Additional funding in the Erasmus program

Equality and inclusion as well as sustainability play an important role in the Erasmus+ program. Therefore, additional grants are intended to provide special support for students for whom a stay abroad may be more challenging. There is also the possibility for all students to receive additional funding if one decides to travel sustainably.

The following special grants are available:

Top-up for Green Travel
Top-up for students with fewer opportunities
Real Cost Application for students with a degree of disability of 50 or more

Top-up for Green Travel

If you travel at least one way (outward or return) by a sustainable means of transport from Hamburg to the location of your host university or back, you can apply for an additional Green Travel grant. There is a maximum of 6 travel days for which can be applied for, provided that this extends the travel time as follows:

+1 day (up to 8 hours) outbound travel time
+2 days (up to 16 hours) outbound travel time
+3 days (24 hours and more) outbound travel time
+1 day (up to 8 hours) return travel time
+2 days (up to 16 hours) return travel time
+3 days (24 hours and more) return travel time

The travel days on which you have traveled sustainably count as additional days of stay and will be financially supported with the valid daily rate of the corresponding country rate. The following travel allowance will be granted per stay (return travel) per participant depending on the distance which is automatically determined using coordinates:

Actual distance (one-way travel)	Travel allowance (return travel)	Green Travel allowance (return travel)
10 to 99 KM	€28	€56
100 to 499 KM	€211	€285
500 to 1.999 KM	€309	€417
2.000 to 2.999 KM	€395	€535
3.000 to 3.999 KM	€580	€785
4.000 to 7.999 KM	€1.188	€1.188
8.000 KM or more	€1.735	€1.735

Sustainable means of transport

Bicycle, by foot, train, long-distance bus, carpool, ship are considered sustainable means of transport. You can choose either one or a combination of sustainable means of transport. Please name the sustainable means of transport that you spend the most time on in your application.

Application

Please apply for funding by answering the relevant questions in the Mobility online portal and uploading the signed declaration on honour.

Proof

At the current time, your honorary declaration is sufficient as proof of eligibility. However, upon request, you must be able to provide supporting documents.

Additional Information

Since spring 2024 Interrail offers a rail pass for Erasmus+ students valid for 6 months. You can find further information on the websites of Interrail.

Top-up for students with fewer opportunities

Students with fewer opportunities will receive €250 per month (€8,33/day) in addition to their regular monthly grant. The additional grant can only be awarded once, even if several criteria apply to you.

The following groups can receive a monthly supplement:

students with children
students with at least a grade 20 disability (GdB 20)
students with chronic illnesses
students who are the first academics in their family
working students who have to interrupt or terminate their gainful employment due to their semester abroad

Please apply for funding by answering the relevant questions in the Mobility online portal and uploading the signed declaration on honour. Since funds are limited, it is generally not possible to apply after the deadline. The questions will be visible in the portal after the “additional funding” email is sent.

For more information open the following tabs:

Top-up for students with children

Students who take their child or children abroad with them can also receive an additional €250 per month. The prerequisite is that the child or children is/are taken along during the entire stay. The allowance is 250 euros per month per family, regardless of the number of children. The application is also possible if a caregiver (partner) travels along.

Proof: Declaration on honour for additional funding. You also agree to provide supporting documentation upon request.

Top-up for students with disabilities

Students with a degree of disability of 20 or more can receive a top-up on their grant of €250 per month.

Proof: Declaration on honour for additional funding. You also agree to provide supporting documentation upon request.

Top-up for students with additional needs due to chronic illness

Students with a chronic illness that leads to additional financial needs for the stay abroad can also receive an additional €250 per month.

Proof: Declaration on honour for additional funding. You also agree to provide supporting documentation upon request.

Top-up for students from a non-academic background

Studies have shown that students whose parents have not already studied themselves are less likely to consider a stay abroad. With additional funding, the Erasmus program aims to encourage these students to take the step abroad. In this case, students whose parents or caregivers do not have a degree from a university or university of applied sciences are considered first-time academics. Here, too, 250 euros are available in addition to the regular monthly Erasmus grant.

A degree from a university-like university of cooperative education is considered an academic degree. Likewise, courses of study completed abroad count as academic degrees, even if they are not recognized in Germany. A master craftsman's diploma is not considered an academic degree.

Proof: Declaration on honour for additional funding. You also agree to provide supporting documentation upon request.

Top-up for working students

Students who earn a significant amount of their own living may be reluctant to embark on a stay abroad, as they are often unable to continue working while abroad and earnings are lost. To alleviate this problem, there is now a top-up amount of €250 if the following criteria apply:

with net earnings of more than €450 and less than €850 in any month continuously employed for at least six months during the two semesters prior to the stay abroad
The employment may be a single one or several immediately following each other. An interruption within the regular vacation period during employment is not aproblem as long as you have been imployed for at least 6 months.
the activity is not continued during the stay abroad, so that there is a loss of earnings.

The activity must have taken place during this period:

Stay abroad in/from fall semester: six months within 1 January of the same year through 31 July of the year abroad
Stay abroad in spring semester: six months within 1 April of the previous year through 31 January of the year abroad

Attention! Activities carried out in self-employment and dual/ part-time study programmes with a fixed salary are excluded.

Proof: Declaration on honour for additional funding. You also agree to provide supporting documentation upon request

Real Cost Application

If particularly high additional costs arise from your personal situation for your stay abroad, a so-called "real cost application" can be submitted with a few months' advance notice. Eligible for the funding are:

Students with children
Students with additional needs due to chronic illness
Students with a degree of disability of 50 or moren (GdB 50 or more).

Up to €15,000 per semester can be covered. It is also possible to receive a grant for an accompanying person or a preparatory trip to explore the local conditions. This requires a lot of time in advance, so we ask students to seek advice early and to contact Institutional Erasmus Coordination(erasmus.coordination"AT"uni-hamburg.de) directly.

Important Information: An application for real costs makes sense if the additional costs during your stay abroad are not covered by the top-up for students with fewer opportunities. If your additional costs abroad exceed the amount of the top-up, you may be eligible to apply for a real cost application if it can be proven that these costs are not financed by other bodies (integration offices, health insurance, social welfare offices, student services). The application for real costs must be submitted in full to the DAAD for review two months before the start of the mobility.

Combinability of the additional subsidies: Please note that you can submit either the top-up or a real cost application for a category. Example: It is not permitted to submit both the top-up for students with fewer opportunities and a real cost application for students with children.

Combinability of the additional subsidies

The additional grants can all be combined with the Green Travel grant.

However, the €250 additional grant can only be awarded once, even if several criteria apply to you. It is possible for you to apply for a top-up for students with fewer opportunities (e.g. top-up for students with children) and also submit a Real Cost Application (e.g. for students with additional needs due to chronic illness).

Therefore, your Erasmus grant can consist at maximum of the following components:

Maximum support = regular monthly rate for your country + if applicable max. 6 additonal travel days for choosing sustainable means of transport + if applicable one-time top-up of €250 per month for groups below / (+) Real Cost Application.