In the context of musical culture the international comparison is nowadays an essential element of the global market as it qualifies the educational and didactic offer of the art institutes of higher education aiming to foster the excellence and talent of their students. To this respect the comparison with the European Conservatoires and Music Academies, with reference to both the didactic offer and the upgrading of the internal organizational and productive structures, becomes an element of great relevance, through which a long term strategic planning should be oriented. From this standpoint the Conservatorio Vincenzo Bellini has looked at the Erasmus+ Programme as at a fundamental and reliable instrument to face the challenges of innovation and expansion of the strategic relationships both in the didactic and cultural field. The academic year 2014/15 saw a thorough reorganization of our Erasmus Office. This has allowed the staff to work more efficiently to stand the international competition in a moment of transformation of the European regulations in this matter from the former LLP to the new Erasmus+ Programme. The Erasmus Office of the Conservatory was therefore confronted with many new procedures, from the renewal of the agreements with the existing partner institutions to the extension of the partnership to new subjects in the field of artistic higher education (today the Conservatory has over 40 inter-institutional agreements for the programme period 2014-2020); from the uploading of the data into the new mobility management system, the Mobility Tool, to the adoption of new forms and documents as required by the National Agency, to the redrafting of the application procedures and of the financial criteria established by the new regulations. These new and stimulating perspectives are accompanied by an ever growing attention among teachers and students towards the opportunities offered by the Programme, thanks also to some promotional and awareness raising strategies adopted by the Erasmus Office: • creation of an information and support desk, open with twice a week; • organization of an Info Day once a year, a moment of communication and information open to all staff members and students of the Conservatory; • creation of a new Internet site, connected with the existing main website of the Conservatory, exclusively dedicated to the Erasmus+ Programme, with forms, calls, partner institutions and their web links, information and documents); • publication of newsletters on the various opportunities offered by the Programme and sent to the mailing list of teachers and students. Today the Conservatory promotes the following Erasmus+ related opportunities: • contributions for student mobilities for studies; • contributions for student mobilities for training; • contributions for teacher and staff mobilities for training or teaching; • contributions for post-lauream mobilities for traineeship periods abroad. During the academic year 2014/15 the Conservatory has had 4 outgoing student mobilities for studies and 7 staff mobilities and has hosted two mobilities for studies and two staff mobilities for teaching. With a view to a greater attention to the international planning the Conservatory has also applied for the call to Erasmus+ Key Action 2, strategic partnerships for Higher Education. The project proposed by the Conservatory as the leader of a group including also four other European partner institutions, reported an outstanding result with a score of 86 out of 100 and was placed in the higher end of the national ranking list; it was not eligible for funding due to the reduced financial availability. A positive effect of the development of the internationalisation strategies is the growth of cooperation relationships with other European cultural institutions based on other European funding programmes. In this respect the success of the Rostrum+ project is significant: the project is promoted and coordinated by the International Music Council in Paris in cooperation with (among others) the Vincenzo Bellini Conservatory in the framework of Creative Europe, European Cooperation Projects: The application has received a brilliant ranking of 93 out of 100 and was therefore eligible for EU funding over 476 received by the EACEA (Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency). The Erasmus+ mobilities carried out during the academic year 2014/15 have proven to be innovative levers and have contributed to consolidating partnerships and to opening the way to new important challenges.