Erasmus+ grants for Traineeships

Conditions for Erasmus+ applications 

In order to qualify for a grant, you must at least comply with the following conditions:

• You must be registered in a study programme at Bachelor's or Master's level, or for a supplementary/Doctorate programme, which culminates with a diploma from a recognised institution of higher education (pre-master not applicable).
• The traineeship or courses taken at the receiving institution/enterprise must be integrated and recognized in your study programme at UU.
• You have successfully completed a first year of higher education studies and started the second year.
• You will register for and complete a full-time (see below) study/work load at the receiving institution/enterprise.
• You will be physically present at the receiving university/enterprise.
• You will undertake your exchange in a country other than The Netherlands, and in another country than your current country of residence.

Restrictions 

• Under Erasmus+ the same student may receive grants for mobility periods totaling up to 12 months maximum per study cycle (Bachelor, Master, PhD), irrespective of the number and type of mobility activities. 
• Utrecht University does not award Erasmus+ Traineeship grants to students who will receive an internship allowance from the receiving organisation as high as the grant amount (see below) or more per month.
• Traineeships at the European Union institutions and National Agencies for Erasmus+ are not eligible for Erasmus+ grants.

Application deadlines 2023-2024

*If you think you might not be able to make a deadline, please contact the Erasmus Office as soon as possible, and definitely before your deadline!

Please note: the sooner you submit your application, the sooner we can process it. We realize that students with a start date in August or early September would like to receive their grant soon. We will do our best to check your file as soon as possible, and process applications in order of start date when possible.

Erasmus Office during the holidays
The Erasmus Office will be out of office from December 23rd until January 7th. Please note that responses may be a little bit slower during this time. Please be patient, we will try to process your grant applications as soon as possible.

Grant Amount

The Erasmus+ grant is meant as a contribution to cover additional travel and living costs abroad. The grant amounts per month have been determined by the National Agency Erasmus+. In the table below you will find the amounts per Traineeship month for each of the three country groups.

Top-ups and Special Needs Funding

Under some circumstances, students may receive additional funding. Please see 'Erasmus+ Top-ups' and 'Students with special needs'.

Erasmus+ Top-ups

The Erasmus+ Programme aims to promote sustainable travel, as well as inclusive opportunities for international mobility. Under certain conditions, students can therefore receive an Erasmus+ Top-up, an extra amount on top of their normal Erasmus+ Grant. 

Green Travel Top-up

The Erasmus+ Green Travel Top-up consists of a one-time payment of € 50,- which will be added to your first Erasmus Grant payment. You are eligible if:

• You will travel by train, bus, or ride-share to and from your Stay Abroad.
• You are willing to sign a Declaration of Honor to this effect.

To apply for the Green Top-up:

1. In your regular Erasmus+ Grant application in Osiris, choose the option for the Green Top-up. 
2. Upload your signed Declaration of Honor (download).
3. It does not matter if you also apply for/receive a Travel Green Grant. These are entirely separate grant options.

Top-up for Fewer Opportunities

Erasmus+ offers a top-up for Students with Fewer Opportunities. The top-up amount is € 250,- per month, based on the duration of your Erasmus+ Grant period. You are eligible if:

• you experience economic barriers and therefore receive (or have received, see below) a supplementary grant (i.e. aanvullende beurs) from DUO, and/or;
• you have a disability or a diagnosed (chronic) medical condition which may influence and complicate travel and/or studying abroad.

To apply for the Fewer Opportunities Top-up:

Unlike the Green Top-up, the application process for the Fewer Opportunities Top-up is a separate application process in Osiris. This is due to privacy reasons. 

The deadline for the Fewer Opportunities Top-up application is the same as the deadline of your regular Erasmus+ Grant application (see 'Application Deadlines' above).

1. Go to Osiris > Stay Abroad > Grants, and select the Top-up process.
2. Upload one of the following:

• Official letter from DUO - The official letter granting your supplementary grant, i.e. the DUO Toekenningsbericht (the date, your name, and the grant amount mus be clearly visible). If you do not receive a supplementary grant at this time but have received one in recent years, please send us an email. 
• Medical Statement - A medical statement can be a statement from your doctor, or a copy of an official document which states that you have a diagnosed (i.e. recognised) condition. If you want to keep your condition private then you may upload a statement from a medical professional which makes it clear that you have a diagnosed condition which can impact travel/study abroad, but which does not explicitly name the condition.

