Salamanca: University alliances under the European Universities initiative are preparing for a short funding bridge rather than a clean new start, as the Commission plans a 2027 Erasmus+ call aimed mainly at existing partnerships. The plan matters because the current budget period ends in 2027 and the next one starts in 2028.
The numbers show how fast university alliances have grown. The European Council asked in 2017 for European universities to emerge by 2024, and the first call followed in 2018. Seventeen alliances became operational in 2019, forty-one were active in 2020 and forty-four in 2022. By 2023 there were fifty, and in June 2024 sixty-four alliances were active, which the Commission says passed its strategic goal. A new member, EU-GIFT, became the sixty-fifth in December 2024.
In 2026 the Commission selected 20 alliances for Erasmus+ funding under the latest call. The Commission has not said how many applications it received, so the competitiveness of the round is hard to judge. It has said that the 2027 call will depend on adoption of the Erasmus+ Work Programme and will mainly serve alliances that already show deep transnational cooperation.
That focus is a policy choice. Instead of widening the club again, the Commission wants to consolidate its university alliances. University alliances that have built joint degrees, shared campuses and common research agendas get bridge funding into the 2028 budget period, while new entrants may have to wait for the next generation of programmes. Commission officials are also working with alliances, stakeholders and member states on an investment pathway for 2028 to 2034 that would cover every alliance mission, including research and innovation, and line up with national and regional money.
Parliament has added its own push. Members have said a substantial increase in the next Erasmus+ budget would unlock the programme’s full potential, and have noted that regional or social funds could be used to raise grants. That argument echoes a long-standing complaint from universities that project grants are too small for the ambitions of joint degrees and cross-border mobility.
Last year the Commission published a study on the outcomes and transformational potential of the initiative, meant to inform decisions on future funding, and a policy experiment on cooperation between national and regional authorities began. A community of practice called FOREU4ALL, launched in autumn 2024, helps alliances share lessons.
For rectors and research managers the message is to plan carefully. University alliances with strong track records should prepare bids for the 2027 call as soon as the work programme is adopted, while younger partnerships need to show tangible results that can justify support in the 2028 to 2034 period. Whatever the final design, the next two budget cycles will decide whether European universities become a lasting layer of the higher education system or a pilot that faded.
