STARS EU will keep its call for innovative academic offers permanently open. The call is addressed to teaching staff at member universities who are interested in contributing to the development of a shared European curriculum within the alliance. Selected proposals may be incorporated into the joint academic offer planned for 2026.

The call is open to both new courses specifically designed for this initiative and existing courses from current curricula that can be shared — with or without adaptations — among partner universities. One key requirement is that courses are taught in English or can be easily translated.

Proposals may target bachelor’s or master’s programmes at different levels and may be submitted in online, hybrid or blended formats. These include methodologies such as Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), guest lectures delivered by invited faculty, Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs), as well as other innovative formats that combine online and face-to-face learning.

STARS EU particularly values proposals that promote interdisciplinarity, international collaboration, strategic and systems thinking, global awareness, sustainability, and interaction with regional and interregional stakeholders.

Participation and selection

Interested staff should contact their home university or the STARS EU coordinator at their institution and complete the online form with the basic information about their course proposal, available on the STARS EU website. Once all submissions have been received, the alliance universities will assess the proposals and select the courses that will form part of the first joint academic offer in 2026.

Selected proposals will become part of a large-scale European initiative aimed at strengthening the internationalisation of higher education and will gain access to a network of universities across nine European countries. In addition, they will receive didactic and methodological support from the STARS EU Curriculum Lab during implementation, as well as potential financial support or additional resources from their home institutions.

STARS EU has launched its second seed grant call, aimed at promoting collaborative research and innovation projects among the nine partner universities of the alliance. This initiative seeks to facilitate the preparation of competitive proposals for European programmes such as Horizon Europe and the upcoming FP10, through specialised advisory services and financial support.

The purpose of these grants — available from May 2025 until March 2026 — is to support researchers, early-career researchers, and PhD candidates in building international consortia and drafting project proposals. The projects must be aligned with the STARS EU Priority Areas and include a minimum of three alliance partner universities. Preference will be given to multi- and cross-disciplinary research initiatives.

Each participating university may receive up to EUR 3,000 for RIA, IA and Cofund calls, and EUR 2,000 for CSA actions. The funding may be used to cover costs related to international consortium meetings, travel for external partners, external consultancy services, support for specific proposal writing, proofreading, and document design.

To address any queries, the alliance has organised a series of informative activities, including several webinars and explanatory documents. The first webinar will be held on 17 June at 12:00 (CET) and will be led by Carl-Fredrik Miles, member of the STARS EU Steering Committee and project manager for STARS EU at University West. Interested participants can join the event via the following link: https://hv-se.zoom.us/my/carlfredrikmiles

Application process

Applications may be submitted on a rolling basis, up to three months before the submission deadline of the targeted European call. Proposals must be sent in PDF format, not exceeding four pages, and must include a detailed budget. Submissions should be emailed to: starseu@org.hanze.nl

The STARS EU Funding Expert Group will evaluate the submitted proposals based on specific criteria, including clarity of the project idea, relevance, feasibility, and multi-disciplinarity, among other aspects. Once the proposals are assessed, the committee will notify applicants of its decision within a maximum of three weeks.

Funding will be disbursed only after the official submission of the proposal via the relevant Horizon Europe or FP10 portal, together with a financial report and a copy of the submitted application.

With this second call, STARS EU reaffirms its commitment to promoting research excellence, international collaboration, and access to European funding, in line with the alliance’s priorities on energy transition, digitalisation, and sustainable regional development.

For further information and to access the full call guidelines, click here: Guidelines for STARS EU Seed Grant.

Contact: starseu@hv.se

 

STARS EU has opened a call aimed to researchers of the nine allied universities, to provide seed funding to develop collaborative research and innovation projects. The complete guidelines can be download using this link, and also visiting the “Calls” section of the STARS EU website. This is a pilot call that starts in April 2024 and runs until March 2025, and afterwards it will be evaluated and improve for future editions.

This grant will provide financial support up to € 3,000 per partner involved in each project. So, if there are three partners, the grant will be 9,000 EUR. This funding can be used for several purposes related to the start-up of a project (hence the denomination “seed”), such as costs related to international meetings or writing sessions; or external consultancy services including writing proposals, proof reading or designing duties, among others.

STARS EU partners can submit a proposal for a seed grant related to researchers, early-stage researchers, innovators, PhD students and other profiles. The envisaged project must have a clear link with the STARS EU strategy and priority areas and must include, at least, three alliance partners. Each university will finance the expenses of its participants.

This is an open call, which means that there is not a closed date for receiving proposals, but in order to be eligible, the application must be submitted to starseu@org.hanze.nl at least three months before the deadline of submission of the envisaged Horizon Europe or FP10 call.

All projects will be evaluated by an assessment panel consisting of representatives of STARS EU Steering Committee, which will have in consideration the criteria expressed in the guidelines document to measure its relevance, clarity and feasibility.

This guidelines document also includes information regarding the main content of the application and the budget, and offers the possibility of reaching the STARS EU Funding Expert Group for support at starseu@hv.se.