European Funding
European Funding opportunities
Various funding opportunities exist on a European level which can benefit University Sports departments. Take a look below to see if you, your project or program could qualify for European funding.
The Erasmus+ Programme
The general objective of the Programme is to support, through lifelong learning, the educational, professional and personal development of people in education, training, youth and sport, in Europe and beyond, thereby contributing to sustainable growth, quality jobs and social cohesion, to driving innovation, and to strengthening European identity and active citizenship.
The European Union recognises the importance of Sport & Physical Activity in the lives of European Citizens. The Erasmus + Funding Stream is available for organisations to apply for resources to support delivery of projects which are aligned with the European Union priorities. Many of these Erasmus + funding priorities are directly relevant to Universities, and the work of sports services and sport science departments.
Please follow the links below to explore the current Erasmus + Funding opportunities. Applications are normally considered on an annual basis. Information on the application process, deadlines, criteria and eligibility, is all available on the portal, but if you would like to discuss your ideas for your project, please do contact the ENAS Development Manager.
Erasmus + Staff Mobility
Erasmus+ supports training periods for staff working in higher education institutions including sports staff. Click to find out how you can benefit from Staff Training funding on the European Commission website.
European Project Funding
Find out what European Funding Opportunities exist to support your sports projects and how ENAS can support you in your application. Find out more on the European Funding website.
Become an Expert for Erasmus+ Sport Programs
There is a call for experts to assist the EACEA in the framework of the management of EU programmes in the field of education, audiovisual, culture, youth, sport, EU aid volunteers, and citizenship or any other similar programmes.
Duarte Nuno Lopes is one expert, and here is what he had to say:
“Being part of the evaluators team of central agency for ERASMUS+ Sport Programmes is an amazing experience!
As you probably know, each ERASMUS + Sport programmes candidature is evaluated by two different evaluators recruited by EACEA (Central Agency of European Commission). Each one give the score of the project and if the scoring is close to each other, one is chosen to consolidate the overall evaluation to be send to project leader. If not, EACEA can recruit a third evaluators and after his/her evaluation, same procedure will be taken from two closest score given. The group of evaluators is renewed every year (for each call) about 40% of different experts within the group.
The EACEA give support, of course. Before the process they send all information you need from the specific call you are evaluating. A few days before, they organise a briefing day (normally online) and during the process they nominate a colleague from EACEA to be your “supervisor,” helping you to be more specific, or other helpful tips to you.
I am evaluator, almost from the beginning (2014), and I can say it is time consuming. Some years I had to ask for a couple of days from my holidays to fulfill the schedule, but it depends of the mount of extra time you have after work (probably, like me… none). Each project can take you 2 hours or even more to fulfil all evaluation criteria and at the end of the day, after all your work done at office and at home, it can be demanding!
But, at the same time, you can have access a different ideas and methodologies. Some of them are related with your goals for your University Sport services. So, you can learn from what you are evaluating and sometimes, can add value to your own processes. From briefings and from EACEA support you also can learn the best way to fulfill all the criteria and procedures to have good projects.
It is my opinion that we have, at ENAS family, many colleagues that could be part of this EACEA group of evaluators. They are experts in several areas related with the European Commission priorities and they really can be an asset to the process.”