How to write an Erasmus+ organisation description that convinces

An invented scenario, but a familiar one. A coordinator has four days left before the deadline and five partner profiles open on her screen. The first calls itself "a dynamic and innovative NGO". The second is "a dynamic organisation with wide experience". The third works "in many fields such as youth, education, culture and environment". She needs to explain, in the application, why each of these partners belongs in the project and what each one will bring. None of the five texts tells her. She ends up writing the partner sections herself, from guesswork and a quick look at their websites.

That guesswork costs points. In both Cooperation Partnerships (KA220) and Small-scale Partnerships (KA210), one of the Relevance elements is whether "the profile, experience and activities of the participating organisations are relevant for the field of the application" (Programme Guide 2026, pp. 240, 248). Relevance is worth up to 25 points in KA220 and up to 30 points in KA210 (Programme Guide 2026, pp. 240, 248). The partnership criterion then asks whether the project involves an appropriate mix of participating organisations in terms of profile (Programme Guide 2026, pp. 241, 249).

This guide shows what evaluators are told to look for, how to structure a description so it answers the questions the forms ask, how long it should be, and what a weak and a strong version look like side by side. The Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2027 had not been published when we checked on 11 November 2026: the Commission's Programme Guide page still showed the 2026 Guide, version 1 of 12 November 2025, as the current version.

Want the scoring rules for small-scale projects in full? Our guide goes through every KA210 criterion. KA210 award criteria, explained

You will write about your organisation in three places, and the same facts should appear in all of them. The Partner Identification Form (PIF) is a common practice, not an official Erasmus+ form: it is the profile partners exchange during a partner search, and the Programme Guide 2026 does not use the term. The application form is the official document the evaluators read.

The online form fills in your registration data once you enter your OID (Programme Guide 2026, p. 414), so the legal name, address and type come from the Organisation Registration system. The description is the part you write yourself. OID or PIC: which code goes where

Your description is not the only thing that gets read. In case of doubt, a National Agency may use other sources to assess operational capacity, including information from the organisation's website or social media profiles, and it may ask for documents such as CVs of the key persons (Programme Guide 2026, pp. 424–425).

The Commission's guide for experts tells evaluators what the profile element means for Cooperation Partnerships. If an organisation is not active in the relevant field, it must prove that it brings a clear added value to the project in that field (Guide for Experts 2026, p. 46). And the test is practice, not labels:

For the partnership criterion, the same guide says the expert should evaluate to what extent the proposal "concretely identifies which skills, experiences, expertise and management support each of the participating organisations will make available" (Guide for Experts 2026, p. 53).

Small-scale Partnerships are judged a little differently. Because they target newcomers and less experienced organisations, previous experience within Erasmus+ should not necessarily be considered as an element that determines relevance, but each organisation must bring a clear added value in the field of the application (Guide for Experts 2026, p. 60). The Slovenian National Agency's 2026 briefing sheet for assessors puts it plainly: for KA210, "prior experience within Erasmus+ is not especially important" (Cmepius, Relevance Briefing Sheet 2026, p. 3).

The same National Agency publishes example assessment comments. A strong one reads: "Key staff profiles are well described and confirm the required expertise to enable successful project delivery". A weaker one: "only limited insight is given into the specific experience and expertise of the listed partners" (Cmepius, Assessment Comments Briefing Sheet 2026, pp. 3, 6).

No official structure exists for a PIF, but the application forms show which questions your text will have to answer. Build the description in the same order and a coordinator can copy each part into the right box.

The Programme Guide 2026 sets no word count for an organisation presentation. The online application form shows its own limits for each answer, so check them in the form for your action and round. PIF templates vary: one "Partner Organisation Details" template shared on Otlas allows up to 5,000 characters for the presentation alone.

Both versions below are invented for this guide. The organisation does not exist, and the square brackets mark the places where your own facts go.

Before: "Our association is a dynamic, innovative and experienced NGO working in many fields such as youth, education, culture, environment and social inclusion. We have a strong team of motivated professionals and have participated in many European projects. We are very interested in your project and we can bring a lot of added value."

After: "Harbour Lane Youth Collective is a non-profit youth association in [city], [country], founded in [year]. Every week we run two youth clubs and a media workshop for about [number] young people aged 13 to 19, most of them from [neighbourhood], where [specific barrier, for example few free activities after school]. Our team is [number] youth workers and [number] volunteers. Since [year] we have sent groups to [number] Youth Exchanges and run a local youth participation activity funded by [funder]. For a project on media literacy we would bring our workshop method, tested with [number] groups, our partnership with [number] local schools, and young people ready to help design the activities."

