NEWS

The InfoDay was organized at the 3rd of March by the European Commission and the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) to inform potential applicants about the funding program ‘Erasmus+ Sport’ and the EU sport policy background.

More than 500 people from 50 countries registered for the event, and beside online web streaming a special application allowed participants to get in touch with each other prior and during the conference realizing each others interests. The web tool allowed to send questions concerning the presentations and discussions on the stage and so an intensive communication about the issues was possible.

The Meeting was opened by a speech of the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Tibor Navracsics and several sessions were organized during the day lead by European Commission and EACEA representatives. Audience was informed by them about the EU policy, had the chance to get intensive advice for preparing and submitting proposals, and got lots of information concerning the financial aspects of funding.

During the plenary sessions and workshops the following aspects had been discussed: – Erasmus+ Sport, – the Policy Context of the program, – Submission and Selection Procedures, – Evaluation process, – Financial workshop, – Online submission of applications,
– EU Guidelines in the field of physical activities and dual careers, – Voluntary activity in sport, – Combatting against violence, racism, discrimination and intolerance in sport,
– Good governance in sport, – Integrity of sport: anti-doping and fight against match-fixing, – Social inclusion and equal opportunities in sport, etc.

The budget of Erasmus+ Sport for program in 2016 will be 34.1 million euros. Program will focus on the promotion of Dual Careers of athletes and of Gender Equality, the fight against doping and match-fixing, and the support to innovative educational approaches to contain violence and tackling racism and discrimination in sport. The deadline for submitting project proposals is 12 May 2016. Especially introduced was a program called Collaborative Partnerships, which is launched to raise the number of little projects with smaller budgets and less administrative efforts needed for the application.

During the conference I was able to meet representatives from several partner institutions of EAS, like EUSA, FISU, ENGSO, ADH etc. and able to inform them about our conference in September in Rovaniemi. See here: http://some.lappia.fi/blogs/eas2016/

Presentations and videos from the event can be downloaded from the event website here. https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/events/sport-info-day-3-march-2016_en