International Training Projects

The 2021-2027 European Framework Programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport supports activities and actions in several sectors, including higher education.

Open to all, this programme enables institutions to work together through innovative partnerships of excellence, while promoting mobility for training, teaching, study or placement purposes, whether virtual, hybrid or physical. It aims to give students, trainees, pupils, apprentices, teachers, trainers, staff, jobseekers, young people etc. the opportunity to spend time abroad to enhance their knowledge, skills and employability in the face of ever-increasing globalisation.

For this new 2021-2027 programme, its budget has been increased by 80% to €26.2 billion.

This increase is explained by the European Union's willingness to support the development of a European education area and an even greater opening up of higher education institutions to the world. The programme places strong emphasis on social inclusion, ecological and digital transitions and the promotion of young people's participation in democratic life.

Within the management of projects funded under the Erasmus+ programme, Le Mans University respects the principles of the Erasmus+ Charter for Higher Education (obtained in 2021) and of its Erasmus strategy.

Whether in the framework of mobility projects or partnerships, Le Mans University conducts its internationalisation strategy in accordance with, and in support of, four major transversal priorities: diversity and inclusion, green transition, digital transformation and participation in democratic life. During the selection process, Le Mans University applies the principles of non-discrimination, equal opportunities and accessibility of the programme to people with disabilities.

More information about the programme.

Each year, the University welcomes nearly 1,500 international students of around 100 different nationalities, representing nearly 16% of its total enrolment. The international activity of Le Mans University is an important parameter of its attractiveness and influence, and is one of the foundations of its institutional strategy.

The objectives are multiple: to build an ecosystem that favors innovation, technology transfer and the development of partnership activities and to constitute a privileged interface between the University and the socio-economic and institutional world.

Thus, the Erasmus+ programme and its actions constitute an essential support for the realisation of this long-term strategy. That is why the institution reiterates its commitment to implement the best possible conditions for achieving the objectives set in accordance with the principles of the Erasmus+ Charter.

The training project engineering unit of the International Relations office is part of the network of Erasmus+ developers, of the Pays-de-la-Loire Region. It can advise and support you in setting up and managing a European or international training project (Erasmus+ or other funding).

You can contact them at: projetri @ univ-lemans.fr (projetri @ univ-lemans.fr)

KA 131 - International mobility financed by internal policy funds, towards the 27 EU member states and 6 associated countries (Northern Macedonia, Serbia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Turkey).

This funding supports the outgoing mobility of teaching, technical and administrative staff, whether permanent or contractual, as well as the mobility of students for internships or studies in the institutions/organisations of the participating countries.

Focus on the "BIP" (Blended Intensive Programme)

This new type of funding allows Le Mans University to organise short single or multi-disciplinary programmes for learning, teaching and training purposes for students and staff between a minimum of 3 European higher education institutions.
Thus, groups of students or staff, from 3 different institutions, can undertake a short physical mobility abroad (between 5 and 30 days), combined with a compulsory virtual component facilitating collaborative online learning based on exchange and teamwork.
Learners will be required to come together online to work collectively and simultaneously on specific activities that will be integrated into this intensive programme.
A minimum of 3 ECTS credits should be awarded to students.

KA 171- International mobility financed by the external policy funds, towards the international (except for the countries mentioned above).

These funds support the incoming and outgoing mobility of teachers, administrative and support staff and students from partner countries and higher education institutions for which Le Mans Université has requested funds to support its internationalisation strategy. The applications (teaching, training, studies and internships) are identified each year internally by the training project engineering unit of the International Relations office, which submits the application.

Current projects :

• Project 2020-2023 : 8 partner institutions in Tunisia, Ukraine and Morocco (Ref. 2020-1-FR01-KA107-077753) for a total of 166 funded mobilities for 3 academic years.
• Project 2022-2025 : 7 partner institutions in Armenia, Cameroon and Madagascar (Ref. 2022-1-FR01-KA171-HED-000078415) for a total of 105 mobilities funded for 3 academic years.

Erasmus+ programme Key Action 2

The key Action 2 of the Erasmus+ programme is entirely dedicated to the funding of partnership projects that promote international cooperation and the exchange of good practices. There are a variety of actions proposed, ranging from simple cooperation partnerships to innovation and excellence partnerships.

Innovation Alliances (formerly Knowledge Alliances) aim to strengthen Europe's innovation capacity by stimulating innovation through cooperation and knowledge flow between higher education, vocational education and training (initial and continuing), and the wider socio-economic environment including research.

They also aim to stimulate the supply of new skills and address the mismatch between supply and demand for skills by designing and creating new programmes for higher education and vocational education and training (VET), contributing to the development of entrepreneurship and initiative in the EU.

Who can apply?

Alliances for Innovation are ambitious and selective cooperation projects, a European consortium including at least 8 organisations from 4 programme countries is required, including at least 3 labour market actors and 3 education and training providers (1 higher education institution and 1 vocational training institution). The project runs for 24 or 36 months and is elegibile for funding up to EUR 1 million or EUR 1.5 million, depending on the duration.