If you fall in both groups, then you may upload EITHER a DUO-statement, OR a medical statement, whichever is preferable for you. If you believe you should receive the Top-up, but you cannot provide the above documentation, please contact the UU Erasmus Office and explain your situation.

Please note: any Top-up can only be officially awarded once the Erasmus+ Grant has been awarded to you. You cannot receive a Top-up if you are not (or no longer) eligible for the Erasmus Grant. 

Grant application step-by-step

1. Before you can apply for an Erasmus+ grant, you need to register your traineeship/internship abroad period in OSIRIS Student. Go to the Stay abroad (Buitenland) section in OSIRIS and start a new request for Internship / research / other stay abroad. Do not forget to submit your application. 
    

2. You can continue preparing your grant application (step 3 and 4), but the online application for the Erasmus+ Traineeship grant (step 5) can only be started after your traineeship/internship registration has been approved by your faculty. More information can be obtained at the International Office of your faculty. Please contact them as soon as you have finished step 1. Contact details can be found on this page. 
    

3. Download the Learning agreement for Traineeships 2023-2024
    

4. Complete the Learning agreement by filling out the general part, and the BEFORE THE MOBILITY part (including your signature). Get the document signed by your UU (faculty) exchange coordinator or placement coordinator for the Sending Institution and your supervisor/coordinator at the Receiving Organisation. Digital and scanned signatures are allowed, if necessary you can arrange all per email.
    

5. Have your IBAN (International Bank Account Number) ready. You MUST enter your IBAN in the online application, we cannot disburse an Erasmus+ grant without your IBAN! Payments to foreign bank accounts take more time and require more bank details. If you have a non-Dutch account, you have to fill out the BIC/SWIFT and address for your bank (main branch), otherwise we cannot process the payment.
    

6. Start your online grant application in Osiris Student. Go to the Stay Abroad (Buitenland) section in Osiris and you will find the Grant option behind your (conditionally) approved Stay Abroad request. Fill out all the questions and upload the correct documents. All uploads in Osiris have to be in a commonly used format (.docx, .pdf, .jpeg). ZIP files cannot be opened. Don't forget to press submit.
    

7. If you want to apply for the Erasmus+ Top-up for Fewer Opportunities (see 'Erasmus+ Top-ups' above), you can do this now. You may also complete the Fewer Opportunities Top-up application at a later moment, but please note that the deadline for this is the same as the deadline for your regular Erasmus Grant application (see 'Application Deadlines' above).

After you have submitted your application

The UU Erasmus Office will judge your application and inform you if there are any mistakes that need to be rectified. Please be patient, as the Erasmus Office deals with many applications at the same time. If everything is in order, then your application will be conditionally awarded. This usually happens within 6 weeks after you submit your application. 

Grant Payments

The first payment will consist of 80% of the total grant amount, as calculated based on your Learning Agreement. The total grant amount is the monthly amount for each full month abroad, plus 1/30 of the stated amount for each additional day. The first payment will be made out to you once you have received the notification that your grant has been conditionally approved.

Please note: the first payment may arrive some weeks after your start date. The timing is dependent on when your application is complete, processing times at the Erasmus Office, and processing times at the UU Financial Department.

Final payment

The second and final payment will be calculated and transferred after your exchange, and only once your file is complete and everything has been processed. 

Calculation of final payment

Please note that if the actual dates of your Stay Abroad turn out to be different from the dates initially stated on your Learning Agreement, the total Grant Amount will be recalculated and the final payment will be adjusted accordingly. If it turns out that your actual grant period is shorter than initially stated on your Learning Agreement then you will receive a smaller final payment than initially expected. If your grant period is much shorter than initially stated then you may have to pay back part of the already received Grant Amount to the university.

Please note: this information is for students who went abroad in academic year 2022-2023 and are now returning from their exchange. 

For academic year 2023-2024, the information and steps will be updated in due course.

Completing your Erasmus+ file

Your Erasmus+ grant has been awarded conditionally and will only be definitively awarded after you have completed your entire file. This means you have to complete/upload the required report documents and assessments before the appropriate deadlines (see above).

