The Mediterranean basin is famous for its natural diversity, but also an area with pressing environmental problems. Countries on its southern shore are particularly vulnerable to these issues, since their socioeconomic reality is full of difficulties directly connected to their environment: Apart from general issues such as waste management, water and air pollution and their effects on the population’s health, these countries face severe challenges through desertification, deforestation and threats to biodiversity caused directly by environmental change and with severe implications for their economies, especially regarding agriculture and the tourism sector.Consequently, strategic environmental change management will be crucial to seize socioeconomic opportunities linked to environmental change and minimize its risk. Therefore, the wider objective of this project is to enable Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian HEIs to develop and implement a new master’s curriculum in the field of Mediterranean Environmental Change Management. Master Study and Ecosystem Building (MEHMED) aligned with the EU Bologna educational approach (duration of 1,5 year, 90 ECTS).To this end, EU HEIs will transfer their knowledge and experience from related degrees to the Partner Country HEIs and participate in the joint development of a new curriculum in accordance with EU and international standards and labour-market requirements to prepare students to apply their knowledge, skills and competences in the field of environment and sustainable development. The new master will assume an interdisciplinary approach, through the collaboration of various faculties and by involving graduate students from different academic fields. MEHMED will be developed in collaboration with various Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian public and private stakeholders in the environmental sector, and include an internship module thematically linked to the students’ master’s theses to improve alumni’s employability.

The SCALE project has achieved the objectives proposed in the project, developing and implementing an online training programme for the acquisition of transversal competences in the field of Smart Cities previously identified. This training programme consists of two clearly differentiated modules, the first one contains some theoretical topics that will facilitate the student the acquisition of the mentioned competences. The second module implements a project-based learning methodology (taking as a basis and example different real projects, which were previously selected), in itself, this module is innovative because it is implemented online; on the other hand, students were organised in international and interdisciplinary teams and the evaluation of the same was carried out through a video that each team had to develop. The elaboration, structuring, approach and application of the teaching methodologies in this training programme were innovative and novel, which allowed it to be published in a high impact journal. This training programme is designed for university students and recent graduates as well as for students participating in continuing education programmes. To date, two editions of this training programme have been held, with a total of almost 800 students from 25 different countries and from the three profiles mentioned above. Just under a third of the students enrolled successfully completed the programme.The student mobility programme foreseen in the project has also been successfully completed. These students have spent their internship period working on one of the selected projects (which were used in the second module of the training programme), selecting those who have obtained the best marks in the first edition of the training programme.

Today, more than ever the availability and management of water resources are the key issues for the socio-economic development and its impact. We need new solutions to managing water resources to offset the rising challenges to water security from population growth and climate change. Especially vulnerable to this point are countries in Southeast of Asia (SEA), which face severe challenges related to environmental dangers, and their situation will worsen due to current climate change predictions. Thus, these countries need competent and knowledgeable water professionals, who can lead the modernisation of water resources management and guarantee their sustainable socio-economic development, a priority in SEA.Currently, existent Master- and PhD programs in the field of water, environment, and natural resources are unequally implemented and they are based on traditional teaching methodologies that form old-school professionals.To this end, InowAsia will transfer to participating EU HEIs the knowledge and experience available about the implementation of innovative master programmes onto water resources management field. The main idea is to jointly design an innovative training programme based on modular and flexible water resources combining the on-line and problem-based methodology to complement some of the existing postgraduate programs, and also to co-design and implement water-oriented living labs in the campus of each PC HEI. As a result, a new generation of Asian leading professionals in the field of water will be incorporated into the water labour market, with a global view of the sector challenges, a strong background in sustainable water management, but with a specific approach to the local demands.This project aims to create an International multilevel network of postgraduate students, professors and water professionals to reinforce postgraduate curricula in critical economic aspects related to water in SEA, including innovative knowledge.

