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EWP stands for Erasmus without Paper, which is a project and now a Network funded through Erasmus+ KA3 from 1/11/ 2015 till 30/10/2017 and again from 1/1/2018 till 31/12/19was originally an Ersamus+ project (2015-2019) and now an electronic Network. Its chief goal is to digitalise the administrative framework that underpins student mobility in Europe, enabling electronic data exchange and interoperability among diverse information systems. In March 2019 the European Commission announced that the usage of EWP will be made mandatory from 2021 as part of the next Multi-annual financial framework (MFF) i.e. the next Erasmus programme. This was confirmed and elaborated in the Erasmus goes digital webinar on 5/3/2020.

EWP consists of two chief components: a network that interconnects a multitude of student information systems (whether individual universities or third-party providers which represent multiple institutions) through the use of APIs and a Dashboard that provides a web solution for exchanging student data electronically for HEIs lacking the required SIS software. The present document focuses exclusively on the EWP network and the connection to it; the compliance and use of the dashboard is the object of a different set of documents.

The overwhelming majority of student information now exchanged in the context of the Erasmus programme is exchanged by email or even by normal post, and seldom the personal information in it is encrypted. Such procedures are not GDPR compliant, and EWP provides an infinitely more secure fashion through which to exchange such digital data. In addition, EWP exchanges data in real-time and is extremely labour efficient. No double work any longer. Finally, the European Commission has decided that by 2025 all institutions will have to be digitally connected in the European Digital Higher Education Area.

Yes, the EWP Network is completely free. But there are indirect costs anyway. Implementing the EWP APIs (connectors) to the database software of an institution will require technical ICT development since most software at HEIs needs to be made ready for data exchange outside their own servers. Usually, this means the interface has to be changed as well. It is therefore imperative that HEIs start up this ICT development urgently. If you use third-party tools, it is your provider who will make the connection. We are in contact with many, but it requires them to invest in ICT development as well. In principle, no extra money can be charged for the use of a module that allows exchanges through the EWP Network. Finally, the EWP/Erasmus Dashboard is a completely free tool for interinstitutional agreements and learning agreements. 

In March 2019 the European Commission announced that the EWP standards will be mandatory from the beginning of the new Erasmus Programme in January 2021. The timetable they put forward was: 
    2021: Online learning agreements
    2022: Inter-institutional agreements
    2023: Nominations and Transcripts of records

In practice there are 3 ways to do this:
A HEI implements the APIs itself
A HEI uses a third party software tool
A HEI uses the EWP/Erasmus Dashboard

A combination is possible, but you cannot combine tools for the same API service. service  (e.g. usin,g the Dashboard AND commercial software simultaneouslty for Learning agreements)  

In practice, this means that HEIs can gradually introduce the changes, even though the EWP Network already has operational APIs for all of the processes in student exchanges as we speak. For a detailed description of the EWP APIs click here. Our third-party provider EWP partners (Mobility Online (AT), MoveON (UK), USOS (PL), Cineca (IT), Sigma (ES), FS (No)), have committed to implement all APIs in their business development plan, but the exact timetable is, of course, their own responsibility.  
Finally, the EWP/Erasmus Dashboard will be fully EWP compatible as of May 2020early 2021.

You could also start with one solution for a particular API  service and later on change to another one, as long as you don't use two solutions for the same service at the same time. 

Yes. The EWP infrastructure itself only facilitates the exchange of data and does not handle any storage or processing of data. Each university is responsible for ensuring the informed consent of their students prior to exchanging their personal information with partner institutions through EWP. Further efforts involving the European Commission and National Authorities are underway to ensure the data minimisation is systematically applied to the EWP data dictionaries, which is are based on the official templates set out by EU. The rules of GDPR do, however, apply to the EWP/Erasmus Dashboard because it stores data. More info here. 

No. Here again, there are several scenarios.

1. Your HEI can implement some or all of the EWP APIs and in this way connect to the EWP Network. This usually requires ICT development, not only for the connection itself (server-side implementation) but also for the Interface (client-side implementation). Most internal HEI software is not suited now yet suited  for external data exchange, so this needs to be changed. But it can be done in stages (one API after another).
2. For the Learning Agreements and the Interinstitutional Agreements, you can use the EWP/Erasmus Dashboard (temporarily or permanently) . But of course, that means that you cannot do this it in your own internal software any longer.
3. A third option is to use the software of the a third-party software provider (commercial or not). You can be connected to the EWP Network via different software tools, but not with more than 1 software tool at the same time per service.

You don't join or register for EWP personally, your institution does. A distinction has to be made between registering for the EWP network and the EWP/Erasmus Dashboard.

1. Registering for the Dashboard: there you register personally for your institution. The Dashboard is a separate tool that allows you to manage OLAs an IIAs. The data in those can then be exchanged over the EWP Network.
2. Joining through 3rd party software: in that case you don't need to join at all. The software provider does it for you and you use the logins you already have for the software. Contact them to get all the details on what they are doing in terms of EWP.
3. The third option to join is to connect your institution's internal software to the EWP Network. This involves ICT development, and e.g.   IRO person persons cannot normally do this on their own. The institution will assign the logins as you work through via the HEI's own server. The full procedure can be found here.

The Erasmus Without Paper Dashboard has been made available to make this possible and as of now allows for the management of Online Learning Agreements and Inter-institutional Agreements, and more . More functionality will be added in the future.