The Erasmus Mundus programme's overall aim is to promote European higher education, to help improve and enhance the career prospects of students and to promote intercultural understanding through cooperation with non-EU countries, in accordance with EU external policy objectives in order to contribute to the sustainable development of higher education.

This call for proposals targets Action 1: Erasmus Mundus Joint Programmes.

Action 1 of the Erasmus Mundus programme aims at fostering cooperation between higher education institutions and academic staff in Europe and “third countries” with a view to creating poles of excellence and providing highly trained human resources. It is composed of two sub-actions:

• Action 1A — Erasmus Mundus Master Courses (EMMCs), and
• Action 1B — The Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorates (EMJDs).

The actions are to support postgraduate programmes of outstanding academic quality, jointly developed by consortia of European and, where relevant, “third-country” universities and that could contribute to the increased visibility and attractiveness of the European higher education sector. Such joint programmes must involve mobility between the consortia universities and lead to the award of recognised joint, double or multiple degrees.

Deadline: 30 April 2009

Applicants for Action 1B — Joint Doctorate Programmes are invited to submit a short description of the joint programme preferably one month in advance of the official deadline (i.e. by 31 March 2009).

Budget: no direct budgetary impact in 2009

European Commission