Background: Why we built the Eursearch Erasmus+ Toolkit

European Search Associates Ltd is an Irish SME that has worked with university partners across Europe for 16 years. We write and manage Erasmus+ KA210 and KA220 applications and work on a daily basis with partners in a major European University Alliance across ten Member States.

A recurring conversation with Research Offices is always the same: how do you know what everyone in the institution is doing?

The problem with organisational caps

Erasmus+ organisational caps are rigidly enforced by National Agencies through the OID.

• KA210 Small Scale Partnerships: Capped at 5 participations per OID, including a maximum of 1 as Coordinator. Sports is exempt.
• KA220 Cooperation Partnerships: Generally capped at 10 participations per OID, whether as Coordinator or Partner. The cap applies differently by field. Some fields are submitted to National Agencies and are capped, others to EACEA and are not. A KA220 led by a European NGO is cap-exempt.
• Other actions including CBHE and Forward Looking Projects have their own lead and participation caps.

Universities routinely apply in all categories. With staff numbers from several hundred to several thousand, it becomes very difficult to track who is leading or joining which consortium.

Why it fails on deadline day

All applications work to the same deadline, 12:00 CET, and allowed to lodge on a first-come, first-served basis.

If the OID cap is exceeded by one partner in a consortium, the entire application and subsequent applications are immediately rejected by the system. There is no appeal.

An undisclosed participation, added as a partner late on deadline day can therefore block a strategic, months-in-the-making proposal. A staff member agreeing to join a consortium to make up numbers, reconnect with a contact, or improve geographic coverage can inadvertently cause the failure of a colleague's proposal in a completely different department.

Months of work across multiple universities, industry partnerships, and employment dependent on project success can be lost.

At the point of joining as a partner, university staff often do not need any senior management signature. Excel sheets and goodwill are not enough.

The solution

The Eursearch Erasmus+ Toolkit provides a single, auditable system for the Research Office to manage OID participation.

It is comprised of two smart elements:

1. Staff Submission Form
Unconnected from the governance record. Any staff member can submit a proposal idea. It collects intention only. It does not write to the record.

2. Governance Record
The university decides what receives OId approval for use.  The toolkit collects and categorises all planned applications and flags any potential breach of organisational caps in real time, before anyone applies. It generates a CSV file for export and record keeping.

It facilitates negotiations with staff proposers and what if scenarios to solve potential problems. 

The simplicity of the system, which embeds over 70 Erasmus+ rules, is one of its main strengths.

For the system to work, one rule must be enforced by University Management: every application must go through the Toolkit approval process and be internally approved, before a commitment is given to lead or partner in an Erasmus+ project consortium. The use of the Toolkit helps to enforce this rule. 

Remember -  Some staff will already be planning for March 2027. The time to get control is now.!

Ten more good reasons to  use the Toolkit 

1. Prevents catastrophic rejection: Real-time breach flags, before anyone applies. One breach can cost a grant of up to €400,000.
2. Embeds over 70 rules: Covers KA210, KA220, CBHE, Forward Looking, Alliances for Innovation and CoVE.
3. Clear governance:  University OID Manager decides what gets added. Clear, auditable, simple.
4. Safe by design: Staff form is unconnected. It cannot accidentally add to the record.
5. Self-hosted, local drive only: No server, no in-house IT approval needed. Data never leaves your desktop.
6. The Toolkit supports staff familiarisation and training on Erasmus+ rules.
7. Always up to date: Annual Erasmus+ Programme Guide updates included. Free update Nov/Dec 2026.
8. Personal product support: Support by email included.
9. Fixed cost: One fee per year, per OID. No per-user charges.
10. Built by practitioners,: by a team that lives the OID cap problem 

The Toolkit supports organisations in avoiding reputational damage and losing funding.

Place your order now by email to info@eursearch.com