How to Find Erasmus Partners? A Brief & Updated Guide for You 🌍❤️

How to Find Erasmus Partners?

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How to Find Erasmus Partner: 9 Key Tips for You

You have the greatest Erasmus project proposal ever, with every single detail planned out… Yet, something is still missing. What? Your Erasmus partners! No worries: we are here for you, with a new set of tips about how to find Erasmus partner that perfectly suits your project goals.

Knowing where you are going is the first step to getting there

When looking for Erasmus partners, one of the most common mistakes is to start without having a clear idea about what we want.

Acting hastily will allow us to find a partner in no time. However, it doesn’t guarantee us that it will be the most suitable for what we want to achieve. Are we really ready to take this risk? If not, a good idea is to take a minute to think about the key themes of our project and find an answer to the following questions:

What areas should our Erasmus partner have experience/expertise in?
Which kind of organizations (NGOs, schools, juvenile associations, institutions etc.) will better suit our needs?
Will a small or large organisation suit you the best?
Are there specific countries and/or regions that we particularly want to connect with?

Answering the previous questions will help us not only to clarify what kind of partner we are looking for but also to write down the perfect “want ad” to find it.

Sometimes, the solution is closer than you think

Before using any other channel and/or tool, it is worth checking our own networks. They are likely the most reliable source of information and contacts at our disposal. Thus, let’s think about other organizations operating in our field: have they been involved in international projects? Perhaps they could put us in touch with their partners? It is always worth checking it out: in fact, even if the partner can’t join the exact project that we are planning, they may be able to recommend other organisations active in the same field and/or country.

How to find Erasmus partner? Harness the power of the internet!

If we can’t find the partner(s) that you are looking for through our own networks (or want to search through other channels, too) a good starting point is the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform.

Here we can find a list of the projects that the European Commission funded under Erasmus+ in the field of education, training, youth and sports. Browse the list by entering keywords relevant to your project to find contact details of an organisation or a project that interests you.

Each project information is organized around 3 tabs: “Project Details”, “Partners” and “Results”. In the first two tabs, we can find the contact details of the coordinator and the partners.

We also suggest taking a look at other non-institutional online tools, such as EU Partner search and Finding partners database.

Different needs require different tools

In addition to the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform, the EU offers other institutional tools. They are customized for different kinds of organizations and/or fields of activity (schools, organizations working in the field of adult education, youth organizations, VET organizations).

In particular:

Schools can find project partners through the “Strategic Partnership search” section of the School Education Gateway. Additionally, they can register with eTwinning to communicate, collaborate and develop projects with other schools interested in similar fields.
Adult Education organisations can browse for partners or create their own listings through the EPALE partner search section.
Youth organisations can look for project partners through OTLAS – the partner finding tool on the SALTO youth website.
Vocational Education and Training organisations can use the VET Mobility charter to link with other VET organisations and develop projects that involve VET learner and staff mobility. The charter is therefore a partnership-building tool and offers the function of searching by country.

Don’t forget social networks when wondering how to find Erasmus partner!

Social networks (especially Facebook and Linkedin) are a powerful partnership search tool. If your organization has its own Facebook and/or Linkedin page, use it to publish a “want ad”. Such an ad should describe the kind of partner you are looking for and ask your followers for recommendations.

In addition to this, a key strategy is to join Facebook and/or Linkedin groups dedicated to Erasmus+ partnership. Here we listed some of the most used ones.

Facebook:

Linkedin:

Moreover…

A big variety of NGOs worldwide are often open for collaboration on social projects. Just try contacting them directly through their websites. You can find some cool NGOs listed here:

Top NGOs in Lithuania

If you can’t find the right partner(s) online, do not despair!

In this case, you may apply for the National Erasmus+ Offices and/or the Erasmus+ National Agencies. They will give you additional and customized tips about where to find partners and what criteria to use in the process of selection. Besides, these agencies have the contacts of the representatives of the other countries and can put you into contact with potential project partners.

We can also take a look at the upcoming EU Transnational Cooperation Activities (TCA), aimed at strengthening cooperation across Europe. In particular, a key tip is to attend the TCA Contact Seminars. They are intended specifically for finding partners and developing project ideas.

Don’t forget to sign up on our partners’ list!

To get our partnership offers, don’t forget to fill the dedicated sign-up form on the Active Youth website. You can also check our Erasmus PIF and all the projects that we have implemented. Because our past record speaks louder than words.

How to Find Erasmus Partners?