SOCRATES - 1999 call for proposals
The European Commission, DG XXII, has published the 1999 call for proposals for the SOCRATES Community action programme in the field of education. Given that 1999 will be the final year of the present phase of the SOCRATES programme, special attention will be paid to activities aimed at evaluation and dissemination of results achieved under the various actions of SOCRATES. SOCRATES contains specific provisions for a wide range of activities, and in particular: - transnational projects, networks, associations and partnerships, - the joint development of curricula, modules, teaching materials and other educational products, - exchange and mobility, - transnational training courses for educational staff, - visits to facilitate project preparation or experience sharing, - the preparation of studies, analyses, guides and data collection, - project evaluation, - the dissemination of results. Applications for support for projects are invited in the following six fields of the programme: - 1: Higher education (ERASMUS): . Support to universities to enhance the European dimension of studies; . Student mobility grants; - 2: School education (COMENIUS): . School partnerships/European education projects; . Education of children of migrant workers, occupational travellers, travellers and gypsies; . Intercultural education; . In-service training for educational staff; - 3: Promotion of language learning (LINGUA): . European cooperation programmes for language teacher training (ECP); . In-service training activities in the foreign language teaching field; . Assistantships for future foreign language teachers; . Development of instruments for language learning and teaching and assessment of linguistic competence; . Joint educational projects for language learning (JEPs); - 4: Promotion of open and distance learning (ODL); - 5: Adult education; - 6: Exchange of information and experience on education systems and policies: . Analysis of questions of common educational policy interest; . Information network on education in Europe (EURYDICE); . Study visits for educational decision-makers (ARION); . Network of national academic recognition information centres (NARIC). Grants may also be made available for complementary measures and preparatory visits SOCRATES applies to the 15 European Union Member States and also includes Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway within the context of the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Applications may also be submitted with regard to activities involving persons and institutions in the associated countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Cyprus, to which the programme is currently being opened. Grants will be awarded in respect of participation of these countries provided that the relevant legal agreement between the European Community and the country concerned is concluded sufficiently early in the process of selecting the application for support. At the time of going to press with the present announcement, the relevant agreements had already been concluded with Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Guidelines for Applicants 1998 will remain valid for 1999, subject to the modifications set out in the Addendum 1999. These two documents taken together thus contain all the information which potential applicants require concerning application procedures, deadlines and selection criteria for the projects and activities submitted during the calendar year 1999. These documents and further details are available from: SOCRATES and Youth Technical Assistance Office (TAO) rue Montoyer/Montoyerstraat 70, B-1000 Brussels Tel. +32-2-233-0111; Fax +32-2-233-0150 E-mail: info-SOCRATES@youth.be; or from the national agencies for the programme, the list of which appears in the Guidelines for Applicants; or electronically on the Europa server at: URL: http://europa.eu.int/en/comm/dg22/SOCRATES.html