Presentation of the ASKnow project

Since 2020, Le Mans University has been leading the ASKnow knowledge alliance project (project sheet), coordinated locally by Manuel Melon, teacher-researcher in the Department of Acoustics.

This project aims to develop innovative, intuitive and freely accessible academic content covering all sub-disciplines of acoustics. The alliance is composed by 4 European higher education institutions and 4 companies :

• KU Leuven University (Belgium)
• The University of Zagreb (Croatia)
• The University of Aachen (Germany)
• Jazzy Pro(Poland)
• KFB Acoustics(Poland)
• Kahle Acoustics (Belgium)
• Head acoustics (Germany)

The 5 courses developed under the alliance will aim to be different from the books and online content already published. They will offer a more advanced and effective experience than current MOOCs which do not allow for interactive content. The idea is also to improve acoustic skills according to the specific needs of the labour market in the context of lifelong learning. Improving the acoustic skills of (future) entrepreneurs will enable them to become leading experts both locally and on international markets.

Find out more about the project

The "Small-scale" cooperation partnership

Small-scale partnerships are designed to widen and facilitate access to the Erasmus+ programme. They allow to discover European cooperation "on a small scale" in a perspective of support to inclusion, citizenship and to bring the European dimension at local level. They are particularly aimed at organisations with little experience of running an Erasmus+ cooperation project in a flexible way. They should strengthen the capacity of applicants to work transnationally, improve the quality of work and practice, and enable transformation and change (at individual, organisational or sectoral level).

Who can apply?

Small-scale partnerships require the participation of at least 2 institutions (school sector, vocational education and training, adult education) from 2 programme countries or associated countries (27 EU countries + Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Republic of North Macedonia, Turkey and Serbia). These projects are cross-sectoral and higher education institutions can also contribute to the activities.

Presentation of the project "STEP - A step forward in teaching languages in the digital era

Coordinated by the Official School of Languages EIO RIO of Barbastro in Spain, the STEP project is locally led by Mohammed Oubella, referent of the PIX certificaton and teacher in computer science at the University of Le Mans. The John Daly Atlantic Language School in Galway, Ireland, is also a partner of the project.

The project aims to take a step towards the learning centres of the future, analysing different teaching modalities: blended learning, online teaching, hybrid classes or simultaneous classes, in a multilingual, collaborative and ecologically sustainable context. Thus promoting equal opportunities in rural areas through the digitisation of education by involving students, teachers, and staff in the whole process.

Erasmus Mundus Action

This action aims to promote the excellence and internationalisation of higher education institutions through Master's level study programmes, delivered and recognised jointly by higher education institutions based in Europe and open to institutions in other countries of the world. It aims to strengthen international cooperation between partners, improve the skills and employability of students and increase synergies between higher education, research and innovation. It actively contributes to the construction of the European Higher Education Area.

This action is divided into two parts: Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters Degrees and Erasmus Mundus Design Measures.

Presentation of the Healthy AGErasmus project

This project has been awarded a 15-month lump sum for Erasmus Mundus Design Measures (joint coordination on all aspects that will govern the future joint Masters programme) to encourage the development of new, innovative and high-level international Masters programmes. It will involve programme countries, institutions and/or disciplines that are currently under-represented in the Erasmus Mundus Masters catalogue.

The "Healthy AGErasmus" project is developed by a consortium of five different European universities (Spain, Denmark, France, Poland and Portugal) around the issue of active ageing of the European population. It foresees the co-construction of a joint European Master's degree, with courses and seminars taught by both academics of the highest scientific level and practitioners of physical activities sciences in older populations, geriatrics and gerontology. One of the objectives will therefore be to train graduates who are able to meet the growing demand and who will become highly qualified professionals to promote and develop interventions in the field of active ageing. This project is coordinated at the University of Le Mans by Bruno Beaune, teacher-researcher in the STAPS department.

Presentation of the PREFALC call

Each year the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme launch the call for projects of the Regional Programme France Latin America Caribbean (PREFALC).

The PREFALC programmes aim to support French higher education institutions wishing to develop partnerships with Latin American/Caribbean universities by setting up missions for teacher-researchers over a period of approximately two years.

These missions are intended to promote exchanges and training at Master's level in various fields (more information on the official page).

• New: PREFALC "summer schools"

The aim is to co-finance the organisation of thematic summer schools at Master's level, which are part of Franco-Latin American and Caribbean training offers, and which give the right to certified hours credits.
Thus, two summer schools will be financed per selected project, organised in Latin America/Caribbean, favouring the mobility of French teacher-researchers.
Emphasis will be placed on the possibility of including hybrid modules.

Presentation of a PREFALC project at Le Mans University

"Agriculture and natural resource management on the coast of Colombia and in the Brazilian Amazon" coordinated by François Laurent, teacher-researcher at the geography department.

Thanks to the PREFALC call for projects, François Laurent is coordinating teacherr-researchers' missions between France, Colombia and Brazil in the framework of the Master's courses in Territorial Management and Local Development and the Master's courses offering the same themes in these two other Latin American higher education institutions.

