Erasmus+

Erasmus+ is the European Union's flagship funding programme for education, training, youth and sport. Running in seven-year cycles (the current cycle covers 2021–2027), it has a budget of over €26 billion and reaches all 27 EU member states plus a wide network of associated and partner countries.

## What Erasmus+ is

Erasmus+ is the successor to the original Erasmus university exchange programme launched in 1987, which was named after the 15th–16th century humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam. Since 2014 it has been consolidated under the single brand Erasmus+, expanding beyond higher education to cover school education, vocational education and training (VET), adult education, youth work and grassroots sport. Over its history the programme has supported the mobility of more than 13 million people and is one of the most recognisable EU-funded initiatives in Europe.

The programme is managed by the European Commission (DG EAC) and executed through a network of National Agencies — one per participating country — that receive applications, award grants and monitor projects locally. In addition to the 27 EU member states, Erasmus+ is fully open to Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye, with partial access for many partner countries worldwide.

## Structure: the three Key Actions

Erasmus+ is organised around three Key Actions plus a set of horizontal (Jean Monnet) activities:

Key Action 1 — Learning Mobility of Individuals. Funds staff and learners to spend time abroad. For schools this is the main entry point: teachers, school leaders and support staff travel to another participating country for a structured course (typically 5–10 days), job shadowing, or a teaching assignment. Grants cover travel, accommodation, course fees and a daily allowance calculated by country and distance band.

Key Action 2 — Cooperation among Organisations and Institutions. Funds multi-year partnerships between schools, universities, NGOs and companies. This includes Small-scale Partnerships (lightweight, first-time applicants) and Cooperation Partnerships (larger, more strategic projects). Consortia typically develop shared curricula, digital resources or new teaching methods.

Key Action 3 — Support to Policy Development and Cooperation. Funds work with policy-makers, national authorities and pan-European networks. Individual schools rarely apply here directly, but the frameworks it produces (competence frameworks, quality standards) shape what KA1 and KA2 fund.

## Accreditation and application routes

There are two practical routes for a school:

Short-term projects — a one-off application (usually 6–18 months) sending a small group of staff abroad. Best for schools testing international mobility for the first time.

Erasmus+ Accreditation — a longer-term status (valid until 2027) that gives the school a stable annual budget for mobility without re-applying each year. Accreditation is granted on the basis of an Erasmus Plan describing the school's development goals, target competences and how mobility will feed back into teaching practice.

Applications go to the National Agency of the school's own country (for example DAAD/PAD in Germany, INDIRE in Italy, SEPIE in Spain, FRSE in Poland, Erasmus+ UK Turing successor arrangements in the UK, etc.). Calls typically open once a year, in autumn or early spring.

## Why Erasmus+ matters for Inner Education

Inner Education topics — teacher wellbeing, emotional intelligence, neuroeducation, mindfulness, embodiment, SEL — sit awkwardly in most national CPD budgets: they are seen as important but not always fundable. Erasmus+ closes that gap. Because the grant is EU-funded rather than school- or ministry-funded, it lets public schools with no discretionary budget send teachers to high-quality international training that would otherwise be out of reach.

In practice, this is one of the main mechanisms by which classroom-level Inner Education practice spreads across Europe. Accredited providers such as Teacher Academy Europe, Europass Teacher Academy, ITC International and dozens of smaller trainers offer week-long Erasmus+-eligible courses on emotional intelligence, trauma-informed teaching, restorative practice, neuroscience for educators and mindfulness in the classroom. Teachers from a dozen different countries meet in the same room, take the practice home, and — when the school leadership supports it — turn it into a whole-school programme.

## Typical grant components

For KA1 school mobility, a grant usually bundles: travel (flat rate by distance band), individual support (daily allowance for accommodation and living costs), course fees (up to €80 per day, capped at 10 days), organisational support (a per-participant amount for the sending school), and top-ups for inclusion, green travel and participants with fewer opportunities.

## From mobility to whole-school change

A common failure mode is sending one teacher abroad and expecting the school to change. It usually does not. Effective Inner Education uptake through Erasmus+ follows a rhythm: a small cohort attends together, they return with a shared vocabulary, the leadership team commits to a term-long pilot, and the practice is documented in the school's Erasmus Plan for the next cycle. See working with schools, certification pathways and measuring impact for how these programmes translate into on-the-ground implementation, and being a good facilitator for the trainer side of the equation.

## Sources

Official programme site: the European Commission's Erasmus+ portal at erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu. The annual Erasmus+ Programme Guide is the authoritative document for eligibility, funding rates and deadlines.