The European Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union on January 10th, 2009 a new call under Erasmus Mundus Programme 2009-2013, inviting to submit proposals aiming to promote cooperation between higher education institutions and academic staff in Europe and Third Countries.

The Erasmus Mundus programme's overall aim is to promote European higher education, to help improve and enhance the career prospects of students and to promote intercultural understanding through cooperation with Third Countries, in accordance with EU external policy objectives in order to contribute to the sustainable development of Third Countries in the field of higher education.

Within this general objective Call for Proposals EAC/04/09 Action I for Erasmus Mundus Joint Programmes aims at fostering cooperation between higher education institutions and academic staff in Europe and Third Countries with a view to creating poles of excellence and providing highly trained human resources.

Actions funded will specifically aim to support postgraduate programmes of outstanding academic quality, jointly developed by consortia of European and, where relevant, Third-Country Universities and that could contribute to the increased visibility and attractiveness of the European Higher Education sector. Such joint programmes must involve mobility between the consortia Universities and lead to the award of recognised joint, double or multiple degrees.

There are two type of actions which can funded under Action I:

• Action 1A — Erasmus Mundus Master Courses (EMMCs)
• Action 1B — The Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorates (EMJDs)

At least 15 new proposals and up to 36 renewal proposals will be selected within Action 1A, and 10 new proposals within Action 1B. These actions will have no direct budgetary impact in 2009.

For each of the selected proposals, a five year Framework Partnership Agreements (FPA) will be issued in the summer of 2009. These FPA's will give rise to the award of annual Specific Grant Agreements starting from the academic year 2010/2011 which will include on the one hand a financial support to the consortia implementing the joint programmes and on the other a yearly defined number of individual scholarships for European and Third-Country students, doctoral candidates and scholars.

Eligible Applicants and Deadlines

The submission deadline for the Erasmus Mundus Master Courses (Action 1A) and Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate Programme (Action 1B) is set for April 30th, 2009.

In order to facilitate the identification of experts with the relevant academic and research expertise, applicants for Action 1B — Joint Doctorate Programmes are invited to submit a short description of the joint programme preferably one month in advance, i.e. by March 31st , 2009.

Applicants must send their Proposals to the following address:

Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency
Call for proposals EAC/04/09
Att. Mr Joachim Fronia
BOUR 00.37
Avenue du Bourget 1
B-1040 Brussels

The Erasmus Mundus Programme Guide as well as the relevant application forms are available at the Erasmus Mundus website.