Topic 2: Vocational Education and Training: Promote an enabling and supportive environment for vocational excellence at national and/or regional level

It is not an eligibility requirement to include public authorities in each participating country in the project consortium. However, their participation and/or involvement in other ways are seen as relevant for the objectives of the call, e.g. to mainstream successful CoVE projects at national level.

In this context “public authority” is defined as public bodies with the mandate, responsibility, and power to define and adopt systemic policy reforms at their level - being local, regional or national.

This is not a requirement. The forward-looking projects can define how to address the purpose and expected impact of the call on promoting an enabling and supportive environment for vocational excellence at national and/or regional level, as far as they are in accordance with the scope and specific activities of the call.

Organisations from Belarus and the Russian Federation are not eligible to participate in this action (see further information about entities subject to EU restrictive measures in the Call document under Chapter 6 Eligibility)

Yes, NGOs are in general eligible under this Call.

Yes, staff costs are eligible.

No, international organizations such as UN are not eligible. The rules on eligible countries do not apply to them.

Coordinating institutions may submit more than one proposal for different projects under the same call (and be awarded a funding for them). Organisations may participate in several proposals.

Subcontracting should normally constitute a limited part of the grant and must be performed by third parties (not by one of the beneficiaries/affiliated entities). Subcontracting going beyond 30% of the total eligible cost must be justified in the application. The general rule is that the coordination task cannot be subcontracted.

Yes, costs for a separate project website are eligible.

Once the application budget has been evaluated and approved by the Agency, the grant will be fixed to 80% of the approved budget (limited to a maximum amount of 1.000.000 EUR). The other 20% is the co-funding. It is up to each beneficiary to decide how to find the co-financing needed. During the lifetime of the project, if each work package has been fully implemented with the planned qualitative deliverables, the Lump Sum amount of the work package is paid. You don’t have to justify the co-financing nor provide any proof.

Proposals are limited to maximum 70 pages (Part B). Evaluators will not consider any additional pages.

Only Detailed budget table/calculator is a mandatory annex. You cannot attach any other documents.

The European Training Foundation’s (ETF) mission is to help transition and developing countries harness the potential of their human capital through the reform of education, training, and labour market systems, in the context of EU external relations policies.

Cooperation with the ETF in the context of the Call refers to taking advantage of the tools and resources developed by the ETF as part of the EU funded ‘Internationalising Vocational Excellence’ project:

the International Self-Assessment Tool for Centres of Vocational Excellence (ISATCOVE)

the Vocational excellence e-library

the Knowledge packages

the Cookbook on Vocational Excellence

and the studies on the role of CoVEs in the greenPDF and digitalPDF transition and applied research

Projects could engage with the ETF network on Excellence (ENE) to find partners and share experiences.

Cedefop is the European Centre for the development of vocational training. Cedefop supports the promotion, development and implementation of the Union policy in the field of vocational education and training (VET) as well as skills and qualifications policies by working together with the Commission, Member States and social partners.

Cooperation with Cedefop in the context of the call refers to taking advantage of the tools and resources developed by Cedefop as part of

• the ongoing study VET excellence and inclusion for the 21st century | CEDEFOP and its virtual workshop in 2024 on the Future of VET: Excellence and inclusion at the crossroads
• the monitoring and analysis of EU priorities in VET and more specifically countries experiences from the Timeline of VET policies in Europe , a rich collection of national policies and initiatives in the EU Member States, Iceland and Norway. The information covers several priorities in VET and in particular: promoting centres of vocational excellence; expanding VET programmes to EQF levels 5-8; modernising VET infrastructure.
• the online tools and resources developed on several topics relevant to this call for proposals
• the work on analysing skills policies and practices in EU Member States to understand how information on labour market trends and skill needs can be used to inform and shape upskilling and other skills matching policies
• the work on supporting participation of adults in lifelong learning and related VET support policies so that adults can develop, update and upgrade their skills

There are references to the policy initiatives and agenda of the EU in the background of the Call. The specific topic 2 refers to the Skills Agenda and the Council Recommendation on VET and focuses in particular on vocational excellence for reform in the VET sector. The topic also refers to linking to national and regional policy priorities that are relevant for the participating countries.