Georgia ratified the UN Convention on the right of persons with disabilities in 2014; However PwDs still experience unequal approach and their rights are frequently violated. Low professional competence of school teachers towards working with pupils with disabilities and special educational needs (SEN ) is one of the main factors influencing quality of inclusive education in Georgian schools. Till now no university in the country has an academic program in special education - at the same time there are about 1500 special teachers working in schools- without proper knowledge and academic diploma/certificate. The training program in inclusive education carried out by the National Centre for Teacher Professional Development is an only way for teachers to enhance professional competence in this regard. With existed curriculum GEO HEIs cannot deal with two main challenges the country has towards inclusive education - (1) Special teachers' proper education - providing them with academic knowledge and diploma/certificate and (2) subject teachers’ low competence towards working with pupils wit SEN - ensuing them with proper education at the university and provide with related continuing education programs. The project is focused on development new academic modules in special education that will be integrated in teacher education program at four GEO HEIS - graduates from the program, future subject/general school teachers will have a proper knowledge to work with pupils with SEN. In addition the certificate program in special education creates opportunities to prepare special teachers with academic knowledge and diploma; short term training programs gives opportunities to school/ field practitioners to refresh professional capacity in inclusive education. And finally strong network of professionals (academicians, school practitioners, NGO/DPO and state agencies) arranged with the frame of the project will create good background for better police and practice.

The NCP4HE project has been designed, on one hand, to bring together and support the needs of the NCP National Coordinators and Legal & Financial NCPs communities and, on the other, to boost a closer and more efficient coordination and cooperation among the different NCP configurations through the infrastructures inherited by the Bridge2HE project, namely the HE NCP Portal and the NCP Virtual Campus, which the project will continue maintaining and developing, enlarging them in content, functionalities and userbase. A large series of activities involving training events, e-learning courses, pre-meetings, meet and exchange workshops, coffee-talks, and mentoring activities, have been planned to provide horizontal support to the whole NPC community, improve mutual learning, and create a structured space for exchange, with a particular focus on newcomers. NCP4HE will also prepare the ground for NCPs in the transition from Horizon Europe to the next Framework Programme working closely with the European Commission and their agencies to ensure a proper interaction with NCPs during that preparatory process. NCP4HE brings together a wide and comprehensive consortium of 36 NCPs host organizations from 22 MS and 9 AS countries, spanning three continents. Additionally, 11 of the 15 widening member countries are represented in the consortium. The project includes a balance mix of NCPs from countries with extensive participation in Horizon 2020 with NCPs coming from countries with low level of participation. This wide spectrum of partners is there to ensure that the project activities and outputs serve as many NCPs as possible, but also that the whole community needs are taken into account when designing and implementing the planned actions.

The main goal of the project is to change the strategic framework in order to provide implementation of dual education in HE system of Georgia.The overall aim of the project is:• Improvement of the competencies of graduates in Georgia according to the needs of employers,• Increase of the employability of graduates and their motivation to study,• Improvement of accessibility to HE of students from lower income families.Dual Higher Education (DHE) will enable students to acquire more relevant knowledge and skills by combining classical school education with knowledge and skills acquired at the work place. Consequently, this will provide them with competences and skills that are more in line with needs of employers and it will significantly increase employability.Statistically, first employments are happening usually in the companies who offer work-based learning. This will not only raise the motivation of students, but also raise the interest of companies to cooperate with HEIs in design and implementation of the study programs based on DHE.It is expected that companies would give input to curricula, organise and eventually provide scholarships schema to selected students, offering organised training led jointly with HEIs and being involved in the assessment of the knowledge. In order to achieve these aims, the project needs to realize the following concrete objectives:• To identify needs and specific requirements of companies in different industrial sectors and businesses for DHE and to find companies willing to participate in pilot implementations of DHE;• To develop a flexible and generic dual HE model to support different needs and interests of all stakeholders, and to provide recommendations to HEIs for implementation of DHE;•To propose amendments to the national qualifications framework;•To test the specific DHE models generated from the generic model, by realizing their pilot implementations during the project and to analyse achieved results.

Georgia is on its way to constructing a new country with civic society respecting democratic values. Within the deepening of global competition, it is apparent that to assure economic development, it becomes essential to use the comparative advantage and create the regional strategy oriented on knowledge. In the achievement of this goal, regional universities will play important role as centers of generation and diffusion of knowledge, creation of qualified working force and the base of the development of regions of the country. In Social-economic Development Strategy “Georgia 2020” and Unified Strategy for Education and Science for 2017-2021, which reflect the priorities and problems that need to be resolved in order to achieve long-term, sustainable growth, regional development plays a significant role in the development of the country and is viewed as an important factor for achieving success on a national level. The aim of the project is to make Georgian regional HEIs more relevant to the communities and regions they are located and to serve as a basis for regional development. Mission and Strategy of Regional Universities will be developed in compliance with regional needs. The project will support the network of Regional Universities in planning and development of relevant strategy and mission. Involvement of the Universities in the development of Regional Strategy will increase. Close collaboration with local authorities and other social partners will take place. Cooperation with EU universities and sharing their experience will introduce the best practices that will improve and modernize management structures in universities and will make their administrative structures compatible with those of the European universities. Changes in management at institutional level will raise productivity of the university administration management that will in its turn have an impact on creation of new regional policy.

NCP4Missions is a networking project of National Contact Points (NCPs) for the five EU Missions, representing 19 Member States or Associated Countries (MS/AC). The project provides continuous capacity building measures for NCPs (e.g. E-learnings, Deep Dives, Meet&Share, Mission Updates) to support less experienced NCPs and to provide more consistent Mission NCP services to applicants. Adding to this, brokerages, workshops and digital tools are offered to potential Mission applicants. The project will establish important collaborations with all relevant Mission stakeholders (e.g. Mission Hubs, Mission Implementation Platforms, NCP networks) to detect synergies and to foster potential joint activities. The projects’ activities pursue the following objectives: • Improving and professionalizing NCP support services for the EU Mission Calls • Lowering entry barriers for applicants and raising the quality of proposals • Enhancing the visibility of the Mission NCPs and the cooperation with other relevant stakeholders and networks Long-term impacts can be expected in the fields of policy, science and society. As NCP4Missions will function as interface between the European Commission (EC), MS/AC and the NCPs, a better exchange of information on the EU Missions will be triggered. This will affect political decisions on EC and national level in support of the implementation of the Missions. The consistency of NCP support services in Europe and beyond will lead to more equal opportunities of applicants of different countries. Through an enhanced knowledge base on Missions in R&I organisations, higher participation rates and a better quality of Mission-tailored proposals can be expected, resulting in innovative projects. Awareness raising and civil engagement activities will impact the environmental awareness, health and well-being of citizens. The projects’ actions will generate an increased participation of civil actors and social innovations in the Mission proposals.