Organisations wishing to bid for funding in 2018 through Erasmus+, the European Union's programme for education, training, youth and sport, can start to prepare their grant applications from today.

This year's budget has increased by €200 million since 2017, representing an increase of 8%.

The major changes since 2017 include:

• Additional opportunities for Erasmus+ higher education students to carry out traineeships aimed at gaining digital skills;
• The ErasmusPro initiative under VET mobility projects to boost long term mobility for VET learners;
• A new "Schools Exchange Partnerships" format under Strategic Partnerships to help schools better finding their way into cooperation projects;
• The action "Sector Skills Alliances" has been reintroduced to this Programme Guide;
• The funding rules for most actions have been fine-tuned;

As in 2016 and 2017, the 2018 Programme Guide places a special focus on encouraging projects supporting social inclusion (notably of refugees and migrants), as well as preventing radicalisation.

Opportunities on Erasmus+ Homepage: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/opportunities_en

Programme Guide 2018: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/sites/erasmusplus2/files/files/resources/erasmus-plus-programme-guide_en.pdf

Find out more at the National Erasmus+ Office (NEO) Georgia: http://erasmusplus.org.ge/en/Home