"METHODS is a 3.5-year project that entitled ""Modernization of Teaching Methodologies in Higher Education: EU Experience for Jordan and Palestinian Territory"", started on the 15th October 2015 and is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. It is coordinated by The University of Jordan (UJ) with 14 partners from Jordan, Palestine and European countries. The project aims at improving the quality of teaching and learning at the partner universities with cooperation of EU-experience through incorporating technological tools in consistence with pedagogical best practices and by building the capacity of the universities to evaluate, develop and design e-curricula. The main aim of the project will be achieved through Establishing a national centers in both Jordan and Palestine interested in modernizing higher education to be as a hub for utilizing best practices in ICT in education, and for hosting a portal for sharing these experiences; Implementing smart class rooms in partners' universities; Developing the capacity of the staff at the partners' universities from diverse discipline, to be responsible for developing learning objects built in best practices in utilising ICT in education; and also through Cooperation with EU partners through mutual visits to develop strategies for moving from teaching to learning and develop scalable sustainable solutions. Internally, partner universities will hold the capacity to develop, design and evaluate e-enabled curricula for their courses. The project achieved a wide impact in the partner countries' universities."

The 2018 EU Eurobarometer regarding youth participation shows that more than 50% of youth consider that the EU should take action in the areas of health and well-being and promote critical thinking and the ability to search for information in order to combat fake news and extremism. 3 out of 10 youth think that “educating young people in creative and immersive ways through virtual reality, real-life experiences and cultural and artistic events” should be a priority. ILO’s Global Employment Trends for Youth 2017, more than 50% of youth from developed countries think about their future with fear or uncertainty (a bigger percentage than respondents from countries in transition or developing). A research undertaken by consortium members in September 2020 among 70 youth workers underlines that all respondents agree or strongly agree that gamification is an important element for youth work, but only 28,6% think that they can easily find proper gamification tools that develop competencies. 93% of the respondents would like to participate in a gamification training. Also, the main competencies that youth workers believe to be relevant for the youth they work with are decision making, empathy, management of emotions, civic involvement, self-knowledge and creativity.6 partners from 3 European countries (Portugal, Romania, Spain) propose a complex multi-layered intervention, in the framework of a project having the following general objective: to develop the capacity of professionals working with youth in non-formal and formal education contexts to improve the quality of programs aiming at developing key competencies that lead to a successful life and in the same time instill in youth core values of fairness, social justice, non-discrimination, involvement in the community, by gaining essential competencies of gamification and game design which will support them in developing and delivering innovative curriculums. The complementary expertise of the consortium members will be of great use in ensuring a full package of using Gamification for Developing Essential Competencies in Youth Work.The specific objectives of the project are:Creating a series of 4 tools to support youth workers in delivering and creating quality educational programs for youth by using gamification in different educational sectorsFostering the development of key competencies and values for min. 420 youth involved in gamification processesRaising awareness and knowledge regarding how to use gamification in youth work through face-to-face and online dissemination of project outputs for min. 7,090 stakeholders.By the end of the project, a full package of using gamification and (board)game-based learning will be available and ready to be used with and/or for 14-24 y.o. the youth of different socio-economical backgrounds and other specificities, in a wide range of contexts:Gamified Learning Contents on Key Competencies (GLC) - with 10 relevant key competencies gamifiedHi-Quest 2.0 Board Game an educational journey of conquering cities impersonating essential competencies based on the Hero’s Journey and team workGuidelines on how to co-create gamified contents together with participants in nonformal and formal contexts - a tool encouraging youth workers to involve their beneficiaries when planning learning processes for them and teaching them how to use gamification in competencies’ development programs3 E-learning modules (tutorials) of Gamification of learning processes and Boardgame use in youth work at the community level: in NGOs and other community contexts / in schools and highschools / in universitiesSeveral groups of beneficiaries will be involved throughout the project in activities that are relevant for them:project teams from the 6 organizations, which will be better prepared to offer quality youth work and promote it within their teams of youth workers and education professionals;4 groups of 15, in total 60 youth from different contexts in the 3 countries will be involved in the piloting phase and developing essential skills, in the meantime being empowered to give feedback for improvement of materials;18 trainees from 3 countries will specialize in gamification during a 5-days training and will consistently implement GLC and board game with youth, in their local contexts;420 youth from 3 countries will benefit from developing essential skills through 2 different gamified processes;7,090 stakeholders relevant for youth work and the educational field will familiarise themselves with how to use gamification in developing key competencies and with project outputs as a result of dissemination activities.