<< Background >>In order to recover from the current pandemic situation in a sustainable and inclusive way, in the EU countries, an unprecedented amount of money will be invested in the next years. Whether this large amount of money will bring the desired results will drastically depend on the capacity of designing and managing EU funded projects by people and organizations. Managing projects effectively thus become a critical variable in the achievement of the EU and national strategy targets and in sorting out the current pandemic crises. Nevertheless, an integrated framework of knowledge for managing EU funds is still missing and this topic finds very little space in the universities’ courses and programs. The lack of a common knowledge framework on EU funds management prevented so far, the development of standardised, common and recognized curricula in the higher education sector to support the increased demand for experts in EU funded projects. In universities, the knowledge areas associated with the EU funds management are poorly diffused and belongs to different academic fields. Project design methodologies are mainly linked to the study of social sciences whereas project management is associated with engineering or management studies. Few are the courses and programs for EU Project Managers which integrate both knowledge areas despite greater integration and synergy can have positive effects on the ability to achieve more effectively the project objectives. This proposal by pooling together universities and organizations with relevant expertise on the EU project design and project management aims at better aligning higher education sector curricula with opportunities and requests from the job market for the profile of EU project manager. The main objective is to create a common academic path based on a shared curriculum that integrates project design and management methodology to better manage EU funded projects. The integration work will be based on the recent “OPEN PM2” initiative of the European Commission for promoting a common and European wide project management methodology (PM2). The PM2 methodology is particularly fitting for the purpose of creating a standardised curriculum for university students. PM2 is in fact a European open-source methodology, light, lean and easy to understand and significantly flexible to be adapted to the specific rules and context of the EU funds and with the most common EU project design methodologies.<< Objectives >>The project will achieve the following objectives at different levels. At the economic and social level, the project will improve the capacity of organizations of managing EU funded projects and deliver effective results to better contribute to the achievement of the EU programs and strategies in terms of economic, social and environmental goals. At the higher educational level, the main results will be improving the alignment of the HE system to better answer to the increasing market demand of qualified EU project managers by enriching the academic offer with a common and innovative academic path. At the level of the project beneficiaries (university students), the main outcome will be increasing student’s job opportunities in a dynamic and attractive sector through the improvement of their skills and abilities in managing EU funded projects. The project will also contribute to other Erasmus+ programs outcomes as:-increasing synergies and links and improved transition between the higher education and VET sector as well as the job market, due to the involvement as associate partners of relevant organizations representing all the different professional sectors (private, public and no-profit);-increase the use of more strategic and integrated use of ICTs and open educational resources (OER) in the higher education system, due to the development of web-based tools for designing and managing projects;-increasing the capacity and professionalism to work at the EU/international level: improved management competencies and internationalisation strategies ready to integrate good practices and new methods including digital capabilities into daily activities.<< Implementation >>The following activities leading to the project results will be implemented during the project lifecycle:Output /Project Result 1-PR.1. A tailored Guide on EU funds management based on PM2 methodology (with artefacts)Activities:-(Step 1) Elaboration of the tailoring planoAnalysis of the literature oDiscussion on the main pillars of the PM2 methodology to tailoroDefine the thematic focus on EU programsoDevelopment of a tailoring plan -(Step 2) Guide and artefacts writingoElaboration of the text oElaboration of the images and tablesoReview processoFinal check on the validation of the guide-(Step 3) Publication and disseminationoPublication of the PM2 guide in the different languages of the project with an open license (CC BY-SA) and an open digital standard (EPUB)oDissemination activities of the publicationOutput /Project Result 2-PR.2 A new curriculum for university students based on the tailored PM2 methodologyActivities-(Step 1) Planning and development of the CurriculumoCollection and analysis of the educational practices existing from the surveyoDevelopment of the contents of the educational Curriculum including knowledge, competences and abilities based on the guide oDevelopment of the contents of the teaching materials for local university courses (LUCs)-(Step 2) Publication of the curriculum contentoPublication of the first version of the curriculum in the project languages-(Step 3) testing and validation of the curriculumoOrganization of Pilot Local University Courses (LUCs) on EU Funds management based on the tailored PM2 methodologyoFeedback analysis of the curriculum based on the local university courses (LUCs) organized during the project periodoPublication of the final version of the education curriculum for university studentsOutput /Project Result 3-Web based tool kit of available resources to support the design and management of EU projectsActivities-(Step 1) Design of the tooloDesign of the web tool based on the guide-(Step 2) Production and testingoProduction of the web tooloTesting of the tool-(Step 3) DiffusionoActivities for the dissemination of the tool<< Results >>The project will generate different impacts according to the different project target groups. Below the main outcome foreseen split by the main target groups:The expected impacts for project beneficiaries (university students) include:-to be equipped with new EU funds management skills and abilities that will help them to find a more attractive and requested job-to show a positive European identification, motivating European experiences of exchange and the understanding of other European cultures-to be equipped with new digital competencies for the formulation and management of EU funded projects (PR.3);The expected impact for Researchers and professors involved in the projectoaware of the more recent approaches in the field of EU funds management;oincrease knowledge of a new project management methodoable to employ appropriate techniques for the assessment of EU project proposals;oequipped with new digital competencies for the formulation and management of EU funded projects (PR.3);The expected impact for the participating organizationsothe adoption of a reference framework in the field of EU funds management for a new and innovative academic pathothe use of this reference framework for teaching and research purposes;othe improvement of the quality of academic teaching in the field of EU funds management;-For the wider academic community interested in EU funding management oThe availability of a reference framework in the field of the EU funds management to increase the quality of research in this fieldThe expected impact for the representatives of Managing Authorities of the EU funding programs oImproving the quality of the formulation and management of the projects funded by the EU programsoIncrease the possibility to better monitor and control the projects formulated and managed according to a standard and shared project management methodology (PM2) oIncrease the probability of achieving the objectives of the program The expected impact for the Beneficiaries of the EU funds from the private, public and no-profit sector:oIncreasing the possibilities to get their projects funded by using the tailored PM2 methodology developed by the projectoImproving the capacity to collaborate with European partners through a shared and common project management methodology oHire qualified students skilled with the tailored PM2 methodology