Erasmus+ Forward-looking Projects aim to foster innovation, creativity and participation, as well as social entrepreneurship within and across different education sectors and disciplines.
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The aim of Erasmus+ Forward-looking projects is to:

  • foster innovation in terms of scope, ground-breaking methods and practices,
  • enable the transfer of innovations between countries or sectors, or to different target groups, and
  • generate systemic changes that can be adopted more widely at a European level.
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Activities of Forward-looking Projects can include, for example:

  • studies and investigations
  • international trainings
  • piloting developed innovations
  • international events and networking events
  • think tanks and experiments
  • results dissemination events

In Forward-looking Projects, three different types of projects are supported.

Lot 1: Digital education (cross-sectoral)

Projects under Lot 1 can address different educational sectors or bridge educational sectors, and must support high quality and inclusive digital education. 

Projects must address one of the following three priorities:

  • Education technology (edTech): scaling up of EU-based solutions through cooperation and quality assurance;
  • Effective pedagogical approaches on informatics for primary and secondary level of education;
  • Teacher training and curriculum development in tackling disinformation and promoting digital literacy.

Projects have a duration of 2-4 years and the grant is a maximum of 1.5 million euros. 

The duration of the project must be chosen during the application phase according to the project's goals, selected activities and budget.

Lot 2: Vocational Education and Training (VET) 

Projects under Lot 2 must focus on vocational training and training, and address one of the following priorities:

  • Micro-credentials for employability;
  • Improving the attractiveness of Vocational Education and Training (VET) through partnerships and networks of VET providers.

Projects have a duration of 3 years and the grant is a maximum of 900 000 euros.

Lot 3: Adult education 

Projects under Lot 3  focus on adult education and must address one of the following priorities:

  • Development of national registries of quality-assured and labour market relevant training opportunities;
  • Supporting the Pact for Skills.

Projects have a duration of 2 years and the grant is a maximum of 1 million euros.

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Partnerships must consist of organisations with excellence and state of the art knowledge, capacity to innovate, and ability to generate systemic impact and influence decision-makers. 

Participants can be public or private organisations that are active in the fields of education and training or in the world of work.

Lot 1: Digital education (cross-sectoral)

  • at least 3 organisations from a minimum of 3 EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme
  • the partnerships must include at least one public authority at national or regional level
  • under Priority 1, the partnerships must include at least one EdTech company

Lot 2: Vocational Education and Training (VET)

  • at least 6 organisations from a minimum of 3 EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme
  • the partnerships must include both employers (or their representatives), as well as education and training organisations (or their representatives)

Lot 3: Adult education

  • under Priority 6, at least 3 organisations from a minimum of 3 EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme
  • the partnership must include organisations in charge of the provision, assessment and/or financing of educational services to adults as full or associated partners
  • under Priority 7, the consortium must include only partners of Pact for Skills partnerships as applicants
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The application process is managed by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). The organisation coordinating the project submits the application to EACEA, which evaluates and selects the projects to be funded.
 

Application deadline

There will be no application round in 2024. Future applications will be announced via EDUFI's email lists.

Application forms and instructions are published on the Commission's Funding & Tenders application portal.

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Support and guidance for the application process are provided by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Additionally, EDUFI informs about the action in Finland and advises Finnish applicants on general application questions. Contact information can be found at the bottom of the page.

Information about EACEA and EDUFI's applicant webinars, as well as their materials, can be found below.

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Funding was granted to Finnish organisations in the application rounds of 2022 and 2023. There was no application in 2021.

In EACEA's project database, Forward-looking Projects can be found in the Topic menu under the code FORWARD.

Finnish organisations in Erasmus+ Forward-looking Projects
Explore the projects of Finnish organisations in the Excel spreadsheet. You can find more information through the external link in the table.
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Contact the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) responsible for the application: EACEA-Policy-Support [at] ec.europa.eu (EACEA-Policy-Support[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)

You can reach EDUFI's staff by email:

  • Erasmus+ for General Education: erasmus.yleissivistava(at)oph.fi
  • Erasmus+ for Vocational Education and Training: erasmus.ammatillinen(at)oph.fi
  • Erasmus+ for Higher Education: erasmus.korkeakoulutus(at)oph.fi
  • Erasmus+ for Adult Education: erasmus.aikuiskoulutus(at)oph.fi
  • Erasmus+ for Youth: nuoriso(at)oph.fi
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