<< Background >>The Million of Erasmus Grants (MEGA) project’s ambition is to create and develop a digital tool that will simplify the management of Erasmus+ mobility grants at university level and secure the payment of these grants to the students concerned, both in terms of accuracy and calendar. It will take into consideration and respect the national and local contexts of the HEIs throughout the Erasmus grant process. Indeed, MEGA shall develop the best tool possible to facilitate the management of Erasmus grants. As such, the project has been divided between the partners in 4 milestones. Project Result 1 aims to draw a map of the situation by exploring through a survey the topic of grants management, which has been left untouched so far. It will help follow the grant procedure in different HEIs from various European countries, and collect relevant insights in order to fill the gap in the existing procedures. It will also collect the feedback of National Agencies. Project Result 2 will focus on building a digital solution developing a functional proof of concept (PoC) to reduce delays in the Erasmus grant payments process to the beneficiaries and allow any student to have access to the same simplified procedure whatever their home country and institution in Europe are. The purpose of Project Result 3 is to verify and investigate whether the PoC built within Project Result 2 answers the different issues raised by all the stakeholders within Projet Result 1 and study different scenarios of grant management. Finally, Projet Result 4 consists in making policy recommendations to the European institutions, based on the findings of the project. The potential success of the project MEGA will have a positive impact such as establishing performance indicators for the management of Erasmus grants but also considering new technological and organisational solutions for the challenges that lie ahead, and finally promoting innovation, efficiency and economies of scale in the management of Erasmus grants.<< Objectives >>Erasmus grant management is an inherently delicate topic. Up to now it has been up to each individual HEI to organise its own Erasmus grants payment system, which involves the risk of dissimilar treatment of students at European level but also other risks such as delays of payment that create undue difficulties for the beneficiaries. The increasing number of grants offered by the Erasmus+ programme confirms the value of providing a timely analysis of possible economies of scale in this area, some of which should benefit the participating student by reducing the average time or complexity of the payment procedure.Taking into account this context, MEGA project aims to:Carry out a research on how Erasmus programme grants are managed in different HEIs and European countries, eliciting quantitative data on average delays or other relevant indicators and highlighting the trigger points delaying the payments. Develop and test a PoC of a digital platform for grant management, which would work in synergy with other existing tools (EWP, OLA, Erasmus APP, European student card initiative) Publish policy recommendations on the findings of the project, to feed them into the mid-term review of the programme and to establish a dialogue with stakeholders regarding the deployment of a more performante Erasmus grant system.The MEGA project has the intention to help to promote equal opportunities for the beneficiaries by facilitating and securing the procedures that support students' mobility. The project will ensure that the payment of Erasmus grants is based on fairness and efficiency so that all students can get the full benefits of their Erasmus mobility. Going digital to address these issues will have a strong impact on future Erasmus mobility. Not only will it help students to benefit from a more efficient and secure payment procedure of their Erasmus grant, but it will also support the administration of HEIs throughout the process of distributing these grants.<< Implementation >>The MEGA project involves different types of activities necessary to its achievement.At first, the project partners will design and spread surveys to address to National Agencies, Universities and students to collect information about the problems in grant management (PR1)These results will be analyzed and translated in specific requirements for a digital prototype. The partners will then design, prototype and test a proof of concept of the new tool (PR2).Another survey, through working groups internal to the partners will be conducted to check whether the prototype allows a smoother grant management for all stakeholders (IROs and financial offices, beneficiaries). Alternative scenarios and use of the prototype will be studied at this stage through interviews and research work (PR3).Finally, the findings of the above mentioned results will be translated in policy recommendations to be addressed to the European Commission. Transnational meetings will give the project partners regular opportunities to meet and discuss the progress of the project, as well as to review the administrative and financial monitoring of the project. In between transnational meetings, each partner will continue to work on its assigned project result. The Université of Lorraine will coordinate the activities throughout the project to secure their coherent progress in line with the overall project.Transnational meetings will be held every 6 months. The project partners commit themselves to an environmentally-friendly approach by reducing the number of face-to-face transnational meetings of MEGA project, as up to 4 out of 6 project meetings will be held online.2 face-to-face transnational meetings will take place at the beginning and at the end of the project: the kick off meeting in January 2022 and the dissemination meeting in August 2024.A mid-term event will be organised at the end of PR1 to present the first results of the project, on the occasion of other events, such as EAIE.A website will be created, it will be regularly updated with information about the project.Each partner will do its own internal communication on the progress and evolution of the project.The EUF monthly and bi-monthly Newsletters will allow every partner to reach universities outside the consortium and members of the network.<< Results >>The MEGA project comes with the wish to develop an effective digital tool in order to easily manage Erasmus grants and eradicate delays in Erasmus grants payment. Not only will it help the HEI’ administration but also secure the payment of students who undertake mobility. Each task will allow partners to fill the gaps that are known throughout the process of grant management.The Project Results will include :PcA survey’s dissemination among European HEIs and students at the beginning of the project, to collect data on the difficulties that they face regarding the procedure of Erasmus grant payment.The development of a functional PoC of an automated Erasmus grant managementA testing of this PoC in the partner institutions and the necessary adjustments of the PoC following these feedbacks.The writing of policy recommendations to HEIs, National Erasmus+ Agency and European institutions.On a larger scale, the MEGA project intends to provide practical recommendations to policy makers with concrete and evidence-based indications on how to strengthen the cooperation and further improve the services and Erasmus+ mobility grants management. This could lead to the following expected results :The MEGA project’s results are expected to create strong synergies with other projects under the Erasmus Without Paper ecosystem and, as these are, be self-sustainable if the project funding runs out.The MEGA project could be integrated with the Erasmus+ Mobile App to inform every beneficiary about the situation of his/her grant, or even to get the GPS localisation of the beneficiary in order to launch or continue the payment of the grant.Furthermore, it would be possible to integrate the digital tool created by MEGA project within the European Student Card initiative closing the loop of the mobility management process digitalisation.Even more, Mega could integrate the EC Mobility Tool+ in managing the grant’s payment process in case the institutional fundings rely on a more centralised funding scheme, such as the EC or National Agencies.