What is Alliances for Innovation?
Alliances for Innovation is a call for projects funded under the Erasmus+ programme which aims to boost innovation through cooperation and flow of knowledge among higher education, vocational education and training and the broader socio-economic environment, including research. In a broader sense, it seeks to facilitate cooperation between industry and academia/research, while creating new educational pathways for adult education to promote entrepreneurship in the EU.
The Alliances for Education and Enterprises lot of calls specifically aims to bring together private enterprises with educational institutions (both higher education and VET) to work together to create new innovative educational channels promoting initiative and entrepreneurship, as well as providing hands-on learning opportunities. All the while promoting green skills, digital skills and resilience skills as well as principles of corporate social responsibility.
Types of projects funded
The Alliances for Education and Enterprises call funds 2 to 3 year projects, with a maximum financing of 1.5 million euros per project. The projects must bring together labour market actors and education and training providers to conduct activities aimed at:
- Boosting innovation
- Developing a sense of initiative and entrepreneurial mind-sets, competences and skills
- Stimulating the flow and exchange of knowledge between higher education, VET, enterprises and research
- Identifying resilience-related, market needs and emerging professions
In 2021 AcrossLimits developed a proposal that was successfully funded under the Alliances for Innovation project. The Venture Alliances project is currently in full swing, and aims to develop a novel learning framework that ensures the bringing together of private enterprises with researchers and academics, through the organisation of several matchmaking and networking initiatives with a focus on encouraging mutual learning, collaboration and joint-venture creation that combines the theoretical expertise of the researchers with the practical knowledge and skills of the experienced entrepreneur. The proposed framework centres around the organisation several mentoring opportunities in the form of Entrepreneurship Residency Programmes for researchers, lecturers, other university staff and even Master/Doctoral candidates and Post-doctoral researchers, where these academics will get the chance to partner with an established commercial entity or promising startup, and both observe and participate in the day-to-day activities that are involved in being part of a private company.
Who is eligible?
Most types of organisations can participate in Alliances for Innovation projects, including private SMEs, educational institutions, NGOs and public bodies amongst others. Public or private organisations legally established in an EU Member State or third country associated to the programme (North Macedonia, Serbia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Turkey) can be involved as full partners, affiliated entities or associated partners. Third countries not associated with the programme can also apply within a consortium, however the EU-added value of their participation needs to be adequately justified. This means that most organisations are able to apply for this call, regardless of country of origin.
How to apply
The call for proposals will be made available on the European Commission’s funding & tender opportunities portal before the next round of Erasmus+ proposals. The date for the 2023 Erasmus+ KA2 proposals has not yet been announced, however we can expect a deadline somewhere around March 2023, with a later round of funding in September 2023.
Once the call has been announced, it will be available on the funding & tenders portal along with further instructions on how to submit your application. Only these electronically submitted proposals are accepted. A tutorial to guide you through the application process is available.
Join us in the next submission
We are aiming to submit proposals for the Alliances for Innovation call in 2023, and are pursuing project ideas promoting new educational pathways and entrepreneurial mindsets in various verticals including fintech, culture, biodiversity, social equality and more. AcrossLimits represents a vast network of clients and partners in both academia and industry enabling us to bring together the perfect consortium for the job.
If you want to know how AcrossLimits can support your organisation in obtaining funding for an Alliances for Innovation project, or if you would like to join us in the next round of proposal submission, please reach out to us at [email protected].
