Two minutes Tuesday

The new Erasmus + deadline is approaching.

Have you had a look at the new application? (You can download the template forms here). In short, the new project application of the Erasmus Plus 2022 call for proposals has some new features. Some sections change, but the main difference to the previous form is the introduction of work packages (WPs).

As you know, for a long time innovation projects within Strategic Partnerships were characterised by the presence of so-called “Intellectual Outputs” (IOs), which were the main tangible results of a project.

From now on, in the application form, project activities will be grouped into work packages. The new application form provides for a maximum of 5 work packages, including transversal activities such as dissemination activities. This will obviously change the way you structure and design your project plan.

In this article, we will describe what a work package is and how to design it into your application form.

Probably, most of you have already used work packages to describe the project plan even though the application did not require them.

But, let’s start from the beginning. What is a work package?

A work package is a building block of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) that allows you to define the steps necessary for the completion of the work. As such, a work package can be thought of as a sub-project (or a group of related tasks within a project), which, when combined with other work package units, forms the completed project.

It is commonly known and agreed upon that breaking down work into manageable pieces (work packages) is a process that helps you to design, manage and monitor your project effectively. Also, it allows partnerships to work simultaneously or sequentially on different tasks of the project. Each team follows the steps defined in the work package plan and completes them by the specified deadline. When all teams have finished their individual work packages, the whole project comes together and the objectives have been achieved.

Depending on the kind of tasks, work packages can be focused on the tasks that will lead to the main project’s results, or they can be also concerned with the management and implementation of the project.

As a work package can be considered as a sub-project, the key elements of a work package resemble those of a project. They include the following:

1. Work package objectives

Each work package aims to achieve one or more of the project objectives. The description of the work package should start with the statement of those project objective(s) which the work package aims to achieve. As for the project in general, the work package objectives define the methods, actions, and evaluation of the work package outputs and outcomes.

2. Description of activities

To achieve the work package objectives, a series of activities need to be undertaken by the project team. The work package plan should describe these activities in a comprehensive, logically structured and clear way.

Specifically, attention should be paid to:

– the link between the objectives, methods and activities, and  results (outputs and outcomes) of the work package

– the link with the objectives, methods, and activities, and results (outputs and outcomes) for the project in general.

3. Timetable with milestones

All activities to be undertaken in the work package must be presented in a realistic timetable, taking into account the fact that some activities must be completed before others may start. In most projects, months are used as the unit for the timing of the activities (e.g. Gantt chart).

In addition to the earliest start date and latest completion date of the work package, the timetable should also define clear milestones. A milestone is a scheduled event signifying an important decision-making moment or the achievement of a key result, allowing the next phase of the work to begin. Milestones can be used as project checkpoints to validate how the project is progressing, thus allowing proper monitoring of the project implementation. 

Milestones and indicators (or key performance indicators) are distinctly different elements. Milestones are sometimes referred to as indicators in terms of indicating a point in time of the project however indicators are used to measure performance; milestones are used to track progress, time management or mark when a new activity will begin. So let’s say that indicators are measures (both qualitative and quantitative) that allow you to track progress towards achieving the changes you wish to achieve.

4. Results (outputs and outcomes)

The activities of the work package should result in specific outputs, which are the products or services resulting from the activities and linked to the objectives. The work package plan should clearly state which outputs and outcomes are foreseen. Certain work package outputs may take the form of deliverables. A deliverable is a physical output related to a specific objective of the project, e.g. a report, publication, newsletter, tool, website, or conference. They need to be specified and listed in the work package plan.

5. Roles and responsibilities

In collaborative projects, work packages are usually divided between the organisations which collaborate in the project. Although different organisations can contribute to a work package, it is important that one organisation is in charge (WP Leader). The work package plan should make clear which organisation is responsible for the work package. Furthermore, it should be specified which activities (or tasks) will be carried out by whom and with whom (Leading organisation or Task Leader), and who in the organisation will oversee the completion of the work package. This may be a manager, supervisor, team leader, or a designated team member.

6. Relationship to other work packages

Breaking down a project into different work packages is a way to manage the steps that are necessary for the completion of the project. Therefore, it is important to ensure the integration of the work of each work package within the broader project framework. The relationship of work packages to other work packages can be made explicit by stating how the actions build on the results of other work packages, and how the outputs and outcomes will be used by others. The interrelation between the work packages can also be made explicit via a Gantt chart.

Having understood the roles of the work packages in Erasmus +, let us turn to our top tips for structuring them successfully.

