Announcement Date: 01/09/2023
Updated: 19/09/2023
Dear Faculty/Institute Members,
The application period for Erasmus+ KA131 Staff Mobility for Teaching Assignments (with EU Members and Programme Countries) will be held between 15 September-30 October, 2023.
Mobility activities within the framework of this specific call must be completed until the next application period which is 15 September 2024.
In this call, 10 (8 for European mobility, 2 for UK and Switzerland mobility)teaching staff is expected to be granted from the Erasmus+ funds.
Erasmus+ KA131 Staff Mobility for Teaching Assignments (STA) is a field of activity that allows HEI teaching staff of a Turkish higher education institution (holding ECHE*) to teach and carry joint academic/educational activities at a partner HEI (holding ECHE) in the program countries.
The receiving organisation must be a Programme Country HEI awarded with an ECHE. Before the mobility takes place, both the academic department in METU and partner HEI must sign an interinstitutional agreement. The faculty members can apply only to the agreements set up in their fields. You may find the list of current Erasmus+ agreements within the framework of Erasmus+ KA131 STA here.
If applicants would like to visit a non-partner HEI, they may talk with the related institution in order to initiate Erasmus+ inter-institutional agreement, ICO will provide guidance to such participants. The Erasmus+ inter-institutional agreement must be finalized before mobility takes place.
If you would be unable to add the institution you would like to visit to your preference list in the application system, you can select the general "MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY" agreement as your preference and you should upload the acceptance letters from the institutions during the "Document Upload/Belge Yükleme" section in the application page.
1. Application Conditions (Minimum Requirements)
1.1. Applicants must be a full-time member of METU and they must be actively working at METU at the time of application,
1.2. Applicants must be within the group employed for teaching and lecturing at METU according to the Higher Education Law No 2547. This incumbent group, based on METU personnel department are Assistant Professors, Associate Professors, Professors and Instructors/Lecturers (except those who are employed with the Law No 7100) are supposed to teach and lecture. The staff who does not fall in the category but teaches in an academic unit either part-time or at their own will (without any legal requirement of their work contract, those who are not incumbent by law such as Research/Teaching Assistants or Instructors/Lecturers-the ones employed with the Law No 7100) are not eligible to apply for this program; however, they are eligible to make an application for the Erasmus+ Program of Staff Mobility for Training.
1.3. Applicants are expected to get in touch with their choice of HEI (from the attached list) and receive an acceptance letter or confirmation e-mail stating that the HEI is/will accepting them prior to the application deadline. Acceptance letter or a formal pre-acceptance e-mail must be received and uploaded to the application system until 30 October, 2023. Late submissions will not be accepted.
1.4. Applicants who could not obtain a letter of acceptance with letterhead, stamp and signature within the application period, can submit the official e-mail correspondence, which is accepted as a pre-acceptance, to the application system as an acceptance document within the application period. However, the applicants who apply with pre-acceptance e-mail must obtain a letter of acceptance from the relevant institution with letterhead, stamp and signature within 1 month after the application deadline. Sample texts containing the minimum requirements for acceptance letters and pre-acceptance e-mail are presented below. Applications whose pre-acceptance e-mail does not meet these minimum requirements will not be accepted.
Draft Acceptance Letter (with minimum requirements)
Pre-acceptance E-mail Sample (with minimum requirements)
2. Application Procedure & Application Documents
Step 1: Check the attached agreement list within this specific call and evaluate which university and country you prefer to visit for the mobility
Step 2: Obtain an Acceptance Letter or confirmation e-mail (either from the International Office or related academic department at the partner university). Please see item 1.4. for more details.
Step 3: Fill the application form and upload your acceptance document. All applications, selections and placements will be carried out online and through the E-Devlet Career Gate platform initiated by the Turkish National Agency: https://erasmusbasvuru.ua.gov.tr/
Application documents should not be physically transmitted, but only uploaded to the relevant section of the Application Portal.
The application portal on the E-Devlet Career Gate platform will be available between 15 September-30 October, 2023. The application platform will be closed on 30.10.2023 at 17:00 and you will not be able to upload any documents or make any changes in your application after this time.
You can find the details about the application portal in the User Guide.
If you would be unable to add the institution you would like to visit to your preference list in the application system, you can select the general "MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY" agreement as your preference and you should upload the acceptance letters from the institutions during the "Document Upload/Belge Yükleme" section in the application page.
All applications will be evaluated by METU ICO according to fair and transparent selection criteria (please see Section 3 below) and the results will be announced at E-Devlet Career Gate platform as well as on www.ico.metu.edu.tr.
