INGENIUM launches the third edition of the Student Partnerships, the programme that funds student ideas with up to €10,000

Taking part in this call involves two steps. The first is an optional expression of interest, a short outline of the idea that can be submitted until 3 November. The second is the final application, with a complete and well-developed proposal, open until 1 December.

To understand what the INGENIUM Student Partnerships are, we need to think of the university not only as a place to generate and share knowledge, but also as a laboratory where students can come up with solutions to the social and academic challenges that concern them.

With that aim, the INGENIUM Alliance makes funding available to its students every year so that an early idea can become a tangible project. Inspired by the seed funding model, the initiative provides the administrative framework, the support and the financial resources for students to identify needs, find partners at other European universities and design activities to respond to them.

In its first edition, in 2025, the programme received more than 118 expressions of interest and funded 10 projects. Together with the second edition, held in 2026, the Student Partnerships have now funded more than 20 student-led projects across the Alliance.

Two rounds in the same academic year

The main new feature of this edition is that it is split into two funding rounds, giving students two opportunities to present a project during the academic year. This first round opens now, for projects carried out between 1 January and 15 July 2027. The second round will open in April 2027, for projects implemented between June and December 2027.

The kind of projects that can be submitted

There are only two requirements to take part in this initiative. Proposals must bring together students or student associations from at least three INGENIUM universities, and they must be aligned with at least one of the thematic areas of the Alliance, which are inclusion, sustainable development, intercultural dialogue, student entrepreneurship and competence development, local and global challenges, and a healthy campus.

As for the activities, the call is very flexible. Projects may include workshops, training sessions and exhibitions, as well as competitions, excursions, hackathons or community engagement activities, in any format, whether on site, online or hybrid. They can take place at one university or at several, and they can consist of a single activity or combine several.

Who can take part

The INGENIUM Student Partnerships are open both to individual students at all levels (Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD) and to student associations operating at any university of the Alliance. As long as proposals include participants from at least three INGENIUM institutions, any combination is possible, from teams made up only of individual students to proposals submitted only by student associations, as well as mixed teams that bring both together.

Students must be enrolled from the moment they apply until the end of the implementation period, on 15 July 2027, even if they change study cycle during that time.

The application process and how to find partners

The application has two steps, and only the second one is compulsory. To explain the call and answer questions, an online information session will take place on Friday 16 October at 13:30 CEST.

The first step is the expression of interest, open until 3 November. It is aimed at students or student associations who have a good idea but do not yet have the partners they need to complete their proposal, since every project requires participants from at least three INGENIUM universities. It involves filling in a short online form on the Student Partnerships page, briefly explaining the idea and describing the profile of the international partners the team is looking for. Students who do not have an idea of their own but would like to join a project can also submit one.

Expressions of interest are published on the Student Partnerships page, so that other students or associations who would like to join an idea can contact its authors directly and start working on the final application.

In addition, INGENIUM will hold an online matchmaking webinar to bring together students looking for partners and those looking for a project to join. There will also be a dedicated matchmaking session at the INGENIUM Student Conference, which will gather students from all ten universities in Oviedo from 20 to 25 November.

Once a team has enough members, it must submit its proposal in the second and final step, the final application, open from 4 November to 1 December at 23:59 CET. Each team must complete and send two documents, the detailed project proposal and a budget of up to €10,000. Both templates are available on the Student Partnerships page.

Before submitting the final application, the members of the team must inform the INGENIUM offices at their respective universities of their intention to apply, so that the feasibility of the idea and its budget can be agreed in advance.

Evaluation and results

All applications will be evaluated by panels of at least two people, a member of the INGENIUM Steering Committee and a member of the INGENIUM Student Board, which brings together student representatives from all the universities of the Alliance.

In line with Erasmus+ standards, projects will be scored out of 100 points according to three criteria:

• Relevance, up to 30 points. How well the proposal is aligned with the objectives of INGENIUM and of the European Universities Initiative.
• Quality of the project design, up to 40 points. This is the most important criterion, since it shows whether the project is realistic and feasible, with a clear work plan and well-planned activities that can be carried out within the implementation period.
• Impact, up to 30 points. The expected reach of the project among different groups, such as students, staff, public institutions, companies or society as a whole, with an estimate of the number of people it will reach.

Results will be published by 22 December. In January, the selected teams will agree the final budget, milestones and timeline of their project with their local INGENIUM offices.

The budget awarded may differ from the one requested. Depending on the number of projects that reach the quality threshold, the panels may adjust the amount awarded to each one in order to fund more initiatives.

How the funding of selected projects is managed

If a team’s project is selected, the funds will not be paid directly to the students or student associations in the team. Instead, the money will be managed by the INGENIUM offices at the universities the team members belong to. Following the budget included in the proposal, each INGENIUM office will pay for the project expenses at the request of the team.

Teams funded in previous editions

Students and student associations funded in previous editions can apply again. However, their application must show that the new proposal is not a repetition of their previous project, but an evolution that extends it, scales it up or brings new results. Each student can take part in only one funded project per round.