The funding programs that pay for everything. Erasmus+ is the umbrella; the rest are either parts of it or related EU programs you'll often see mentioned alongside.
The European Union's funding programme for education, training, youth, and sport. Runs in 7-year cycles; the current cycle covers 2021 to 2027 with a total budget of €26.2 billion. The programme is administered nationally — in Austria by the OeAD. Erasmus+ is the umbrella term; specific funding flows go through "Key Actions" (KA1, KA2, KA3) depending on whether you're moving individuals, building partnerships, or shaping policy.
The part of Erasmus+ that funds people moving across borders to learn or train. Includes youth exchanges (groups of 16–30), mobility of youth workers (training, seminars, job-shadowing), and various forms of school, vocational, higher-education, and adult learning mobility.
KA1 is the "people moving" part of the programme. From VJMS's perspective, KA1 is where our flagship youth exchanges live. If you're a young person reading this glossary, KA1 is the action you care about most.Full guide →
The part of Erasmus+ that funds organisations working together on longer-term projects. Two main scales: Cooperation Partnerships (multi-year, larger budgets, EU-wide consortiums) and Small-scale Partnerships (shorter, simpler, designed for newcomers to the system).
KA2 is the "organisations building things together" part of the programme — think shared methodologies, training materials, joint research, intercultural curriculums. VJMS's first KA2 application will be a small-scale partnership in 2027.Full guide →
The smallest of the three Key Actions. Funds policy reform, evidence-based research, structured dialogue between young people and decision-makers, and EU-level cooperation on youth policy. Most KA3 calls go directly through the European Commission (not the national agencies) and are aimed at networks, ministries, and large NGOs — not at small youth organisations like VJMS.
Mention this in conversation only when you want to sound like you really know the programme. For 99% of practical purposes, KA1 and KA2 are what matters.
A separate EU programme — not part of Erasmus+ — that funds longer-term volunteering, traineeships, and youth-led solidarity projects across Europe. ESC volunteering typically runs 2–12 months, much longer than the 5–21 days of a KA1 youth exchange. Participants receive a monthly allowance, accommodation, food, insurance, and a Youthpass at the end.
If "youth exchange" sounds too short for what you want, ESC is the next program to look at. VJMS plans to develop ESC capacity from 2027 onwards.Full guide →
Who does what. Every Erasmus+ project involves a handful of distinct roles, and the same organisation often plays different roles in different projects.
The organisation that sends participants to another country for an Erasmus+ activity. The sending org recruits and selects participants, prepares them before departure, handles travel and visa logistics, and is the participants' point of contact throughout. For an Austrian-resident young person doing a youth exchange in Lisbon, VJMS is the sending organisation.
A sending organisation does not need to be the one that designed the project or applied for funding — sometimes you join an existing project led by another partner.
The organisation in the destination country that receives the participants and runs the on-the-ground programme. The hosting org arranges accommodation and meals, designs and delivers the daily program, provides local trainers and facilitators, and handles emergencies on-site. Hosting is operationally more intensive than sending, and the hosting org receives the largest share of the project's organisational budget.
The organisation that writes the funding application, signs the grant agreement with its National Agency, holds the budget, and is legally accountable for delivering the project. In a youth exchange, the coordinating org is usually the same as the hosting org. In a KA2 partnership, the coordinator is one specific partner — usually the most administratively experienced one — and the rest are "partner organisations" on the agreement.
The body in each Erasmus+ country that administers the programme nationally — receives applications, makes funding decisions, monitors projects, processes payments, runs quality assurance, and reports back to the European Commission. There are usually multiple NAs per country covering different sectors (youth, school, vocational, higher education). When someone says "the NA approved our project," they mean the National Agency.
In Austria, the relevant NA is the OeAD.Full guide →
Austria's Erasmus+ National Agency. Based in Vienna at Ebendorferstraße 7, 1010 Wien. The OeAD handles Erasmus+ youth applications for Austrian organisations, processes funding, runs information days, and provides quality support to Austrian beneficiaries. For VJMS, the OeAD is the body we submit our funding applications to and the body that approves (or rejects) them.
The OeAD also runs the Eurodesk network — a network of youth information offices across Austria. Worth knowing about if you're under 30 and looking for any kind of European opportunity.Full guide →
The specific kinds of project that get funded under each Key Action. Different activities have different rules, budgets, and target audiences.
