Alliances for innovation - Erasmus+

Alliances for innovation - Erasmus+

The 2026 Erasmus+ Alliances for Innovation call is closed. The official Programme Guide set the application deadline at 10 March 2026 at 17:00 Brussels time. The official material checked for this refresh identifies the 2026 call, its three lots, and their funding and eligibility rules, but does not publish a later Alliances for Innovation call or a new deadline. This page is therefore a historical reference, not an open application notice.

The action is designed for substantial cooperation between higher education, vocational education and training, enterprises, and the wider socio-economic environment, including research and public or sector bodies where they add value. Its purpose is to improve Europe’s capacity for innovation by addressing skills gaps, designing or testing new curricula and training, supporting entrepreneurship, and creating durable links between education and the labour market. A single institution, a one-country pilot, or a networking event is not a substitute for the transnational partnership the action requires.

At a glance

What the action supports

The action has three lots. They share the same emphasis on transnational cooperation and concrete skills or innovation results, but they are not interchangeable.

Lot 1: Alliances for Education and Enterprises supports structured partnerships in which education and training providers work with enterprises and other socio-economic actors. Possible work includes multidisciplinary curricula, new teaching and assessment methods, continuous education with or inside enterprises, STEM development, incubators in education and training institutions, work-based learning, apprenticeships embedded in curricula, flexible pathways between VET and higher education, cross-border recognition, and stronger responses to labour-market needs. The 2026 text also highlights severe skills gaps in sectors important to Europe’s competitiveness.

Lot 2: Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills, implementing the Blueprint is organised around one industrial ecosystem. It is intended to create sectoral skills intelligence and a strategy that can guide upskilling and reskilling, occupational profiles, training content, core curricula, and a long-term rollout plan. A proposal needs to show how its work relates to existing sector activity and how the partnership will continue after the funded project. This is a sector strategy and delivery action, not simply a larger Lot 1.

Lot 3: STEM Skills Foundries focuses on STEM talent and pathways into strategic sectors. The official description connects education and training, enterprises, innovation, entrepreneurship, mentoring, and the resources needed for learners to develop ideas and move toward economic or societal application. It still requires a broad, cross-sector consortium and a credible set of activities rather than a standalone course.

Across the lots, the Programme Guide points to digital skills, green and circular-economy skills, STEM capability, resilience, new technologies, entrepreneurship, and the reduction of skills mismatches. Projects can use learning mobility for students, teachers, researchers, and staff when it supports the partnership’s core work and adds value. The Guide also expects relevant use of European tools such as the European Qualifications Framework, ESCO, Europass, European Digital Credentials for Learning, the European Learning Model, EQAVET, and the European Standards and Guidelines for quality assurance.

Confirmed eligibility rules

Applicants can be public or private organisations legally established in an EU Member State or a country associated with Erasmus+. The official examples include higher education institutions, VET providers and their networks, small and large enterprises including social enterprises, research institutes, non-governmental organisations, public bodies, education and training organisations, accreditation and qualification bodies, chambers, social partners, employment services, statistics offices, economic development agencies, sector associations, skills councils, and career guidance or employment organisations.

Higher education institutions established in an EU Member State or an associated country must hold a valid Erasmus Charter for Higher Education. Organisations from non-associated countries can participate only under the restrictions in the Programme Guide and do not remove the core country or beneficiary requirements. Organisations from Belarus are not eligible for this action.

The lot-specific minimums are important:

The counts are for applicants or beneficiaries. Affiliated entities and associated partners do not count toward the minimum consortium composition and cannot coordinate. Lot 2 must select one of the 14 industrial ecosystems identified in the Programme Guide. The consortium must be able to explain why its members are needed for the chosen problem, not merely show that the numerical thresholds have been met.

Funding and project design

The action uses a lump-sum model. The amount is not automatically the maximum: the granting authority fixes the contribution from the estimated budget, the evaluation result, and the 80% funding rate. The relevant 2026 maximums were €1 million for Lot 1 with a 24-month duration, €1.5 million for Lot 1 with a 36-month duration, €4 million for Lot 2 with a 48-month duration, and €1.5 million for Lot 3 with a 24-month duration. The normal duration should match the lot and the work required. A consortium should not promise a sector-wide skills strategy, curriculum testing, adoption, and long-term rollout on a timeline that cannot support those steps.

