New scholarship programme for graduates from EU neighbours and Russia

PILOT PROJECT: Scholarships for university graduates from European Neighbourhood (EN) countries and Russia to follow Courses in the European Union leading to a Master Degree in European Studies (European Union Law, European Union Economics, European Union Policy, Administration and Governance, European Union Integration History or Interdisciplinary European Union Studies)

The European Commission has launched this call for proposals addressed to higher education institutions (HEIs) in the EU member states offering a Master Course in European Studies (EU Law, EU Economics, EU Policy, Administration and Governance, European Integration History or Interdisciplinary European Union studies).

The general objective of the project is to build up the European Neighbourhood countries (Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Russia, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine) and Russia graduates’ professional skills in order to enable a better understanding of EU policies and to improve relationships.

In implementing this pilot project the Commission intends to finance approximately 30 scholarships for students who will be selected to attend a Masters Course in European Integration. The scholarships will cover registration fees, travels and subsistence costs.

The application and selection procedures are based on four main steps:

1. EU HEIs that intend to participate in this call shall fill in an online questionnaire with the required data on their European Studies Master Course. With these data, the European Commission will feed the existing database of European Studies Masters Courses (hosted at: http://ec.europa.eu/education/eis_masters/published_courses) which will also serves as a tool to simplify the subsequent selection process. Application deadline for EU HEIs: 4 June 2010.

2. Graduates from EN Countries and Russia shall apply for a scholarship to one higher education institution offering a European Studies Master Course. EU HEIs will establish deadline for students applications from EN countries and Russia according to their own rules.

3. EU HEIs having received applications from EN countries and Russia graduates will select the best ones, rank them according to the pre-selection criteria and submit to the European Commission a proposal containing a list of pre-selected students and those put into reserve list.

4. The European Commission will select the best proposals and award grants accordingly to the best HEIs and to the best proposed students.

Funding

Following an amendment to the 2010 European Union Budget, the European Parliament made available 960.000 ? to grant scholarships under this Pilot Project. Each grant is provided in the form of a lump sum, the maximum amount of a scholarship is ? 24.000 per Academic year.

Contact information

European Commission Directorate General for Education and Culture Unit A5 International Cooperation and International Programmes Mr. Pedro Martinez Macias [email protected] 

Questions on the call to be sent to the functional mailbox: [email protected]

More information on http://ec.europa.eu/education/calls/doc2244_en.htm