The signature activity under KA1. Groups of 16–60 young people (aged 13–30) from at least two participating countries spend 5–21 days together in one location, working on a shared theme. Travel is funded, accommodation and food are provided, participants pay nothing. Every exchange has a named project theme, a written daily programme, and culminates in Youthpass certification.
VJMS's flagship offering is youth exchanges. Our cohorts will typically be smaller (16–30) and the participant age range narrower (18–30).
The other main KA1 activity. Instead of moving young people, it moves the people who work with young people: youth workers, trainers, project managers, NGO staff. Forms include training courses (3–10 days), seminars, job-shadowing in another organisation, and study visits. Aimed at building the professional capacity of the youth sector across Europe.
The larger of the two KA2 partnership types. Typically 24–36 months long, with budgets of €120,000–€400,000+ for the whole consortium. Requires at least 3 organisations from 3 different programme countries. Designed for established organisations building shared methodologies, training products, research, or systemic outputs that can be used across Europe.
Cooperation partnerships are administratively heavier and usually not the right entry point for a new organisation.
The smaller KA2 partnership type. 6–24 months long, with lump-sum budgets of either €30,000 or €60,000. Requires at least 2 organisations from 2 different programme countries. Explicitly designed as the on-ramp to KA2 for newcomers — less paperwork, simpler reporting, smaller scope.
This is the right first KA2 application for organisations like VJMS. Our planned 2027 application will be a small-scale partnership.
Training events and networking activities organised by National Agencies, free for participants from eligible countries. TCAs are mostly attended by youth workers and project staff — they're how you find partners for future KA2 applications, learn about programme priorities, and build the relationships that make later projects possible. The SALTO Youth platform publishes a calendar of upcoming TCAs across Europe.
Things you'll need an account for, sign, or hold in your hand. The bureaucratic stack of running and participating in Erasmus+ projects.
A certificate awarded to participants in Erasmus+ youth activities and ESC volunteers. Documents the learning outcomes from the project across eight named competence areas (literacy, multilingualism, civic and intercultural, personal and social, learning to learn, digital, entrepreneurship, cultural awareness). Recognised across the EU as evidence of non-formal learning.
The Youthpass is not equivalent to an academic credential, but it's worth attaching to a CV and using as a reference point when describing what you learned. The reflection process — sitting down with your youth leader to write what you got out of the experience — is itself part of the learning the programme is designed to produce.Full guide →
The single-sign-on account you need to access any EU-administered platform — the Erasmus+ application portal, the Beneficiary Module, the Erasmus+ App, OID registration, and more. Free to create. Use a permanent personal email, not a university or work email that you might lose access to. Set up two-factor authentication.
The unique identifier the European Commission assigns to every organisation participating in Erasmus+. Replaces the old PIC (Participant Identification Code). Organisations register once via the Organisation Registration System, get their OID, and use it on every Erasmus+ application thereafter. VJMS has its own OID. Partners will reference each other's OIDs in joint applications.
The annual rulebook for Erasmus+. Published by the European Commission every autumn for the following year's calls. Roughly 400 pages, covers all actions, eligibility, funding rules, application procedures, and quality criteria. The Programme Guide is the authoritative source — if it conflicts with what someone tells you informally, the Programme Guide wins. Free to download in every EU language.
A network of eight resource centres across Europe that support the Erasmus+ youth sector. SALTOs publish toolkits and methodologies, organise training courses, run an Online European Training Calendar (where most TCAs are listed), and host the European Training Calendar. Each SALTO has a thematic focus — Inclusion & Diversity, Participation & Information, EuroMed, Eastern Partnership, etc.
If you're looking for partner organisations across Europe, SALTO's Otlas database is one of the first places to search.
How the money actually flows. Erasmus+ uses a specific set of cost categories that determine what's funded, at what rate, and how reporting works.
The dominant funding mechanism in Erasmus+. Instead of reimbursing actual expenses, the EU pays a fixed amount per "unit" — per participant, per day, per kilometre, per organisation, depending on the cost category. Unit costs are set in the Programme Guide and updated annually. The advantage: organisations don't have to keep every receipt, and reporting is dramatically simpler than for actual-cost models.
You don't need to spend exactly the unit cost amount — you just receive it, and use it as your budget for that category.
A funding model that pays a single fixed amount for an entire project regardless of internal cost breakdown — used especially in KA2 Small-scale Partnerships (€30,000 or €60,000) and increasingly in Cooperation Partnerships. The lump sum is paid in two instalments (typically 80% on signing, 20% after final report approval). Reporting focuses on whether the deliverables were achieved, not on line-item expenses.
