: February 2026. 6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants described in the call document. Budget overview Topic Budget year : 2026 Stages Opening date Deadline Contributions Indicative number of grants ERASMUS-EDU-2026-POL-EXP-SSEF - ERASMUS-LS ERASMUS Lump Sum Grants €5,000,000.00 Single-stage 3 March 2026 28 May 2026 Start submission To access the Electronic Submission Service, please click on the submission-button next to the type of action and the type of model grant agreement that corresponds to your proposal. You will then be asked to confirm your choice, as it cannot be changed in the submission system. Upon confirmation, you will be linked to the correct entry point. To access existing draft proposals for this topic, please login to the Funding & Tenders Portal and select the My Proposals page of the My Area section. Please select the type of your submission: ERASMUS Lump Sum Grants [ERASMUS-LS], ERASMUS Lump Sum Grant [ERASMUS-AG-LS] Topic Q&As What is the amount to be awarded per project? The maximum EU grant amount per project is €1,250,000.  In principle, it is expected that 90% of the grant (€1,125,000) will be directly used for scholarships and up to 10% of t... Does this call fund PhD studies? No, this call only supports programmes at EQF Levels 5-7 (short cycle, bachelor’s, and master’s). Doctoral studies (EQF Level 8) are not covered.   What does the Erasmus+ scholarships call fund? The call funds scholarships covering the full duration of study, including mobility, for a maximum duration of three academic years. Scholarships should supp... What’s the exact target group of this call, and how is “top talent” defined? Consortiamust define in their proposal what constitutes “top talent”. This includes setting clear academic excellence and merit criteria – including how these will be measured; estab... Which students are eligible for the scholarships? Scholarship holders must be legally resident in EU Member States, EEA countries or countries associated to the Erasmus+ Programme at the time of scholarship application and throughou... Can students in their second or third year of study in the relevant programme receive this scholarship? Yes.Scholarship holders can be either students currently enrolled OR students who are eligible for OR have secured admission to such programmes. Therefore, scholarships can be given ... Which study programmes can be included under this call? Thecall addresses programmes in strategic educational fields identified in the Union of Skills, Competitiveness Compass and the STEM Education Strategic Plan such as clean and circul... Can students receive scholarships for programmes that do not lead to a degree? No.Scholarships are only for accredited programmes (EQF Levels 5–7) that result in a formal qualification (i.e., short-cycle degrees, bachelor’s or master’s). Must programmes be accredited by the time of application, or can accreditation be pending? Programmesmust be fully accredited by the application deadline. Exceptions may apply for programmes in the final stages of accreditation, but applicants must provide official proof o... Does the call expect the development of new programmes, or can existing programmes be included? Thecall does not expect the development of new programmes. Applicants must provide evidence that their programmes are of excellent academic quality. Can only joint programmes be included in proposals under this call? Whilejoint programmes are strongly encouraged, other programmes can be included in the proposals, provided that they include embedded mobility, demonstrate strong European added valu... Must institutions offering joint programmes issue only joint degrees? No,for the purpose of this call, it is not required that a joint programme leads to a joint degree. Joint programmes included in the proposal may lead to double, multi