National projects must adhere to national priorities which are established in close dialogue between European Commission Delegations and the relevant authorities in the partner countries. Multi-country projects must comply with either the regional priorities which have been defined along the lines of the EU's modernisation agenda in the higher education area and as identified in the Commission's strategic documents concerning the neighbouring countries, Central Asia and those for pre-accession to the EU.

The two principal instruments for cooperation through this Tempus call for proposals are:

• Joint Projects: projects with a ‘bottom-up’ approach aiming at modernisation and reform at institutional (university) level. Joint Projects aim at modernising university curricula and governance through a transfer of knowledge between universities, organisations and institutions from the EU and from the partner countries as well as between partner country entities as appropriate,
• Structural Measures: projects which seek to contribute to the development and reform of higher education systems in partner countries, as well as to enhance their quality and relevance, and to increase their convergence with EU developments. Structural Measures will concern interventions designed to support structural reform of higher education systems and strategic framework development at national level.

Eligibility:
Institutions and organisations which may participate in the Tempus Programme range from higher education institutions and organisations through to non-academic institutions and organisations such as non-governmental organisations, companies, industries and public authorities.
These institutions and organisations have to be based in the following four groups of eligible countries:

• 27 Member States of the European Union,

• 6 countries of the Western Balkan region: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, as well as Kosovo under UNSC Resolution 1244/99,

• 15 countries in the Southern and Eastern neighbouring area of the European Union: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the occupied Palestinian territory, Syria, Tunisia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine,

• the Russian Federation,

• 5 Central Asian Republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Source and further information:
The full text of the call for proposals and the application forms are available on the following websites:
http://ec.europa.eu/tempus and http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/tempus/call09_en.html.