How to find Erasmus+ partners who say yes

A scenario many coordinators will recognise. It is a Tuesday evening in January. A youth worker at a small association has a project idea, a budget sketch and a deadline in her calendar. What she does not have is partners. She posts a request, sends twelve emails and waits. Two organisations reply. One asks for a document about her association. She digs out a form from two years ago, with an old address and a staff member who has since left, and sends it anyway. The reply never comes.

The scenario is invented, but the rule behind it is not. A Small-scale Partnership (KA210) needs at least two organisations from two different EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme, and a Cooperation Partnership (KA220) needs at least three from three such countries. In both, all participating organisations must be identified when you apply (Programme Guide 2026, pp. 237, 245). A Youth Exchange needs at least two participating organisations from different countries, one sending and one receiving (Programme Guide 2026, p. 157). No partners, no application.

This guide shows where the official partner-finding tools are, what a partner looks at before saying yes, and how to present your organisation so that the reply does come. The Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2027 had not been published when we checked on 9 November 2026: the Commission's Programme Guide page still showed the 2026 Guide, version 1 of 12 November 2025, as the current version. The rules below come from that 2026 Guide.

Not sure which action fits your partnership? Our comparison sets out both, rule by rule. KA210 or KA220: what each partner needs to know

The Programme Guide says that the European School Education Platform (including eTwinning), EPALE and the European Youth Portal offer, among other services, partner-finding databases (Programme Guide 2026, p. 17). Alongside them sit Otlas from SALTO-Youth, the Partner Search of the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, and the events National Agencies organise.

Otlas is one of the tools developed and hosted by the SALTO-Youth Resource Centres. The Programme Guide describes it as a central online partner-finding tool for organisations in the youth field (Programme Guide 2026, p. 25).

On the Otlas start page you can find projects, find organisations or register your own. When we checked on 9 November 2026, the page said its database held more than 15,200 organisations and informal groups, and it offered a list of partner requests with deadlines approaching (SALTO-Youth, Otlas start page). Open Otlas on SALTO-Youth

The European School Education Platform offers an online partner-finding tool. By registering, you can post partner-finding announcements and search the announcements of other organisations (Programme Guide 2026, p. 105). The Guide describes the same tool for VET and school education organisations in the VET mobility chapter (Programme Guide 2026, p. 84). Open the partner search on the School Education Platform

The platform's own tutorial explains the steps. You can browse announcements with filters for posting type (project partnership, mobility activities or Jean Monnet), then a subtype such as small-scale partnership, plus target country, topic and language. To contact an announcer you need an account and must be logged in. To post your own announcement your profile must be connected to a verified organisation, and the tutorial recommends checking existing announcements first (European School Education Platform, "Take your Erasmus+ project to the next level with the partner-finding tool", 11 December 2024).

eTwinning is hosted on the same platform. It is open to teachers and school staff vetted by their eTwinning national support organisation, and it lets schools run joint virtual classrooms and projects (Programme Guide 2026, pp. 26, 104). The national support organisations assist schools with registration, partner finding and project activity (Programme Guide 2026, p. 26).

EPALE, the Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe, is a European Commission initiative funded by Erasmus+. It is open to adult learning professionals, such as teachers, educators, trainers and volunteers, and to policymakers, researchers and others involved in adult learning (Programme Guide 2026, p. 26).

For adult education mobility, the Guide says that by registering on EPALE you can post partner-finding announcements and search through announcements made by other organisations (Programme Guide 2026, p. 125). VET providers are also encouraged to join EPALE, which hosts a Community of European VET practitioners (Programme Guide 2026, p. 83). EPALE: Erasmus+ adult education

Actions managed by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) are applied for through the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, where organisations are identified by their PIC (Programme Guide 2026, p. 413). The Portal has its own partner search.

• It lets you look for organisations which received funding in the past, and create and check Partner Search requests by call or topic (F&T Portal Online Manual V1.3, p. 31).
• You can search by keyword, geographical area, funding type and more. Results include complete organisation profiles with lists of funded projects and the possibility to contact representatives (F&T Portal Online Manual V1.3, p. 31).
• If you have picked an open or forthcoming topic, you can publish your offer or interest for it on the Portal, and it is also shown on your organisation's page (F&T Portal Online Manual V1.3, p. 31).
• The manual also points to brokerage events and conferences run by the EU or by networks in the Member States (F&T Portal Online Manual V1.3, p. 31).

Applying to a National Agency instead? Then the code that matters is your OID, not your PIC. OID or PIC: which code goes where

Training and Cooperation Activities (TCAs) are organised by Erasmus+ National Agencies. They can be workshops, seminars, other events or research, and they offer networking between Erasmus+ stakeholders. Their participants can be organisations already in the Programme or organisations planning to apply (Programme Guide 2026, p. 20).

• Education and training: information about TCAs is on the National Agency websites and on the SALTO Education & Training TCA Resource Centre website, salto-et.net (Programme Guide 2026, pp. 84, 105, 125). That site lets you search events by theme, country, date and type and apply online (SALTO Education & Training TCA Resource Centre, home page).
• Youth: information about TCAs is in the European Training Calendar on SALTO-Youth (Programme Guide 2026, p. 154).
• Your own National Agency decides who it sends. For example, the Portuguese National Agency for education and training says applications are made online through the SALTO platform and must be filled in in English, and that individuals are eligible only if they live in Portugal (Agência Nacional Erasmus+ Educação e Formação, TCA page).

