[CLOSED] Pre-announcement of the call for International Training Programme (ITP) Projects 2023

Dear partners & academics,
Dear VLIR-UOS community,

We are excited to announce our upcoming Call for new International Training Programme (ITP) project proposals 2023 to start as of the 1st of September 2023. 

This is the second ITP call within our new Five-Year Programme 2022 – 2027. The third – and final - call within this Five Year Programme will be launched in 2024. 

Be sure to mark 12 December 2022 in your calendar as the launch date of this call for proposals!

⚠️ We are organising an online information session on 15 December 2022, from 13:00 until 15:00 CET. You can register here. 

Everything you need to know to get your proposal started can be found below ⬇️

We look forward to receiving your proposals!
Happy writing!

Best regards,
The VLIR-UOS team

Call for ITP Projects 2023

Aim of ITP projects

ITP are projects that focus on short- to medium-term, intensive, interactive and practice-oriented training courses, distinguished by topic.

These topics can be about sustainable development, transversal skills for higher education (HE) management, transversal or priority themes (e.g. gender, sustainable development, human rights, digital 4 development, decent work, etc).

Through International Training Programme projects, HE institutions (HEIs) aim to systematically integrate global perspectives. In doing so, they create a supportive, inclusive and networked learning environment in which individual scholars, professionals and academics acquire transversal skills and state-of-the-art knowledge on sustainable development. This enables them to become experts and critical global citizens, motivated to act as change agents in their network.

Key features of ITP projects  

• Short-term and medium-term results are to be achieved within the project duration of a maximum of 3 years, including training modules for short-term periods of a maximum of 6 months.
• Organised (i) at a Flemish HEI, (ii) in one of the 17 VLIR-UOS project partner countries, or (iii) in a hybrid format.
• Online and blended training can also be integrated into an ITP.
• The ITP format allows flexibility in approaches, including preparatory and follow-up activities on top of the actual training.
• Two types of projects are targeted in this ITP 2023 Call:
  
  Academic training programmes, dealing with topics related to sustainable development challenges/ Agenda 2030/ transversal or priority themes, directed towards professionals from civil society, private or public sector.
  
  Transversal organisational capacity-building training programmes, oriented towards professionals of HEIs (digitisation in higher education, change management, scientific writing, QA, how to set up an international relations office, tech transfer, etc.)
  A minimum of 8 scholarships per training edition– no maximum
   

Target group of ITP projects  

Professionals from civil society, the private or public sector and/or academics, scientists, and researchers at HEIs with relevant professional experience in the subject of the organised training.

Who can apply?

Affiliation of the promoters:

• Flemish promoter: employed as a professor/lecturer/specialist at a Flemish university or university of applied science & arts;
• Optional: in case there is a partner promoter: employed at a recognised higher education institution or national public (not for profit) research institute located in one of the 17 VLIR-UOS project partner countries:
  
  Benin, Bolivia, Burundi, Cuba, DR Congo, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam
   

Additional criteria:

• Only 1 project proposal per applicant (Flemish/local) can be submitted.
• Promoters of an ITP 2022 project cannot submit any new ITP project.
• Promoters of an ITP 2022 project proposal that was not selected, can resubmit their proposal, however, on the condition that follow-up was given to the assessment of the commission.
   

Eligible countries

In case the ITP project includes a partnership with a partner institution, this should concern a higher education or science institution located in one of our 17 project partner countries:

Benin, Bolivia, Burundi, Cuba, DR Congo, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam

An ITP training can be organised in Belgium and/or in one of the 17 project partner countries, with the option of it being held online or blended.

Budgetary Framework

The project budget amounts to a maximum of 150,000 EUR for a maximum duration of 3 years. This period can include multiple training modules and should include a minimum of 8 scholarships per training edition.

Please be informed that the budget for the ITP project 2023 call allows for the selection of approximately 9 projects.

Submission of the proposal

Who? 

• An application involves a Flemish promoter. The Flemish promoter, both from a Flemish university or Flemish university of applied sciences & arts, submits the application to the Institutional Coordinators for Development Cooperation (ICOS) of the Flemish university (association) for quality control. The ICOS will validate and submit to VLIR-UOS.

How? 

• Project applications are submitted online.

Important data

Assessment procedure

All project proposals will be assessed and selected by the VLIR-UOS Selection Commission for ICP Connect/ITP based on four standard selection criteria: Relevance and coherence of the project; Quality of the project design; Implementation set-up of the project; Potential impact and sustainability.