The continuous increase in oil and gas production, together with the simultaneous growing impact of related activities (such as extraction and transportation) have caused a huge pollution in the Caucasian area. The remediation of such area has now become a National priority in Azerbaijan. As a consequence, the availability of specialists skilled in the design and application of technologies suitable to tackle the main environmental problems of the country is an urgency, which represents a crucial and necessary step (but also an opportunity) in Azerbaijan’s development. On the other side, the M. Sc. courses on Environmental engineering and Ecology, currently held in Azerbaijan, are mainly oriented towards fundamental aspects and traditional environmental technologies, thus missing to provide the graduates with specific professional skills, necessary for their sudden entrance into the job market. ITACA project deals with the design and building up of a Training Center, involving EU and local institutions, as well as enterprises active in the field of environmental impact of oil and gas production, to contribute to the strengthening of the relationship between university and industry, by jointly training graduated students to be employed in the field.The Training Centre will design and develop a one year postgraduate third cycle course managed in collaboration between industry and academia. The current HE system in the Country does not include a third cycle of education different from PhD, while in EU it has been proved successful, especially in the field of ecology and environmental sciences, as well as engineering. The introduction of this new type of course, constituting a bridge between Universities and industries, could contribute to solving the emerging issues in the field of environmental remediation in the Country. An innovative teaching methodology will be applied, based on EU experiences, thus contributing to the modernization of local HE system.

With the internationalization of education and the growing need for specialists who meet the requirements of the new digital and innovative economy, the role of universities is becoming a key. In this regard, new forms of interaction between higher education organizations at the international level of university networks emerging and developing. “Although Azerbaijan signed Bologna agreement already in 2005, there is weak awareness of benefits of EHEA related issues among wider audience in the country. The knowledge on the recent developments of higher education system in Azerbaijan remains vague. The communication and networking concerning EHEA issues is rather fragmented among different departments in the MoE and various stakeholders. There is a need of national universities networks in Azerbaijan to promote and facilitate cooperation, support universities in their primary work, that is – high quality education, as well as to actively lobby for better legislation and wise spending its finance aimed at the advancement of higher education and research. The consortium believes that Rectors conference can be a great getaway for all of the universities presenting a single voice in key initiatives and challenges. The ultimate goal of this project is to endorse strong networking and cooperation among national universities and decision makers through the establishment of Rectors Conference. The approach chosen for implementation, however, includes a collaborative framework with respective stakeholders, mainly focusing on educational needs.The overall aim of the project is fostering national networking and cooperation among universities and all other stakeholders by establishing the rectors conference in accordance with national development strategies.

The project proposed by the consortium is planning to address several nation-level problems in Azerbaijan. The main scope of the activities to be undertaken during the project covers capacity-building initiatives in selected higher education institutions with the main goal to improve and harmonize understanding as well as practice of entrepreneurial mindset, innovative talent and high-impact expertise.By trying to reach the above-mentioned goal, the consortium will attempt to minimize or remove the impact of the following fundamental problems/concerns in higher education institutions across the nation:1) There is a lack of sophisticated ecosystem fostering entrepreneurial mindset in higher education institutions;2) The conditions and incentives provided to students and faculty at higher education institutions to produce and implement innovative ideas are limited;3) Majority of the teachings and research in higher education institutions is overly theoretical, offering limited or no opportunity for hands-on experience;4)The students and faculty at higher education institutions have a limited understanding about how to cultivate, initiate, incubate, accelerate, realize and commercialize an innovative startup idea;5) The level of collaboration between higher education institutions and industries is limited and inadequate.