EU4EU – European Universities for the EU – is the program founded and coordinated by EuGen – European Generation, which offers companies the chance to employ trainees for free within their staff thanks to scholarships for internships funded by the Erasmus + program. The program is promoted by EuGen, international coordinator and lead partner of the Italian consortium, in collaboration with the national consortia of France, Spain and Portugal, whose lead partners are the University of Lille, Campus Iberus and ISG Ensinus, involving a total of 46 sending universities.

Since 2015 EuGen has developed a database of Host Organizations, hosting around 4000 interns within this Program. Applications to become Host Organizations are currently open on the EU4EU Portal. The procedure is described below. Erasmus + Traineeship is the EU Program active in the fields of education, training, youth and sport which supports the international mobility of students and future graduates, with the aim of improving the level of transversal and professional competences, with special reference to their relevance for the labor market and their contribution to the creation of a cohesive society.

This is a Call for Organizations and Companies based in Europe to host trainees awarded Erasmus + scholarships. Candidate trainees are new graduates or students enrolled in any cycle of studies of any course of study at one of the Universities from Italy, Spain, France and Portugal mentioned below, for internships lasting from 2 to 5 months.

Host Organizations can register at any time on the EU4EU Portal, but in order to participate in the next Matching window, they must register preferably by 24 October 2024.The next Matching Phase with trainees is from 29 October 2024 to 03 December 2024. The internship period is between 13 January 2025 e il 31 December 2025. The duration of the internship can range from 2 to 5 months. Period and duration of the internship may vary and must in any case be agreed upon individually between Host Organization and Trainee. During the internship participants may request an extension of the period of the contribution. The extension will be granted after checking the budget available for scholarships.

Internships preferably have a focus on EU-funded project planning and management and the implementation of activities. The focus is one of the preference criterions in the awarding of scholarships. The expected educational objective for internships offered to all trainees is the development of professional skills useful for:

• seizing EU funding opportunities;
• presenting financing proposals;
• managing and implementing project activities.

The purpose of the Eu4Eu program is to promote the development of transversal skills, including but not limited to: project management, project design, digital skills, communication, business and administration. These significantly enrich curriculum profiles and can easily be spent in other professional sectors, raising the prospects of employment for participants.

Trainees are recent graduates or students enrolled in any cycle of studies (degree, first and second level master’s degree, research doctorate) of any course of study of any of the 46 Universities participating in EU4EU national Consortia. The most common courses of study in past years have been International Relations, Law and Political Science, Engineering, Science, Communication and Media, Economics and Business and Marketing. Trainees require a minimum B1 level of English to be eligible. Universities participating in EU4EU national Consortia are the following. The participation of Portuguese universities is temporarily suspended.

Host Organizations can be any public or private organization of a country participating in the program active in the labour market, for example a public or private, small, medium or large enterprise (including social enterprises); embassies or consular offices of the sending Programme Country; a public body at local, regional or national level; a social part or other representative of working life, including chambers of commerce, craft, professional associations and trade unions; a research institute; a foundation; a school/institute/educational center at any level, from pre-school to upper secondary education, including vocational education and adult education; a non-profit organization, association, NGO; a body providing career guidance, professional counseling and information services; a Program Country HEI awarded with an ECHE.

The following types of organizations are not eligible as Host Organizations for student traineeships: EU institutions and other EU bodies, including specialised agencies (the exhaustive list is available on the website ec.europa.eu/institutions/index_en.htm); organizations managing EU programmes, such as national agencies (in order to avoid a possible conflict of interest and/or double funding). Host Organizations must be based in one of the Erasmus + Program Countries (EU countries + North Macedonia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Turkey, Serbia).

Host Organizations must be formally registered in the Country of mobility. At the sole discretion of EuGen, only those Host Organizations deemed suitable in terms of: organizational and financial reliability, presence and availability of the tutor, adequacy of the logistical conditions, consistency of the tasks foreseen in the internship offer with the objectives and values of the European Union enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, compliance with the precepts of the European Quality framework for Internships, will be admitted to the EU4EU Portal.

Host Organizations must:

1. Register to EU4EU Portal, keep information up to date and meet the deadlines of the project;
2. Publish EU4EU network logo on website;
3. Support EuGen in the promotion of the project: by giving interviews, sharing photos or videos, or responding to questionnaires and other EuGen requests.
4. Complete the evaluation questionnaire administered by EuGen to assess the quality of the project, results and impact of the project;
5. Organize inspection visits at the operational headquarters upon request from EuGen;
6. Provide the trainee with a tutor who is operative in the same location and present at least 3 days per week;
7. Assign to the trainee only tasks that are included in the in the Letter of Availability(1) and the Learning Agreement(2);
8. Provide the trainee with information needed to perform his/her duties and an appropriate workplace;
9. Encourage trainees’ development of skills and experiences as agreed in the Letter of Availability and the Learning Agreement;
10. Actively support the student in finding accommodation;
11. Not to delegate the management of the account on the EU4EU Portal to subjects external to the Host Organization and not to share username and password of the account with subjects or consultants external to the organization, unless EuGen has expressly approved it in written form upon a motivated request;
12. Immediately exclude any trainee identified through the EU4EU Portal who intends to carry out the traineeship outside the EU4EU project (e.g., with funding from other projects) and promptly report the request to EuGen (info@eu-gen.org).

