The project aims to modernise HE content for promotion of development of such national agro-food production systems, where farm-enterprises will apply internationally recognised good agricultural practices and sustainable agro-business management principles and approaches, thus increasing agro-food production industry effectiveness and competitiveness. Overall aim: To modernise agro-industry related higher education thus promoting implementation and effective management of sustainable agro-food production systems in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.Work packages:WP1 Detailed needs analysis and inventory of relevant curricula in 4 involved CA HEIs WP3 Increase of CA HEIs teaching and technical capacity WP4 Development of studies and the project quality assurance and measurement tools WP5 Implementation of the modernised study courses WP6 Publicity, dissemination and exploitation WP7 Management and coordination Main outcomes and outputs:WP1. The joint report – overview on conclusions and recommendations. 2 national workshops with participation of academic-business-public stakeholders organised, 60 participants participated.WP2. 6 study programmes modernised. WP3. 5 study visits held, at least 24 CA universities teachers participated, training of teachers provided, at least 48 teachers' professional competencies increased. 70 devices for laboratories, 4 sets of study literature (120 books) acquired. WP4. Modernised study programmes' quality assurance methodology. Sustainability plan. WP5. Pilot studies provided for 6 groups, at least 220 students participated. WP6. 2 national and 1 international event with participation of academic-business-public stakeholders organised, at least 120 participants participated. 12 TV and radio broadcasts, 32 publications, 1 website. Impact: Agro-food industry ensured with professionals having capacities to maintain internationally recognised sustainable agro-food management production systems.

Kyrgyzstan is carrying out higher education reforms geared at amending European standards in higher education management. Particular emphasis is placed on the adaptation of the Bologna process and European quality standards in higher education. At present, the transition to three-cycle education has been completed. A national qualification framework has been developed and approved. However, reforms of the universities’ management system so far have not kept pace. In particular, financial management systems are not adequately promoting university autonomy which is a precondition to cultivate innovative and competitive universities. The development of alternative management tools to the old management models increasingly requires the expansion of autonomy in the activities of higher education institutions. The aspect of financial independence occupies a prominent place in the system of autonomy of the university. This project is devoted to piloting and expanding new systems of university self-governance and increasing financial autonomy. By means of studying the European partners’ experience with expanding their institutional and financial autonomy, a model for university financial autonomy in Kyrgyzstan will be developed, piloted and evaluated. The project plans are to perform a needs analysis, develop an implementation strategy, develop a model of university financial autonomy, develop proposals for revision of legal regulations in close cooperation with the authorities in charge, and pilot training activities for staff from universities and ministries representatives.The project will study further prospects for increasing the financial, economic independence of universities in Kyrgyzstan, clarify the current, and projected limits of the powers of universities in the paradigm of developed and legally established model of autonomy, project will identify effective solutions to the complex process of financial and economic autonomy.

"The project idea is based on the observation that the state of the healthcare system in Kyrgyzstan is suboptimal and education regarding the operation of advanced medical equipment (such as diagnostic devices) is poor. Even the Kyrgyz Ministry of Healthcare admits that expensive medical equipment located at public hospitals cannot be operated because personal (medical doctors and technical staff) lack the required knowledge of operating (to western standards well-established) medical devices. An important objective of the project therefore is to sustainably facilitate the stakeholders for ongoing device usage, beyond the device acquisition. This should be accomplished by developing study programmes (curricula) for healthcare informatics and biomedical engineering which shall be established at the participating Kyrgyz partner universities.Within the framework of the project + “KyrMedu: Advancing Higher Education in Biomedical Engineering and Healthcare Management in Kyrgyzstan”, since 2015, seven universities in Kyrgyzstan were implementing large-scale activities to introduce innovative educational programmes. For this purpose, the project consortium has increased their teaching capacities, equipped the material, technical and educational capacities for practical and distance learning and strengthened the cooperation with medical institutions, economic partners, the Ministry of Education and Science, and the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic. Also, a modern medical laboratory was created with a value of more than 238,000EUR (the KyrMedu Lab at KSMA and athe Cloud Lab infrastructure connecting the other Kyrgyz KyrMedu universities to the KyrMedu Lab), which is designed to share for all project partner universities as a training base for practice and laboratory classes.The objective of the project is to solve problems in the health sector by developing and implementing interdisciplinary educational programmes. Therefore, the project consortium covers four regional and three Bishkek universities with expertise in technical, medical and health care informatics directions, as well as three European universities with expertise in the implementation of international projects in medical informatics, biomedical engineering and e-learning technologies. The purpose of the project consortium is to create educational programmes where the disciplines of medicine, information technology and management meet. The final conference of the project was hosted at Talas State University (TSU) on April 11 and 12, 2019. In the frame of the project, a joint curriculum was developed and implemented that meets the requirements of the modern labor market and is oriented to practice. During the implementation of the project, all partner universities successfully launched the bachelor programme “Health Informatics and Biomedical Engineering”, where more than 120 students are currently enrolled. osh Stae University implemented the master programme ""Healtch Care Management"". Favorable learning conditions have been created for them, in particular, the tele-teaching infrastructure is equipped with modern equipment, computer equipment and measuring and diagnostic devices for practical and laboratory classes. As well, total 183 teachers completed advanced training courses in Germany, Romania and Croatia. Communication with local medical institutions has been established and cooperation agreements have been signed for practice, internship and employment. The regional universities in Talas, Osh, Naryn and Issyk-Kul have made and are making a huge contribution to the sustainable development of the respective regions in the fields of education and health. Recognizing such an effective impact of the project at the regional level, the final meeting of partners with the participation of project stakeholders was conducted at one of the regional universities, TSU. Results of the project and Dissemination and sustainibility plan on: kyrmedu.org"