Why a Toolkit for universities?
The Erasmus+ Program is a proven means for the European university ecosystem to innovate curricula, make education accessible and inclusive, and create synergies between academia, vocational training, and business to align students’ skills with the labor market.
The Nutshell project, acting upstream of this system, aims to strengthen the capacity of the administrative structure and academic staff so that universities can take full advantage of the Erasmus+ Program and, as a result, offer innovative educational service in a management-efficient manner.
Navigating through the Erasmus+ Program calls, initiating a project or managing the various stages of an approved project in an organized way are difficult aspects to approach for those with little experience with European project planning. To facilitate these tasks, the Nutshell project partners developed the Erasmus+ Project Management Toolkit for Higher Education Institutions.
Who is it aimed at?
The Erasmus+ Project Management Toolkit for Higher Education Institutions was created with the intention of facilitating the work especially of professors, researchers or administrative staff who intend to submit Key Action 2 project proposals or manage approved projects, but are newcomers.
What does it consist of?
The Toolkit consists of a main introductory document and a collection of practical tools, such as editable templates in both Word and Excel formats, fact sheets, and mini guides that facilitate three simplified phases of project management: Proposal Development and Launch, Project Execution, and Project Completion. These are complemented by a collection of official documents and guides issued by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency.
Through simple symbology, tools can be identified according to four types of activities to enable them to be linked to the responsible offices or staff (administrative, financial, implementation, and communication and dissemination tasks).
How was it developed?
With input from Nutshell project partners, 26 practical tools were collected or developed ad hoc. The Toolkit was also tested by 44 administrative staff (including finance officers), academic staff and PhD students, experienced and non-experienced in European project management, from five European universities. Their suggestions and feedback were incorporated into the Toolkit.
The Toolkit was officially presented to the partnership at the last project meeting held in Helsinki at Humak University of Applied Science, the 20th of April 2023.
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Are you part of the academic or administrative staff of a university? Do you work or would like to work with the Erasmus+ program and need guidance in dealing with some aspects of project design and management? Download the Toolkit for managing Erasmus+ projects in the university here!
About the project
Project Nutshell is funded by the Erasmus+ Programme – Strategic partnership for Higher Education.
Partners
- Prague University of Economics and Business (Czech Republic, coordinator)
- University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)
- Humak University of Applied Science (Finland)
- CESIE (Italy)
For further information
Read more about Project Nutshell.
Contact Caterina Impastato: caterina.impastato@cesie.org.
