The European Master in Sustainable Systems Engineering (EMSSE) is a 2-years integrated program (120 ECTS credits) involving 4 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across Europe (France, Italy, and Spain) and Western Balkans (Albania), aiming for a wide and in-depth education process on Systems Engineering (SE) topics and perspectives, related to both industrial applications and research investigations. A special focus is given on sustainable systems engineering that are efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly, that is considering the environmental, economic, and social impacts of a system before and during its design, operation, and maintenance. The EMSSE consortium will involve 4 full partners (all involved in a Double Degree network which constitutes a precursory scheme for the EMSSE project), 1 official associated partner and 9 associated industrial partners. The involved HEIs are: University of Technology of Compiègne (UTC, EMSSE Coordinator), France, University of Genoa (UNIGE), Italy, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain, Polytechnic University of Tirana (UPT), Albania. EMSSE consortium also includes AISE-INCOSE as associated partner, and 9 other industrial partners in the 4 countries of HEIs are joining EMSSE: Renault, Saint Gobain, Voltalia, Orange, Savoye, Ikerlan, Delmon Group, CEA, Leonardo.EMSSE has been conceived with the aim of funding and supporting Master students’ mobility for 4 editions, enrolling 132 students in three specific paths, getting a joint degree, within an international educational framework ad-hoc designed to enhance the quality of education in SE, by sharing and exploiting knowledge of HEIs and enterprises involved in the field. A further objective of EMSSE consists in gathering the excellence in SE research across Europe and disseminating it towards partner countries, with special focus on Western Balkans, thus paving the way for cultural exchanges.

Information Technology (IT) is a key aspect for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). IT is present in almost all HEIs activities and, as a result of this importance, is a strategic asset that needs to be managed in an effective and efficient way. Moreover, IT will transform the way education is delivered, managed, and accessed by students. On the other hand, IT Governance is one of the concerns for organizations all over the world. IT Governance is the organizational capacity to control the formulation and implementation of IT strategy and in this way ensure the fusion of business and IT. Apart from generic IT Governance models and standards (COBIT, Calder-Moir, ISO/IEC 38500, …), literature reported several efforts on IT Governance for HEIs, being University-oriented IT Governance Frameworks in Spain, one of the most important, cited, and recent ones and the pioneering work from Juiz. This project gathered a set of researchers from four European universities with a wide experience in developing and deploying IT Governance (including ITG4U and dFogit) framework models from three different countries (Spain, Germany, and Norway) to develop, adapt and test a new IT governance framework to be implemented in several Universities in Albania. The project was developed in three main blocks: first, the training and capacitation of stakeholders, second, the assessment and development issues, and third the deployment. Results of this project include a better governance model for IT in Albanian HEIs as well as an overall modernization of the governance processes for HEIs and a contribution of the cooperation between EU and Albania.

Digital Tools for Wearable Products for the Shoe IndustryFootwear production is an important sector of Albanian economy, which has a long tradition. The footwear sector operates with two types of companies: companies producing and exporting part of product work and companies producing and exporting the whole product. Five types of business models are known: M (Make); CM (Cut and Make); CMT (Cut Make and Trim); FP (Full Package) and OB (Own Brand). Regarding the Albanian consumer the need for footwear is fulfilled mainly by imported footwear products. Meantime there is a growing number of the companies operating in footwear sector that have shift their business model to Full Package. This change of business model has pointed out the need for qualified workforce from the companies and the data collected from surveys depict the lack of qualified working force. Gaining digital skills should be sustained by footwear companies. All this is accompanied by urgent needs of advanced methods of digital design and production. The Digi4Wearables project will develop an innovative training methodology using emerging and inclusive practices and tools to improve the knowledge of workers in footwear companies in Albania on digital manufacturing. The Digi4Wearables Educational package will consist of:•Website with online material structured in thematic sections.•Videos and reports with guidelines, informative material and best design/manufacturing practices.•Course materials divided in seminars according to the thematic topic.Digi4Wearables’ actions of virtual training and physical training workshops/seminars that will take place in Portugal, Albania and Romania will bring designers, product developers and managers, technicians, trainers and other stakeholders together.Moreover, these digital tools will sustain the sustainable way of production as an emerging need required for every company, in order to reduce the negative impact on the environment.

Albania is dotted with a relevant Cultural Heritage witnessing historical and cultural identity of this Country through the Ages. Cultural identity, unrepeatable patrimony, economic value, preservation and valorisation, are keywords recognised in Europe to acknowledge cultural heritage as an extraordinary multidisciplinary subject of high-level research. From material analyses for conservation, to digital heritage, cultural heritage is the perfect subject to gather experts of interconnected competences, to develop valuable research strategies.The proposed project is aimed at enhancing research capacities of Albanian HEIs in the field of conservation and restoration of Cultural Heritage, contributing to Albania accession to EU by supporting the modernization and internationalization of HEIs. The project will proceed over two parallel lines: promoting structural measures to establish research quality standards at ministerial level and supporting research development and innovation at HEI level through the introduction of best practice of cultural heritage research projects.In order to reach this aim, the project will enhance research capacities of Albanian HEIs in the field of conservation and restoration of Cultural Heritage, providing Universities with well-performing, innovative and competitive research methodologies in the field, this resulting into a tangible improvement of key competences, hard skills and critical thinking. Modern, integrated and interdisciplinary research and teaching laboratories will be established, equipped with last generation instruments. Laboratories will also be able to deliver research results outside Academia, endowed with the capacity of integrating research outcomes into stakeholders. The establishment of new laboratories and the building of research capacities will set the basis for the development of innovative research methods, to be transferred to teaching through selected piloting actions to be carried out on Albanian Heritage

The general objective of this project is to contribute in the development of the research and innovation capacities of HEIs in Albania and Kosovo by enhancing their institutional capabilities, staff skills and networking.For both countries, improved capacities are needed in terms of the HEIs research management and adopted methodologies, but most importantly a closer cooperation of the universities with other actors in the innovation ecosystem, especially local actors as businesses and international partners. The cause for poor performance in both countries, in terms of innovations, lays not only in the economic structure of Albania and Kosovo (dominantly composed by SMEs), but also on the underdeveloped capacities of the HEIs, and the weak links they have developed locally and internationally. The needs analysis for both countries reveals two major fields for action:- The need to improve the HEIs capacities for research and innovation,- The need to foster the links and cooperation among the actors in the innovation ecosystem.As a result, the project seeks to support the development of capacities for research and innovation in intra and inter institutional level.The foreseen outputs can be summarized as follows:- Newly established/ strengthened research and innovation support structures- Modernized teaching and mentoring methodologies that enhance students’ capacities for research - Trained researchers and managers - Research quality indicators developed- Enhanced International linkages through interdisciplinary research groupsThe short term impact is to have increased capacities for research in the HEIs participating in the project, as well as generate synergy and a stronger cooperation among them.The expected long term impact is improved research performance in quantitative and qualitative terms.