How Erasmus+ Actually Scores a Short-Term Mobility Project Application

If you’ve heard of a “European Development Plan” for Erasmus+ school applications, that term is out of date — it belonged to the 2014-2020 programme. Under the current Programme Guide, a short-term mobility project application isn’t judged against a separate strategy document at all. It’s scored directly, out of 100 points, against three criteria — and knowing how those points are actually distributed changes what’s worth spending time on before you submit.

What a short-term project actually is

A short-term project is the entry point into Erasmus+ for schools that don’t hold (or don’t want) full Erasmus accreditation. It’s designed to be simple: the application is just a list and description of the mobility activities the school plans to run, not a multi-year internationalisation strategy. Eligible applicants are schools providing pre-primary, primary or secondary education (including early childhood education and care settings), plus local and regional public authorities with a role in school education. Organisations that already hold an Erasmus accreditation in school education cannot apply for a short-term project — accreditation already gives them permanent access to funding.

The limits worth knowing before you apply

Applications go to the National Agency in the country where the school is established, with two possible deadlines: 19 February (Round 1, open to all National Agencies) and 1 October (Round 2, only if the National Agency chooses to open it). Projects run for 6 to 18 months, and a single application can include a maximum of 30 participants (preparatory visits and accompanying persons don’t count towards that limit). A school can receive at most three short-term project grants within any five consecutive call years — grants received under the old 2014-2020 programme don’t count towards that cap.

The 100-point scorecard

Every application is assessed out of 100 points across three categories. To be funded, an application needs at least 60 points overall, and at least half the maximum in each individual category:

• Relevance (20 points) — how well the applicant’s profile and experience fit school education, how the project connects to EU values such as non-discrimination, and whether it addresses specific priorities: supporting newcomer or less-experienced organisations, supporting long-term pupil mobility, and supporting participants with fewer opportunities.
• Quality of project design (50 points) — by far the largest share. This covers whether the proposed activities genuinely address the school’s and its staff’s needs, whether the logistics (venues, timing) are realistic and cost-effective, whether the project builds in environmentally sustainable practices, and whether it uses digital tools — eTwinning in particular — to prepare and stay connected with the host organisation.
• Quality of follow-up actions (30 points) — how clearly the school plans to embed what staff bring back into its everyday work, evaluate the outcomes, and share the results. We’ve covered what this criterion rewards in detail, with a free Impact Plan template, in an earlier post.

Where the points actually go

Because “Quality of project design” carries half the total score on its own, it’s worth more preparation time than the other two categories combined. In practice, that means being specific rather than generic: naming which staff member or team is going to a course and why that course (not a category of course) matches a real gap, showing the venue and dates already make sense logistically, and pointing to something concrete for the digital/eTwinning element rather than a vague mention of it. Reviewers are scoring what’s actually written, not the general strength of the applicant organisation.

None of this changes once the mobility itself is underway — the job shadowing vs structured courses choice and course content stay the same regardless of how the application was scored. Browse our structured courses and job shadowing options, or start a registration once your school knows which activities it wants to apply for.