The work packages should be derived from the project’s description, which in turn is derived from the project’s objectives.

When the time comes to define the project plan and lay down the work packages structure, it is important to also make it clear to the evaluator how this work plan is actually serving the project’s objectives. 

The best place to address this is at the beginning of the Work Package section (“What are the specific objectives of this work package and how do they contribute to the general objectives of the project?”). The way to do this is by linking each work package (or a combination of work packages) to the relevant objective(s) of the project. 

When doing so, make sure that the work plan presentation is clear and smooth with no gaps or unwanted overlaps. This will convey a very powerful message to the evaluator as well as a positive impression overall about your project.

Work packages reflect the collaborative work envisaged in the project and the structure of the work package table requires listing the partners participating in the work package. 

Therefore, it is important to make sure that partners fully understand what is expected of them in this regard and in the light of the project’s “big picture”. During this process, keep the following guidelines in mind:

• Collaboration between partners is an important added value of this type of project. Please note that this reflection on the added value of collaboration should also be presented in the “Partnership and cooperation arrangements” section.
• The work plan and the structure of the work package must make perfect sense to the evaluators (and to you, for the implementation phase going forward).
• Avoid redundancies, overlaps, and gaps between activities/tasks within a given work package, and between different work packages.
• Use work packages and activity/task assignments to partners within work packages to express workflow and collaborative work. Use it wisely and clearly in a way that will allow evaluators to follow your logic.

The profile description of the partners is provided in the section “Participating Organisations”. These partner profiles include both general information alongside relevant skills and expertise of key staff/persons involved in the project. This information is essential for the evaluators when assessing the feasibility of the work plan, the personnel involved in the execution of the project, and the added value of the collaborative work.

Therefore, when drafting the work packages and work plan, we would recommend updating this information accordingly.

Verify that the skills and expertise of key staff involved in the project correlate to the expected activities/tasks.

The work presented in the work package is the primary justification for the requested budget. It is imperative that the work plan will be well designed in order for the evaluators to properly assess the budget request, especially now that the budget is allocated on a lump sum basis. Investing in this properly will also be beneficial to you and your partners during the execution phase.

The basic information provided in the work packages about the budget request is the person-months allocation per partner in each of the work packages that you can describe in the section “Please explain how the grant amount attributed to this work package constitutes a cost-effective use of the budget”.

To begin with, the estimated human effort by work package can be calculated as follows (indicative method): if 1 year = 220 (working) days, then 1 month = 220/12 = 18.33 (working) days. So 24 full working days for one person would be 24/18.33 = 1.31 person‑months.

To calculate the total person‑months, multiply the proportion of your effort associated with the project by the number of months of the appointment.  

Of course, this person-months allocation must be well correlated to the work presented in the work package and it must make sense to the evaluators.

We would recommend improving this presentation by providing the evaluators with as much detail as possible, e.g. by indicating the allocation of person-months at activity/task level, in addition to presenting this information only at the work package level.

In turn, the evaluators will have a better picture that will enable them to better assess the plan. We know from experience that this will probably leave a great impression on the evaluators. They will respect your efforts in producing such a higher resolution of planning.

Doing this right ensures the budget estimations of the partners and the overall work plan will be more accurate. Needless to say that this is good for both evaluation and implementation purposes.

In this article we will provide you with an overview on how to fill in the section dedicated to the selection and involvement of the participants in different activities of your project.

Before getting to the heart of the matter, you should define who the participants of your project are. We can consider as participants all the individuals involved in the project, from the project staff to the people reached through the dissemination activities.

This category varies depending on the context/sector in which you intend to operate, and on the objectives addressed by the project, so it is different from project to project. 

We assume that, before writing the project proposal, you have already contacted all of the project partners and they have selected the most skilled staff persons to be involved in the project, based on the project topic. This is fundamental to assess the resources you have for implementing your project. You should describe the tools, activities and criteria used for selecting and involving the project staff. You could also have defined a common procedure and selection criteria for all the partners, to guarantee the same prerequisites and basic competences.

After identifying the project staff, you should be clear who the other participants are that will take part in your project. 

You can use different approaches to do this.

The one we are using is to identify the other participants into different groups of individuals and organisations that will be involved in the future phases and activities of the project, as follows:

• primary target group
• final beneficiaries
• stakeholders
• external evaluators
• etc…

Then, we describe the selection criteria (1) and the procedure (2) that we have used.

