How to Find Erasmus+ Partners: A Practical Guide

Finding the right Erasmus+ partners is one of the most decisive factors in whether a project gets funded — and one of the most underestimated. Many applicants treat partner search as an afterthought: they write the project idea first and then look for organisations willing to sign a partnership agreement. This is the wrong order, and it produces partnerships that evaluators immediately recognise as weak.

Strong Erasmus+ partnerships are built around complementary expertise, genuine shared interest in the project topic, and a realistic distribution of roles and workload. This guide walks you through how to find partners strategically — which platforms to use, what to look for, how to make first contact, and the mistakes that produce partnerships that look good on paper but fail in implementation.

1. Before You Search: Define What You Need

Before opening any partner search platform, spend thirty minutes answering three questions. Your answers will determine which organisations are genuinely useful to your project — and which ones will create problems later.

What expertise does the project require that you do not have? Map your own organisation’s strengths — topic knowledge, target group access, methodological experience, language coverage. Then identify the gaps. If your project involves digital tool development and you are a youth NGO with no technical capacity, you need a partner with that expertise, not another NGO with an identical profile to yours.

Which countries do you need represented? Erasmus+ requires a minimum of two programme countries for KA210 and three for KA220. But country selection should go beyond eligibility. If your project addresses a specific challenge — early school leaving, rural youth unemployment, VET dropout — which countries have the most relevant context, data or policy environment for that topic?

What type of organisation fits each role? Different work packages require different organisational profiles. A research WP needs a partner with research capacity. A pilot WP needs a partner with direct access to the target group. A dissemination WP benefits from a partner with strong national networks. Define the profile before you search for the name.

2. The Best Platforms for Finding Erasmus+ Partners

There is no single platform that covers all sectors and all Key Actions equally well. Use a combination of the platforms below, prioritising those most relevant to your sector and project type.

Platform	Best For	What It Offers	Access	URL
Erasmus+ Project Results Platform	KA220, KA210	Search funded projects by country, keyword and Key Action. Find organisations that have already delivered projects in your topic area — these are experienced partners worth approaching directly.	Free, no registration	erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/projects
EPALE Partner Search	Adult education, VET	EC-funded platform for adult learning professionals. Has a dedicated partner search function where organisations post project ideas and partner requests. Active community across 40+ countries.	Free, registration required	epale.ec.europa.eu
SALTO Partnership & Tools	Youth work, KA1, KA220	SALTO Resource Centres run partner-finding seminars and maintain a searchable database of youth organisations across Europe and neighbouring countries. Strong for non-formal education projects.	Free, registration required	salto-youth.net
School Education Gateway	Schools, KA1, KA220	European platform for school education professionals. Partner search tool allows schools and educational institutions to post collaboration requests filtered by country, subject and project type.	Free, registration required	schooleducationgateway.eu
Eurodesk	Youth organisations, KA1	Pan-European youth information network with a partner search function. Useful for finding smaller youth organisations across Central and Eastern Europe that are not visible on larger platforms.	Free, no registration	eurodesk.eu
LinkedIn	All sectors	Search for Erasmus+ project managers, coordinators and EU project officers by country and sector. Groups such as “Erasmus+ Projects” and “EU Project Managers” are active communities where partner calls are regularly posted.	Free (basic)	linkedin.com
National Agency Websites	All sectors, all KAs	Most National Agencies publish partner search sections on their websites. Some run dedicated partner-finding events before major deadlines. Check the NA website for each country you want represented in your partnership.	Free, varies by NA	Varies by country

3. What to Look for in a Partner

Not every organisation that responds to your partner call is the right fit. Evaluate each candidate against these five criteria before committing to the partnership.

Relevant expertise and track record. Does the organisation have documented experience in the project’s topic area? Look for previous projects, publications, training programmes or sector recognition. An organisation claiming expertise they cannot evidence is a risk — both for delivery and for evaluation, since evaluators assess partner profiles.

Access to the target group. Can the partner reach the people the project is designed to serve — in sufficient numbers and with genuine engagement? A youth organisation with 50 registered members and no active programmes is not the same as one with 500 active participants and an established training calendar. Ask for specifics.

Erasmus+ experience. A partner who has managed or participated in at least one previous Erasmus+ project understands the reporting requirements, the timeline pressure and the administrative workload. First-time partners are not a disqualifier — but they need stronger coordination support from you, and you should factor that into the project design.

Organisational stability. Is the organisation legally registered, financially stable and operationally active? A small NGO with one part-time staff member may not have the capacity to lead a work package in a 36-month KA220 project. Ask about staff structure, annual budget and current project load.

