Strengthening EU’s talent through Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters funding

Imagine you are a Master’s level student and get the chance to study in at least three European countries, earn a degree recognized in several European countries and receive a scholarship up to €1,400 per month for the full duration of your studies to cover nearly all expenses. In addition, dedicated financial support is available for students with special needs.

This is what the Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters programmes (EMJM) are built to provide and why many higher education institutions are keen to apply for the funding.

EMJM programmes showcasing and challenging excellence in higher education

The overall aim of Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters (EMJM) programmes is to attract excellent students to Europe from around the world, showcase European excellence in higher education and strengthen international cooperation between universities, industry and societies (European Commission 2025).

From a policy perspective, the EMJM is one of the most advanced actions to support European Higher Education Area principles: to facilitate student (and in some cases staff) mobility, improve the comparability and recognition of qualifications, promote inclusion and accessibility in higher education, and enhance the global attractiveness and competitiveness of European higher education (European Commission 2022).

From an institutional perspective, in addition to funding EMJM offers higher education institutions a possibility to co-develop new joint programmes, learn from partners, build strong international partnerships, improve international visibility, and strengthen the quality of education.

While this ambition is promising and sounds compelling, transforming it into practice is highly challenging as it places significant demands on higher education institutions. This is because every part of running the programme needs to be developed and managed together. This means that joint work cannot focus only on the curriculum — it must also cover admissions, promotion, coordination, quality assurance, and financial management (European Commission 2025). This requires a high level of trust and deep, ongoing collaboration between all partners involved.

Strong applicants and fierce competition

Haaga-Helia is re-applying for EMJM funding for the joint Master’s programme AI for Business Transformation (UlysseusAI), in collaboration with its Ulysseus European University Alliance partners, the University of Seville and the Technical University of Košice. The objective is to further develop UlysseusAI as a pioneering international programme in applied AI that responds to growing global skills needs in business and society.

Reflecting this need is, firstly, a rapid rise in AI adoption across sectors. According to McKinsey Global Institute (2025) as of 2025, 78 % of companies report using AI in at least one business function, and many are scaling up investments. Secondly, despite greater access to AI, in general companies struggle to leverage AI mainly due to a skills shortage (European Commission 2020). More broadly, the EU is facing persistent labour shortages and changing skills needs (European Commission 2023).

All together, there is strong value for money in the UlysseusAI programme if it receives EMJM funding. However, competition is fierce and the chances of receiving the funding are slim.

The valuable learning experience of applying for EMJM funding

Regardless of the outcome of the current EMJM call, the application process itself represents a valuable learning experience, not only in terms of co-creating an international joint degree, but also in understanding how to argue its unique value at the EU level. The process has also highlighted how demanding this type of deep collaboration can be, while at the same time demonstrating the added value it can generate across several fronts. Through this deepened collaboration, we are now better prepared to engage in and apply for other future joint calls as well.

On a personal level, leading the grant-writing process has been one of my most significant learning journeys. Most importantly, it highlighted that even strong ideas are unlikely to secure funding unless they are framed convincingly from an EU-level perspective. Grant writing has required developing a deep understanding of how to convincingly articulate the excellence that our institutions—and in particular Haaga-Helia, as the coordinating institution—bring, and why this funding would create new opportunities for us to respond to evolving EU-level needs in AI adoption by businesses. More broadly, the process demanded a shift towards EU-level thinking, learning to frame institutional excellence in terms of European added value.

Overall, irrespective of the results announced in July 2026, the learning process and the deepened collaboration will remain highly valuable for future work.

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