General objective
This call aims to promote inter-institutional activities within the framework of EELISA Communities. These activities may adopt a variety of formats and should be interdisciplinary, while focusing on transforming higher education by using innovative teaching methods to solve complex societal problems related to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
EELISA Communities, activities and credentials
EELISA Communities are mission-driven, multi-stakeholder (students, teachers, researchers, companies, NGOs, start-ups, and public authorities), interdisciplinary, and international working groups, with members from at least three different EELISA partners, from at least two different member states. As in the 4th Joint Call, we also warmly welcome participation from our associate partner Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (KNU).*
To fulfil their mission, EELISA Communities carry out diverse types of activities. Participation of different learners in EELISA Community activities is recognised through EELISA Credentials, the academic evidence of the knowledge and skills acquired, and the impact achieved on society in line with SDGs. https://community.eelisa.eu/get-started/
For 5th Joint Call, EELISA Communities are called upon to organize activities using innovative teaching methods such as Challenge Based Learning (CBL)[1]. This will help to boost transnational mobility (physical, virtual, blended or hybrid formats), as well as foster inter-disciplinarity, inter-culturalism and inter-institutional cooperation.
Evaluation criteria
This 5th Joint Call targets bottom-up proposals for activities arising from collaborations forged within or between EELISA Communities and in line with the EELISA goals and the SDGs. Proposals will be evaluated by representatives of the work group responsible for the call based on the following the three categories of criteria that follow. In the proposal template, Section 4 (Activity description) will have a maximum length of 5 pages. Exceeding that page limit will be penalized with a reduction in points.
Excellence and impact (up to 40 points):
Relevance and novelty of the activity or activities, within an academic (max 15 points) and social context (max 15 points). Activities should be interdisciplinary and tied with the mission of the Community or Communities involved and aim to have a significant impact on society related to the UN’s SDGs (max 10 points).
Learning ecosystem (up to 40 points):
Innovative teaching methods are used to carry out the activity or activities (max 15 points), with particular emphasis on CBL[2]. A suitable challenge is socially, economically, technically or environmentally relevant at a local, regional or global scale for which solutions are elusive, inadequate or non-existent. It should be an exciting challenge that motivates EELISA Community members and external stakeholders. Challenges can (but do not have to be) embedded in the context of seminars, lectures, summer/seasonal schools and graduate or undergraduate courses, and should also have clear evaluation criteria. In any case, activities must be hybrid or online (not only with an “in presence” option), to increase participation throughout the Alliance and help decrease as much as possible the ecological footprint of each activity. Also, the participation of educators (organizers), learners (participants), collaborators (in many cases, the challenge providers) should be balanced, with the aim of considering all EELISA partners and external stakeholders (max 10 points).
Applicants should provide guidelines regarding the acceptance criteria for participants, as this will be required for reporting purposes should the proposal be accepted. Once accepted and after participating in the activity, participants should be issued an EELISA credential (citing the SDG(s) involved and the impact levels corresponding to the progression of knowledge), which will also be required for reporting, including an assessment of the workload based on ECTS (max 15 points). For more information on EELISA credentials and their impact levels, see https://community.eelisa.eu/eelisa-credentials/
Implementation (up to 20 points):
Provide a clear execution plan for the activity or activities as well as a budget (10 points), it being clear that all participation costs are covered by the budget. Each activity should be clearly defined and follow the preparation and reporting scheme defined by EELISA, including a final report (link to be included). Please mention whether your activity can be reiterated and refer to its sustainability in the mid- to long-term, both in terms of the partnerships and budget as well as in terms of tangible outputs that will help to strengthen the Alliance (10 points). Note that, for this call, activities will have to take place after June 1st, 2025, not before that date, to enable time to announce the activity and inform potential students.
Dimensions of financial support
The total budget for this 5th Joint Call is €140,000. The maximum funding per activity is €15,000. Proposals with a budget exceeding this limit will be rejected. The total cost of participant mobilities should be covered by the budget of the activity (€15,000), except if proposers can confirm supplementary funding from other sources, which should be clearly indicated in the Implementation section of the proposal to verify that there is no double funding.
Funding for activities can be allocated into two overall areas:
- Organisational costs, which include four concepts: travel and accommodation for organisers, travel and accommodation for invited speakers, personnel costs for organisers, and other costs (catering, reserving spaces, communication and dissemination).
- Participation costs, which include travel and accommodation for people who will attend the event, but do not participate in the organization (i.e., learners). These funds are to be exclusively used for EELISA students (i.e., students enrolled in one of the partner universities of the EELISA Alliance). Student participation from other Universities (external to the EELISA Alliance) is allowed but conditions should apply, for example, they may be charged a fee, depending on the activity adn their type of participatino (in presence/virtual). As the origin (EELISA partners) and the final number of participants is not always known in advance by the activity organizers when submitting a proposal, the EELISA Community should provide an overall estimation, or participation limits, to help calculate the proposed budget, separating between in presence and virtual participants.
[1] SUMMARY of CHALLENGE BASED LEARNING (from Nichols et al 2016) – Google Drawings
*As EELISA associated partner. KNU is not eligible to organize an EELISA Joint Call but can be a co-organizer. Given that Ukraine cannot yet fully participate in the actions of the Erasmus+ programme, unfortunately organizational costs incurred in Ukraine or participation costs of Ukrainian members are not eligible under this call, but proponents are encouraged to present proposals of educational activities involving colleagues or students affiliated with KNU through digital means or making use of alternative funding mechanisms to cover physical mobilities. To reach out to members of the KNU academic community working on the aforementioned challenges, interested applicants are welcome to contact Liudmyla Zagoruiko (liudmyla_zagoruiko@knu.ua), Leading Specialist of KNU’s Office for International Relations.
Application process and template
Please design your proposal using this template and send it in Word format to communities@eelisa.eu by 15 March 2025 23:59 CET.
Guidelines for Activity Organizers.
Important dates
Call publication: 03 February 2025
Information session with Q&A: February 14th, 2025, at 10:00 CET (Register here)
Submission deadline: 15 March 2025
Announcement of results: The leaders of winning proposals will be contacted by email before March 31st, 2025. The final results of the call will be publicly announced the week thereafter. Period during which the activities can be carried out: within 1 year of call publication (before February 3rd, 2026).
Earliest initiation of activity proposals: two months after the resolution of the call (01 June 2025).
Submission of final report (template Part A + Part B): within 6 weeks after the conclusion of each activity.
Communication Guidelines
All activities funded by this call will be subject to a series of communication guidelines. These guidelines, provided at the time of funding acceptance, will detail instructions on how to consistently incorporate the EELISA branding, the EELISA European University logo and give visibility to the EU funding into all communication and dissemination materials.