A decade of ERASMUS+ Sport – A fairplay success story

The fairplay initiative at the VIDC has been a major player in the program from the very beginning. Since the start of the ERASMUS+ sports programme, our organization has coordinated nine sports projects as the lead organization, seven of which are large cooperation partnerships and one of which is a capacity building project. This makes fairplay VIDC clearly the most successful applicant organization from Austria. In addition, we were or are partners in 12 ERASMUS+ projects.

Currently, fairplay VIDC is coordinating two large ERASMUS+ sports projects: Sport Zajedno - Promoting social inclusion and reconciliation through grassroots youth sport and Empower Diverse Youth - Build up Youth Participation and Inclusion in Sport Organizations (SPIN Youth).

New Call 2025

The new call for Erasmus+ Sport Projects 2025 was recently published. The deadline for submitting projects in the field of sport is March 5, 2025 and the new Erasmus+ Program Guide 2025 has also been published with all the details.

To ensure that fairplay can continue to participate successfully in the program in the future, we will be taking part in the ERASMUS+ Sport Info Day 2025 on 16 December 2024 together with the SPIN association.  

Project workshop for sports and youth organizations in Vienna

We also see it as our task to pass on our knowledge in Austria. Therefore, we will share our experiences at an ERASMUS+ project workshop for sports and youth organizations in Vienna on 10 and 11 January 2025. The aim of the OeAD event is to provide participants with the best possible support in the application process. Interested parties can still register with the OeAD until December 17, 2024.

We are planning a program item with project promoters who will present their current project and share experiences regarding the application process, among other things. We hope that this will provide great added value for the participants.

Celebrating the Erasmus+ Sport program: 10 years of promoting diversity

A video by the European Commission's Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) (see here) documents the meteoric rise of the program. While only 45 projects (out of 477 submissions) were funded across the EU in 2014, by 2023 there were already 320 funded projects (out of 1500 submissions). Funding for sport increased from the original EUR 20 million to EUR 76.3 million in the coming year 2025 .

A total of EUR 406 million has been spent on the sports program so far, of which EUR 285 million is allocated to 1,058 collaborative partnerships, almost EUR 59 million to 817 small collaborative partnerships, EUR 46.5 million to 134 European Sport Events and EUR 1.7 million to 9 capacity building projects.

Interest in Erasmus+ Sport continues to grow: 1780 applications were submitted in 2024, a new record for the program, exceeding the 2023 figure by 18%. In the future, the Erasmus+ Sport programme will continue to advocate for better access to EU funding for organized sport.