ChIRS Continues Its Mission Despite Erasmus Mundus Funding Decision

The ChIRS consortium has received the outcome of its recent application to the European Commission for Erasmus Mundus funding.

Although the proposal was evaluated as being of a quality sufficient for funding, it was ultimately not selected due to the limited budget available under this year’s Erasmus Mundus call. While this is naturally a disappointing result, we are proud that the quality and vision of the ChIRS programme were positively recognised during the evaluation process.

As a consequence, no additional consortium grants can be offered for the 2026–2028 intake. The consortium grants that were available have already been awarded and formally accepted by the selected candidates.

Despite this outcome, ChIRS will continue.

We firmly believe that educating the next generation of professionals capable of integrating chemical innovation, sustainability, safety, and regulatory science is more important than ever. The global transition towards safer and more sustainable chemicals and materials requires graduates with the interdisciplinary knowledge and international perspective that ChIRS was created to provide.

For this reason, the consortium remains fully committed to offering ChIRS as an international joint master’s programme, independently of Erasmus Mundus funding. The programme will continue to deliver the same high academic standards, international mobility, multidisciplinary curriculum, and close collaboration between its partner universities.

At the same time, we will continue to pursue European and other funding opportunities that can provide scholarships and financial support for future students. Expanding access to ChIRS for talented candidates from all regions of the world remains one of our highest priorities, and we will continue working towards that goal.

We would like to thank all our partners, students, alumni, academic staff, industrial collaborators and stakeholders for their continued confidence in ChIRS. Their support and commitment reinforce our conviction that this programme addresses an important educational need and has a valuable role to play in shaping the future of safe and sustainable chemical innovation.

We look forward to welcoming our new cohort of students in October and to continuing to build the ChIRS community together.

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