Erasmus+ Grant Scheme, European Union's funding programme to support education, has been an important source of co-financing of fellows and visiting scholars for the GEST programme as well as specific projects such as for the online courses and podcasts. GEST collaborates with various universities with the aim to establish academic partnerships to promote inter-cultural exchange of knowledge and provide students with the opportunity to be exposed to a community in Iceland which is at the global forefront of gender equality. The Erasmus+ programme further facilitates staff mobility to strengthen academic collaboration and research efforts. In 2020-2023, GEST engaged with the following universities through the institutional agreements either with student or staff exchange:
- Makerere University, Uganda
- Lagos State University, Nigeria
- University of Ghana
- University of Sarajevo, (Center for Interdisciplinary Studies), Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Lebanese American University
- Kabul University, Afghanistan
- University of Pristina, Kosovo
- Birzeit University, Palestine
- University of Nairobi, Kenya
- University of Montenegro
- University of West Indies, Jamaica
Since 2017, the GEST programme has welcomed 42 fellows from 13 partner universities who have all been co-financed by the Erasmus+. The fellows are nominated by their instructors and academic supervisors, providing the students with an opportunity to access diverse gender focused modules at the GEST programme. Furthermore, GEST welcomes international guest lecturers to Iceland through the Erasmus+ scheme, who either teach in the GEST programme or participate in public lectures.
In addition to the Inter-institutional agreements, GEST led the collaboration of London School of Economics, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), University of Cape Town and the University of Oslo, in developing a two transnational online courses on gender, development and post-conflict states, as well as partnering in the IDEAS Podcast project, led by Center for Women’s Studies from Belgrade. Both of these collaborations are fully funded by the Erasmus+ grant scheme.