1. The criteria are based on the activities in which they will be involved (i.e. if we plan to involve stakeholders in a transnational network related to the project they must have: a) interest in developing competences and share experiences on the project topic b) interest in discover experiences and points of view of individual coming from other countries or c) the possibility to support the network with their work..etc)…

2. The methodologies used can be different and may vary from specific activities foreseen for the creation of the results (i.e. questionnaire, focus groups, etc..) to procedure for informing the participants (meetings, open discussions, etc…) and assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the materials produced (interview, test, observation, etc…)

At the end, you should provide a realistic and detailed picture of the people and organisations involved in the activities, which in different ways will help you to reach your project results.

In this article, we will analyse in detail the sections dedicated to the description of how and why partners are involved in different project activities in terms of contributions, tasks assigned and responsibilities.

In an Erasmus+ application form for a Strategic Partnership these sections can be the following:

• How did you choose the project partners and what will they bring to the project? Does it involve organisations that have never previously been involved in a Strategic Partnerships project?
• How will the tasks and responsibilities be distributed among the partners?

As Learnable, over the last years, we have changed the way we design these sections, so we can give to the evaluator all the information for analysing the partnership’s potential and effectiveness. This final layout has been defined through a comparison of previously approved projects and suggestions provided by the evaluators.

In the previous article “Two Minutes Tuesday #2 How to create a successful partnership in 5 steps”, we defined 5 useful steps for defining your partnership. 

In short, we underlined the importance of using the following qualitative criteria when you have to select the organisations involved in your project proposal: 

• expertise on the project topic
• interest in achieving the project results
• resources for carrying out the project activities
• capacity of involvement of the project target groups and analysis of their needs 
• sustainability potential

The logical framework could be: we have a project idea < we need specific expertise and resources < we demonstrate that the partners have the needed expertise and resources.

You should describe to what extent the single partners have the needed expertise and resources (how you have chosen the partners) and how they will use their expertise and resources for achieving the project goals (what they will bring to the project).

All you describe here must be well founded by the single descriptions of the project partners included in the dedicated section. 

A good distribution is the key. Make sure to demonstrate to the evaluator that different competences, tasks and roles have correctly distributed so to cover all the project aspects ensuring a good balance also from the geographical point of view. 

It may happen that not all the organisations interested in being part of your partnership have been previously involved in  Erasmus + projects. In this case, don’t worry. To have a few newcomers (remember the balance) is considered an added value. The European Commission supports the inclusion of new organisations without experience in this field. It is good to foresee for these partners some kind of support by the more expert ones in order not to compromise the project results.

Based on the different competences of the partners you should describe their roles and responsibilities. 

To describe these elements you should have:

You must describe a very clear and detailed overview of the partnership’s roles and responsibilities. You should have defined these aspects even before, at the beginning of the project idea. Making a good plan means you have decided in advance who is doing what and why.

As a project coordinator, you have the big picture of the potential contribution of the partners involved but the decisions about roles and responsibilities must be the results of a shared agreement.

From the very beginning, in a dedicated section, you have described each single partner with relevant information about its expertise on the topic of the project. Considering that, the tasks assigned must be in line with these descriptions.

For sure the coordinator will have a lot of responsibilities regarding the management of the project. But the project is made from the contribution of each partner, no one excluded. The point is: every organisation must actively participate in the project activities to achieve the project’s results.

Having a good partnership is a prerequisite for the success of the project. In the next article, we will see how participants could contribute significantly to reach the project’s objectives!

In what way is the project innovative and/or complementary to other projects already carried out by the participating organisations?

In this article we will provide you with an overview on how to fill in the section dedicated to the innovation of the project and its complementarity with other projects already carried out. We are focusing mainly on the application form for an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership for a Development of Innovation project (KA2).

Sometimes we receive project proposals from partners with a deep knowledge on a specific topic such as universities, tech companies, etc. These kinds of organisations very often are focused on the problem to be solved, but they completely lose the focus on the innovation dimension. The more you specialise in a specific topic, the more difficult it will be to apply lateral thinking to implementing innovative methodologies, processes and tools.

The fact of being so specialised, often, is an obstacle in considering alternative perspectives and connecting the dots between different sectors or methodologies. In this case, these organisations perfectly know the problem and the target groups’ needs, but they have some difficulties in finding solutions applying their perspective. This is the reason why the problem is still unsolved. 

In our experience to identify the innovation a step back is needed. You should consider the big picture by analysing possible contaminations and connections to different areas/fields.

For Erasmus+ project proposals, the innovation is as important as the problem to be solved.

