EIT Urban Mobility Master School and Fellowship Open Call 2027: Up to €1.4 Million for European Urban Mobility Education

EIT Urban Mobility Master School and Fellowship Open Call 2027: Up to €1.4 Million for European Urban Mobility Education

The EIT Urban Mobility Master School and Fellowship Open Call 2027 is a funding route for organisations that can design or deliver high-quality education in sustainable urban mobility. EIT Urban Mobility is seeking proposals from universities, academic consortia, and other eligible education-focused organisations for activities that build the skills needed to plan, operate, and transform urban transport systems across Europe.

The call has a total indicative EIT funding allocation of up to €1.4 million. It is divided among five activity types: summer schools for master’s students, new EIT Urban Mobility master’s programmes, new universities joining existing Master School programmes, innovation-and-entrepreneurship master’s programmes joining the I&E Fellowship, and other educational activities that help create student and graduate start-ups from EIT-labelled programmes.

The deadline is 3 September 2026 at 17:00 CEST, Brussels time. Projects are expected to start on 1 January 2027 and finish by 31 December 2027, although the call manual describes eligible project durations as nine to twelve months depending on the activity. This is therefore a live 2027 institutional grant call, not an individual student scholarship. Students may benefit from the programmes created or expanded through it, but the applicant is the organisation or consortium proposing the education activity.

Key details

What the call funds

The call is intended to close knowledge and skills gaps in urban mobility. EIT Urban Mobility describes the objective as building the capacity to implement new technology, support innovation and entrepreneurship, and manage system-level change. A proposal should therefore be more than a general academic course or a conference. It needs to show how the activity will help learners gain capabilities that cities, companies, public administrations, and research organisations actually need.

The five activity types give applicants several routes into the call.

MSA1 supports summer schools for master’s students. The manual describes a challenge-based model involving two European cities. The organisers must plan the locations, schedule, student travel, recruitment, and learning design. The call expects a website to be operating by 31 January 2027 with dates, location, a tentative agenda, a short topic summary, and an application route for external participants. The indicative MSA1 allocation is €800,000 for four projects, with a maximum of €200,000 per project per year.

MSA2 supports new EIT Urban Mobility master’s programmes. This route is for multi-participant proposals led by a higher-education institution. The programme must be different from existing EIT Urban Mobility Master School offers, international, challenge-based, and connected to industry and cities. It must integrate innovation and entrepreneurship, meet EIT Label requirements, comply with national accreditation rules, and lead to a legally recognised degree. The indicative maximum is €120,000 for one project. The manual says the development budget is allocated through the EIT Urban Mobility Business Plan if the programme is approved for execution.

MSA3 supports new universities joining an existing Master School programme. This is a mono-participant route for a university that wants to join one of the named existing programmes. The applicant must identify the programme, provide detailed curriculum and admission information, and explain the equivalence of its degree, ECTS, schedule, and role in the consortium. The selection begins an alignment process; formal participation and implementation funding are conditional on agreement with the existing Master School leadership. The indicative allocation is €120,000 across three projects, with a maximum of €40,000 per university per year.

MSA4 supports master’s programmes joining the I&E Fellowship. The I&E Fellowship adds applied innovation and entrepreneurship activities to existing master’s programmes. The manual says a qualifying programme must be at least one year and 60 ECTS, lead to a master’s degree, and follow the EIT Fellowship principles. Those principles include learning by doing, societal impact, ethical foundations, strong academic and industry networks, and attention to diversity and gender balance. Students may gain international exposure, access to EIT Urban Mobility events, startup support initiatives, industry networks, and alumni activities. The indicative maximum is €30,000 per project per year, with €90,000 allocated across three projects.

MSA5 covers other education activities contributing to student start-up creation. This is the most flexible category, but flexibility does not mean a weak fit is acceptable. The proposal must explain the educational activity, the intended learners, how it creates or strengthens an EIT-labelled pathway, and how it contributes to the KPI for start-ups created by students and graduates. The indicative MSA5 allocation is €270,000 across three projects, with a maximum of €90,000 per project per year.

Who can apply

The basic applicant test is legal and geographic. Applicants must be legal entities established in an EU Member State or in a third country associated with Horizon Europe. The call accepts a single eligible organisation or a consortium, but the rules vary by activity. A multi-participant proposal must contain at least two independent entities from two different eligible countries. A mono-participant or one-country proposal must explain how it will create a pan-European dimension through its implementation, partnerships, student experience, or expected impact.

