Youth and sports organisations in the UK are fully eligible for Erasmus+ KA1 and KA2 funding from January 2027. This includes youth clubs, sports clubs, charities and voluntary sector bodies working with young people, as well as organisations using sport as a tool for social inclusion or rehabilitation. Eligible activities include professional training and job shadowing for youth workers and coaches, group mobility for young participants, and KA2 cooperation partnerships with European organisations. Non-formal education providers are explicitly included in the programme’s scope. The UK rejoins Erasmus+ from January 2027 with applications expected to open November 2026 through the British Council as National Agency.

This article is part of IBD’s series on who can apply for Erasmus+ funding in the UK. The full guide covering all institution types is the place to start if you are new to the programme. This article goes deeper on youth and sports organisations specifically.

Are youth and sports organisations eligible for Erasmus+?

Yes, fully. Click hear to read a full eligiblity guide. This is the most common misconception IBD encounters when working with organisations in this sector. Youth workers, sports coaches, community organisations and voluntary sector bodies regularly assume that Erasmus+ is a programme for schools and universities. It is not. Non-formal education, which is the term Erasmus+ uses to describe learning that happens outside traditional academic institutions, is explicitly included in the programme’s scope. Youth organisations sit squarely within it.

Eligible organisations include youth clubs, sports clubs, community organisations, charities working with young people, social enterprise providers, organisations using sport for social inclusion, national youth federations and local voluntary sector bodies. If your organisation works with young people in a structured way, with defined activities and measurable outcomes, you are almost certainly eligible.

The UK rejoins Erasmus+ from January 2027. Applications are expected to open in November 2026 through the British Council, which has been confirmed as the UK National Agency.

What Erasmus+ KA1 covers for youth and sports organisations

Erasmus+ KA1 funds individual and group mobility. For youth and sports organisations, the most relevant activity types are the following.

Professional training for youth workers and coaches

Staff and volunteers from your organisation can travel abroad to attend structured training courses, coaching programmes, workshops or seminars in their field. This is fully funded, covering travel, accommodation, subsistence and course fees where applicable. A football coach attending a UEFA coaching course abroad, a youth worker attending a non-formal education training programme in Europe, or a project leader attending a study visit to a partner organisation — all of these are eligible KA1 activities.

Job shadowing

A youth worker or coach can spend time at a partner organisation abroad, observing how they operate, exchanging methods and building a professional relationship. Job shadowing visits typically last between two days and two weeks and are fully funded. For organisations working in specialist areas, such as sport-based social inclusion or youth justice, finding a partner doing similar work in a different country produces genuinely valuable professional learning that cannot come from a training course.

Group mobility for young participants

Groups of young people from your organisation can travel together on a structured programme abroad. This could be a sports exchange, a youth work project, a skills development programme or a cultural visit. The programme must have defined educational or developmental objectives, but those objectives do not need to be academic. Developing confidence, teamwork, communication skills and cross-cultural awareness through sport or structured youth activities is exactly what Erasmus+ is designed to fund.

A real example: football coaching and social inclusion in Valencia

IBD Partnership Group organised a professional training mobility to Valencia, Spain, for a UK-based youth organisation that uses football as a tool for social rehabilitation, working specifically with young offenders to support their reintegration into society through sport.

The programme placed the organisation’s coaches in Valencia for a structured period of professional training delivered by UEFA-licensed coaches, combined with visits to Valencia CF’s training facilities and sessions with local sports education professionals. The coaches returned with a significantly broader technical repertoire, direct exposure to how elite coaching methodology is applied in a different cultural context, and a set of professional relationships that have continued beyond the project itself.

The value of this project was not simply the coaching sessions. It was the combination of professional development, cultural exposure and the signal sent to the young people the organisation works with: that the staff investing in them are themselves investing in their own development. Organisations using sport for social inclusion often underestimate how much their own staff development matters to the young people they serve.

This type of project is precisely what Erasmus+ KA1 professional training funding is designed for, and it is available to any eligible UK youth or sports organisation from January 2027.