The innovation can be related to:

• The field for which you are applying (VET, Youth, …): the project will produce results that do not exist in that field. You can consider the opportunity to transfer a specific methodology or approach, from a field to another if it is innovative and effective for solving the problem identified.
• The geographical area: the project will produce innovative results for a specific geographical context in which the project is implemented. Your project proposal could be focused on a transfer of innovation from a most advanced geographical context in that particular topic to a less advanced one.
• The content of the outputs produced by the project: the project will produce contents or outputs that are not yet available at European level and are something completely new such as a new methodology, technology, tool, etc…
• The working methods applied: the project will apply a different working method for solving a specific problem.
• The target groups (the organisations and persons involved or targeted): the innovation can consist in the inclusion of a different target group than that usually addressed by the methodology or technology considered. It can be the case, for example, of technologies normally used in the industrial sector that you want to exploit for training purposes.
• The added value for the ecosystem: the project will add to the existing knowledge, know-how and/or practices of the organisations and persons involved

The project innovation shouldn’t end in itself but should be a clear added value for the project results. It should aim at producing new learning opportunities, skills development, access to information, recognition of learning outcomes, etc…. 

The project can be complementary to other projects, the results of which are already available and can be considered as a starting point of our project. In this case you must carefully demonstrate a significant added value compared to the previous project results or in terms of new target groups, educational, training or youth activities or geographical spread.

Compared to the previous project, your project proposal must contribute to improving the quality of teaching/learning training in the countries participating in the project. 

Usually it happens when some partners involved in a previous successful project decide to submit another proposal to extend its results. In this case it is an added value to have most of the partners contributing to the previous project results on board in your new proposal, so as to ensure a proper understanding of the future developments and improvements.

Here are some tips for improving your innovation potential:

• Ensure that your organizations truly understand the needs of the sector you are applying;
• Establish collaborative relationships with organisations coming from different sectors. It is extremely important to have different perspectives in a specific topic/problem;
• Allocate resources for training and development of your staff;
• Create a culture for change and continuous improvement;
• Develop lateral thinking and creativity
• Be curious!

What results are expected during the project and on its completion?

In this article, we will analyse in detail what is required on the second section of the Erasmus+ application form for a strategic partnership project in the field of education, training and youth.

This section is dedicated to the description of the expected results related to your project.

We, as Learnable, during the years, have changed the way we structured this section. This final layout has been defined through a comparison of previously approved projects and suggestions provided by the evaluators.

To bring you closer to achieving your objectives, the project should produce certain results. Project results are extremely important because they fill the gap in relation to the needs identified and contribute to solving the existing problem. In fact, on the basis of the problem you have identified, you can define what results can be expected from your project in line with the specific objectives previously described (Two minute Tuesday #4 –  the context, objectives, needs and target groups to be addressed).

Example:

To continue with the example we are describing from the beginning of these series of articles, assuming that the main problem is that the company management doesn’t have up-to-date knowledge on new technologies, the project results can be defined as increased competencies on new technologies. This improvement must be achieved through the project activities.

We can say that the type of results will vary depending on the type and the aim of the project. They may be tangible and intangible results and address internal and external target groups.

In our case, tangible results are the intellectual outputs of the project, such as, for example, curricula, guidelines, pedagogical materials, open educational resources (OER), IT tools, analysis, studies, peer learning methods, etc. The list doesn’t end here. You should define different intellectual outputs according to the objectives previously identified.

Example: One of the tangible results addressing the problem can be a MOOC, an online training course for managers.

Intangible results are referred to any achievement that the project intends to produce for internal and external target groups. For example:

• knowledge and experience gained;  
• increased skills or achievements;
• improved cultural awareness; 
• better language skills.

The enhancement of skills and competencies (whether linguistic, social, or methodological) can be better defined if they are associated with a specific target audience (primary target group, final beneficiaries and stakeholders).

Example: An intangible result for managers that need to improve their digital literacy can be improved e-skills (primary target group)

A well made “results” section must meet the following requirements.

The evaluator should understand that there is a direct link between the objectives that we intend to reach and the results identified. In fact, the results should be defined in relation to specific objectives.

We have to demonstrate that the results are identified from an analysis of the resources we have, such as, for example, the expertise of the partnership, budget available and timeline defined. That means that the results must be coherent and consistent with the size, profile and capacities of the applicant organisation and project partners, within the budget allocated and the duration of the project. In most cases, we tend to underestimate the work-plan and the time we need to reach the expected results.