PREFALC is a stepping stone project to foster and develop cooperation between these academic institutions. The aim is to facilitate collaborative work on more ambitious training projects (Capacity Building project of the Erasmus+ programme) or research projects (ECOS calls for projects).

The UMSAMABOT Project - South Africa/ Botswana/ Madagascar

This project was financed within the framework of the 2nd edition of the call for the Development of French Higher Education in Africa (ADESFA II) launched by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs. This project was co-constructed for the field of nanosciences by the University of Le Mans, the National Institute of Nuclear Sciences and Techniques of Madagascar (INSTN), the University of Botswana (in Gaborone) and the University of South Africa (Pretoria - South Africa)

It has enabled :

• The financing and carrying out of 12 missions for a total of 800 days, including 5 outgoing missions of teacher-researchers and a technician from Le Mans University to each of the 3 partner institutions.The 7 other missions financed the travel to Le Mans University of a post-doctoral student, a doctoral student and 4 professor-researchers from these 3 African countries.
• Approximately 40 teaching sessions for about 20 students from the INSTN in Madagascar in the framework of the Master's degree in nanosciences.
• The financing of graphic tablets to carry out certain remote teaching sessions due to the pandemic, as well as electron microscopy and glassware equipment to equip the laboratories of the 3 partners, for a total of 12,000€.

This project also benefited from the financial support of the Unesco Chair in Nanosciences based in South Africa, the French Embassy in Madagascar and the Erasmus+ programme for Madagascar.

At the request of FEI, which coordinates these projects, UMSAMABOT was audited by Eurogroup Consulting. The results of the project have been used as input for a future external report that will assess the action and recommend a 3rd edition of the ADESFA initiative.

Le Mans University has been a partner in 4 European cooperation projects, known as "strategic partnerships". The particularity of this Erasmus+ action lies in the possibility of creating consortia that can bring together the higher education sector, but also the school, vocational education and training and adult education sectors, with the aim of exchanging good practices and disseminating results in the context of a European issue.

Selected by the Erasmus+ National Agencies of France, Poland and Lithuania, these projects were :

RECTEC + project (project card)

Le Mans University participated in the elaboration of a methodological guide containing :

• A European reference framework of graded transversal competences, corresponding to the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) criteria, accompanied by significant study and work situations.
• Descriptive sheets for the use of the reference framework in various contexts (university, public and private professionals).
• Analysis guides on the use of the reference framework drawn up by expert researchers, who are accompanying the project.
• These productions are available in French and English, they constitute a tool for the actors of vocational guidance and training and validation of prior learning.

TIWI project (project card)

Le Mans University developed and implemented learning activities around the training of 20 French teachers (tenured and trainees), from the primary and secondary education sector of Sarthe and Mayenne, in order to introduce them to the new pedagogical tools set up in the framework of the project in the field of STEM (acronym of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).

ACOUCOU project (project card)

The objective of the project was to create a professional partnership focused on the development and promotion of vocational education and training through the use of modern teaching methods (dedicated digital platform). The partnership focused on the professional development of engineers in the field of acoustics. It led to the subsequent development of another Erasmus+ "Knowledge Alliance" project ASKnow in this field.

REALISE project (project card)

Le Mans University, in line with its international policy, chose to become an associate partner in the REALISE project (2016-2019), a project coordinated by the University Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3.

The aim of the project was to improve the implementation and recognition of staff mobility in order to optimise its impact on individuals as well as on institutions and saw the realisation of 7 transnational meetings with the partners, 8 national seminars, a European conference in Brussels and a staff training week in Ghent. Finally, it enabled the development of a guide of good practices for the recognition and valorisation of these mobilities, in collaboration with higher education institutions from 10 different European countries.

As Le Mans University is a holder of an Erasmus+ Charter for higher education, it has applied each year for a grant from the Erasmus+ agency in order to finance study, internship, teaching and training mobility in Europe, and abroad for the 2014-2020 period, for students and staff.

2 types of funding have been obtained each year:

Higher Education Mobility in Europe KA103 (now KA131)

Since 2014, funding for mobility to EU member states and countries associated with the Erasmus+ programme has enabled the outgoing mobility of :

• 160 mobilities for teaching
• 19 mobilities for training
• 477 mobility for study
• 573 mobility for internship

International Credit Mobility KA107 (now KA171)

Launched in 2015, the International Credit Mobility offered the possibility to carry out Erasmus+ mobilities outside the European Union and the countries associated to the Programme.

At the University of Le Mans, the International Credit Mobility enabled to finance (between 2015 and 2020) about 260 incoming and outgoing mobilities for students, PhD students, administrative and technical staff, teachers, to and from 11 countries around the world (Cameroon, Madagascar, Mongolia, Thailand, Russia, Morocco, Tunisia, Ukraine, India, United States and Armenia).

As a testimony to the expertise acquired over the years, the funding obtained in 2019 for mobilities carried out with partners established in Madagascar and Thailand has enabled the University of Le Mans to receive the "good practice" label. Based on criteria relating to relevance, overall quality of implementation, impact and dissemination of project results, the project was assessed by the Erasmus+ French National Agency as demonstrating high quality implementation and results.