Erasmus+ is the European Union programme for education, training, youth and sport. It runs for seven years, from 2014 to 2020, with organisations invited to apply for funding each year to undertake life-changing and worthwhile activities. With the aim to modernise education, training and youth work across Europe, Erasmus+ is open to organisations across all sectors of lifelong learning.

The Erasmus+ programme runs across all EU Member States, European Free Trade Area/European Economic Area countries, and some candidate countries. These are known as Programme Countries. Other countries, known as Partner Countries, can also participate but to a limited extent.

The European Commission publishes a yearly Call for Proposals and accompanying Programme Guide. These documents detail the funding available and application criteria and are available to download on our website. Erasmus+ is managed at European level by the European Commission and is divided into two parts: decentralised and centralised activities.

Decentralised activities are delivered at a national level by a network of National Agencies. National Agencies are themselves overseen by National Authorities, government departments responsible for ensuring the programme is delivered in their countries. In the UK, Erasmus+ is delivered by the UK National Agency, a partnership between the British Council and Ecorys UK. The National Agency reports to the Department for Education. Over its lifetime, Erasmus+ has an overall budget of 14.7 billion euro. Of this, almost 1 billion euro is allocated to the UK, which will enable around 250,000 people to undertake activities through the programme.

In 2019, €187 million is reserved specifically for UK organisations. UK organisations can also apply for additional funding streams (called ‘centralised’ activities), managed by the European Commission’s Executive Agency. Centralised activities include Sport, the Jean Monnet higher education programme, and Joint Master’s Degrees.