Both tangible and intangible results must be measurable. Although tangible results are easy to measure, we cannot say the same for the intangible results. We recommend the use of interviews, questionnaires, tests, observations or self-assessment mechanisms to help record this type of result.

Don’t forget that we are designing a project under Key Action 2: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices. In this case, the project must produce results that will be innovative for its field in general, or for the geographical context in which the project is implemented. We will focus on the innovative dimension in the next Two minute Tuesday article.

For now, we have designed the structure of your project. In the next Two Minute Tuesday article, we will focus on how your project can reach the expected results!

Please explain the context and the objectives of your project as well as the needs and target groups to be addressed. Why should this project be carried out transnationally?

In this article we will analyse in detail what is required to be included in the first section of the application form for a Strategic Partnership Erasmus+ project: Please explain the context and the objectives of your project as well as the needs and target groups to be addressed. Why should this project be carried out transnationally?

We have extensive European experience, as coordinators and partners in different Erasmus+ projects. During this time, we learned a lot and understood how to write a successful project proposal.  

Now, we will be sharing with you all we know in order to give you inputs and suggestions to better prepare your application.

It’s time to capitalise the work previously done for finding the project idea.

You may already have collected enough information and materials related to your project idea (problem tree, objectives tree, what is the problem and how to solve it, what is your target group, etc…) and now you need to organise your information according to your application form requests.

It is important to understand that the following process is not intended as a tool for collecting the needed information, but as a framework for organising information you already have.

Below you can find the logical structure we use to complete this section of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership application form:

• • Huston, we have a problem (context + final beneficiaries + needs of final beneficiaries)
  • We know how to help you (objectives)
  • We are sending you the right persons (primary target group)
  • We are giving them the right instructions (needs)
  • We are contacting the base stations around you to give support (transnational dimension)

It is just a joke and all will become clear in the next paragraphs.

When you describe the context your goal should be to create a framework for orienting the evaluator. The evaluator can be a non-expert in that particular technology or methodology and needs to understand what is the main problem your project is addressing. The problem should be described by defining qualitative and quantitative key elements, the people or organisations affected by the problem (final beneficiaries), and their needs. The evaluator will evaluate if the problem you want to address is actual and relevant for the specific field you want to apply for.

Are we talking about youth unemployment, creativity for primary schools, ICT tools for the VET system, entrepreneurship, inclusion, etc…?

By this point, you have described the context of your project (What is the problem you want to solve? Why is it so relevant?). The next step is to describe the project’s objectives. You must describe what you want to achieve by implementing the project.

To develop objectives you should start from the identified problems and turn them into positive action. 

If, for example, the main problem is that the company management doesn’t have up-to-date knowledge on new technologies, the project objective may be to increase management competencies on new technologies.

This broad and wide objective must be made more specific and clear:

The project objectives should be:

• clearly defined 
• specific – they must be described in detail and refer to specific problems
• measurable – they must be measured and translated into results
• realistic – they can be achieved by taking into account the nature and experience of the partnership and within the implementation of the project
• relevant to the participating organisations and target groups
• linked with the priorities 

Example: To increase e-leadership skills in companies in order to benefit from the use of new technologies.

The more precisely the goals are set, the easier it is to choose the right tools to achieve them.

After having defined the specific objective of your project it’s time to describe what is your target group and its needs. Project target groups include people or organisations directly addressed by the project outcomes. If you are creating educational materials for VET trainers your target group will be that one. 

Do not mistake the target group with final project beneficiaries. In some cases, the target group and the final beneficiaries are the same. In other cases, they can be different. 

Example: if you are working on the production of educational materials for improving VET trainers’ competencies in delivering a training course for e-leaders, VET trainers will be your target group, and managers and companies on which that training will impact will be the project’s final beneficiaries.

You must describe the target group’s needs related to the specific objective you want to focus on. If you consider our example, you must prove that VET trainers need educational materials and specific training for delivering training courses on e-leadership.

You must base your needs’ description on solid analysis, drawing on existing knowledge, know-how, and your direct experience. The needs analysis must be very well established.

Be sure that the needs identified are relevant for the field under which the proposal is intended and are clearly linked to those priorities that the project intends to meet.

Can your project be implemented in only one country obtaining the same results? If yes, it does not make sense to apply for an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership project.

The proposal must bring added value at the EU level through results that would not be attained by activities carried out in a single country.

You must describe how and why the transnational dimension clearly adds value in terms of project outcomes and why the participating organisations will be able to achieve results that would not be reached by organisations from a single country.