Applicants and coordinators of the Erasmus+ Sport projects, selected in 2023, co-funded by the European Union, met online on December 14 for the kick-off meeting and introduction to cooperation with the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).

Initial welcomes, with introduction to the Erasmus+ Programme and supported sport actions were done by Yves Le Lostecque, Head of Erasmus Mundus & Sport Unit at EACEA and Gael Broze, Head of Erasmus+ Sport Sector at EACEA.

Contractual obligations to the funders, including recommendations how to best start projects, how to communicate with project officers, how to liaise with partners and on project implementation was presented first by Helena Kamencikova, Sophie Lemel and Zanete Tifentale from EACEA.

A Question and Answer session followed after the presentations, having interactive session with the participants, Erasmus+ project beneficiaries.

In the second content session, Laura Vari, France Dantin and Chiara Funari from EACEA explained the details on how to deal with changes and potential challenges arising during the project lifecycle, on reporting, results and activities of the projects.

The online kickoff meeting was concluded by Luciano Di Fonzo, Deputy Head of Erasmus Mundus and Sport Unit at EACEA.

In the 2023 call, European University Sports Association (EUSA) with its EUSA Institute was granted funding for cooperation partnership project "Discovering university sport and supporting dual career (DiscoverU)" project, enhance sport and physical activity opportunities for students in higher education and increase their participation in these activities; and small partnership "Youth Individual Sports Mindset (YouMind)", focusing on mental health of young athletes. The projects are co-funded by the European Union. EUSA Institute will also partner in the projects "More than Games", planning and implementation of the Volunteer Program and Educational Side-Event Program of the European Universities Games Debrecen-Miskolc 2024 (EUG2024); and "European Week of Winter Sport EWWS)", encouraging participation in sport and physical activity also in winter, while raising awareness about climate change and promoting sustainability. Also these projects are co-funded by the European Union. We also remain an active partner in several ongoing projects, supported by Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.

For the list of projects where EUSA has been and is engaged in, please see www.eusa.eu/projects/