The activity rules matter more than the broad geographic rule. MSA2 must be led by a higher-education institution and must be submitted by a multi-participant proposal. An activity that relies on higher-education delivery must involve higher-education institution applicants. MSA3 is open to mono-participant proposals from universities seeking to join an existing Master School programme. MSA5 can be submitted by a single applicant or a consortium depending on the activity.

Consortia should choose a lead partner before drafting. The lead partner is the single contact with EIT Urban Mobility and carries primary responsibility for coordination, implementation, reporting, compliance, internal governance, risk management, and quality assurance. The application should make each partner’s role and added value explicit. A list of organisations without a clear division of work will not demonstrate complementarity.

Selected applicants must also become members of the EIT Urban Mobility community and pay the applicable membership fee. The call manual says an organisation that is not already an EIT Urban Mobility partner and receives less than €30,000 in total EIT funding may request a first-year membership-fee reduction. This is an important cost and timing consideration: the grant amount should not be treated as the only financial consequence of selection.

Funding, co-funding, and project obligations

The headline €1.4 million is a total call allocation, not an automatic award for every applicant. EIT Urban Mobility may move available money between activity types, and the exact number of funded projects depends on proposal quality and available budget. Applicants should use the activity-level ceiling as a planning limit, not as a promise.

The current call manual requires a minimum 25% co-funding rate for the whole project duration. Co-funding can be distributed unevenly across consortium partners as long as the overall project reaches the minimum. A higher co-funding rate may help in a tie-break and can make the proposal’s financial-sustainability story more credible. The applicant must still follow Horizon Europe cost rules and the official eligibility-of-expenditure guidance.

There is a discrepancy worth checking before submission. The separate applicant-guidelines PDF contains a line describing a 10% minimum co-funding rate, while the later call manual states 25%. Because the manual is the controlling call document listed on the official page and the manual records a July 2026 update, applicants should plan against 25% and ask EIT Urban Mobility for written clarification if their budget depends on the lower figure. Do not submit a budget that quietly relies on the contradictory lower threshold.

Projects must run for nine to twelve months and comply with the Financial Support Agreement. Beneficiaries must meet the relevant deliverables and KPIs, follow visibility and communication rules, respect intellectual-property obligations, and operate consistently with gender equality, diversity, and inclusion requirements. EIT Urban Mobility may request information during implementation, check progress, and conduct an ex-post impact assessment.

How to prepare the application

Start by selecting one activity type. Do not write a broad institutional strategy and hope reviewers will map it to the call. The application should name the specific MSA route, explain why it is needed, and address every requirement in the corresponding part of the call manual.

Next, obtain or confirm the organisation’s nine-digit Participant Identification Code, or PIC, in the EU Funding and Tenders Portal. Then register in the EIT Urban Mobility Programmes Portal, also called NetSuite, and complete the Partner Information Form with the correct PIC. In NetSuite, go to Grant Management, then Grant Management, then Open Calls, and select the Master School and Fellowship 2027 call. Registration problems connected to an existing PIC or email address should be sent to [email protected].

The application form includes main information, partner information, project scope, work plan, supporting documents, and budget. The guidelines advise applicants to make the title and acronym carefully because the title may be used publicly. The executive summary should be drafted after the rest of the proposal so that it accurately reflects the final project. The form requires three to five system-selected keywords and three to five applicant-defined keywords.

The project scope should cover the need, target audience, objectives, learning design, expected outcomes, strategic fit, knowledge gap, activity-specific requirements, financial sustainability, pan-European dimension, risks, ethics, security, and intellectual property where applicable. Work should be organised into a small number of meaningful work packages; the guidelines recommend three to five rather than a long list of artificial packages. Each deliverable should show a real output, such as a feasibility study, strategy document, pilot report, or training documentation.

Only one supporting attachment is allowed. If several documents are necessary, they must be merged into a single PDF before upload. The budget is built from the work packages, so finalise the work-plan structure before entering figures. Each cost should have a short explanation, and each partner’s EIT-funded and own-funded percentages must be visible.

What reviewers will look for

Stage one uses three independent external experts. The published criteria total 70 points: excellence is worth 25, impact 15, implementation 20, and strategic fit and EU dimension 10. A proposal needs at least 13 points for excellence, 8 for impact, 10 for implementation, and 5 for strategic fit, plus at least 40 points overall, to proceed to the Selection Committee.

For excellence, reviewers ask whether the objectives address a relevant need, whether the target audience is clear, and whether the activity differs from existing offers. Learning-by-doing design and assessment methods aligned to intended learning outcomes receive particular attention. The proposal also needs to show how it contributes to an innovative, entrepreneurial European workforce and how it integrates gender and diversity.

