Joint Calls are a way of providing competitive financial support to EELISA Communities through EELISA activities that lead to EELISA Credentials. The specific characteristics of EELISA Communities can be found on the EELISA website (https://eelisa.eu), but in the wider context of higher education institutions, they can be compared to Interdisciplinary Organizations or IDOs (sensu Yang et al., 2021), cross-disciplinary and multi-actor academic research teams addressing complex challenges in conjunction with the Triple Helix (industry, government, and civil society). EELISA Communities, however, can be regarded as a novel concept being less related directly to research, and more to innovative teaching methods, linking research, innovation and challenge-based learning. Joint Calls have been used to promote this linkage, emphasising the important role of education and training.
Joint Calls help EELISA Communities tackle their missions, make their work more visible to a wider audience and help to make them more sustainable in the long run to find a niche locally (within their own institutions) and on an international level, helping to build the EELISA European University.
The two previous Joint Calls within the framework of EELISA 1.0 have helped create an ecosystem of 50 Communities, running activities that are to different extents interdisciplinary, interstitial, international and intercultural, despite being nested within the strong framing of their monodisciplinary institutions. Joint Calls are required precisely to support local, bottom-up initiatives that implement interdisciplinarity at the academic level, with less of a specific emphasis on research per se.
The budget allocated to Joint Calls in EELISA 2.0 is EUR 800,000 (Erasmus+) plus EUR 110,000 (ZHAW contribution from national-level funding). In accordance with the Grant Agreement, calls for proposals will be published on a semi-annual basis. Publishing two calls per year from April 2024 until the end of the funding period represents a total of seven Joint Calls and ca. EUR 115,000 per call plus EUR 15,000 per call for the participation of ZHAW members.
Indicative timeline and budget for phase 2
| Call | Opening | Deadline | Acceptance | Estimated funding available |
| 3rd call | 30 Apr 2024 | 15 Jun 2024 | 30 Jun 2024 | 130,000€ |
| 4th call | 1 Sept 2024 | 15 Oct 2024 | 31 Oct 2024 | 130,000€ |
| 5th call | 1 Febr 2025 | 15 Mar 2025 | 31 Mar 2025 | 130,000€ |
| 6th call | 1 Sept 2025 | 15 Oct 2025 | 31 Oct 2025 | 130,000€ |
| 7th call | 1 Febr 2026 | 15 Mar 2026 | 31 Mar 2026 | 130,000€ |
| 8th call | 1 Sept 2026 | 15 Oct 2026 | 31 Oct 2026 | 130,000€ |
| 9th call | 1 Febr 2027 | 15 Mar 2027 | 31 Mar 2027 | 130,000€ |
| Total | 910,000€ | |||
This is the main funding mechanism for communities. The budget is known, and the timetable is set well in advance so that communities can easily take up the scheme. However, the funding, limited to 10,000 euros, is mainly used to finance organisational costs and some staff costs, but it is not the solution to all the communities’ needs, particularly student mobility. Other resources therefore need to be mobilised.
Below are links to the previous joint calls and to their results for your reference.
4th Joint Call | Results
Last update: October 7th, 2024