Six Erasmus+ ICM grants awarded for international cooperation
Six Leiden University members of staff recently received the Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility grant for exchange projects with non-European partner universities. The total award of around 357,000 euros is used for approximately 50 international mobilities.
The Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility programme (ICM) facilitates educational collaboration with universities outside the European Union. Depending on the specific goals of each project, mobilities are implemented for students, staff, or both. Not only will mobility candidates from Leiden University go abroad, but candidates from the partner universities will also come to the Netherlands. This year’s exchange projects are with universities in Cuba, Botswana, Taiwan, Lebanon, Chile, South Africa, and China.
The main aim of the ICM programme is to develop knowledge and skills together with partner universities. It is the perfect way to explore collaboration opportunities with new partners or to continue existing partnerships. It therefore ties in well with the University's strategic plan Innovating and Connecting, which stresses the importance of internationalisation for Leiden University.
New and existing partnerships
Each ICM awardee will be the main coordinator of their project for the next three years. Some of them are already experiences with the programme, while others are first-time ICMers. The same goes for their partner universities abroad.
E-mental health in Botswana
One of the new projects is coordinated by Vivian Kraaij and Nadia Garnefski from the FSW. They will exchange skills and knowledge with staff and students from the University of Botswana about the development of online mental health care to people in Botswana. At Leiden University, there is expertise in training students in digital treatment skills and in creating, evaluating and implementing e-mental health programmes. All will be shared in a sustainable way to pass it on to future generations. The ultimate dream of this project is that all people in Botswana get access to e-mental health and that this could be extended to other low- and middle-income countries worldwide in the future. With their ICM project, Vivian and Nadia want to contribute to this by implementing joint teaching, training and research activities.
Legal perspectives in Lebanon
Anette van Sandwijk from LLS is an experienced ICM project coordinator. The cooperation between LLS and the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik in Lebanon exists for over a decade, and this ICM project is the direct continuation of an earlier ICM project granted in 2022. Cooperation through ICM provides significant benefits for the region by fostering growth, innovation and collaboration. Renewing and expanding the partnership will positively contribute to new cooperation in education and research. The project will strengthen comparative legal studies and foster new academic collaborations between both institutions. Next to this, mobilities of administrative staff will enhance the quality of services at LLS, and open new avenues for cooperation in student and faculty mobility, as well as project coordination.
Other projects
Apart from the projects with Botswana and Lebanon, there are four other ICM projects in this call. Anette van Sandwijk not only cooperates with Lebanon, but also with Universidad de Diego Portales in Chile. Marcel de Jeu will continue his already established and highly successful cooperation with University of Pretoria in South Africa. In the field of physics, Chara Papathanasiou collaborates with Universidad de La Habana in Cuba, after running successful projects in the past with other partners. Ying Zhang and Limin Teh will be running a project with two different partner universities in different countries, Fudan University in China and National Taiwan University in Taiwan. In the course of their projects, the coordinators will share their experiences and project results on a dedicated Erasmus+ website, the dossier Erasmus+ at Leiden University.
Are you interested in applying for an Erasmus+ grant for international cooperation? The International Relations Department at SEA will help you from application to implementation. Read more about the possibilities.
The new call for expressions of interest 2026 is now open with a deadline of 19 November 2025. Please contact us for more information.