The Commission keeps the list of National Agencies. They are based in EU Member States and third countries associated to the Programme, and their role includes supporting applicants and participants (European Commission, Erasmus+ website, "National Agencies"). Find your National Agency

The Erasmus+ Project Results Platform gives access to information and results on all projects funded under Erasmus+. Projects can be searched by keyword, key action, year, country, topic and type of results (Programme Guide 2026, p. 25). The Guide also says it lets you search for all accredited organisations and approved projects (Programme Guide 2026, p. 84). Open the Project Results Platform

For actions run through the Funding & Tenders Portal, Partner Search results include organisation profiles with lists of funded projects (F&T Portal Online Manual V1.3, p. 31).

A good partner is careful, because a weak partnership costs points for everyone. Evaluators score the quality of the partnership and the cooperation arrangements, up to 20 points, in both KA210 and KA220 (Programme Guide 2026, pp. 241–242, 249). They look at whether the project involves an appropriate mix of participating organisations in terms of profile, and at whether the allocation of tasks shows the commitment and active contribution of all of them (Programme Guide 2026, pp. 241, 249).

So, before saying yes, an experienced partner usually wants to know:

• Who you are and what you do. For applications to National Agencies, applicants show their operational capacity through the application form, for example with a general presentation of the organisations, the profiles of the staff who will manage and carry out the project, and a description of the consortium (Programme Guide 2026, p. 424).
• Whether the partnership itself is strong. The operational capacity check can be extended to the partnership as a whole, because the quality of implementation depends on the capacity of all partners (Programme Guide 2026, p. 424).
• Whether you will ask before using their code. Applicants must have explicit consent to use another organisation's OID in an application form, and may be disqualified if they cannot show it in case of disagreement (Programme Guide 2026, p. 414).
• Whether they have room. One OID can be involved in at most 5 KA210 and at most 10 KA220 applications per deadline to National Agencies in school education, VET, adult education and youth, as applicant or partner (Programme Guide 2026, pp. 237, 245). Youth Exchanges have a cap of 5 per deadline too (Programme Guide 2026, p. 157).
• Whether newcomers are welcome. Involving newcomers and less experienced organisations is one of the partnership criteria (Programme Guide 2026, pp. 241, 249), and KA210 aims to be a first step for organisations into cooperation at European level (Programme Guide 2026, p. 244).

Many organisations exchange a Partner Identification Form, or PIF: a short profile with the organisation's identity, codes, contacts, staff and experience. The PIF is a common practice, not an official Erasmus+ form, and the Programme Guide 2026 does not use the term. Do not confuse it with the Identification Form that applicants upload to the Organisation Registration System, which the National Agencies validate (Programme Guide 2026, p. 415).

What a coordinator needs from you follows from what the application form asks: a general presentation of your organisation and the profiles of your project staff (Programme Guide 2026, p. 424). For grants over €60,000, applicants to National Agencies are recommended to send a list of the participating organisations' publications, if any, and a list of previous and ongoing projects connected to the field or the action (Programme Guide 2026, p. 424).

Start from a clean structure, then run the checks before you send it. See the PIF template

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

Coordinators may also ask for other documents, such as a mandate or a declaration. Our guide lists which ones and when. Erasmus+ partner documents

Most partner requests are genuine. A few patterns, though, go against the Programme Guide, and they can sink an application for every organisation in it.

• An offer to write the application for a fee. The Guide says no other organisations or external individuals can be paid or otherwise compensated for drafting the application or later reports, because these are core tasks that cannot be subcontracted (Programme Guide 2026, p. 428).
• A ready-made application sent to many partnerships. All applications must contain original content authored by the applicant or partners, and all proposals are automatically screened for double funding and plagiarism (Programme Guide 2026, p. 428). Almost identical or similar applications to National Agencies may all be rejected (Programme Guide 2026, p. 428), and multiple submissions of the same application by the same applicant are all rejected (Programme Guide 2026, p. 427).
• Your OID used without asking. An applicant needs your explicit consent to put your OID in an application form (Programme Guide 2026, p. 414).
• A suggestion to register a second OID to get around a cap. Using several OIDs for the same entity may qualify as misrepresentation and lead to the entity's rejection from the award procedures concerned (Programme Guide 2026, p. 415).
• A coordinator who cannot tell you the action, the deadline or your tasks. The partnership criterion rewards a task allocation that shows the active contribution of all participating organisations (Programme Guide 2026, pp. 241, 249).

Finding partners is a numbers game played under time pressure. You will send your profile to many organisations, and each one forwards it to colleagues, saves it in a folder and opens it again weeks later, on the night they fill in the application form. Every copy of an old file is a copy that can be wrong: a former address, a staff member who left, a missing OID.

The facts in your profile end up in someone else's application. Entering an OID fills in the registration data in the form automatically (Programme Guide 2026, p. 414), and an invalid OID is one of the grounds for non-admissibility (Programme Guide 2026, p. 416). Getting your own facts right, and keeping them right, is the part of the partner search that only you can do.

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, an AI Quality Score, PDF and Word export when a coordinator needs a file, and copy for any field. It 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