Leadership Development programme for higher education institutions’ leaders

The ERASMUS-EDU-2025-PI-FORWARD-HE-LD initiative is a grant opportunity under the Erasmus+ Programme, aimed at enhancing leadership capabilities within higher education institutions across Europe. The call was published on December 3, 2025, with a submission deadline of March 3, 2026, at 17:00 CET. The total budget for this grant is €1,000,000, with projects eligible for a maximum funding of €1,000,000 and an 80% funding rate, requiring 20% co-funding from other sources.

The program emphasizes developing innovative leadership approaches that promote green and digital transitions, innovative teaching techniques, and sustainable academic careers. It focuses on fostering European values through collaboration and participation among a diverse consortium of higher education institutions from EU and associated countries. This initiative is designed to create a European Leadership Academy, serving as a platform for mutual learning and best practice exchange.

Eligible applicants are mostly higher education institutions and other organizations involved in leadership development within the education sector. The funding mechanism is classified as a Lump Sum Grant, meaning that detailed budget estimations are necessary, but payments occur as a fixed sum rather than cost reimbursement.

The application process is structured as a single-stage submission, where applicants must submit complete proposals by the stated deadline. The evaluation of proposals will occur from March to May 2026, with outcomes communicated by June-July 2026 and grant agreements expected to be signed by October 2026. Success rates are not explicitly specified, but competition is anticipated to be high due to the limited funds available.

Overall, this call represents a significant opportunity for institutions to engage in transformative leadership practices that address the dynamic challenges of modern higher education, highlighting cooperation, innovation, and sustained impact across Europe.

This is a call for proposals under the Erasmus+ Programme, specifically Partnerships for Innovation: Forward-Looking Projects in Higher Education (ERASMUS-EDU-2025-PI-FORWARD-HE). The type of action is ERASMUS-LS, which stands for ERASMUS Lump Sum Grants. The type of Model Grant Agreement (MGA) is ERASMUS Lump Sum Grant [ERASMUS-AG-LS]. The call is currently open for submission with a single-stage deadline model. The opening date was December 3, 2025, and the deadline for submissions is March 3, 2026, at 17:00 Brussels time.

The expected impact of this action includes the establishment of a European Leadership Academy, creating a European community of leadership practice, connecting leaders of higher education institutions in Europe for mutual learning, exchange of practices, and co-creation of innovative solutions to shared challenges. It also aims to increase leadership expertise enabling transformative change in the higher education sector in Europe, facilitate higher education sector transformation in Europe based on transnational cooperation, academic freedom and other European approaches, develop attractive and sustainable academic careers in the higher education sector throughout the European Education Area, and inspire sustainable leadership models based on European values.

The main objective of this action is to develop leadership capabilities enabling transformative change in the higher education sector in Europe. This is in response to the changing geopolitical climate, societal challenges, technological advancement, new ways of teaching and learning, interaction with a wide range of stakeholders, and the new level of depth and scope of European higher education cooperation, all of which require diverse leadership skills to navigate through ever-evolving challenges.

The scope of the action involves developing and testing innovative leadership approaches, enabling leaders to guide their institutions through the green and digital transitions, advance innovative learning and teaching, and develop sustainable academic careers. The approaches used in the programme should be exploratory, experiential, and action-oriented, ensuring that leaders develop practical capabilities through engagement with authentic institutional challenges. It also includes shaping European leadership approaches based on European values and encouraging academic freedom, sustainability, diversity, and transnational cooperation, while ensuring balanced participation across gender, age, institutional profiles, and areas of expertise. By creating opportunities for leaders from a broad range of higher education institutions and sectors, the action will foster a richer exchange of perspectives and enable more innovative and systemic solutions. Furthermore, it involves providing visibility by effective communication and dissemination of outputs (learning materials, case studies, training resources, policy briefs, etc.) at institutional, national, and European levels.

Conditions for application include: Admissibility Conditions regarding proposal page limit and layout, which are described in the call document and Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System; Eligible Countries, which are described in the call document; and Financial and operational capacity and exclusion. The Evaluation and award process includes: Submission and evaluation processes, Award criteria, scoring and thresholds, which are described in the call document, and an Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement.

The indicative timeline is as follows: Publication of the call was on December 3, 2025. The deadline for submitting applications is March 3, 2026, at 17:00 (Brussels time). The evaluation period is from March to May 2026. Information to applicants will be provided in June-July 2026, and the signature of the grant agreement is expected by October 2026.

The call document and annexes include: the Call document itself, Application form templates (Standard application form for ERASMUS BB and LSII, and a Detailed budget table for ERASMUS LSII), Guidance documents (ERASMUS Programme Guide, Model Grant Agreements (MGA), and Lump Sum MGA), and Additional documents (ERASMUS+ Work Programme, ERASMUS Regulation 2021/817, EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment, EU Grants AGA Annotated Model Grant Agreement, Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual, Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions, and Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement).

The budget overview includes two topics: ERASMUS-EDU-2025-PI-FORWARD-HE-EDPP, with a budget of 7,000,000 EUR, and ERASMUS-EDU-2025-PI-FORWARD-HE-LD, with a budget of 1,000,000 EUR. Both are ERASMUS Lump Sum Grants and follow a single-stage submission process.

