• undergraduate or graduate courses taken at UC San Diego that include a credit-bearing, global field or travel component;
• taught and led by UC San Diego ladder ranked faculty (or LSOE);
• seven to ten day global experiences taught prior to the quarter when a course with complimentary content is taught;
• an additional cost to the course, and require student enrollment in a specific section of the course;
• not mandatory for all students enrolled in the course.

What is the Erasmus+ Program?

Erasmus+ is a European Union program to support education, training, youth and sport. Funding is available for the mobility or exchange of students, staff and faculty between EU institutions and non-EU institutions for teaching, training, research and educational opportunities.  In the current grant cycle (2021-2027), the program places a strong focus on social inclusion, the green and digital transformations, and promoting youth participation in democratic life.

There are two streams, or “Key Actions,” that will fund mobilities to and from Europe:

1. Key Action 171 (KA171)- This stream provides reciprocal mobility opportunities for students, faculty and staff for education, teaching or training. An Inter-Institutional Agreement is required and will be provided by the EU institution. These are more competitive for the U.S. than the KA131 described below, but UC San Diego and its partner universities have been successful in receiving multiple KA171 awards.
2. Key Action 131 (KA131)- This stream is not reciprocal, and only funds faculty and staff from an EU university to go abroad for a short-term training experience. An institutional agreement is not required for this stream, and higher education administrators can use it to go to any university in the U.S. regardless of whether it is a partner university.

NB! EU universities use the same application for both streams. Therefore, it is important to determine early whether the EU university is intending to apply for KA171 (reciprocal mobility) or KA131 (only inbound mobility).

How Much Is the Erasmus+ Funding?

For week-long visits, the funding is typically 1,300-2,000 USD for airfare, accommodation and meals and incidentals. If the funding is used for a longer-term opportunity for a student, such as a study abroad experience, internship, or research stay, there is a monthly allowance of approximately 800 USD.

What is the Application Cycle?

EU universities compile their applications for Erasmus+ call for applications during the Fall to submit for funding in February. EU universities typically receive an application decision in June or July for the upcoming academic year. For KA171, the EU university typically uses the same Inter-Institutional Agreement for each application cycle but can make edits if the collaborative activity changes. Additionally, if an EU university is awarded funding, they can be flexible in altering the mobility types to accommodate the current activities (i.e. swapping a teaching mobility for a training mobility, changing student mobility funding into staff mobility funding, etc.)

What Are Some Practical Use Cases for the Erasmus+ Funding?

• Guest lecturing
• Organizing or attending a conference, workshop or symposia
• Conducting in-person collaborative research
• Meeting key stakeholders and new or prospective collaborators
• Exchanging best practices for education and research
• Cross-training on techniques or protocols relevant to a field of research
• Offering research experiences for students at all levels
• Financing part of a student’s study abroad experience*
• Job shadowing and training for professional development

*If the funding is used to support a study abroad (academic exchange) in which the student is enrolling in courses abroad, then there must be an established student exchange agreement in place between UC San Diego and the EU university; UC San Diego does not accept “free mover” students.

What are the delineated responsibilities among the stakeholders?

EU institutions are responsible for most of the administrative workload involved in applying to Erasmus+ funding. However, if a faculty member is requested to enter into an Erasmus+ Inter-Institutional Agreement, then Global Initiatives will work with the faculty member, the department, and the European partner to execute any required mobility and learning agreements as part of the application cycle or for any mobility.

Any Erasmus+ funding agreement must be either initiated or fully supported by faculty member at UC San Diego. If you are an EU institution, you may request that Global Initiatives socialize the opportunity to faculty. However, unless it has full endorsement from the faculty, it will not be considered.

If the application is successful and there is funding for student, faculty, and staff mobility, then the UC San Diego faculty member, their lab, or their departmental administrators are fully responsible for sending or hosting visitors. Global Initiatives can provide advice and guidance, but cannot curate a full agenda for any Erasmus+ grantee funded under either the KA171 or KA131 schemes. However, if the visitor would like to organize one or two meetings outside of the host for matters unrelated to the focused activity of the award, then Global Initiatives will support them in reaching out to other areas of campus to do so if given advanced notice.  

Contact Max Reinke if you are interested in pursuing an Erasmus+ agreement with a European partner.