International Relations Day 2022: Well-established programmes and new perspectives!

This year, the International Relations Day was once again held online with a scaled-down programme in order to allow everyone to participate. Following a presentation of current policy and strategic directions by Olivier Tschopp, Director of Movetia, and a general introduction of the tertiary level programmes by Leslie Hansen and Maria Stergiou, each programme was presented in a specific session, consisting of a short presentation and a Q&A session. The event was spread out over a bit more than half a day, to allow participants to attend all the sessions and to submit their questions to the team.

Following the numerous changes introduced in the 2021 call for projects (global mobility, Green Travel Top-Up, new rules for grant calculation, etc.), the Swiss European Mobility Programme (SEMP) has not seen any major changes for the 2022 call. The presentation therefore focused on current international policy issues, while the discussion addressed questions related to the concrete implementation of the programme.  In order to maintain this exchange with the services in charge of mobility, the SEMP team will offer various training courses and discussion sessions throughout the year (for dates, please refer to the presentation). The deadline for applications under the 2022 call is 1 March 2022.

The national teacher exchange programme also continues to operate under the same principles as during the 2021 call, while offering new mobility opportunities for student teachers. In addition to short and long internships, the programme now offers study mobility semesters, with or without internships. The partnership projects, introduced last year, offer financial support for the development of cooperation projects between higher education institutions and schools from different language regions (a detailed description can be found under this link). As with the SEMP, the deadline for the submission of all applications for funding under the national teacher exchange programme is 1 March 2022.

In the field of international cooperation, the range of available opportunities is growing steadily, and the opening of European university associations to Swiss universities and higher education institutions is the big news for 2022! These alliances support large-scale transnational institutional collaborations between Swiss and European universities. Their aim is to encourage the development of strong inter-institutional cooperation, with a common strategy and objectives, in order to improve the quality and attractiveness of the training offered. The Swiss Confederation is providing a budget of CHF 6 million to support the participation of Swiss institutions as "associate partners". The deadline for applications is 22 March 2022 for Erasmus+ and 5 April 2022 for Swiss funding.

Another new development: following the successful pilot phase between 2018 and 2020, the International Programme is now ready for the 2022 call for projects. It aims to support projects that contribute to the development of the Swiss education system through cooperation between one or more Swiss institutions and one or more European or non-European institutions. The deadline for submission of projects is 31 March 2022.

In parallel to these two new offers, the Cooperation Partnerships and Alliances for Innovation remain in place, with a participation deadline of 31 March 2022 and 23 September 2022 respectively.

For a summary of Erasmus+ activities open to Swiss institutions of higher education please refer to the Erasmus+ Eligibility Chart on the right hand side of this page.