Capacity building in Higher Education: Caribbean

An organisation of HEIs is a network of different HEIs (umbrella organisation gathering recognised HEIs), active in the field of higher education. It can be eligible to coordinate a CBHE project.

However, in line with the minimum CBHE consortium composition requirements, an organisation of HEIs is not considered as a HEI, unless it holds an ECHE itself.

Therefore, if an organisation of HEIs does not hold an ECHE, it cannot count as a HEI for the purpose of meeting the minimum consortium requirements. In this case, please ensure that the proposal includes the minimum number of HEIs in the consortium.

Yes, but they cannot claim unit costs under ‘A.4 SME Owners without salary’ of the ‘Detailed budget table (ERASMUS LSII)’.

Yes, there is a role for national authorities to play in Global Gateway-related Strand 3 proposals.

In all Strand 3 Structural Reform proposals, the national competent authority (e.g. ministry) responsible for higher education in the country must be involved as full project partner.

You may (as optional) also wish to include Ministries that lead on the Erasmus+ Global Gateway-related (country/regional) priority(ies) in the respective country(ies). This may be Transport, Telecommunications, Health, Energy, Environment, etc.

Please refer to call document, section "co-financing" (see especially p.429-430).

In the lump sum type-II model - after having filled in correctly the parameters in the first worksheet ‘Instructions’, only the project’s estimated budget must be specified, by filling in the Detailed Budget Table per beneficiary (BE) and per work package (WP), based on actual costs. Within this budget table, the maximum co-financing rate (90%) will then be applied automatically to the total costs as calculated by the excel table.

Yes, you need to fill in sections “2.1.4 Cost effectiveness and financial management“ and the “Subcontracting” table below section “4.2 Work packages, activities, resources and timing”, since this call is not based on prefixed lump sums.

On the contrary, you do not need to fill in the "Estimated budget - Resources” table (under section “4.2 Work packages, activities, resources and timing”) since the budget figures need to be included in the Detailed Budget Table (ERASMUS LSII) - Annex 1 to Part B.

Please note that you do not need to fill in the tables “Staff effort” under section “4.2 Work packages, activities, resources and timing” as they do not apply for lump sum grants, including this CBHE call.

The EU contribution will represent a maximum of 90% of the total costs (for all three Strands), with a maximum grant per proposal of 400.000 EUR for Strand 1, 800.000 EUR for Strand 2 and 1.000.000 EUR for Strand 3.

Specifically for the EU-Moldova Master's programme in European Affairs (Strand 3), the maximum grant is 2.000.000 EUR.

Please pay attention to correctly enter in the first worksheet ‘Instructions’ of the Detailed Budget Table (ERASMUS LSII) both the ‘Maximum grant amount as stipulated in the call’ in the cell E34, and the ‘Maximum co-financing rate' as stipulated in the call in the cell E35 (maximum 90%).

For more details, please refer to the call document (Programme guide).

Yes, two ceilings are applicable.

- Equipment: costs for equipment should represent a maximum of 35% of the awarded EU grant, and the EU grant will cover 100% of the eligible costs (not only the depreciation), as long as it is used fully (100%) for the project activities and its use during the project duration equals to 100% as well (see call document, p. 330-331).

Equipment costs should be included in the budget tables for each beneficiary concerned (for example BE 001, BE 003, BE 006, etc.) and specified in the excel worksheet ‘Depreciation Costs’. We also invite you to read the Model Grant Agreement - lump sum grants for more detailsPDF.

- Sub-contracting: costs of subcontracting should represent a maximum of 10% of the awarded EU grant (see call document p. 331).

Regarding sub-contracting, please refer to the Call document, section "Subcontracting and award of procurement contract" and the relevant articles of the model grant agreement (in particular article 9.3). Applicants are reminded that subcontractors cannot be on the lists of the EU Sanctions (restrictive measures). Subcontracting costs should be clearly indicated per beneficiary and per work package in the lump-sum grant excel table.

Nonetheless, only costs necessary, reasonable and justified for the implementation of the project must be specified in the excel table, in accordance with the applicable accounting standards of the country where the beneficiary (BEN) is established and according to the usual cost accounting practices of the beneficiary. Finally, they must comply with the principle of sound financial management, in particular regarding economy and efficiency.

For more details, please refer to the call document (Programme guide).

You must follow the ‘Instructions’ as stipulated in the relevant worksheet of the Detailed Budget excel table (Annex 1 to Part B of the application form), i.e. do the calculation based on the ‘Unit’ of person months (1 unit => 1 person month). You can also encode decimals under 'Unit'.

As explained in the call document, when calculating your travel, accommodation and subsistence costs, please use the unit costs for travel, accommodation and subsistence specified in Commission Decision C(2024)5405PDF.