Communication and responsiveness. How quickly and clearly does the organisation respond to your initial outreach? How they communicate during the partner search phase is a strong predictor of how they will communicate during implementation. A partner who takes three weeks to reply to a short email will create problems when report deadlines are approaching.

4. How to Make First Contact — and What to Write

Most partner outreach messages fail because they are too generic, too long or both. An organisation receiving a five-paragraph email describing a vague project idea with no clear role for them will not respond — they receive dozens of these before every major deadline.

An effective first contact message does four things in under 200 words:

• States who you are — organisation name, country, sector, one line of credibility
• Describes the project idea — topic, Key Action, target group, duration, in two to three sentences
• Explains why you are contacting them specifically — reference something concrete about their work that makes them a good fit
• Proposes a clear next step — a short call, a one-page project summary, a formal expression of interest

The tone should be professional but direct. Do not over-explain the project at this stage — the goal of the first message is to get a reply, not to transfer the full proposal brief. Save the detail for the follow-up call.

5. Partner Outreach Email Template

Use the template below as a starting point. Adapt the bracketed sections to your project and the specific organisation you are contacting. The key is personalisation — a message that references their actual work will always outperform a copy-pasted partner call.

6. Partner Requirements: KA210 vs KA220

The partnership requirements differ significantly between KA210 and KA220. Make sure you understand what each Key Action expects before you start building your partner list.

Requirement	KA210 Small-Scale Partnership	KA220 Cooperation Partnership
Minimum partners	2 organisations from 2 different programme countries	3 organisations from 3 different programme countries
Maximum partners	No formal cap, but small scale — 3 to 5 partners is typical	No formal cap — partnerships of 4 to 8 partners are most common
Eligible organisation types	Any public or private organisation active in education, training or youth — including informal groups of young people in some sectors	Any public or private organisation active in education, training or youth — formal legal status required for all partners
Coordinator role	One partner acts as applicant / coordinator — submits the application and manages the grant	One partner acts as coordinator — must have sufficient administrative capacity to manage a complex, multi-year grant
Partner agreement	Partnership agreement required before grant signature; letter of intent sufficient at application stage	Mandate letters required from all partners at application stage; full partnership agreement required before grant signature
Partner profile in evaluation	Evaluated for relevance and complementarity — less emphasis on formal track record	Evaluated in detail — each partner’s profile, expertise and role must be explicitly justified in the application

7. Most Common Partner Search Mistakes

Building the partnership before the project idea. Collecting partners first and designing the project around whoever said yes produces weak, unfocused partnerships. Define the project concept and the required partner profiles first — then search for organisations that fit those profiles.

Choosing partners for their country, not their expertise. Filling a geographic requirement is not the same as finding a good partner. An organisation from a required country that has no relevant expertise, no target group access and no previous Erasmus+ experience adds little to the project and creates coordination overhead.

Partnering with friends rather than the right organisations. Working with familiar contacts feels safer — but evaluators assess whether each partner is genuinely the best fit for their role, not whether you know them. A partnership of three mutual acquaintances with overlapping profiles and identical sector backgrounds will score below a partnership of three complementary organisations with distinct and justified contributions.

Starting partner search too late. Finding the right partners, building the relationship, aligning on the project concept and completing the required documentation takes time — typically two to four months before the deadline for a KA220 application. Starting six weeks before the deadline means accepting whoever is available, not whoever is right.

Not verifying organisational capacity before committing. An organisation that agrees to lead a work package but has one part-time staff member, no financial management experience and three other active projects running simultaneously is a project risk. Ask the right questions early — workload, staff capacity, financial processes — before you write their name into the application.

8. Partner Search Checklist

• ✅ Partner profiles defined before search begins — one profile per partner slot
• ✅ Minimum country requirements confirmed: 2 countries for KA210, 3 for KA220
• ✅ At least two platforms searched — including the Erasmus+ Results Platform
• ✅ Outreach messages personalised — specific reference to each organisation’s work included
• ✅ Each partner evaluated against five criteria: expertise, target group access, Erasmus+ experience, organisational stability and communication
• ✅ Each partner leads at least one work package or activity with a distinct contribution
• ✅ No two partners with identical organisational profiles — complementarity confirmed
• ✅ Partner capacity verified — staff availability and current project load discussed
• ✅ Partner search started at least 2–3 months before the application deadline
• ✅ Letters of intent or mandate letters requested and received from all partners
• ✅ Partnership agreement process initiated — roles, responsibilities and budget shares discussed