The primary goal of Cooperation Partnerships is to allow organisations to increase the quality and relevance of their activities, to develop and reinforce their networks of partners, to increase their capacity to operate jointly at transnational level, boosting internationalisation of their activities and through exchanging or developing new practices and methods as well as sharing and confronting ideas.

They aim to support the development, transfer and/or implementation of innovative practices as well as the implementation of joint initiatives promoting cooperation, peer learning and exchanges of experience at European level.

WHAT ARE THE FUNDING RULES?

There are three pre-defined lump sums grants available, corresponding to the total grant amount for the project: €120.000, €250.000 and €400.000.

Applicants will choose between the 3 pre-defined amounts according to the activities they want to undertake and the results they want to achieve.

When planning their projects, the applicant organisations – together with their project partners – will need to choose the most appropriate lump sum amount to cover the costs of their projects, based on their needs and objectives.

Proposals must describe the activities that applicants commit to carry out with the lump sum amount requested and must satisfy the principles of economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

The choice of the lump sum amount should be based on the applicant’s estimate for the overall cost of the project.

Based on this estimate, applicants must choose the lump sum amount that best suits their needs while ensuring an efficient use of the funds and the respect of the co-financing principle (i.e. projects are expected to be co-financed with other funding sources, therefore the estimated overall cost of the project shall be higher than the fixed lump sum amount requested).

In case of doubts between two amounts, applicants can:

• reduce the cost of their project, for instance by finding more cost-effective ways to achieve similar results or by adapting the number/scale of the project activities to the budget;
• increase the scale of their project, for instance by aiming to reaching more participants with their activities, increasing the number of activities or producing additional project outputs.

• Culture
• Education and training
• Public Administration
• Research, Technological Development and Innovation
• Sports
• Trade and Commerce
• Youth

• Associations
• Chambers
• Educational Institutions
• International Organisations
• Legal Entities
• Local Authorities
• NGOs
• Non Profit Organisations
• Other Beneficiaries
• Private Bodies
• State-owned Enterprises
• Training Centres

Any participating organisation established in an EU Member State or third country associated to the Programme can be the applicant/coordinator. This organisation applies on behalf of all participating organisations involved in the project.

In order to be eligible, applicant organisations must have been legally established at least 2 years before the application deadline.

For Partnerships in the fields of education and training or youth submitted by European NGOs and managed by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), the applicant coordinator must be a European NGO active in the field of education and training or youth.

The European body/secretariat of the European NGO applies on behalf of the European NGO.

Which types of organisations are eligible to participate in the project?
Any public or private organisation, established in an EU Member State or third country associated to the Programme or in any third country not associated to the Programme in regions 1 to 3 (see section “Eligible Countries” in Part A of this Guide) can participate in a Cooperation Partnership.

Exception: organisations from Belarus (Region 2) are not eligible to participate in this action.

Organisations established in EU Member States and third countries associated to the Programme can either participate as the coordinator of the project or as a partner organisation.

Organisations in third countries not associated to the Programme cannot participate as project coordinators.

Irrespective of the field impacted by the project, Cooperation Partnerships are open to any type of organisation active in any field of education, training, youth, sport or other socio-economic sectors as well as to organisations carrying out activities that are transversal to different fields (e.g., local, regional and national authorities, recognition and validation centres, chambers of commerce, trade organisations, guidance centres, cultural and sport organisations).

Depending on the priority and the objectives addressed by the project, Cooperation Partnerships should involve the most appropriate and diverse range of partners in order to benefit from their different experiences, profiles and specific expertise and to produce relevant and high quality project results.

Participation of associated partner organisations:
In addition to the organisations formally participating in the project (the coordinator and partner organisations), Cooperation Partnerships may also involve other partners from the public or private sector that contribute to the implementation of specific project tasks/activities or support the promotion and sustainability of the project.

Within an Erasmus+ project, these partners will be called “associated partners”. For eligibility and contractual management aspects they are not considered to be project partners, and they do not receive any funding from the Programme as part of the project. However, in order to understand their role within the partnership and have a global picture about the proposal, their involvement in the project and in the different activities needs to be clearly described.

Number and profile of participating organisations:
A Cooperation Partnership is a transnational project and must involve minimum three organisations from three different EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme.

There is no maximum number of participating organisations in one partnership.

All participating organisations must be identified at the time of applying for a grant.

For applications submitted to National Agencies in the fields of school education, vocational education and training, adult education and youth, the same organisation (one OID) cannot be involved in more than 10 applications overall per deadline, either as applicant or partner.

As a general rule, Cooperation Partnerships target the cooperation between organisations established in EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme.

However, organisations from third countries not associated to the Programme can be involved as partners (not as applicants), if their participation brings an essential added value to the project and as long as the minimum participation from three organisations from three different EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme is fulfilled.

Foundation for the Management of European (EU) Lifelong Learning Programmes

Website: Erasmus+ – IDEP
Website with Contact details: Εpikoinonia – Erasmus+ – IDEP
Address: Prodromou & Dimitrakopoulou 2, Nicosia 1090, Cyprus
Τelephone: +357 22448888
Email: info@idep.org.cy

For help related to this call, please contact: EACEA-SPORT@ec.europa.eu

• Funding&Tenders
• 2025 Programme Guide, page 232
• 2025 Annual Work Programme