Thinking of getting funding to develop a new academic programme? This is your chance to bring together students and educators from different countries, disciplines, and institutions to tackle real-world challenges through innovative, collaborative learning.
With up to 8,000€ available in funding, the EELISA Call 4 BIPs invites students and academic and administrative staff to explore the potential of Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs): learning experiences that combine short-term physical mobility with virtual collaboration, creating opportunities for international, interdisciplinary, and student-centred education.
Supported through the Erasmus+ Programme and contributing to the development of the EELISA Joint Education Road Map, this call aims to encourage academic initiatives that promote challenge-based learning, digital collaboration, teamwork, and problem-solving while strengthening cooperation across EELISA member institutions.
To better understand the opportunities this call offers and what makes a successful application, we spoke with Cathy Collins, one of its main promoters:
1. Why is EELISA launching this Call for BIPs, and how does it contribute to the EELISA Joint Education Roadmap?
The EELISA Call for BIPs is the result of a close collaboration between mobility experts, academic coordinators and academics, which we started developing in 2025–2026. The idea was to foster academic collaboration across EELISA and make new educational opportunities available to as many students as possible, through more harmonised and streamlined processes.
By coordinating the call at the alliance level, we can provide a common framework for both BIP organisers and students, making it easier to develop and participate in joint learning opportunities across our universities.
BIPs are a concrete tool for implementing the EELISA Joint Education Roadmap. They create opportunities for challenge-based learning and interdisciplinarity, bringing students and staff from different universities together to work on real-world challenges. They also combine physical mobility with digital collaboration, fostering teamwork and problem-solving across institutional and national borders.
In this sense, the EELISA Call for BIPs is not just about funding mobility. It is about creating more structured opportunities for joint education and helping embed EELISA into students’ learning pathways.
2. Who can apply to this call?
The call is open to Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD students, as well as academic and administrative staff from EELISA member institutions. It is meant for those who want to start a new collaboration with colleagues from other EELISA universities or build on an existing collaboration and develop it into a more structured learning experience.
BIPs are credit-bearing, with a minimum of 3 ECTS, so academic recognition for students is an important element to consider when developing a proposal. They can be designed for Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD students, depending on the topic and the learning objectives.
What is particularly interesting about this call is that it is also open to administrative staff. We wanted to recognize that international collaboration and learning are not limited to academic staff. BIPs can also help colleagues across EELISA better understand each other’s practices, develop competencies together, and bring that international experience back to their home institutions. Up to 10% of the BIP funding can be allocated to initiatives designed for non-academic staff.
The ideal applicant would be someone who has a strong collaborative idea and a willingness to work across institutions and disciplines. You don’t necessarily need to have an established EELISA network already; the call can also be a starting point for building one.
3. What are the key requirements applicants should keep in mind when building their consortium?
Applicants need to build a consortium of at least three higher education institutions from three different Erasmus+ Programme Countries, with at least two of them being EELISA institutions.
The BIP also needs to combine online collaboration with a physical component, typically around five days on site. Applicants should plan both parts from the beginning, with clear learning objectives, an assessment process and projects or activities for students to work on before, during or after the physical mobility.
There are also a few specific cases to keep in mind. ZHAW, for example, is an EELISA partner but is not part of the Erasmus+ Programme, so it cannot count towards the minimum three Erasmus+ institutions. However, it can absolutely participate as an additional partner. Similarly, EELISA’s associated partners, the Technical University of Moldova and the University of São Paulo, can contribute to a BIP, but they are considered external partners and do not count towards the Erasmus+ consortium requirement.
Finally, we strongly recommend contacting your Erasmus+ office and your EELISA local office early to receive support and guidance all throughout the process.
Submit your application to office@eelisa.eu and your local BIP contacts (in the application form).
Submission deadline: 30 November 2026
Results: Mid-January 2027
INFO-SESSION
Online
27 October 2026 – 12:00-13:00 CEST
