European Programme E+ Policy experimentation in school education

European Call for Proposals

On 18 December 2014, the Call for Proposals EACEA 30/2014 - Key Action 3 “Support for policy reform - Initiatives for policy innovation - Policy experimentation in school education sector” has been published by the European Commission, Directorate Education and Training.

The “Support for policy reform - Initiatives for policy innovation - Policy experimentation in school education sector” call has as its primary purpose to encourage the responsible public authorities to submit proposals for testing innovative policy ideas and reforms in the area of recruitment, selection and induction of new teachers coming to the profession through alternative pathways. Such new entrants could be graduates, mid-career professionals or unemployed people with no formal training in teaching who demonstrate a concrete interest to become teachers.

In the framework of the “Support for policy reform - Initiatives for policy innovation - Policy experimentation in school education sector” call, the objectives of this call can be summarised as follows:

- Promote trans-national cooperation and mutual learning between competent authorities at the highest level, in order to test and improve policy design and implementation systems, structures and processes, with a potentially significant impact on recruiting, selecting and inducting to the teaching profession new entrants with no formal training in teaching;

- Facilitate the collection and analysis of substantive empirical evidence from the field, allowing the responsible public authorities to monitor and assess the implementation of innovative policies in the area of recruitment, selection and induction for such new entrants;

- Identify key criteria and conditions for effective policy implementation and monitoring, as well as the assessment of the quality of outcomes (i.e. teachers qualified through alternative pathways);

- Foster and facilitate transferability and scalability of the tested policy initiatives and reforms.

Proposals submitted under the present “Support for policy reform - Initiatives for policy innovation - Policy experimentation in school education sector” call should address the following priority theme: Strengthen recruitment, selection and induction of the best and most suitable candidates to the teaching profession by developing alternative pathways to teaching. The theme presented is exclusive. Proposals focusing on different themes will not be considered for funding. Applicants are nevertheless free to consider any aspects and measures deemed relevant in the context of this priority theme.

Having regard to the high level of EU co-funding and to the nature and scope of the partnership (involving at least 3 public authorities at ministry level or equivalent, which should ensure strong institutional leadership and a wide geographical coverage, as well as 1 public or private entity with expertise in the evaluation of policy impact), the experimentations proposed under the present “Support for policy reform - Initiatives for policy innovation - Policy experimentation in school education sector” call should lead to significant results in particular in the following areas:

- Identification of tangible and realistic alternative pathways to the teaching profession;

- Easier scalability and transferability of innovative policies. Scaling up does not necessarily mean merely duplicating the tested measures on a larger number of beneficiaries. It should rather be understood as creating the best possible conditions for extending or adapting the tested measures in a given context and to a given target group, by anticipating potential risks and liabilities on the basis of the trial results. It should also help to make the best possible use of potential opportunities recognised during the trials;

- Improved knowledge base for the implementation of reforms with potentially high systemic impact addressing complex challenges in the education and training fields; in particular, in the area of recruitment, selection and induction of new teachers;

- European added value through the joint identification of critical success factors, best practice and lessons on 'what works' and 'what does not work';

- Enhanced tools for the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of reforms, based on stronger links between public authorities and stakeholders, increased consistency between policy design and implementation, and between European strategies and national / regional policies;

- Definition of concrete and measurable quality criteria and assessment methods with regard to the outputs of the policy experimentation.

 

The eligible activities to be financed under the “Support for policy reform - Initiatives for policy innovation - Policy experimentation in school education sector” call shall include as a minimum:

- Development of field trials on the implementation of innovative measures;

- Parallel implementation of the field trials in various countries participating in the project under the leadership of the respective authorities (Ministry or equivalent).

- Analysis and evaluation: effectiveness, efficiency and impact of the tested measure, but also of the experimentation methodology, of the conditions for scalability and the transnational transfer of the lessons learned and good practice (peer learning) as well as adequate mainstreaming in national policies.

- Awareness-raising, dissemination and exploitation of the project concept and its results at regional, national and European level throughout the project duration and in the longer term, and to foster transferability between different sectors, systems and policies.

The total budget available for the co-financing of projects under the present call is EUR 5 000 000. Financial contribution from the EU cannot exceed 75% of the total eligible project costs. The maximum grant per project will be EUR 2 500 000. The Agency reserves the right not to distribute all the funds available under this call. Activities must start between 1 December 2015 and 1 March 2016 and can last between 24 and 36 months.

The deadline for submitting proposals in the framework of the current KA3 “Support for policy reform - Initiatives for policy innovation - Policy experimentation in school education sector” call for proposals is as follows:

- Pre-proposal stage 20 March 2015. Pre-proposals should provide information on the relevance of the project and the budget.

- Full proposal stage 1 October 2015. Full proposals should provide information on project design and implementation, partnership, impact, dissemination and sustainability

Further information on the current call for proposals is available on the European Commission’s web site at: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/funding/key-action-3-prospective-initiatives-policy-experimentation-in-school-education-sector-eacea-302014_en