• "Dynamic, innovative" became a legal form, a place and a founding year.
• "Many fields" became the activities that actually happen every week, with who takes part.
• "Many European projects" became a number, a type of project and a role, which a coordinator can check.
• "A lot of added value" became three things the project can use.

Applications to National Agencies show operational capacity through, among other things, the "profiles (qualifications and experience) of the staff responsible for managing and implementing the project" (Programme Guide 2026, p. 424). The National Agency may also ask for CVs of the key persons to verify their relevant professional experience (Programme Guide 2026, p. 425). The same Otlas template asks for "the key staff/persons involved in this application and on the competences and previous experience that they will bring to the project" .

An invented example. Before: "Our staff are highly qualified and experienced." After: "[Name], youth work coordinator, [qualification], has led our youth clubs since [year] and would manage the project. [Name], media trainer, developed our workshop method and would lead the activity on [topic]."

If relevant under the call provisions, applicants should include information about previous projects and activities and publications, if any, in the application form (Programme Guide 2026, p. 424). For grants over €60,000, applicants to National Agencies are recommended to submit a list of previous and ongoing projects connected to the field or the action (Programme Guide 2026, p. 424).

No Erasmus+ history is not a weakness to hide. A newcomer is any participating organisation that has not previously received support in a given type of action, as coordinator or partner, and a less experienced organisation is one that has not received support in that type of action more than twice in the last seven years (Programme Guide 2026, p. 447). Involving newcomers and less experienced organisations is one of the partnership criteria in both KA210 and KA220 (Programme Guide 2026, pp. 241, 249).

• List funded projects with the programme, year, project number and your role, so a partner can check them. The Erasmus+ Project Results Platform gives access to information on all projects funded under Erasmus+ (Programme Guide 2026, p. 25).
• Describe experience outside Erasmus+ just as carefully: national grants, local programmes, long-running activities. The experts' guide refers to previous experience "especially outside of the Erasmus+ programme" (Guide for Experts 2026, p. 46).
• For each project, say in one line what you learned or produced that this new project can build on.

Yes, the part about the project. All applications must contain original content authored by the applicant or partner organisations, and almost identical or similar applications to National Agencies may all be rejected (Programme Guide 2026, p. 428). The experts' guide says that if experts notice that "the same or similar text appears in two or more applications" in a selection round, they must inform the National Agency immediately (Guide for Experts 2026, p. 11).

The 2026 KA220 form also asks how the mix of participating organisations complements each other and what the added value of their collaboration will be (2026 KA220-SCH template, p. 8). A generic paragraph cannot answer that; one written for this partnership can.

Joining as a partner rather than coordinating? Our guide covers how to find coordinators and what they check before saying yes. How to find Erasmus+ partners

• Adjectives instead of facts: "dynamic", "innovative", "highly experienced", with nothing an evaluator can check.
• Listing every field you have ever touched. Evaluators look for experience in the field of the application, or a clear added value to it (Guide for Experts 2026, p. 46).
• Describing Erasmus+ projects only, and leaving out the everyday work that shows you are part of the field.
• Old facts: a former address, a staff member who left, last year's numbers.
• Names that do not match: the legal name in the description differs from the one in the Organisation Registration system, which the form pulls in through your OID (Programme Guide 2026, p. 414).
• Experience you cannot back up. Falsely claiming experience or expertise is an example of misrepresentation (Programme Guide 2026, p. 416, footnote 463).
• The same paragraph for every project, so the "what we bring" part fits none of them.

Our checklist covers the identity details in a PIF that coordinators most often have to chase. Get the PIF checklist

A coordinator may also ask for other documents, such as a mandate letter. Our guide lists which ones and when. Erasmus+ partner documents

Your organisation description travels further than you think. You send it to one coordinator, who pastes it into a shared folder, forwards it to a colleague and opens it again on the night before the deadline to fill in your part of the form. If the text is vague, they guess. If it is out of date, they copy the old facts into an application that evaluators will score.

A good description is written once with care and then kept true. Start from a clean structure with a filled fictional example. See the free PIF template

That is the part MyPIF will do. It will keep your organisation's PIF behind one permanent link that always opens the latest version, with version history, PDF and Word export when a coordinator needs a file, and copy for any field so a partner can paste your description straight into their form. Its AI Quality Score will rate your PIF from 1 to 10 on 4 criteria; it is not a prediction of any funding decision. MyPIF will not write your applications; it keeps your facts right. MyPIF opens soon: join the waiting list before 1 December 2026 and get 2 months of Pro free, no card needed. Join the waiting list: 2 months of Pro free