Erasmus+ European programme

Call for Proposals for KA3

The call for proposals EACEA 10/2014 – Key Action 3 “Prospective initiatives: European policy experimentation” has been published by the European Commission in the framework of the Erasmus+ Programme.

Effective and efficient reforms require a solid evidence base that enables to plan the most appropriate actions and to identify and avoid potential risks. Innovative policies usually involve a certain degree of uncertainty and risk. Experimentations in real life situations enable policy-makers to perform solid reality checks that help them to make informed choices against objective and realistic outcomes. This approach is consistent with the increased need to ensure efficient public spending while responding to stakeholders’ needs and expectations.

The present EACEA 10/2014 - Key Action 3 “Prospective initiatives: European policy experimentation” call seeks high-level institutional leadership in order to generate a strong and sustainable systemic impact. The policy experimentations need to be placed in a clear and consistent policy perspective. The work undertaken under this call shall therefore be based on trans-national cooperation between public authorities at the highest level (Ministry or equivalent) responsible for developing and implementing policies in education, training and youth in the eligible countries, in particular top-level authorities involved in the Open Methods of Coordination in these fields. These authorities should be actively committed to the project by building a partnership with other peer authorities, ensure strong policy leadership and steering of the project, and secure the exploitation of results, in particular scalability.

In the context of the present EACEA 10/2014 - Key Action 3 “Prospective initiatives: European policy experimentation” call, public authorities responsible for education, training, and youth at the highest institutional level (Ministries or equivalent) - hereafter referred to as “the responsible public authorities” - should aim at evaluating the potential impact of an innovative policy measure by testing it through trials in the field, on a sample of potential beneficiaries, before deciding whether it should be applied to the whole target population. Policy experimentations are inspired by so-called “experimental” or “semi-experimental” scientific methods that verify hypotheses in a “controlled” environment, i.e. through measurable direct interventions and comparisons (e.g. “before/after”, or “treated”/“non-treated” groups) instead of observational studies or theoretical analyses. The experimentation allows verifying a causality link between the measure and the change (or lack of change) in the sample that has occurred through the measure.

The present EACEA 10/2014 - Key Action 3 “Prospective initiatives: European policy experimentation” call supports European policy experimentations in two fields:

- Education and Training

- Youth

The objectives of the current call EACEA 10/2014 - Key Action 3 “Prospective initiatives: European policy experimentation” are to:

- Promote trans-national cooperation and mutual learning between competent authorities at the highest level in order to test and improve policy implementation systems, structures and processes, with a potentially significant impact

- Facilitate the collection and analysis of substantive evidence allowing the responsible public authorities to assess and monitor the implementation of innovative policies

- Identify key criteria and conditions for effective policy implementation and monitoring

- Facilitate transferability and scalability

Proposals submitted under the present EACEA 10/2014 - Key Action 3 “Prospective initiatives: European policy experimentation” call should tackle only one of the following priorities:

- Priority theme 1 - Education and Training: Assessment of transversal skills in basic and secondary education

- Priority theme 2 - Education and Training: Practical entrepreneurial experience at school

- Priority theme 3 - Education and Training: Cooperation on innovative methods for fast and smooth academic recognition across borders in higher education

- Priority theme 4 - Education and Training: Reducing the number of low skilled adults

- Priority theme 5 - Youth: Encouraging the development and internationalization of young people’s volunteering

The experimentations proposed under the present EACEA 10/2014 - Key Action 3 “Prospective initiatives: European policy experimentation” call should lead to significant results in particular in the following areas:

- 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 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, training and youth fields.

- 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.

The total budget available for the co-financing of projects under the present EACEA 10/2014 - Key Action 3 “Prospective initiatives: European policy experimentation” is EUR 10.000.000, and is divided in the following way among the two fields of operation:

- Education and Training: EUR 8.000.000;

- Youth: EUR 2.000.000

Financial contribution from the EU cannot exceed 75% of the total eligible costs. The maximum grant per project will be EUR 2.000.000.

The deadline for submitting proposals in the framework of the current EACEA 10/2014 - Key Action 3 “Prospective initiatives: European policy experimentation” call for proposals is 20 May 2014.

Further information on the current call for proposals is available on the European Commission’s web site at: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/funding/key-action-3-prospective-initiatives-european-policy-experimentation-eacea-102014_en