Out of more than 50 applications submitted in the first 4EU+ call for educational projects, 31 projects have been approved for funding. The projects’ implementation will be an important step towards building a joint education framework of the Alliance.
The call was aimed at projects bringing together academics, doctoral candidates and students from at least three 4EU+ member universities and related to the theme of one of the 4EU+ Flagships.
The projects were expected to meet a set of essential criteria:
to apply innovative and future-oriented teaching and learning methods,
to be both student-centred and research-based, empowering students and encouraging them to take active part in the process of acquiring new knowledge,
to be challenge-based, addressing key challenges and problems that Europe and the wider world are facing, also in an interdisciplinary, intercultural and collaborative way,
to be competence-oriented, fostering the development of a set of defined competencies that each 4EU+ student should be able to acquire before graduation.
The first 4EU+ call for educational project proposals closed on 1 July 2020 with over 50 applications submitted. Over the course of summer, the submitted project proposals underwent an eligibility check by the local 4EU+ offices and a two-step evaluation carried out by the representatives of the relevant Flagship Programme Committee and educational experts from 4EU+ member universities.
The final list of projects selected for funding was approved by the 4EU+ Management Committee in its session on 31 August 2020. It includes 31 projects, among them:
8 projects belonging to Flagship 1: Health and demographic change in an urban environment,
11 projects belonging to Flagship 2: Europe in a changing world: Understanding and engaging societies, economies, cultures and languages,
6 projects belonging to Flagship 3: Transforming science and society by advancing information, computation and communication,
6 projects belonging to Flagship 4: Biodiversity and sustainable development.
The educational activities to be carried out by the successful project teams vary in scope, format and length, although all of them are due to deliver results by autumn 2022. They encompass summer and winter schools, micro-degree programmes, online, blended and traditional courses, as well as the development of joint study programmes.
The project teams that were not successful in the first call can revise and resubmit their proposals in the second call, to be announced soon.