Erasmus+ KA2 for youth and sports organisations

Beyond KA1 individual mobility, Erasmus+ KA2 funds cooperation partnerships between organisations across multiple countries. For youth and sports organisations, KA2 opens up larger-scale collaborative projects: joint curriculum development, shared training frameworks, transnational youth exchanges, and sport-based social inclusion programmes developed and delivered across borders.

A KA2 project typically involves three or more organisations from different programme countries working together over two to three years on a defined project with shared outputs. The funding is more substantial than KA1 and the administrative requirements are more complex, but for organisations with the capacity to manage a partnership project, KA2 offers a level of sustained European collaboration that transforms how an organisation operates.

IBD can advise on whether KA1 or KA2 is the right starting point for your organisation depending on your capacity, your existing international relationships and what you want to achieve.

Sport as a tool for social inclusion under Erasmus+

Erasmus+ has a specific strand that recognises sport’s role in social inclusion, health promotion and community development. Organisations working at this intersection, using sport to engage young people who are disengaged from education, at risk of offending, or facing social exclusion, are not just eligible for Erasmus+ funding. They are the kind of organisations the programme actively wants to support.

The inclusion support element of Erasmus+ KA1 provides additional funding specifically for participants with fewer opportunities. This covers young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, those with fewer educational qualifications, those in contact with the justice system, and those facing other barriers to participation. If your organisation works with this group, the standard grant rates are a floor, not a ceiling. Inclusion support can add significantly to the total funding available for your project.

What a strong application looks like for this sector

Youth and sports organisations that apply for Erasmus+ for the first time often write applications that describe what they do rather than what participants will learn. The programme assesses applications on learning outcomes, not activity descriptions. The question is not what your coaches will do in Valencia; it is what they will be able to do differently when they return, and how that transfers to the young people they work with.

A strong application from a sports organisation using Erasmus+ for professional training would describe: the specific coaching or youth work competencies the mobility is designed to develop; how those competencies connect to the organisation’s wider development goals; how the learning will be shared with colleagues on return; and how the organisation will measure whether the mobility achieved what it set out to do.

This sounds demanding, but it is largely a question of being specific about things the organisation already knows. IBD has been guiding organisations through this process since 2005 and can help translate what you do into the language Erasmus+ assessors are looking for.

FAQ

Q: Does our organisation need to be a registered charity to apply for Erasmus+?
A: No. Erasmus+ eligibility is not limited to charities. Any legally constituted organisation working in youth work, sport or non-formal education can apply, including community interest companies, social enterprises, sports clubs and voluntary organisations.

Q: Can we apply if we have never run an international project before?
A: Yes. First-time applicants are welcome and the British Council is expected to provide specific guidance for new applicants when the 2027 portal opens. A clear project rationale and an identified partner organisation abroad are the two most important things to have in place before applying.

Q: Do the young people in our programme need to be in formal education to participate?
A: No. Erasmus+ explicitly covers non-formal education settings. Young people who are not in school or college, including those involved in youth justice programmes, community sport or voluntary sector projects, can participate in funded mobilities.

Q: Can we use Erasmus+ funding for a project that uses sport to address youth offending or social exclusion?
A: Yes, and this is one of the stronger use cases for the programme. Erasmus+ explicitly supports sport as a tool for social inclusion and provides additional inclusion support funding for participants facing barriers to participation. Organisations working in this space are well positioned to access both standard KA1 rates and inclusion supplements.

Q: What is the difference between KA1 and KA2 for our type of organisation?
A: KA1 funds individual or group mobility, people going somewhere to learn or develop. KA2 funds cooperation partnerships between organisations in multiple countries working together on a shared project. KA1 is the right starting point for most organisations entering Erasmus+ for the first time. KA2 is better suited to organisations with existing international relationships and the capacity to manage a multi-year partnership.

Q: When should we start preparing for a 2027 application?
A: Now. The application window opens in November 2026 and closes in February 2027. Organisations that identify their partner, scope their project and prepare their application over the coming months are significantly better positioned than those who start in October. IBD can help you begin that process today.

If your youth or sports organisation is considering its first Erasmus+ project for 2027, or if you want to understand what a professional training mobility or group exchange would look like for your team or participants, get in touch with the IBD team. We have been working with organisations across the youth and sports sector since 2005 and we are happy to talk through what is realistic. Contact us here.