Erasmus+ Bilateral Agreements KA131

The new Erasmus 2021-2027 programme foresees the implementation of a new digital system for the conclusion of the Erasmus+ Interinstitutional Agreements from 2021/2022, as a first step in a process of replacing paper documents with data transmission in all administrative practices under Erasmus (hence the name Erasmus Without Paper - EWP).

Starting from 31 December 2022, all higher education institutions are required by the European Commission to use the new Erasmus Without Paper infrastructure to digitally sign Inter-Institutional Agreements (IIAs) and exchange Online Learning Agreements (OLAs). 

For this purpose, the University of Florence has adopted the ESSE3 platform - by the third-party provider CINECA, through which it is currently active in the EWP network.

In cases where digital management of IIAs and OLAs is not possible for technical issues and lack of interoperability between platforms used by higher education Institutions, paper templates of Learning Agreements and IIAs are exceptionally allowed.

New exchanges or the amendment of previously agreed Erasmus exchanges need to be negotiated with an academic contact person in Unifi or with the International Relations Offices and School coordinators of the relevant Unifi School(s) (see contact details below) before starting the digital exchange of the Erasmus Agreements in EWP. 

For the academic year 2026/2027 the deadline for the request of new or amended Agreements has been scheduled for 30 September 2025,.

The results of the negotiations will be collected from International Relations offices and School Coordinators of ten Schools of the University of Florence and passed to the International Mobility Office (see contact details below), which is the office in charge of the digital exchange and the signature of Erasmus Interinstitutional Agreements in EWP.

In order to facilitate the digital process and a smooth exchange in EWP it is important that before starting the digital process the interested parties have already shared and defined informally by email the contents of the exchanges to be activated or modified, namely: isced code, study cycle, number of students, number of months for each student (and teaching staff mobility, if any) as well as the information on the languages of the courses offer and the language levels required by the respective HEIs.