For impact, explain how learners will be recruited, what evidence supports expected demand, how outcomes will be measured, how participant feedback will be used, and how the results can be communicated. A proposal that counts only registrations without describing completion, learning, or follow-on results will leave the impact case incomplete. Reviewers also want a credible path to replication, transfer, and continuation after the initial funding period.

For implementation, connect the work plan, budget, deliverables, and KPIs. Name the people responsible for delivery, show that the partners have relevant experience, and include a practical contingency plan. For the strategic-fit criterion, link the activity to EIT Urban Mobility’s objective of closing the knowledge gap, demonstrate knowledge-triangle integration among education, research, industry, and cities, and make the pan-European dimension concrete.

Stage two considers portfolio balance, geographic and sectoral coverage, ecosystem value, and prior delivery experience. Evidence of student recruitment, programme delivery, enrolment, and completion is more persuasive than generic claims about institutional reputation.

Timeline and final checks

The call opened on 27 May 2026. Applications close on 3 September 2026 at 17:00 CEST. EIT Urban Mobility expects evaluation in September and October, communication of results in November, and signature of subgrant agreements in December. Projects are tentatively scheduled to begin on 1 January 2027 and finish on 31 December 2027.

Before pressing submit, check the exact deadline shown in the live portal, because the official call page and manual govern the application. Confirm that the selected MSA type permits the proposed applicant structure. Recalculate the budget using the 25% co-funding requirement in the current manual. Verify that all partners have completed their PIF information and correct PIC numbers. Check every character limit, mandatory annex, work-package date, deliverable date, KPI date, and attachment requirement.

The proposal must be complete, in English, readable, accessible, printable, and submitted through the electronic form before the deadline. Late submissions are inadmissible. If a technical failure is exclusively attributable to the EIT Urban Mobility grant-management tool, the manual allows a complaint to the PMO team within three calendar days after the deadline, with the proposal ID and objective evidence. That is not a substitute for submitting early: problems with an applicant’s own equipment, connection, or misunderstanding of the instructions are not treated as platform failures.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Treating the €1.4 million total as an individual award or assuming every activity receives its requested ceiling.
• Choosing MSA2 without a higher-education lead, multi-participant structure, accreditation path, and clear distinction from existing programmes.
• Calling a collection of workshops a pan-European programme without showing cross-border partners, student mobility, or transfer of practice.
• Describing innovation and entrepreneurship as slogans rather than specifying hands-on activities, partners, assessment, and student outputs.
• Omitting recruitment evidence, completion assumptions, revenue or cost-efficiency logic, and a post-grant continuation plan.
• Entering the budget before finalising work packages, which can create missing or inconsistent budget lines.
• Relying on the 10% co-funding line in the applicant guidelines without resolving its conflict with the 25% requirement in the updated call manual.
• Uploading several separate attachments when the system permits only one supporting file.
• Waiting until the final hour to register the PIC, complete the PIF, or discover that a partner’s organisation record already exists in NetSuite.

Frequently asked questions

Is this a scholarship for individual students?

No. It is an institutional funding call. Students may receive education, mobility, networks, and startup support through selected activities, but universities and other eligible legal entities submit the proposals.

Can a university apply alone?

Sometimes. Mono-participant proposals are allowed, but MSA2 new master’s programmes require a multi-participant proposal and higher-education leadership. MSA3 specifically allows a university to apply alone to join an existing Master School programme. The activity-specific rules control.

What does “up to €1.4 million” mean for one applicant?

It is the total indicative allocation for the call. The manual gives different ceilings for each activity type, and EIT Urban Mobility may adjust allocations between types. The final award depends on the proposal and available budget.

Does the grant cover all project costs?

No. The current call manual requires at least 25% co-funding for the total project. Applicants must also account for eligible-cost rules and, if selected, the applicable EIT Urban Mobility membership fee.

What is the application deadline?

3 September 2026 at 17:00 CEST, Brussels time. Check the live call page and portal immediately before submitting in case EIT Urban Mobility publishes a correction.

Where is the application submitted?

Through the EIT Urban Mobility Programmes Portal, also called NetSuite. Applicants first need a valid PIC and must complete the Partner Information Form before opening the call application.

Official links

• EIT Urban Mobility Master School and Fellowship Open Call 2027 — official call page, deadline, activity types, contacts, and application link.
• Call Manual for the Master School and Fellowship Open Call 2027 — funding ceilings, eligibility, co-funding, evaluation, implementation, and submission rules.
• Guidelines for applicants — NetSuite form structure, work plan, supporting-file, and budget instructions.
• EIT Urban Mobility Programmes Portal — submission system.
• EIT Urban Mobility Academy contact — content and topic questions.