In the effort to promote Italian language and culture, the MAECI (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation) offers to foreign public and private universities the opportunity to apply for contributions for training and refresher courses for teachers of Italian language working in foreign universities.
The contributions are intended to cover only a portion of the expenses related to the course: in the application form, the requesting university must quantify the expenses that can independently support and must also provide a detailed description of the project and training needs. Any costs indicated under the “Other” category, included in the cost estimate and/or in the cost statement, may be covered with the contribution only if they concern the educational implementation of the course. By way of example, the costs of refreshments, lunches, dinners, and accommodation expenses for course participants cannot be included.
Please note that requests will not be accepted for training and refresher courses that take place in Italy or which will be held outside the Philippines, as well as requests for the organization of curricular courses, conferences, seminars, debates, and for the coverage of participation costs of teachers in the aforementioned initiatives. Likewise, requests for training courses which are not addressed to teachers of Italian language already working in foreign universities, but to university students who aspire to become, by profession, Italian language teachers in the future, will not be accepted. If interested, the latter can attend the course as auditors but will not be included in the count of participants.
Request for contributions especially for innovative projects aimed at having a broad impact, such as e-learning training courses for university teaching staff are encouraged as they allow to extend the update to a greater number of users, with significant cost benefits. It has been found that courses must be composed of a minimum of 15 to a maximum of 25 teachers per class in order to optimize costs.
Timeline for the use of granted ocntributions
The contributions granted in the Financial Year 2024 must be used by the end of the activities of the relevant Academic Year (2024-25).
The return of unused or improperly used contributions is a precondition for applying for a new contribution and must take place no later than October 31, 2024.
Documentation required
Applications for contributions to Cap.2619/3 must be accompanied by the following documents:
- a motivation letter, one page long, on letterhead, signed, stamped, which must indicate briefly and at the same time in detail the destination of the funds, the characteristics of the project and the training needs;
- the Form A – request for contribution to be completed in full, signed and stamped;
- the Form B – final report on the use of the last contribution received if the university has received contributions in previous years. Submission of the final report is an essential condition for the granting of the new contribution. If it is not possible to produce the report on the use of the contribution received in 2023 within the deadline for submitting the new contribution request, the university undertakes to transmit it no later than the end of the academic year (for universities that adopt the boreal calendar) or by the deadline of September 30th, 2024 (for universities that adopt the austral calendar).
Universities must fill out the forms digitally, without making any modifications, paying attention to the inclusion of the date, stamp of the requesting institution, and the signature of the academic coordinator.
DEADLINE
Requests for contribution must be sent to the email address manila.culturale@esteri.it no later than March 22, 2024.
