Collaboration between universities and industries is critical for skills development, the generation, acquisition and adoption of knowledge and the promotion of entrepreneurship. Through collaborative interchange, the university becomes “a more vigorous partner in the search for answers” . The social and economic community provides a context for civic discourse and the reciprocal, interactional creation of knowledge. Community engaged education establishes the context for the exploration of pressing and complex problems, of which e-health and medical informatics is an example. Out of this reciprocal need comes the development of a model for interdisciplinary education that centers community as the context for learning. This model represents the theoretical and physical space where the university joins with others to address complex issues. Thus, the main objectives of this project are: 1) To establish and sustain effective Industry cooperating with University (ICU) Centres of e-health Innovations at some partner universities in LB and EG (LEG) 2) To develop a web platform based on Knowledge Triangle, innovation approach to develop and commercialize of e-Health innovative technologies and tools. 3) To develop a new integrated professional short term (6 months) and long term (one year) diploma program in e.Health and Medical informatics 4) To develop in-service lifelong learning training (LLT) program in the area of e-health innovative Medical/health/IT/engineering. The consortium consists of experienced partners, which have different levels of knowledge and skills in the fields of e-Health and Medical Informatics. The partnership has the necessary capacity to implement the project and achieve the expected outcomes. It will have an important impact on students, on the higher education institutions involved & on society at large such as increasing the number of MOU signed with health enterprises & ncrease the number of placements and job opportunities.

Road traffic accidents are a growing health, social and economic problem in the partner countries Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. Whereas EU countries, steadily and systematically reduced the numbers and severity of road accidents last decades, by implementing modern solutions and applications, the problems continue to grow in EG-JO-LB. Much of this existing knowledge, practices and know-how in EU can be transferred and implemented in partner countries. The overall aim of the project is to design, develop, adapt and implement a new MS.c curriculum in the field of Road Traffic Safety within joint efforts between EU-EG-JO-LB partner Universities according to Bologna requirements and EU traffic safety standards and best practices. The developed curriculum will be based on a market analysis and job demands for graduate engineers in EG-JO-LB. The curriculum will be tailored to the problems, needs and traffic characteristics in EG-JO-LB. This curriculum will be supported with several innovative elements e.g.:- The EU-MENA Network in Traffic Safety for sharing best practices and know-how between universities and stakeholders.- The EU-EG-JO-LB traffic accidents database for benchmarking and analysis.- The EU-EG-JO-LB handbook of best practices in traffic accidents.- The EU-EG-JO-LB handbook of traffic accidents standards.This curriculum will be also supported with ICT supported platforms e.g. OpenCourseWare for sharing teaching and learning material, Webinar online meetings, etc.The project will be structured into 4 phases:1. Current curriculum analysis (from Month 1 to Month 6).2. Development of the new curriculum and innovative elements (from M7 to M24).3. Realisation of the new curriculum (from M19 to M24).4. Implementation and evaluation (from M25 to M36).This curriculum, supported material and gained skills will contribute positively on economy and society development in partner country by making road traffic in MENA region safer and sustainable.

The situation for female academics in Mediterranean region is characterized by very low percentages of representation of women at mid and senior levels at HEIs in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Female academics can contribute to building and creating crucial impact in their HEIs. FREE aims to establish strategic focus in HEIs for CBHE and improving performance of female academics & building female role models in HE. FREE also aims to develop HEIs capacity and culture and supporting mechanisms for establishment of equality and sustainability centers to support female academics and students. FREE also aims to develop research centers in the scope gender equality, sustainability and female empowermentFREE should develop the following outcomes: 1. Female academics are characterized by capacity and equipped with knowledge and experience as executive managers and institution leaders. 2. Female academics and students are characterized with institutional power, prepared with resources and knowledge of seeking professional support to deal different forms of inequality and discrimination3. Development of scientific research in the scope of gender equality, sustainability and female empowerment The project should develops the following impact:1. A generation of female academics characterized by human capacity, technical competencies, and managerial and leadership experience which would enable them to pursue career advancement. Higher percentages of female academics in workforce and achieving better representation at the entry, middle and senior levels. A generation of female academics characterized by power, higher levels of self-confidence, self-esteem and self-actualization. 2. Establishment of ffective HEIs which emphasizes on gender equality and sustainable institutions which have egalitarian organizational cultures3. Establishment of research centers in the scope of Sustainability and gender Equality at higher education institutions in LB, JR&SY.

This project aims to enhance university enterprise cooperation in JO and LB in order to improve teaching and learning experience of students and enhance the employability of graduate. The project responds to the widely recognised problem that university graduates often lack the employability skills needed by employers and, in addition, their knowledge in the field of ICT is behind the state of the art and below that of companies they want to work in. The project aims to alleviate this problem by bringing Universities and enterprises closer together by establishing University-Enterprise Cooperation Networks. Through a range of activities (such as arranging internships for students at partner companies and involving qualified staff of companies in giving lectures at the universities and mentoring students who want to complete their projects and theses in companies) arranged by their newly established Liaison Offices, universities aim at building a programme of cooperation and developing student’s knowledge of the world of work.The project involves upgrading and updating of the capacities of University staff and improve the curricula of at least ten subjects in each university. Study periods to EU universities will be arranged to provide the updating and upgrading opportunities for Jordanian and Lebanese academic and technical staff during which they can improve their own knowledge of the latest development in their subjects and also upgrade the curricula of their subjects. The upgrading of the curricula consists of enhancing both scientific and technical skills of students as well as their employability skills. EU universities have been engaged in serious discussion about graduate employability and partner country staff can learn a great deal from this experience and take steps to produce ‘work ready’ graduates. EU staff will support the upgrading of curricula and engage in teaching in JO and LB institutions and help the internationalisation agenda.

Inter-professional student-led clinic (IPC) is demonstrated to improve the efficiency of healthcare delivery as well as patient outcomes (World Health Organization; WHO, 2010). IPC needs inter-professional education (IPE) to be implanted into the medical and health science curricula. IPC & IPE aims to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will enable future academic and non-academic healthcare professionals to function effectively in a university-enterprise collaborative care environment. This project develop and establish “I CARE” centres and Clinics which provide education, training, research, Primary health care patient treatment and community engagement. Some benefits of the inter-professional student-led clinic (SLC) model are:I. for the medial and healthcare science students: an opportunity to develop clinical skills within a supervised environment and II. for Patients: increased access for underserved and disadvantaged communities to free health care services. The main objective of this project and the IPC/IPE model is to strengthen the university- enterprise (healthcare sittings) cooperation and also allow students to directly contribute to patient health and feel valued for what they can provide the society during their training. The expected tangible outcome are:1) “I CARE” University-Enterprise Centres at 9 partner universities & web Platform 2) “I CARE” Inter-professional student-lead clinics (9 IPCs) 3) A Primary Healthcare Professional Diploma4) In-service Training (IST) and Capacity Building elements