Nowadays in Europe, automation is reshaping the manufacturing tools to decrease the product cost withinenvironmental objective guidelines, customized production and valuable improvement of work conditions. At oppositeside, in least developed countries of Asia the labour market has mostly found employment in farming andmanufacturing is still using low cost manpower with poor qualification profile. For these Asian countries, the industrialstructure of the economy is still at its beginning and is facing many challenges with their education system. One of themis the lack of expert educated with corresponding skills to work on new technology of automation in processing andmanufacturing system. It is usual in the corresponding factories to find foreigners holding high qualified job profile asuniversities have not yet incorporated dedicated lab to provide the right skills to their students. Asean Factori 4.0 projectpropose to contribute to this challenge by the design of a set of industrial automation labs with a corresponding stafftraining program to initiate the foundation of center of excellence in Automation. In each institution, different kinds ofpedagogical process will be implemented and tested to create a network of competencies among our partner countriesfollowing their local needs and to permit cross learning approach during the project. Through the Industry 4.0 roadmap,the project is the first step to educate students to prepare a future generation of qualified workers able to implementadvanced manufacturing and processing machinery.

Over 100 million people drink groundwaters containing naturally occurring arsenic (As) higher than the WHO guide value (10 ppb). In Bangladesh alone, 20% of all deaths in impacted areas are attributable to such exposure (ARGOS, 2010) - this corresponds to about 30,000 premature deaths every year. Studies provide evidence for both in-aquifer and near-surface sediment As sources. ISLAM (2004) demonstrated that As release occurs from within the aquifer sediments & highlighted the importance of organic matter (OM) in this process. BENNER (2008) & POLIZZOTTO (2008) have suggested, instead, that As release mostly occur in near-surface sediments BEFORE entering the aquifer. Determining the relative importance and controls of As release from the near surface sediments (typically 5 m - 15 m depth) from that which occurs within the aquifer, as well as assessing the various controls on As once in solution, are critical if we are to develop the required process oriented understanding of As mobility in drinking water supplies. Identifying study areas that reveal these processes is hard. For example, massive groundwater abstraction in the densely populated areas of West Bengal and Bangladesh has resulted in a complex subsurface hydrological environment which makes tracking As release mechanisms almost impossible. However, the absence of such extensive abstraction in As-rich aquifers of Cambodia means that this subsurface hydrological environment remains largely unaltered. Recent work by project partners (Stanford) means that a representative high As area has been identified and the hydrogeology established - but not on a scale or with the geochemical techniques required to establish a full understanding. We will drill 77 new and relatively inexpensive boreholes at the Cambodian site after using geophysics (supplied by our BGS partner) to determine the best locations. These new wells will allow us to collect samples across established As hotspots at a scale over which the As release process must be operating. Three well nests will sample an oxbow lake overlying an As contaminated aquifer, a sand 'window' through the overlying clay sediments and a control through the clay sediment overlying the As contaminated main aquifer. Two further well sequences will allow sampling of the main aquifer along its flow path. A 5-20m tube-well separation represents ~5-250 years of aquifer chemical evolution. Our Cambodian partners at RUPP & RDI will give local logistic support. We have been working closely our NERC Radiocarbon Lab partner. We show within our proposal that 14-C dating of organic matter in sediments and of dissolved inorganic and organic carbon in groundwaters provides a profound technique for identifying organic matter sources, central to resolving As release mechanisms. Similarly, pilot work withour NERC stable isotope facility partner has shown the utility of applying delta-18O and delta-D data to quantify surface water input into the main aquifer. Both of these approaches, combined with Manchester anion, cation and inorganic assay of sediments as well as tritium and 4-He techniques to date any young water input or ancient fluid contribution, will provide a fully comprehensive geochemical approach. With the high spatial resolution of sampling we expect this approach to make a major contribution in: i) quantifying the flux of As on a spatial scale alongside secular changes in As hazard from these two potential As sources; ii) identifying the dominant source of OM responsible for driving As release from these locations; and iii) identifying the controlling processes and mechanisms responsible for As release in these profiles. Together this understanding will enable the development of a quantitative model with predictive capacity that will inform governmental agencies responsible for drinking water and irrigation supplies to assess how continuation of, or changing, water use practice will impact future water supply As risks.