As stated in this decision, all land travel / flight distances should be calculated through the relevant distance calculators available on the Calculate unit costs for eligible travel costs website. When calculating the unit costs per distance band, please refer to the amounts defined in Table 3 (of this webpage).

As to the amounts for accommodation and subsistence costs (section 5.5), not all countries are included. For the countries missing (such as countries in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa) the cost estimations for accommodation/subsistence must approximate your actual costs.

Costs relating to volunteers involved in the project are allowed. They shall take the form of unit costs as defined in the Commission Decision C(2019) 2646PDF authorising the use of unit costs for volunteers.

All Strand 3 proposals in Regions 5a, 6, 8a, 9, 10 and 11 must be designed as support to the listed Erasmus+ Global Gateway-related priorities for the relevant country/region/sub-region.

Thus, we recommend that you revisit any proposals submitted under previous calls to ensure that the reapplication under the 2026 call is aligned with the Erasmus+ Global Gateway-related priorities identified for the third country country/region/sub-region in question.

The documents that need to be attached to the application are available in the 'Download Part B templates' space once the applicants click on 'Start submission':

The templates to be filled in are:

- Administrative Forms (PART A) - filled out directly in the Portal Submission System screens

- Technical Description (PART B)

- Detailed Budget Table (ERASMUS LSII)

- Applicants are also requested to fill in PART C (KPIs) which is embedded in the Portal Submission System screens.

Documents that do not need to be attached to the application form:

- CVs are not requested. The template of PART B states “if required”, which is not the case for CBHE.

- Annual activity reports are not applicable for this call.

- No Mandates signed by the partners and Declarations other than those included in PART A & PART B (Section 6 – Double funding) are required at application stage.

A 'Declaration on honour' is not required at proposal stage. This Declaration will only be requested during the grant agreement preparation phase of selected projects (e-signature in the Portal)

It’s not mandatory, but it can be filled in with project experiences.

The page limit is set at 40 pages (refer to the Call document).

Only pages 1 and 2 can be deleted. Any other page, section or instruction of the Technical Description (Part B) template cannot be deleted. The same applies for the parts that not applicable to lump sum grant to guarantee equal treatment.

Evaluators will not see/consider any additional pages (exceeding the 40 pages).

You must ensure that your needs analysis reflects the country and/or regional priority(ies) and that these priorities are addressed when developing the project proposal. In essence, this means reflecting on what sort of reforms and modernisation areas are needed in the higher education system in the third country(ies) in order to support the progress of the identified country/regional priority(ies).

Please note that a needs analysis cannot be part of the actual implementation, but needs to be processed beforehand and be clearly illustrated in the proposal to justify the potential intervention.

Example: If the targeted country’s Erasmus+ Global Gateway-related priority is green hydrogen, your Strand 3 project proposal must demonstrate that green hydrogen is part of the country and/or regional priority(-ies) in question and how, through the higher education proposed activities, it will contribute to the development of the green hydrogen domain.

For Regions 5a (Asia), 6 (Central Asia), 8a (Pacific), there are only national Erasmus+ Global Gateway-related priorities indicated. This means, that in this case, your Strand 3 proposal can either be national (i.e. involve only one third country not associated to the Programme), or regional, if the countries involved share the same Erasmus+ Global Gateway priority.

For Regions 9 (Sub-Saharan Africa), 10 (Latin America) and 11 (Caribbean), national, multi-country and regional priorities are indicated. This means that you can submit a proposal under Strand 3 that matches any of these three categories:

• a national proposal

• a multi-country proposal that involves more than one of the countries covered by that priority. For example, more than one country from the three (Zambia, Angola, DRC) involved in priority 44 for sub-Saharan Africa.

• a regional proposal (involve several of that Region’s third countries not associated to the Programme). In this case, the third countries must share the same (regional/subregional) priority or share the same national priority. Additionally, for a regional proposal, you must show how your proposed activities will be applied in each of the third countries part of the proposal and how they influence the implementation of the regional priority in all the third countries part of your consortium.

Please also note that national projects can address either a national or a regional priority. In the latter case, projects should clearly demonstrate how the proposed activities are essential and of priority for the third country concerned, and how they are designed to be implemented at country level and foster positive transformation within national systems.

We advise that you clearly indicate in your proposal, which priority(ies) you intend to address and to explain how your envisaged activities will contribute to the achievement and implementation of the respective country or regional priority.

We highly encourage you to ensure that your Structural Reform project addresses one of the Erasmus+ Global gateway-related priority areas indicated for the country/region/sub-region) in question international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu.

Otherwise it will fail to fulfil the minimum score under the Relevance award criterion.

An organisation cannot be the coordinator of more than two proposals submitted under this CBHE call (regardless of the topic/region and panel/strand selected). See call document under eligibility criteria under this call.

