Erasmus+ KA210 Small-Scale Partnerships: Complete Guide

Erasmus+ KA210 — Small-Scale Partnerships — is the most accessible cooperation action in the Erasmus+ programme. It was introduced in the 2021–2027 programme generation specifically to open European cooperation to organisations that had previously found KA220 too complex, too demanding or too large for their needs. Smaller NGOs, community organisations, schools with limited administrative capacity and first-time applicants all have a realistic path to Erasmus+ funding through KA210.

But accessible does not mean easy. KA210 applications are still evaluated competitively, and the most common reason for rejection is not technical error — it is a project idea that is too vague, activities that are not clearly connected to a documented need, or a lump sum request that is not proportionate to the scope of work described. This guide covers everything you need to know to develop a credible KA210 application that stands up to evaluation.

1. What Is Erasmus+ KA210

KA210 is a cooperation action that funds small, focused transnational partnerships between two or more organisations from different Erasmus+ programme countries. The purpose is to enable organisations — particularly smaller or less experienced ones — to cooperate on a specific challenge, share practices, develop a modest but concrete output, and build their capacity to engage with European programmes.

KA210 is intentionally simpler than KA220 in every dimension: fewer partners required, shorter project duration, a lump sum budget model that eliminates detailed financial reporting, a simplified application form and lower administrative burden during implementation. These simplifications are deliberate — they reflect the programme’s intent to lower the barrier to entry for organisations that are not yet experienced in EU project management.

KA210 is available across all five Erasmus+ sectors: school education, vocational education and training (VET), higher education, adult education and youth. Each sector has its own call deadlines and National Agency contact — you apply in the sector that matches your organisation’s primary mission.

2. Who Can Apply

KA210 is one of the most inclusive Key Actions in terms of organisation eligibility. The range of organisations that can participate is deliberately broad — reflecting the programme’s goal of reaching organisations that have not previously engaged with Erasmus+.

Eligible organisation types include any public or private organisation active in the field of education, training or youth. In practice this covers:

• Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and associations
• Schools, vocational training centres and adult education providers
• Universities and higher education institutions
• Youth organisations and youth centres
• Local and regional public authorities
• Social enterprises and community organisations
• Research institutes and think tanks active in education or youth
• Informal groups of young people (in the youth sector only, under specific conditions)

Minimum consortium requirements. A KA210 project requires at least 2 partner organisations from 2 different Erasmus+ programme countries. There is no formal maximum number of partners, though 2 to 4 partners is the most common range — larger consortia tend to be better suited to KA220.

Country requirements. All partners must be based in Erasmus+ programme countries — the 27 EU Member States plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye. Unlike KA220, there is no provision in the standard KA210 tracks for partner country organisations to participate.

OID requirement. Every partner organisation must have a valid Organisation ID (OID) registered in the EU Funding and Tenders Portal before the application is submitted. This registration is free, takes 1–5 working days for processing and must be completed in advance — it cannot be done on the day of submission.

3. What You Can Fund: Eligible Activities

KA210 funds cooperation activities — not individual mobility. The grant covers the cost of working together as a partnership to achieve a shared goal. The following activity types are eligible across most KA210 sectors. Note that the lump sum model means you do not track costs per activity — you describe what you will do and justify the overall lump sum as proportionate to the scope.

Activity Type	What It Involves	Examples
Transnational project meetings	In-person or online meetings between partner organisations to plan, develop and review project activities	Kick-off meeting, progress meetings, final review meeting, online working sessions
Output development	Collaborative development of a tangible result — a guide, toolkit, methodology, curriculum or educational resource	Peer-learning toolkit, facilitator guide, bilingual training module, assessment framework
Needs analysis and research	Mapping the problem, surveying the target group, reviewing existing solutions across partner countries	Survey of practitioners, desk research report, comparative analysis of national contexts
Pilot activities and testing	Testing project outputs with real participants; gathering feedback and revising based on results	Workshop with target group, pilot training session, user testing of digital tool
Dissemination activities	Sharing project results with audiences beyond the consortium — events, publications, online channels	Dissemination event, social media campaign, open-access publication, sector newsletter
Short-term staff exchanges	Short visits between partner organisations for learning, observation or collaborative work — not individual mobility grants	Staff visit to partner for joint curriculum development, observation of partner’s practice