The mechanism by which travel costs are calculated for participants. The straight-line distance between the sending and hosting cities is measured (using the European Commission's official distance calculator) and the result places the journey in one of several bands. Each band has a fixed travel grant amount that covers the round trip. Short bands cover budget train/bus tickets; longer bands cover low-cost flights booked in advance.
You don't get reimbursed for actual travel costs — you get the band amount, regardless of what you spend. Spending less than the band means you keep the difference; spending more means you cover the gap yourself.
The cost category that funds the organisations running the project — paying for staff time, venue, materials, food, accommodation. Calculated as a per-participant, per-day unit cost, typically split between sending and hosting organisations. OS is what enables a small NGO to run an exchange professionally without having a separate operating budget for it.
The daily allowance given to individual participants — a small "pocket money" amount paid in cash on arrival or via bank transfer. Covers personal expenses during the exchange (toiletries, coffees, anything not provided by the program). Calculated as a per-participant per-day amount that varies modestly by destination country's cost of living.
Additional, top-up funding for participants who face barriers to participation — financial constraints, disabilities, geographic isolation, single parenthood, refugee or migrant backgrounds, health issues, social or educational obstacles. The funding can cover real costs (accessibility adaptations, accompanying support, additional travel) beyond the standard unit-cost amounts. The category is explicitly oversized — the EU has been pushing partners to use more of it, not less.
If any of these descriptions apply to you, the system is designed to make participation easier, not harder. Mention it on your application.
The ideas the Erasmus+ programme is built on. These show up in application forms, evaluation criteria, and project reports — knowing them helps both with applications and with understanding why the programme is shaped the way it is.
Structured learning that happens outside the formal school and university system — through workshops, group activities, projects, voluntary engagement, and mentoring rather than through curricula and grades. Erasmus+ youth activities are explicitly non-formal education. The learning is real (and the Youthpass documents it), but it follows different methods and produces different evidence than academic education does.
The opposite of non-formal is "formal" (school, university). The third category is "informal" — learning that just happens by doing things, without anyone planning it as learning.
Participating in democratic and civic life — voting, volunteering, joining community organisations, engaging in public debate, advocating for issues. Erasmus+ projects often have explicit active-citizenship goals: equipping participants to engage with their communities and institutions, not just travel around them. VJMS's statutes (§ 2) name active citizenship as one of our core purposes.
The principle that young people should have a meaningful voice in decisions that affect them — at family, community, organisational, and political levels. Distinct from active citizenship in that participation is about structures of decision-making, not just about engagement in civic life. Many Erasmus+ projects and most ESC projects have youth-participation elements built in: the participants are involved in shaping the programme, not just receiving it.
One of the four cross-cutting priorities of the 2021–2027 Erasmus+ programme. The EU has committed to making the programme reach groups previously underrepresented — young people from migrant backgrounds, people with disabilities, those in financial hardship, those from remote areas. Every application now asks how the project addresses inclusion. VJMS's selection model (no CV, no Erasmus+ priors) is explicitly designed to advance this priority.
The expectation that project outcomes will be shared beyond the immediate participants — through reports, public events, online platforms, articles, and similar. Required in every KA2 application and increasingly emphasised in KA1 too. Dissemination is not the same as marketing the organisation: it's about making the methods, materials, and learnings of a project usable by others working in the same space.
An eligibility distinction. Programme Countries are the 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, and Turkey — these countries have full access to all Erasmus+ actions. Partner Countries are the rest of the world, grouped into regions; their access is more limited and varies by Key Action. A KA1 youth exchange can include some Partner Country participants alongside Programme Country participants, but the basic structure requires Programme Country involvement.
Austria is a Programme Country. Most of VJMS's exchanges will be Programme-Country-only consortiums.
The EU agency that manages the centralised parts of Erasmus+ — the actions administered directly by the Commission rather than through national agencies. Most KA3 calls, the Jean Monnet activities, Erasmus Mundus, and a few KA2 actions go through EACEA. For most small youth organisations like VJMS, EACEA is a distant body — you'll mostly interact with your National Agency (OeAD in Austria), not directly with EACEA.Full guide →
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The Erasmus+ vocabulary is vast and this glossary covers the most-used ~30 terms. If something you encountered isn't here, let us know and we'll add it.
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