LEARs, Account Administrators, or self-registrants can publish partner requests for open and forthcoming topics after logging into the Portal, as well as any user having an active public Person profile.

To access the Electronic Submission Service, applicants should click on the submission button next to the type of action and the type of model grant agreement that corresponds to their proposal. To access existing draft proposals for this topic, applicants can log in to the Funding & Tenders Portal and select the My Proposals page of the My Area section.

For help related to this call, applicants can contact EACEA-PI-FORWARD-HE@ec.europa.eu. Additional support resources include the Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ Submission of proposals, the IT Helpdesk for technical questions, and the Online Manual for a step-by-step guide through the Portal processes.

In summary, this Erasmus+ call aims to foster leadership development within European higher education institutions to enable transformative change. It seeks to address current challenges by developing innovative leadership approaches focused on green and digital transitions, innovative learning and teaching, and sustainable academic careers. The call encourages transnational cooperation and the development of a European Leadership Academy to connect leaders and promote the exchange of best practices. The call provides funding through lump sum grants and offers various resources and support for applicants through the Funding & Tenders Portal.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated in the provided text. However, given the focus on higher education and the Erasmus+ program, it can be inferred that eligible applicants likely include higher education institutions, universities, and potentially other organizations involved in higher education leadership development. The mention of LEARs (Legal Entity Appointed Representatives) also suggests that legally recognized entities are eligible.

Funding Type: The funding type is a grant, specifically an "ERASMUS Lump Sum Grant".

Consortium Requirement: The text does not explicitly state whether a single applicant or a consortium is required. However, the mention of "partner requests" and "searches of partners to collaborate on this topic" suggests that consortia are possible and perhaps encouraged.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility is not explicitly stated, but given that it is an Erasmus+ program focused on higher education in Europe, it is highly likely that the beneficiary scope includes EU member states and potentially other countries participating in the Erasmus+ program. The call aims to create a European community of leadership practice, implying a focus on European institutions. The eligible countries are described in the call document.

Target Sector: The target sector is education, specifically higher education. The program focuses on developing leadership capabilities within higher education institutions to enable transformative change.

Mentioned Countries: No specific countries are mentioned in the provided text. However, the program is focused on higher education in Europe, so the relevant region is Europe.

Project Stage: The project stage appears to be focused on development and testing of innovative leadership approaches, as the scope includes "Developing and testing innovative leadership approaches, enabling leaders to guide their institutions through the green and digital transitions, advance innovative learning and teaching and develop sustainable academic careers." This suggests a stage beyond basic research and into practical application and validation.

Funding Amount: There are two topics: ERASMUS-EDU-2025-PI-FORWARD-HE-EDPP with a budget of 7,000,000 EUR and ERASMUS-EDU-2025-PI-FORWARD-HE-LD with a budget of 1,000,000 EUR. It is not specified how many grants will be awarded under each topic, but the total budget for each topic is specified.

Application Type: The application type is an open call, as indicated by "Open For Submission" and a specified deadline. It is a single-stage application process.

Nature of Support: The beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a lump sum grant.

Application Stages: The application process is single-stage.

Success Rates: The success rates are not mentioned in the provided text.

Co-funding Requirement: The text does not explicitly mention a co-funding requirement.

Summary:

This opportunity is an Erasmus+ grant call focused on developing leadership capabilities within the higher education sector in Europe. The call, Partnerships for Innovation: Forward-Looking Projects - Higher Education (ERASMUS-EDU-2025-PI-FORWARD-HE), aims to address the evolving challenges faced by higher education institutions due to the changing geopolitical climate, societal challenges, technological advancements, and new approaches to teaching and learning. The primary objective is to equip leaders with the skills necessary to navigate these challenges and drive transformative change within their institutions.

The call has two topics: ERASMUS-EDU-2025-PI-FORWARD-HE-EDPP with a budget of 7,000,000 EUR and ERASMUS-EDU-2025-PI-FORWARD-HE-LD with a budget of 1,000,000 EUR. The scope of the projects should include developing and testing innovative leadership approaches that enable leaders to guide their institutions through green and digital transitions, advance innovative learning and teaching, and develop sustainable academic careers. The approaches should be exploratory, experiential, and action-oriented, ensuring practical capability development through engagement with authentic institutional challenges.

The call also emphasizes shaping European leadership approaches based on European values, encouraging academic freedom, sustainability, diversity, and transnational cooperation. Balanced participation across gender, age, institutional profiles, and areas of expertise is also encouraged. The projects should provide visibility through effective communication and dissemination of outputs, such as learning materials, case studies, training resources, and policy briefs, at institutional, national, and European levels.

The call is a single-stage application process with a deadline of March 3, 2026, at 17:00 Brussels time. The evaluation period is from March to May 2026, and the grant agreements are expected to be signed by October 2026. Applicants should carefully review the call document and annexes for detailed information on admissibility conditions, eligible countries, evaluation criteria, and the legal and financial setup of the grants. The application must be submitted electronically through the Funding & Tenders Portal.