Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs) in Erasmus+: Format, Funding & Design

• Minimum three HEIs from three different Programme Countries.
• Physical component: 5 to 30 days.
• Mandatory virtual component (before, during or after the physical phase).
• Minimum 15 mobile participants (excluding teaching staff).
• Minimum 3 ECTS awarded to participants.

• Fixed organisational support to the coordinating HEI: €400 per mobile participant (capped at 20).
• Participants receive standard short-term mobility individual support and travel grant.
• Top-ups for fewer-opportunity participants and green travel apply.

• Use the virtual phase to align learning outcomes and form mixed-nationality teams.
• Concentrate the physical phase around an applied project or hackathon.
• Include local industry partners as guest experts to anchor the BIP in real practice.
• Plan dissemination upfront — BIPs are evaluated favourably when results are public.

BIPs that earn the full 3 ECTS without student or evaluator complaints share the same operational rhythm. The structure below has been used across our network in business, sustainability and digital-skills BIPs in 2024–2026.

• T-12 weeks — coordinator HEI signs the consortium agreement; partner contributions assigned in writing.
• T-10 weeks — call published at all three HEIs; common selection criteria agreed.
• T-6 weeks — selection complete; OLA-BIP signed; mixed-nationality teams formed.
• T-4 weeks — virtual kick-off webinar; reading pack and asynchronous module released.
• T-2 weeks — team mid-checkpoint; final logistics for the physical week.
• Physical week (5–7 days) — applied project, daily team standups, public final pitch on Friday.
• T+2 weeks — evaluation submitted; ECTS recognised at all three HEIs; dissemination event held.

BIPs do not replace longer Erasmus+ mobility — they expand the funnel. Three patterns work especially well for HEIs that want to grow outgoing volume without proportionally growing coordinator workload.

• Use BIPs as a bridge — students who complete a BIP are 2–3× more likely to pursue a full semester or traineeship abroad later.
• Use BIPs to engage faculty who do not yet have international partnerships; the format is a low-risk first collaboration.
• Use BIPs to broaden inclusion — short physical components are accessible to students with caring responsibilities, jobs or financial constraints.
• Use BIPs in joint master programmes to sequence intensive content with consistent assessment.

Treat BIPs as a strategic instrument for activation, not a standalone product. The HEIs that score well in their next ECHE renewal are the ones that can show how BIPs feed their full mobility pipeline.

Across the BIPs we have helped operationalise since 2022, the same five mistakes recur. Each one is preventable with a 30-minute conversation at the consortium-design stage.

• Treating the virtual phase as administrative — National Agencies expect substantive online learning with assessed deliverables.
• Letting the host HEI carry all the logistics — workload should be visibly shared across the three HEIs.
• Picking a topic too narrow for mixed-discipline cohorts — BIPs work best when the brief is interdisciplinary.
• Skipping the dissemination plan — public outputs are scored heavily in the final report.
• Underestimating the language pre-work — even English-medium BIPs benefit from a one-week OLS warm-up.
• Booking the physical week during peak academic exam periods — selection drops sharply and substitution rules add complexity.
• Assuming industry partners will join unpaid — budget a small honorarium or in-kind exchange to lock guest-expert participation.
• Leaving recognition to the end — agree the ECTS allocation across all three HEIs in writing before the call opens, not after.

Most of these are coordination failures, not design failures — cheap to prevent and expensive to fix retroactively. Schedule the 30-minute consortium kickoff call. It is the highest-ROI meeting in the entire BIP cycle.