It is strictly prohibited for students to use the EU4EU Portal to identify and contact Host Organizations with the aim of undertaking internships outside the EU4EU project, regardless of the completion of their application.

A student who completes the application and then withdraws or does not receive the EU4EU scholarship but, in the same academi year, undertakes an internship with the same company identified through the EU4EU Portal, must necessarily maintain the status of Zero Grant (3) within the EU4EU project. Host Organizations that receive requests that do not comply with these rules must promptly inform the EuGen (info@eu-gen.org), under penalty of exclusion from the EU4EU network.

(1) Letter of Availability: document automatically generated through a webform in the Portal. The Host Organization must sign it and send it to the student by email. The student must attach it to his/her application.
(2)  Learning Agreement: this document will be signed by the Host Organization after the ranking is published and before the trainee starts the traineeship. The trainee will send it to the Host Organization by email.

(3) The status of “Erasmus zero-EU-grant” is a mode of undertaking the internship that allows the student to benefit from advantages related to mobility without receiving the Erasmus+ grant, and it is compatible with other forms of funding.

Participation as a Host Organization is free of charge. Host organizations have no costs and do not receive financial support from the project. Trainees receive a grant set by Erasmus + Agencies according to the country of origin and of destination. Specific costs for participants with disabilities and from a disadvantaged socio economic situation can be paid by the project. Trainees are insured against workplace accidents and third party civil liability.

Trainees follow office working hours, unless otherwise agreed and reported in the Learning Agreement with the Host Organization. Host Organizations host only those candidates they evaluated positively during interviews. There is no obligation to host a minimum number of trainees. Host Organizations can upload a maximum of 15 Letters of Availabilities per year, regardless of the period of the mobility.

Organizations and trainees agree dates, working hours and tasks in the Letter of Availability and in the Learning Agreement. In order to respect the Erasmus+ trans-nationality principle of the traineeship, trainees cannot do an internship in the same Country where their University is based. The internship must be done abroad. Internships can be carried out with blended mobility, which consists of minimum two months of work in presence, and a period of maximum four months at a distance, through virtual / online activities.

Applications to become Host Organizations must be submitted exclusively online through the EU4EU Portal. Guidelines to the Portal for Host Organizations and the Matching Phase and more information material for Host Organizations are available. Applications on the EU4EU Portal to host trainees in 2025 are open. Applications are assessed by the EuGen evaluation committee, which will decide without the possibility of appeal.

All candidate Host Organizations will receive the results of the application at the e-mail address of the contact person indicated in the application form. Host organizations that apply during the Matching Phase will receive results as soon as possible. Host Organizations that are positively assessed will be admitted to the Matching Phase, to select trainee(s).

Host Organizations admitted to the Matching Phase will view in the Portal the profiles of eligible candidate trainees. More information is available in the Guidelines to the Portal for Host Organizations and the Matching Phase. Candidate trainees in the Portal meet the formal requirements to participate, but have not obtained the scholarship yet. Host Organizations must schedule web interviews with the candidate trainees. To arrange selection interviews, Host Organizations can contact the candidates, and candidates can propose themselves for interviews to the Host Organizations they pick out. Once a Host Organization has selected the right candidate for the traineeship, one of its representatives must sign the Letter of Availability and send it to the trainee without delay.

To complete the candidacy for the scholarship, candidates must submit the Letter of Availability signed by the Host Organization. Candidate trainees participate in public notices at a national level, and will be evaluated in competition with other students. A higher score on the ranking list will be assigned to candidate trainees that:

• have a focus on European projects in their CV, motivational letter and in the tasks included in the letter of availability;
• prove consistency between their curriculum profile and the tasks included in the letter of availability;
• have higher language skills;
• complete Pre-Registration by 24 October 2024;
• complete Matching by 22 November 2024.

In the event of a tie between two or more candidates, the priority in the ranking is established by the order of arrival of the application, verifiable by the online application system. Late or incomplete applications will be excluded.

The ranking will be published on the EU4EU website (www.eu4eu.org). Host Organizations will be notified whether or not the traineeship is confirmed according to the results of the rankings.

If one or more successful candidates forego the mobility grant, the committee reserves the right to proceed with periodic scrolling of the ranking. In the event of non-acceptance or relinquishing of the scholarship by the candidate, the Host Organization can contact EuGen (info@eu4eu.org) to ask for help with hosting another trainee.

In the event that at the publication of the ranking a certain number of scholarships will be left unassigned, an extraordinary application procedure will be opened up to exhaustion of scholarships. This implies that one or more new Matching phases could be opened in the course of the year, before the new call.

The conditions resulting in the exclusion of Host Organizations from the Portal are defined in the Terms and Conditions. Negative feedback from trainees and the EuGen evaluation committee may also result in the exclusion of Host Organizations from the Portal.

The personal data provided by the candidates in the application form will be processed for the purposes of managing the selections and subsequent phases of the project according to European Regulation 679 of 04.27.2016 (GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation).