The new Higher Education Partnership Programme received 41 applications
The Finnish National Agency for Education EDUFI received a total of 41 applications to the HEP call for applications, which ended in May 2023.
The HEP programme is funded with the development cooperation funds of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and administered by the Finnish National Agency for Education EDUFI. The HEP programme continues to large extent the approach of the Higher Education Institutions Institutional Cooperation Instrument (HEI ICI) Programme.
The partnership programme has three themes. A total of 23 project applications focuses on High-quality education of primary, secondary, and vocational teachers (TVET), whereas the second theme, Climate change, including energy transition and circular economy received 20 applications and a total of 8 applications focuses on the third theme Food security as enabler of sustainable development. Projects may focus on one or several of the three themes, hence, the total number is above the received 41 project applications.
The total programme budget to be allocated in this call amounts to approximately 7 million euros, which results in around 6-10 projects to be selected, depending on the project-specific budget levels. The total amount applied in the HEP call was about 35 million.
Regarding the division on applications among the partner countries in the Global South, 21 project applications are directed to Africa in 13 different countries (Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Ghana, Zambia, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Malawi, Somalia, Botswana, Nigeria, South Africa), whereas 20 project applications are directed to Asia in 8 different countries (Nepal, Palestine, Viet Nam, India, Sri Lanka, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Bhutan) and lastly, one project application is directed to Europe (Ukraine).
The coordinating institution is always located in Finland and a total of 19 Finnish higher education institutions - 10 universities of applied sciences and 9 universities - submitted project applications to the HEP Programme. In total 25 applications were submitted by universities and 16 by universities of applied sciences.
In the HEP Programme it is possible for the Finnish coordinating institutions to apply for a project together with one or several partner institutions in the Global South. In 31 project applications the coordinating institutions are planning to cooperate with 1 partner in the Global South, whereas the number of Global South partners is 2 in 9 of the applications and 1 coordinating institution has a total of 4 partners in the Global South.
The eligible applications will be evaluated by external experts based on the selection criteria of the programme. The selection process is foreseen to be completed in late autumn 2023 and the selected projects will start their implementation from January 2024 onwards.