Erasmus+ grants for Studies

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 PhD, which culminates with a diploma from Utrecht University (pre-master not applicable).
• You have successfully completed a first year of higher education studies (and started the second year) when your Stay Abroad begins.
• You will register for and complete a full-time (see below) study/work load at the receiving institution.
• You will be physically present at the receiving university.
• You will undertake your exchange in a country other than The Netherlands, and in another country than your current country of residence.

If (during your exchange) your situation changes and you no longer meet these requirements, then you retroactively lose your right to the grant (see Grant Amount for further information).

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. 

Application deadlines 2023-2024

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

Erasmus Office during the holidays
The Erasmus Office will have less staff available during the holidays. We will continue our daily work, but please note that responses may be a little bit slower. Please be patient, we will try to process your grant applications as soon as possible.

Grant Amount

The grant is 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 study 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. Read the Conditions and Restrictions (see above) and the information about the Top-ups (see above) carefully before applying for the grant.
    

2. Download the Learning agreement for Studies 2023-2024 
   
   If you already have a completely signed Learning Agreement from the partner university then you can use this instead, but ONLY if it includes all the same information as the UU Learning agreement format. At minimum: contact information and Erasmus Codes, start- and end dates of your exchange in d/m/y format (so not just month and year!!), all courses and EC amounts, Table B filled out (see UU format for example), and the correct signatures. 
    

3. Complete the Learning agreement by filling out the general part, and the BEFORE THE MOBILITY part (including your signature).
   
   Important note on dates: Your start date is the first day on which you have to be present at your exchange university for an introduction activity or classes. The end date is not the date on which the semester ends, but (your best estimate of) your last mandatory activity abroad, such as the end of the regular exam period. Resit exams are not included in the grant period.
    

4. Sign your Learning Agreement, and send it to your Exchange Coordinator at UU (or other contact person at the International Office, but not a faculty member) to sign it for the Sending Institution. Then send the Learning Agreement to your contact person at the partner institution (for example: their International Office) and have them sign it as well. Digital and scanned signatures are allowed. If the signatures are on different copies, then all other information must be exactly the same in both files.
    

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) as well, 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. 

Are you a CHARM EU student?

• You can use the Learning Agreement format that was sent to you by your CHARM EU contact person at UU.
• Make sure to list the start- and end dates on the LA in day/month/year format (not just month/year), otherwise the UU Erasmus Office cannot calculate your Grant Period.
• Your contact person for the sending institution is not an International Officer, but your JVAO at UU. They can also sign your Learning Agreement.

First payment

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 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.

Complete 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 document 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. You have received this document by e-mail when your grant was provisionally awarded, but it can also be find below for reference:

Erasmus+ STUDIES Timeline and Instructions (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 at the end of your exchange can be found below. Do NOT use other formats than the ones provided here!

Report documents 

Certificate of attendance - Studies 
UU Report Erasmus+

Deadlines report requirements at the end of your Exchange

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.

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.