Project design

Capacity Building in Higher Education is the Erasmus+ action built around universities outside the EU, which makes it the most important one in the programme for Ukrainian institutions. It has three strands, with grants from €200,000 to €1,000,000 and durations from 24 to 48 months.

The circular economy and quality of life sub-programme holds €1.345 billion for 2021–2027. It funds waste management, resource efficiency, water and air quality, noise reduction and chemical safety, and the co-financing rate here is 60%.

The clean energy transition sub-programme holds €997 million for 2021–2027 and carries the highest co-financing rate in LIFE, up to 95%. It funds not equipment but the removal of non-technological barriers: policies, skills, financing schemes and the preparation of investment projects.

The climate change mitigation and adaptation sub-programme holds €947 million for 2021–2027. It funds cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the adaptation of territories to the effects of climate change and climate governance, at a co-financing rate of 60%.

EIC Pathfinder funds research into a breakthrough technology at the earliest stage, when no market prospect is yet visible. The 2026 budget for the strand is around €262 million, grants reach €4 million, the funding rate is 100% and the model is a lump sum.

EIC Transition funds taking an existing scientific result to a state fit for market entry. The 2026 budget for the strand is around €100 million, grants reach €2.5 million, and the entry ticket is a result from Pathfinder, ERC Proof of Concept or another eligible project.

Jean Monnet Actions fund teaching and research on European integration. It is the most accessible strand of Erasmus+ for a single institution: one university applies with no consortium, and the grant is up to €35,000 for a Module, up to €60,000 for a Chair and up to €100,000 for a Centre of Excellence.

Key Action 2 funds joint projects between organisations rather than trips for individuals. Cooperation Partnerships come in three fixed lump sums – €120,000, €250,000 and €400,000 – and Small-scale Partnerships in two, €30,000 and €60,000, the latter designed as the entry point for organisations with no EU project experience.

Nature and Biodiversity is the largest LIFE sub-programme, with €2.143 billion for 2021–2027. It funds the restoration of habitats and species populations, the build-out of the Natura 2000 network and the implementation of EU nature legislation, and the co-financing rate here reaches 75%.

Three levels of project results: outputs are what you produce directly; outcomes are the changes in behaviour or capacity of those the project reaches; impact is the broader long-term change to which the project only contributes. Confusing them is the most common reason for a weak impact section.

Technology Readiness Level is a nine-level scale of technological maturity, running from observation of basic principles at level 1 to a system proven in an operational environment at level 9. The individual topic states which level your project has to move the technology from and to.

A work package is a self-contained part of the project work plan with its own tasks, lead partner, budget and deliverables. Work packages are how a proposal is structured and how effort is shared between participants, and in lump sum grants they are also the unit on which payments are calculated.

The logical framework matrix describes a project as a verifiable chain: activities lead to outputs, outputs to an outcome, the outcome to impact, with an indicator, a source of verification and the external conditions stated at every level. Donors use it to see the whole logic of a project at once and check whether it holds together.