The Timeline and instructions will guide you through all steps you must take to have your Erasmus+ grant awarded definitively, including the Report Requirements at the end of your Stay Abroad. If the grant was already conditionally awarded to you, then this document has already been sent to you by e-mail, but it can also be find below for reference:

Erasmus Grant Checklist

Erasmus Grant Checklist Part 2 (download)

• Please read the instructions carefully.
• Check the various deadlines.
• Be aware that some requirements are online reports or assessments, for which you will receive the invitation, link and deadline directly from the European Commission by e-mail.
• UU formats for the other obligatory report documents can be found below. Do NOT use other formats!

Report documents 

Traineeship certificate

Deadlines report requirements at the end of your Traineeship

Extra help during your application

If you are a student who may need extra help during the application process for the Erasmus+ Grant, and you feel comfortable sharing this information: please make sure your Exchange Coordinator knows about your situation in advance so that they can give you extra guidance. This may be the case, for example, if you have a medical condition which impairs your visual abilities. 

Additional Special Needs Funding

Students who have a diagnosed medical condition or disability which makes it impossible to study abroad without additional financial support (i.e. who need to cover costs which cannot be covered by the regular Erasmus Grant plus the Fewer Opportunities Top-up) may be eligible to apply for Special Needs Funding. Applications are based on an estimation of actual (expected) costs, so that the National Agency Erasmus+ may grant the student a specific personal budget in addition to the regular grant amount. 

Special Needs Funding may cover, for example:

• Costs for specific housing-needs, such as wheelchair-accessible housing.
• Costs for renting medical equipment abroad.
• The travel costs of an additional person, if the student cannot travel alone.
• Costs for travelling with a support animal.

This is not an exhaustive list and other types of costs may be eligible as well. If you have any questions about this or if you believe you may be eligible to apply, please feel free to send an e-mail to erasmus@uu.nl.

If you graduate before January 1st 2024 at the latest and want to do a Traineeship after your graduation, it may be possible to receive an Erasmus+ grant for your time abroad. This option may also become available for students graduating after that date (please check back for more information at a later date).

Conditions

In order to qualify for a grant, you must at least comply with the following conditions:

• You must be registered at Utrecht University as a student (so not yet graduated) at the moment you apply for the grant.
• Your Traineeship takes place within a year after your graduation.
• You will be physically present at the receiving institution.
• You will undertake your Traineeship in a country other than the Netherlands, and other than your country of residence during your final year at UU.
• Your Traineeship comprises a full-time workload (according to the common rules in the country of destination, usually 38-40 hours per week).
• The duration of your Traineeship period is 2 months minimum 

Restrictions

• Under Erasmus+ the same student may receive grants for mobility periods totaling up to 12 months maximum in each cycle of study (bachelor, master, PhD), irrespective of the number and type of mobility activities. The Traineeship after graduation is counted within the study cycle in which the student applies for the grant (so the cycle from which you are about to graduate).
• Utrecht University does not award Erasmus+ Traineeship grants to students who will receive an internship allowance from the receiving organisation as high as the grant amount or more per month. (Grant amounts for Traineeships are listed per country above, under 'Grant Amount'.)
• Traineeships at European Union institutions and National Agencies for Erasmus+ are not eligible for Erasmus+ grants.

Application process 

If you are eligible, and only once you have finalized your Traineeship plans with the receiving institution, then the application process is as follows:

• Inform your faculty's International Office of your plans and apply for a Stay Abroad through Osiris Student.
• You fill out the Learning Agreement for Traineeships 2023-2024. Choose box 3 in Table B of the Learning Agreement.
• Have this document signed by the correct parties: at the Receiving Institution this is your traineeship/internship your coordinator or supervisor, and at UU this is your faculty's International Officer. 
• Start your application in Osiris (Stay Abroad > Grants), upload the signed Learning Agreement in your application, and submit your application by pressing the 'submit' button.
• All of the above steps need to be completed before your graduation date (this is a hard rule, and we cannot make exceptions), and at least six weeks prior to the start of your Traineeship. 
• You will hear from us in due course about your application. If any adjustments need to be made to your Learning Agreement, we will contact you about this as well. 

Email

You can contact the Erasmus+ Office for questions about your grant through erasmus@uu.nl.

Teams

It is also possible to make an appointment with the Erasmus+ Office via Teams. If you have a question, please use the calendar below to make an appointment.

When you are unable to make it to your appointment, please don't forget to cancel.