MICROCASA is the first international project aimed at sharing the European experiences and building institutional capacities in Southeast Asia to co-create, promote and deliver short competence-oriented educational units leading to micro-credentials with the goal of solving various economic and social problems. Focusing on different aspects of micro-credentialing, for instance course content co-creation, educational technology, transparent quality assurance, technologies for issuance and verification of digital micro-credentials, the project builds a comprehensive set of competences and technical capacities in Southeast Asian Universities. Leveraging on the partner networks, as well as on the links to the national educational authorities and regional initiatives, MICROCASA has an ambition to have a systemic impact on the ASEAN region as a whole. The project plan builds around the following groups of activities:•Regional Micro-credentials Study and Roundtables, which will allow gathering factual data and experts opinions about the barriers and enablers for introducing micro-credentials into the regional HEIs, as well as to benchmark the regional approaches to the ones in the EU;•Micro-credentials capacity building Programme covering all abovementioned aspects of micro-credentialing;•Pilot development, delivery and evaluation of the set of Digital Competences courses granting micro-credentials;•Targeted awareness raising and dissemination activities spreading the excellence beyond the project consortium.On the European side, the project consortium includes 3 European Universities with complementary competences, Italian NARIC Agency and the quality assurance expert company. The representative group of 6 Southeast Asian University includes central agenda-setting national Universities, as well as Universities with regional development missions.

The role of a modern University in the society is dramatically changed due to economic, social and, as a matter of fact, technological revolutions we are living in. In contrast to a traditional Humbolt University model, Universities across the globe become knowledge service providers to the economy and society at large. In this context, the latest explosion of Massive Open Online educational services/Courses (MOOCs, 2012 was declared as a Year of MOOCs, NYT) is confirming the general trend and opens new avenues for linking Universities and their external customers via powerful ICT means. When Europe is one of the global leaders in MOOC technologies, this innovation is still to come to Southeast Asia and the mission of the COMPETEN-SEA project is to enable the transfer of European experiences to the local partner Universities. The overall project aim is to make a significant contribution towards strengthening relations between higher education systems in Southeast Asia and wider economic and social environment by building organizational, pedagogical and technical capacities in local Universities to design, develop, market and deliver MOOCs for various economic and social problems. The project will implement the following activities:- Regional MOOC SWOT analysis and feasibility study to identify best strategies for educational outreach using MOOCs- Intensive MOOC Capacity Building programme aimed at building local capacities to develop MOOCs addressing local educational needs and deliver them to target users- Development and evaluation of the system of MOOCs addressing urgent socio-economic development needs - Dissemination and awareness raising campaign addressing academic communities in the region, as well as other key stakeholders: policy makers, potential users of MOOCs (e.g. public bodies, NGOs, businesses, etc.), general public. Importantly, the project will undertake efforts to integrate the regional MOOC specialists with the European MOOC movement.

MARCO POLO addresses the needs of partner countries (Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia) to foster the international cooperation of their Universities (HEI). Its main objectives are: to increase the capacities of non-European countries HEI in international cooperation, to contribute to the improvement of international networking; and increase and exploit the potentials in Teaching, Learning & Research (TLR).The activities within the project foresee the strengthening of strategic, infrastructure and human capacities in the 6 HEI from Partner Countries as a model for the development and modernisation of institutional management of international cooperation in NEC.Specific objectives will be achieved through carefully planned actions at an institutional, national and multi-regional level, including the implementation of training and strategic infrastructure; comparative studies and the development of National Recommendation to boost international cooperation in TLR; the creation of a best practice book for HEI on how to improve International Relations policies and management. These actions will be complemented throughout the project life by dissemination and networking activities, including National Roundtables, seminars, networking conferences and a multi-regional educational fair. The consortium includes 10 institutions, of which 3 are European HEI with a vast experience in international cooperation and 6 are HEI in NEC that face challenges on the development of international cooperation strategies.The project also foresees a library gateway, the creation of Strategic Development Plans for HEI of NEC and the testing of products through cooperation and a pilot mobility. The results will be easily transferrable at a regional, national and international level.

CIRCULAR seeks to boost the social innovation ecosystem in Malaysia, Cambodia and Laos by bringing together and reinforcing the links between Teaching, Research, Innovation and Society in order to collaboratively design and test innovative solutions to mitigate waste management problems, promote circular economy approaches and improve the quality of life of local communities.It will pursue the following specific objectives:- Design a new collaborative model for reinforcing HEIs’ third mission and for enhancing effective and successful Knowledge Square cooperation for social innovation with a specific focus on the topic of circular economy. - Enhance community-based participatory research and citizen science at the same time promoting a new pedagogical framework for embedding community engagement actions as part of Higher Education study programmes. - Set-up Living Labs as open innovation ecosystems that integrate education, research, development and innovation, and regional development to help trigger the adoption of green and more sustainable practices and a more efficient use of resources.- Build the capacities of academics to design, organise and implement collaborative social innovation programmes that promote students’ active citizenship and simultaneously contribute to solve everyday sustainability and climate-change problems.- Build the capacities of researchers on new methodologies and updated strategies to conduct community-based research activities on the topic of circular economy and waste management.- Empower students and young people to become socially-engaged, climate-conscious and active citizens and raise the awareness of students, young people and members of local communities on the topic of circular economy and sustainable development, and promote alternative consumption habits and waste management practices underpinned by knowledge, research and innovation generated by Higher Education Institutions.