The work plan should connect evidence to delivery. For Lot 1, that may mean identifying a skills problem, co-designing a curriculum or training method with employers, testing it with learners or workers, checking quality and recognition, and explaining how the participating institutions will continue using it. For Lot 2, the chain is more explicit: gather skills intelligence, map existing support, develop a sectoral strategy, create occupational profiles and training content, deliver core curricula or programmes where appropriate, and define the governance, funding, updating, and dissemination needed after the project. For Lot 3, the proposal should show how STEM learning, enterprise participation, mentoring, innovation, and routes into strategic sectors fit together.

Financial planning should follow the work packages and expected deliverables. Because the grant is a lump sum, the application still needs a credible activity and resource structure even though it is not a conventional reimbursement of every invoice. The 2026 Guide also states that financial support to third parties in the form of grants or prizes is not allowed. A proposal should therefore keep the grant focused on the partnership’s own eligible activities and outputs.

How the closed 2026 application worked

Applications were submitted to EACEA through the EU Funding & Tenders Portal by 10 March 2026 at 17:00 Brussels time. The 2026 call IDs were:

• Lot 1: ERASMUS-EDU-2026-PI-ALL-INNO-EDU-ENTERP
• Lot 2: ERASMUS-EDU-2026-PI-ALL-INNO-BLUEPRINT
• Lot 3: ERASMUS-EDU-2026-PI-ALL-INNO-STEM

A team preparing for a future round should use the next published call rather than reuse these details without checking them. The sensible preparation sequence is:

1. Select the lot and define the need. Name the sector, learner or worker group, skills gap, and evidence behind the problem. Decide whether the work belongs in an education-enterprise alliance, a single industrial-ecosystem Blueprint, or a STEM Skills Foundry.
2. Build a delivery-based consortium. Recount eligible countries and beneficiaries, then assign meaningful roles to HE, VET, labour-market, research, public, and sector partners. Confirm ECHE status for relevant HEIs and make sure the required actors are beneficiaries rather than only associated participants.
3. Set outputs and responsibilities. Connect skills intelligence, curriculum or training design, piloting, quality assurance, dissemination, and sustainability to named partners, milestones, and indicators. Use the lot’s normal duration and funding ceiling as design constraints.
4. Prepare the portal record. Confirm each organisation’s registration and legal details, coordinator authority, partner data, and requested administrative forms. The live call controls the forms, annexes, declarations, and any technical submission requirements.
5. Review eligibility and budget. Check the country count, beneficiary count, HE/VET mix, labour-market count, lot scope, industrial ecosystem where relevant, project duration, lump-sum ceiling, and 80% funding rate. Remove affiliated entities or associated partners from calculations where the Guide says they do not count.
6. Submit before the stated closing time. This was a hard, closed portal deadline, not a rolling opportunity. A future call would need its own active deadline and call ID.

What reviewers need to see

The official evaluation framework requires at least 70 points overall and minimum thresholds for relevance, quality of project design and implementation, quality of the partnership and cooperation arrangements, and impact. A strong topic cannot compensate for a weak partnership or an unworkable plan.

Relevance starts with a defined problem. Show the labour-market, education, or societal evidence and identify who is affected. Project design should explain the path from evidence to activities, outputs, testing, quality assurance, and adoption. Partnership quality should show that every major participant has a real contribution and decision role. Impact should address who will use the results, how they will travel beyond the original partners, and how activity will continue after the grant.

For Lot 2, reviewers also need to see the selected industrial ecosystem, the relationship to existing Blueprint or Skills Academy work, and a credible route from skills intelligence to strategy, occupational profiles, training content, and long-term rollout. For Lot 1 and Lot 3, the transnational structure should produce an advantage that a one-country project would not provide. Employers should help shape and test the work, not appear only as names on a support letter.

Historical-reference guidance

This page records the confirmed 2026 cycle. The official source checked for this refresh does not announce a subsequent Alliances for Innovation cycle or deadline, so there is no current date to place in the deadline field. Organisations considering a new proposal should wait for and verify the next Programme Guide and live Funding & Tenders Portal call. Re-check the lot names, call IDs, amounts, duration, funding model, country rules, beneficiary thresholds, evaluation criteria, application forms, and annexes before preparing a submission.

The official Programme Guide is the controlling source for this action. This archive entry is useful for understanding the last confirmed structure, but it should not be presented to a prospective applicant as an open grant. Do not send a 2026 application after the closed deadline, and do not infer that a future round exists merely because the action appears in the general Erasmus+ programme structure.

Official links

• Alliances for Innovation in the Erasmus+ Programme Guide
• EU Funding & Tenders Portal

For a future call, use the contact instructions published by EACEA with that call. The current historical record should be updated only when an official source confirms a new cycle, deadline, URL, funding rule, or eligibility requirement.