Teaching excellence initiatives are emerging internationally, as universities seek ways to strengthen the educational competence of faculty and to raise the status of educational merits. This study compares the experiences of initiatives for promoting teaching excellence in one Swedish and one Dutch technical university. In both programmes, participants work on their own project for an extended time, while also being part of a community with meetings and coaching. The main differences are the programme duration, number of participants, and whether the projects address a given theme or are formulated by the participants. In both programmes, participants were generally highly satisfied, despite tension regarding diverse goals and backgrounds. While participants were positive about their own learning, they were cautious about the results at the organisational level. We reflect on findings at the individual and organisational levels, and provide recommendations for programmes for teaching excellence in higher education.