It is up to you to ensure that your entity - identified by the Participant Identification Code (PIC) - submits no more than two proposals as a coordinator under this call.

At call deadline, if there are excess submissions beyond the applicable limitation rules for coordinating entities, these coordinating entities will be asked to withdraw the excess applications; in case of no reply or refusal, the Agency will reject all submissions from these coordinating entities.

If your country is in Region 5a (Asia), 6 (Central Asia), 8a (Pacific), 9 (Sub-Saharan Africa), 10 (Latin America) or 11 (Caribbean), and you cannot find it on the lists with national or sub-regional priorities, this means that no Erasmus+ Global Gateway-related priority has been defined for this country at this time.

In such cases, you may not submit a Strand 3 proposal, as it will fail to fulfil the minimum score under the Relevance award criterion. Instead, you may apply under Strand 1 or 2 of the CBHE call.

Your proposal should demonstrate how your HEI partnership contributes to the Erasmus+ Global Gateway-related country/regional priorities listed on this page.

This could involve a range of activities that develop teaching, research capacities, graduate skills, staff training, university-business links and partnership, institutional governance and quality assurance that support the country/regional priority(ies) listed.

The CBHE projects focus on cooperation among organisations and institutions and not on mobility of individuals.

However, mobility of staff members and students of the participating institutions is accepted and encouraged as part of the activities of the project and should be described in the work packages. Only mobility that is instrumental for the implementation of the project can be included.

Please consult the section "3. Implementation and monitoring" of the call document (p.329-330).

Strand 1: Not required. However, projects could still choose to align with the Erasmus+ Global Gateway-related priorities if considered pertinent.

Strand 2: Not obligatory, but proposals that address the priority area(s) related to the Global Gateway will be considered as highly relevant. (example: If the targeted country’s Erasmus+ Global Gateway priority is waste management, Strand 2 applications that propose a capacity building intervention in the field of waste management will be considered as highly relevant).

Strand 3: Non-alignment with these priority areas means that the proposal will fail to fulfil the minimum score under the Relevance award criterion.

You can find them on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, under the "Projects & Results" tab and then applying the corresponding filters linked to the programme and the call. You can also find them on the Erasmus+ project results platform.

In Regions 1 (Western Balkans), 2 (Neighbourhood East), 3 (South Mediterranean countries) and 7a (Middle East), you may continue to submit proposals that address the ‘classic’ requirements of Strand 3 proposals to date, with their focus on structural and higher education policy reform.

The difference is that Strand 3 projects in Regions 1, 2, 3 and 7a do not need to be linked to specific Erasmus+ Global Gateway-related priorities.

Yes, all Strand 3 proposals in Regions 5a, 6, 8a, 9, 10 and 11 must be designed as support to Erasmus+ priorities related to the Global Gateway in the relevant country or Region. These priorities for Erasmus+ are listed in the “Erasmus+ priorities” column of the lists on the webpage linked here.

You can no longer submit a “classic” Strand 3 proposal on structural and higher education policy reform alone in these Regions. Instead, you should discern and propose academic capacity building aspects that well align with indicated country and/or regional Erasmus+ Global Gateway-related priorities for the country/Region concerned.

Please be aware that for these Regions, non-alignment with the pre-identified priority areas means that your proposal will fail to fulfil the minimum score under the Relevance award criterion, which means it cannot be considered for potential funding.

Yes, note that this year under Strand 2 in Regions 5a (Asia), 6 (Central Asia), 8a (Pacific), 9 (Sub-Saharan Africa), 10 (Latin America) and 11 (Caribbean), the proposals that address the priority area(s) related to the Global Gateway will be considered highly relevant.

Your proposal should address systemic reforms in higher education through partnerships that address the respective Erasmus+ Global Gateway-related priorities in the relevant Region/country(ies) concerned.

This aspect will be evaluated under the award criterion 1 – Relevance, where specific reference is made in the call document to this effect. Failure to demonstrate such relevance will lead to the proposal’s failure to fulfil the minimum score under the Relevance award criterion.

No reporting on the actual costs incurred by the beneficiary is required by the Agency. Keep evidence of the triggering events (e.g.participation records) that make costs eligible and demonstrates that they have been incurred. However, you may have to comply with other record-keeping requirements outside the lump sum grant agreement (e.g., under national law of your internal procedures).

It is possible that some of these records, if relevant for the project, are used in case of an audit to verify the reality of the work done. This includes the points mentioned in Article 25.1.3 of the MGAPDF (i.e., complete accounts, individual salary statements or other personal data). Such information and data can also be requested in the specific context of certain investigations, for example, related to fraud suspicion.

A financial audit certificate will not be requested with the final report. Therefore, applicants do not need to calculate this cost in the budget. Such costs will be considered ineligible (even if a financial audit is required at national/institutional level).