For staff
The term used by Erasmus+ for the exchange of staff and students within Europe is ‘mobility between programme countries’; these are the European Union countries plus North Macedonia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Serbia and Turkey.

Staff members of Leiden University who are looking for funding for training or teaching assignments within Europe, can find more information in the list of available scholarships.

More general information about mobility between programme countries is available on the Erasmus+ website (Dutch only).

For students: study abroad
There are multiple grants available for bachelor, master and PhD students who would like to go abroad as part of their study programme. A study related activity abroad could for example be an internship or research project, following courses or doing fieldwork. Within certain study programmes, going abroad is even mandatory. Students are recommended to start their orientation well ahead of time to make sure they are in time with their grant application.

A lot of information about finances and grants can be found on the student website of the university. For guidance and advice, students can contact the international exchange coordinator of their faculty. With questions about specific grants, they can get in touch with the scholarships department at Student and Educational Affairs.

For staff
The term used by Erasmus+ for the exchange of teaching staff and students with universities outside of Europe is ‘mobility with partner countries’. The best known programme is the International Credit Mobility (ICM) programme.

The ICM programme offers scholarships for incoming (to Leiden) and outgoing (to other countries) teaching staff and students. If you would like to develop a project outside of Europe and need a grant for this, please contact the education grant department at Student and Educational Affairs.

More information about the ICM programme can be found under 'Documents' in the right column of your screen.

For students: study abroad
There are multiple grants available for bachelor, master and PhD students who would like to go abroad as part of their study programme. A study related activity abroad could for example be an internship or research project, following courses or doing fieldwork. Within certain study programmes, going abroad is even mandatory. Students are recommended to start their orientation well ahead of time to make sure they are in time with their grant application.

A lot of information about finances and grants can be found on the student website of the university. For guidance and advice, students can contact the international exchange coordinator of their faculty. With questions about specific grants, they can get in touch with the scholarships department at Student and Educational Affairs.

The Comenius programme aims to improve higher education in The Netherlands by means of innovation. The programme contains three different grants that can annually be applied for: the Teaching Fellow, Senior Fellow and Leadership Fellow grant. Which grant you can apply for depends in part on your experience within the field of education. The Comenius grant enables teachers to further improve themselves as education professionals by putting their ideas for educational innovation into practice.

The Comenius programme is managed by The Netherlands Initiative for Education Research (NRO). The NRO website contains a lot of information about the programme. Additionally, new calls for proposals including relevant application deadlines are issued annually. Usually, new calls can be expected around July/August.

An application always starts with an Expression of Interest. The deadline for submission of an Expression of Interest is around August/September. You are recommended to start your orientation already in advance of the publication of the new call, as there is only limited time between the call and the deadline for your Expression of Interest.

If you receive a Comenius grant you will automatically become a Comenius Fellow and gain access to the Comenius Network (website in Dutch). This network enables the joint exchange of knowledge about educational innovation.

Grants for Cooperation Partnerships are intended for people who develop and use innovative practices within the education sector or between different sectors (universities, public authorities, civil society organisations and private enterprises).

Alliances for Innovation can be awarded if you wish to establish a partnership between European higher education institutions and private enterprises. Your goal must be to connect education more closely to the job market, with an emphasis on creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.

In a Virtual International Cooperation Project (VIS), Dutch and foreign students work together remotely on a project in which local issues are linked to an international perspective. Lecturers and educationalists who want to develop such a project for Leiden University students and students from a foreign university can apply for a VIS grant two times a year. The application deadlines are always mid-February (first round) and mid-September (second round). If granted, the University will receive €15,000 from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to free up the applicant to develop the project. The grant application is submitted centrally by the International Relations Office.

Virtual exchanges projects consist of online people-to-people activities that promote intercultural dialogue and soft skills development. They make it possible for every young person to access high-quality international and cross-cultural education (both formal and non-formal) without physical mobility. While virtual debating or training does not fully replace the benefits of physical mobility, participants in virtual exchanges ought to reap some of the benefits of international educational experiences. Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least four organisations.

Within the so-called Erasmus Mundus programme there are two options: The Joint Master Degrees and the Design Measures.

1. Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees are grants for joint or double degree programmes delivered by consortia of European universities. They provide funding for scholarships for excellent students, training of teaching staff and organisation of the master’s programmes.

2. Erasmus Mundus Design Measures (EMDM) promotes design, or the development of new and innovative transnational master programs.

This new action aims to create networks of teacher education institutions in order to improve policies and practices in Europe. An Erasmus+ Teacher Academy involves at least three partners from three different countries.

The Jean Monnet programme focuses on activities that promote integration between European countries, where the teaching staff and researchers from the different countries help one another in modernising education and research.

This can be done, for example, by establishing a centre of excellence or combining multiple themes (history, economics, law and politics) in a single university course.

Capacity Building provides funding for cooperative projects between higher education institutions within Europe and organisations in partner countries outside of the EU.