Since 1995, the European Union and the United States of America have been operating the EU-US Cooperation Programme in Higher Education. The last phase of this scheme ran out in 2005. The European Commission and the US Department of education will are now about to relaunch the programme, in a changed format.

As its predecessor, the new scheme will fund the creation and running of transatlantic consortia, and the mobility of students and staff inside of these consortia. However, the networks to be funded under the new formula must offer recognised double or joint transatlantic degrees, which was not required earlier on. Consortia must consist of a minimum of two higher education institutions from two different EU countries, and one US institution. The programme is to focus on the undergraduate sector. The first call for proposals is expected to come out in April of this year. The first projects – about five – are to start in the autumn of 2006.