Fokus Portugal initiative to increase transparen- cy of qualification and mobility of citizens in Europe. Besides teams working on transversal tasks, such as IT, the financial area, compliance and project auditing, and evidence-based analysis, there are 30 staff directly working with KA1 and KA2 teams. Of those, seven staff are responsible for higher education: six are dealing with learning mobilities of individu- als (Key Action 1) – four with mobil- ities involving programme countries (KA103) and two with mobilities involving partner countries (Interna- tional Credit Mobility [ICM], KA107) – and one with cooperation concerning innovation and the exchange of good practices (Key Action 2). A tale of two stories Erasmus+ is well-known and broadly recognised in Portugal, as one might expect from a country with a long involvement in European education and mobility programmes – Portu- gal is after all one of the 11 states which began to implement mobili- ty activities for students as part of the original ERASMUS programme (EuRopean Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of Univer- sity Students) back in 1987, just one year after its accession to the then European Community. «There is a lot of interest in all our actions», Ana Cristina Perdigão, the National Agency’s diretora since September 2020, states unequivocally. Indicative of this fact is that the numbers both of submitted and of approved projects have increased significantly since 2014, the latter more than the former; applications have grown by 57% over the sev- en-year period, approved projects even by 83%. And yet, as Perdigão also notes in this context, «the de- mand exceeds the capacity to fund all applications». This applies to ICM and especially to Strategic Partner- ships. «Only in KA103, it is possible for the National Agency to finance all projects», due to the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE) scheme, which covers almost all Portuguese Higher Education Insti- tutions (HEIs). The annual increases in the Erasmus+ budget, particular- ly the marked growth rates in both 2019 and 2020, while welcomed, could not meet the demand for the decentralised actions administered by AN E+ EF. The scope of the programme Even if not all projects could be funded, what has been achieved since 2014 is still noteworthy. A study commissioned by the Nation- al Agency found, for instance, that during the first three years of Eras- mus+ alone, that is to say until 2016, students, teaching staff (profes- sores), and administrative staff from Portuguese Higher Education Insti- tutions studied, taught, or trained at some 1,800 European HEIs; that is half of all HEIs participating in the programme at the time. In absolute figures, these were almost 27,000 KA103 mobilities (plus 500 financed by ICM).3 Under Call 2017, Portugal recorded another 12,700 mobilities involving higher education staff and students (KA103 and KA107). 3 See Relatório nacional intercalar de avaliação da implementação e impacto do programe Erasmus+: Portugal ([Lisbon]: 2017), pp. 7–8, available online at https://t1p.de/247c [10.11.2020]. There are at the same time more staff, both teaching and adminis- trative, and above all more students coming to Portugal. This is to be ex- pected given the imbalance between the potential numbers inbound versus outbound. Yet Ana Cristina Perdigão is adamant that numbers alone only tell part of the story. «The quality of Portuguese higher edu- cation institutions, where all of the courses have at least 30 to 60 ECTS in English, and top research organi- sations and R&D units in all domains of knowledge» must also be taken into account, she points out, as they raise the attractiveness of Portugal as a destination. Last but least, there are the socio-economic conditions, such as a favourable cost of living compared to other European coun- tries, a welcoming and multicultural environment and, it almost goes without saying, the good weather and sunny beaches. The fact of the matter remains that Portugal is popular with Erasmus+ students, easily securing a top 10 place (e.g., 7th place in 2018). The main countries of origin being Spain (around 20.9% of inbound students), Italy (14.5%), Poland (11%), Germa- ny (8.6%) and France (6.7%). Around 61% of these incoming students are female and 38% are male. As for the levels of study, almost two thirds (61.6%) are first cycle and around one third (33.8%) are second cycle students. And while most of them fall into the category of Student Mobility for Studies (SMS), the ratio of Stu- dent Mobility for Placements/Trainee- ships (SMP) has increased since 2014 from 21% to about 29% in 2017. 38