4. The Lump Sum Model Explained

KA210 uses a lump sum funding model — one of the most important things to understand before planning your project. Unlike KA220, where you build a line-by-line budget with unit costs per staff day and travel band, KA210 asks you to select a predefined grant amount from a set of tiers. The full amount is paid upon successful completion of the project, with no requirement to submit receipts or account for individual cost categories.

Standard KA210 lump sum tiers run from €10,000 to €60,000. The exact tier increments vary slightly by sector and call year — check the current Programme Guide for the specific tiers available in your sector. As a general reference, the standard tiers are typically set at €10,000, €20,000, €30,000, €40,000, €50,000 and €60,000.

How to choose the right tier. The evaluator’s question is straightforward: is the scope, ambition and complexity of the activities described proportionate to the lump sum requested? Work through this logic when selecting your tier:

• Number of partners and countries: more partners mean more coordination costs and more complex activities — this justifies a higher tier
• Project duration: an 18-month project has more activity costs than a 12-month project
• Number and complexity of outputs: a validated bilingual toolkit with pilot testing justifies more than a short summary report
• Number of transnational meetings: each in-person meeting involves travel and accommodation costs for both partners
• Pilot activities and participant numbers: workshops with 20+ participants in two countries require more resources than a single event

The payment logic. The lump sum is paid in two tranches — a pre-financing payment (typically 80% of the grant) upon project start, and a balance payment (the remaining 20%) upon approval of the final report. If the final report is not approved — because activities were not delivered as described — the balance may be withheld and the pre-financing partially recovered. The lump sum is all-or-nothing in the event of significant non-delivery.

5. How KA210 Applications Are Evaluated

KA210 applications are assessed by independent evaluators against the same four criteria used for KA220 — but the thresholds and scoring expectations are calibrated to the smaller scale of the action. The total score is out of 100 points, and most National Agencies require a minimum score of 60 points to be considered for funding, with some applying higher thresholds depending on available budget and competition levels.

Criterion	Points	What Evaluators Look For	KA210-Specific Guidance
Relevance	30	Documented need; precise target group; connection to Erasmus+ priorities; added value of transnational cooperation	Smaller scale does not reduce the need for evidence — cite sector data, practitioner experience or national reports. Transnational necessity must still be genuine even for a 2-partner project.
Quality of Project Design	30	Coherent objectives and activities; realistic timeline; clear outputs; methodology; proportionality of lump sum to activities described	Proportionality is the KA210-specific sub-criterion most often flagged. Every activity must be described specifically enough for the evaluator to see why the chosen lump sum tier is justified.
Quality of Project Team	20	Complementarity of partners; each partner’s expertise and role; coordinator’s capacity; geographic and sectoral diversity	With only 2 partners, complementarity is even more important — two organisations with identical profiles are not complementary. Each partner must bring something distinct and necessary.
Impact	20	Expected outcomes for participants and target group; dissemination reach; sustainability of results; contribution to sector	Impact claims must be proportionate to a small-scale project. Specific, realistic reach estimates score better than vague, ambitious ones. “Reaching 500 practitioners through open-access publication” is credible. “Transforming European youth work” is not.

6. What the Application Form Requires

The KA210 application form is shorter and less complex than the KA220 form — but it still requires careful, specific writing in every section. The following are the key sections you will need to complete and what each one demands.

Background and context. Describe the problem your project addresses, the evidence base for that problem, and the target group. This section maps directly to the Relevance criterion — it must be specific, documented and connected to current Erasmus+ priorities. Reference at least two external sources.