Asian Family Businesses (FB) are the backbone of the Asian economy, however the specific characteristics of family businesses which can affect their longevity and their competitiveness remain unexplored. More efforts should be directed towards studying the contribution of family businesses to establish the proper institutional frameworks to support their longevity. In this context the project aims to create a new Master’s programme in the specialized academic area of FB Management in total 16 HEIs of Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, that is as much absent from HEI programmes in the Partner Countries (PC) involved as it is needed. The FAB curriculum will incorporate novel entrepreneurial theories, business models and innovative management tools fostering new family entrepreneurs, but also promoting entrepreneurial behaviour (including innovation) in existing family firms.Beyond coursework, the program will be structured around:- industry placement, in family businesses;- ‘FB Centers of Excellence’ in PC HEIs that will act as foci for research and innovation in the area;- country-specific VET online courses (MOOCs), introducing PC HEIs in the MOOC era;- digital learning, to allow modern forms of learning, as well as to enable contribution from experts across the globe in the development of the program;- promote cooperation, exchange of know-how and good practices in the subject area between EU and PC HEIs;-establish viable synergies and links with family businesses in order to address their needs in specialized personnel and enhance the employability of FAB graduates;-contribute to local economic growth, by providing to program participants the right knowledge/skills/tools to turn the local family-business sector into a driver of social and economic growth;-promote dialogue between the academic sector, family businesses and policy/decision makers in PC and help convey the concerns faced by FB into policy consultation processes.

The educational curriculum seems to not successfully match with the 21st century skills requirements.In order to develop a student-centered learning environment, cover successfully the needs of a growing diverse population of students in China, India and Cambodia with a variety of multi-cultural, multi-linguistics and multi-ability needs and respond to the gap in skills set in the labour market and society, shortage of qualified teachers and poor level of student learning this proposal aims at modernizing the academic curricula, transferring knowledge and best practices on innovative and ICT-based teaching methodology on 21st skills acquisition from HEIs in Programme Countries to the HEIs of Partner Countries that will be benefited directly from this project. The results include 21st century skills teaching state-of-the-art report, a 21st century skills Educational Programme that will be incorporated in the academic program, capacity-building sessions for Faculty staff and development of 21stTeachSkills e-toolbox and learning Platform. Impact will be generated in institution-level, regional level through dissemination activities and networking and European level with the supprt of the EU-HEIs.

The BALANCE project will be implemented in Cambodia as a Structural action and its general objective is to strengthen financial autonomy & accountability of HEIs in Cambodia via modernisation of financial management (FM) practices & legal framework.The partnership was conceived to face some of the most relevant deficiencies on HEIs FM and sustainable financing such as shortage of qualified staff on FM; inadequate IT infrastructure & systems at FM units; lack of effective national and institutional-level strategies or policies and need to improve quality & ensure sustainable financing of HE.BALANCE present an innovative proposal to ensure that FM practices are harmonised in the Cambodian public HE system. The project specific objectives are (i) to promote modernisation of human and organisational capacities of FM in Cambodian HEIs through capacity building and experience exchange; (ii) to set up a sustainable communication platform between Cambodian HEIs & relevant ministries with the objective of improving transparency & systematisation of FM practices.The BALANCE activities implemented by 11 Cambodian HEIs, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport & 2 EU HEIs with an outstanding trajectory on the FM and University Governance field, will include:- Needs analysis activities & benchmarking will provide an insight of the situation of Cambodian HEIs on financial frameworks & practices& will identify good practices on financial models in EU HEIs;- Capacity building on FM, via 5 workshops that trainees will adapt for the implementation of the replication seminars at institution level. - Modernisation of IT infrastructures at FM units;- Developing FM Action Plans for 2020 -2024;- Creation of a BALANCE communication platform to host real time information on Key Performance Indicators from each Cambodian partner HEI to ensure the sustainability of the project;- White Paper for a Financial Model for the Cambodian public HE system.