Important Remarks:
1.
Applications from those candidates who have failed to upload a pre-admission letter of confirmation from an eligible partner will not be considered in the selection process.
2.
It is possible to apply for more than one country (3 preferences). But the applicants need to submit an acceptance letter or pre-admission e-mail for each of their preferences. If you have more than one acceptance letter, you can merge them as one pdf document and upload it in the order of your preferences.
3. Selection Criteria
To find more information on the selection criteria used in the Erasmus+ Staff Mobility applications, please see the attached document.
4. Duration of the Activities
The teaching activity can take place between 2 days and 5 days excluding travel time. In order to provide mobility opportunity for higher number of staff, the maximum duration of the mobility period for STA is limited to 5 days (excluding travel time) by METU Exchange Programs Commission. In all cases, a teaching activity has to comprise a minimum of 8 hours of teaching per week (or any shorter period of stay). If the teaching activity/teaching hours last less than 2 days/8 hours (minimum requirement), the activity is considered as void and the grant payment is not made for the related activity. While calculating the grant, a grant is provided for 2 days of travel in addition to a maximum of 5 days of activity. However, in order for the travel day grant to be paid, the travel day must not be included in the activity period.
The activity must be completed until the next application period, which is 15 September 2024. It is not possible for the beneficiaries to conduct their mobility afterwards.
5. Erasmus+ Funding
5.1. Daily Grant Amounts
|
Groups |
Countries |
Daily Grant (Euro) |
|
1. Group |
Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, UK*, Switzerland* |
162 |
|
2. Group |
Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Cyprus, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Greece |
144 |
|
3. Group |
Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia |
126
|
* For mobilities to the UK and Switzerland, a quota of 2 teaching staff will be allocated from the granted group. The teaching staff who prefer a higher education institution in England or Switzerland in their applications will be ranked among themselves for the grant according to their total points.
5.2. Travel Amount by Distance
In addition to daily grants, participants will receive a travel support as well. The travel support is a fixed amount and paid once, independent of the price of plane tickets. The travel amount is calculated by using the “Distance Calculator” below:
http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/tools/distance_en.htm
The distance calculator is used to determine the distance between the location where the staff is residing and the place of activity. The kilometers in distance calculated by the distance calculator corresponds to the round-trip and the amount does not get multiplied by two.
|
Obtained “km” Value |
Grant Amount (€) |
Green Travel Grant Amount (€) |
|
10-99 km |
23 |
|
|
100-499 km |
180 |
210 |
|
500-1999 km |
275 |
320 |
|
2000-2999 km |
360 |
410 |
|
3000-3999 km |
530 |
610 |
|
4000-7999 km |
820 |
|
|
+8000 km |
1.500 |
|
*Green Travel
In case the staff member prefers sustainable means of transport in both directions (e.g. using railway, maritime transport, car-pooling with other Erasmus+ programme beneficiaries or using bus), the distance-based travel grant is considered as green travel. The grant amount is calculated according to the relevant part of the table. Whether the staff member can be considered within the scope of green travel is determined by the submission of the relevant travel documents to the International Cooperation Office and the evaluation of the Turkish National Agency.
6. Additional Grant for Disabled Participants
For disabled participants, it is possible to receive additional grants to meet their specific needs. In order for the disabled staff to be given additional grants, METU is required to request additional grants from the Turkish National Agency. Applications for additional grants should be made during the term of the contract, but in any case, up to 60 days before the contract end date. The Turkish National Agency will evaluate each application specifically and determine whether the additional grant can be granted, and if so, the appropriate grant amount. In order to learn more about the application forms, you may contact METU ICO.
7. Erasmus Staff Mobility without Grant (Zero-Grant)
It is possible to participate in Erasmus+ KA131 programme without getting any grant. Those staff members who would like to participate in the programme on a zero-grant basis need to submit an application to ICO under the current call and their applications will be evaluated along with all the others. Those participants with zero grant also have to fulfill the obligations of the program.
8. Contact
An online meeting was held by the International Cooperations Office regarding the Erasmus+ Staff Mobility Programs and current application processes on Thursday, October 5, 2023 between 14:00-15:00. The recording of the meeting is provided below:
Recording link:
For questions about the program, you can contact the International Cooperations Office:
Eray Canlar (+90 312 210 7070, ecanlar@metu.edu.tr)
Nur Seda Temur (+90 312 210 7177, nurtemur@metu.edu.tr)