Objectives. State your overall objective and two to three specific objectives. Each objective must be measurable and linked to a specific activity or output. Avoid vague language — “improving awareness” or “enhancing capacity” without measurable indicators will score below their potential.

Activities and timeline. Describe each activity specifically — what it involves, who leads it, when it takes place and what it produces. The KA210 form does not use work packages, but it expects a clear chronological narrative of how the project will unfold from kick-off to final report. Include a timeline that shows activities spread across the full project duration — not back-loaded into the final months.

Partner profiles and roles. For each partner, describe their organisation’s expertise, their specific role in the project and why they are the right organisation for that role. This section feeds the Quality of Project Team criterion — generic descriptions score poorly. One well-written paragraph per partner, grounded in their specific capabilities, is the standard to aim for.

Expected results and dissemination. Describe the outputs the project will produce and how they will be shared beyond the consortium. Name the specific channels — EPALE, SALTO, sector events, social media, open-access publication — and estimate the reach realistically. This section feeds the Impact criterion.

Lump sum selection. Select the grant tier that is proportionate to your activity plan. The form will ask you to confirm the selected amount and, in some sectors, to provide a brief justification for the tier chosen. Make sure the activity descriptions in earlier sections make the selected tier feel obviously reasonable — do not leave the justification to this field alone.

7. Most Common KA210 Mistakes

Treating KA210 as a simpler version of KA220 and reducing effort accordingly. The application form is shorter, but the evaluation standards are the same. A vague needs analysis, generic partner descriptions and an activity plan with no specific outputs will score below the funding threshold regardless of the Key Action. The simplification is administrative — not evaluative.

Selecting the maximum lump sum without proportionate activities. Requesting €60,000 for a two-partner, 12-month project with two meetings and one short guide is the single most common reason for low scores on project design. Evaluators are explicitly asked to assess proportionality. Choose the tier that fits, not the highest available.

No transnational necessity demonstrated. Even with only two partners, the application must explain why the project requires cooperation between two countries — not just why the project is a good idea. If the same output could be produced by one organisation in one country, the European added value is not demonstrated and the Relevance score suffers.

Activities with no outputs. Each activity must produce something — a report, a draft, a session, a validated resource. Activities described as “partners will meet and discuss” without specifying what will be decided, produced or progressed as a result of the meeting are not activities — they are placeholders. Every activity needs a named output, even if modest.

Back-loaded timeline. A project where all activities happen in the final four months and the first eight months show nothing but “project management” will raise feasibility concerns. Spread activities across the full duration — research and planning in the early phase, development in the middle, piloting and dissemination toward the end.

OID not registered in time. As noted above, this is a purely preventable problem. Every partner must have an active OID at the time of submission. If one partner’s OID is missing or not yet validated, the application is incomplete. Register all partner OIDs at least two weeks before the deadline.

8. KA210 Application Checklist

• ✅ Minimum 2 partners from 2 different Erasmus+ programme countries confirmed
• ✅ All partner organisations have valid OIDs from EU Funding and Tenders Portal
• ✅ Application submitted under the sector matching the coordinator’s primary mission
• ✅ Problem statement specific and supported by at least 2 external sources
• ✅ Target group defined precisely — not broadly
• ✅ Project connects to at least 2 current Erasmus+ priorities — specifically, not generically
• ✅ Transnational necessity demonstrated — why this project requires cooperation between 2 countries
• ✅ Each activity described specifically — what it involves, who leads it, when and what it produces
• ✅ Every activity has a named output — no activities described as open-ended discussions
• ✅ Timeline spread across full project duration — no back-loading of activities
• ✅ Each partner justified specifically — expertise, role and added value stated
• ✅ Two partners with different profiles — complementarity demonstrated
• ✅ Lump sum tier selected proportionately — not defaulted to the maximum
• ✅ Dissemination plan names specific channels and includes realistic reach estimates
• ✅ Impact claims proportionate to small-scale project scope