The University of Trento has won a funding of almost 870 thousand euros within the new program Erasmus+ for activities aimed at the promotion of international mobility.
The notification came from the Erasmus+ Indire National Italian Agency which awarded 40 of the 94 candidacies received from the Italian Universities; the selection was very competitive.
The new Erasmus+ call started off with some very important novelties: the European program plans for a further opening of the mobility to and from non-EU Countries (named partner Countries) compared to the previous LLP-Erasmus program, and allows the European universities to submit an autonomous candidacy, independently from the affiliation to a consortium. This issue rewards the universities which have a good academic reputation and an already solid and widespread network of international contacts.
The fundings the European Commission has allocated to the Italian National Agency have been very limited and distributed in different percentages depending on the geographical area. The estimated funding was a mere 1800 mobilities for all Italian universities.
The University of Trento put forward a candidacy for a total of 201 mobilities (140 mobilities for students and 61 for academic staff, both incoming and outgoing); all of them were accepted.
The evaluation, done for each single Country and primarily based on qualitative criteria, has taken into account some key elements: the strategy relevance, the quality of the cooperation agreements, the quality of the drafting and implementation of the project, and the ability to impact and to disseminate.
The funding of 865.490 euros will be used by the University of Trento to implement international mobility projects in the next 24 months with the purpose of studying and teaching, both for students and professors, in both directions. The scholarships for outgoing students will amount to 650 euros/month for 4-5 months stay; scholarships for foreign students (incoming) staying at the University of Trento will amount to 850 euros/month, in addition they will receive a contribution for travel expenses. Many are the destinations students and staff will be able to choose: Israel, Russia Federation, China, Mexico, Paraguay, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and USA.
«The work done during the last few years by the University of Trento in order to be recognised at the international level and especially toward non-EU Countries has made the difference», remarks Maurizio Marchese, pro-rector to the international development. «We are in a transition time, full of opportunities. The international mobility programs outside the EU which existed before this call were limited. But the Erasmus+ new rules and guidelines, which encourage the opening toward non-EU Countries, will give us the possibility to offer our students and our staff better qualified and more ample opportunities. The possibility to present ourselves autonomously in the competition for financing it is a challenge today we won due to our experience grown at the University of Trento in the Division of Cooperation and International Agreements, in various departments, and from my preceding colleague, professor Carla Locatelli. Now the objective is to pursue this road and to consolidate the result we achieved».
The program Erasmus+:
Erasmus+ is the program for education, training, youth and sports, which encompasses all former programs in the different areas of education (LLP, Youth in action, Erasmus Mundus, Tempus, Alfa, Adulink and the cooperation program with industrialised countries).
The program has been established with the Regulation (UE) n. 1288/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council of December 11, 2013; it is effective from January 1, 2014 till December 31, 2020. It is founded on 3 key Actions:
- Key Action 1: Individual mobility with the aim of learning; it supports students and staff mobility abroad for educational and professional purposes;
- Key Action 2: Cooperation regarding innovation and good practises;
- Key Action 3: Support for the reorganisation of politics
For further information:
http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/index_it.htm