UMETECH aims to strengthen the role of Latin American Universities as instruments of social and economic development in the cultural heritage sector through the design and implementation of 4 competence centers on cultural heritage specialised in: smart computing, 3d, big data and human-machine interaction. The competence centres will work in an inegrated network called UMETECH. The network will be developed on the model of NEMECH (New Media for Cultural Heritage competence center) implemented by the University of Florence and will exploit the experiences and researchs results carried out by the University of Bucharest (Big data) and Telecom Lille (3d) and the University of Florence (Smart computing and human-machine interaction). The competence center is conceived asa bridge between HEIs and the territory, in particular with the productive system. It connects research activities with the market and works on the following issues:- Development of products, services and projects in the ICT field applied to cultural heritage enhancement for the local and infra-regional markets and public authorities in charge of cultural heritage policies and cultural sites management- Support and development of business start-ups in the cultural heritage / tourism sector- Promotion of know-how integration on cultural heritage enhancement researches among all HEIs operating in the same geographical area. Each competence center will focus on a specific subject as follows: - Cordoba (Argentina): Mobile, wearable and cloud - Misiones (Argentina): 3D technology- Itapua (Paraguay): SensorsThe major impact of the project is the strengthening of HEIs engagement with the civil society and industry. In particular, the competence centre will promote self-entrepreneurship in the cultural/tourism sector exploitoing the skills/competences/knowledge developed within each competence centre and in the UMETECH network.

HEADCET aims to support Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of Argentina, Paraguay, and Chile in tackling the challenges of sustainable development by enhancing their relevance for the labor markets and the society at large. The project specifically focuses on Circular Economy (CE) and Social Innovation (SI) which are strongly interrelated in Latin American (LA) Countries and are considered crucial to foster a more sustainable growth and to identify new jobs opportunities. To do this, HEADCET will support LA HEIs through a wide set of interrelated actions:- Training Services for University Engagement - Updating curricula on CE, SI and sustainability to make universities’ offer more compatible with labor markets demands. - Development of pilot Offices for sustainable development & circular economy (Oficina Desarrollo sustentable y EC - ODEC). ODEC will be conceived as university centers specialized in offering services of support and counselling on projects of SI and CE. The project will set-up 3 pilot ODECs that will represent a concrete job opportunity for graduates and young researchers.- Implementation of COllaborative Local Labs (COLLs): to directly involve local stakeholders (SMEs, NGOs, public agencies) on initiatives and skills needed in the regional ecosystem of each Latin-American university on CE and SI. - Organization of Career Development Centres (CADEC) for meetings and job-matching between students/graduates and companies around CE competencies and jobs- Creation and promotion of a regional network on CE and SI, enriched with EU partners, in order to take advantages of the opportunities under the Programme “Regional Coalition on Circular economy in Latin America”.The project consortium is composed by 6 LA HEIs and 3 European HEIs and a University Center with established experiences on engagement, CE and SI. The consortium is complemented by Fundacion Eurosur that has strong expertise and knowledge on LA countries and networking management.

The University of cross-border territories are the place of cultural integration, sharing of know-how, construction of common study programs, promotion of shared growth strategies, strengthening of common identity signs, protection of ethnic and cultural minorities. For these reasons, the development of border areas allows the strengthening of relations and joint programs of universities that insist on frontier territories. NUCIF project is the result of the activities of the REUNIF Network (Network of Border Universities) which has involved a large part of the universities participating in the Project. The REUNIF Network was set up in 2010 after the Tarija Agreement (2006) signed by the universities themselves. The NUCIF project (Network de Universidades para el Conocimiento y la Integración de Frontera), from the European experience in managing cross-border programs of economic development and sharing of research areas, education and knowledge, aimed at promoting construction of a common area of education, university extension and research in cross-border geographical area which includes Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Paraguay.Project’s specific objectives area:1. Strengthen cross-borders Universities Network by creating a governance model open to local public institutions and private companies;2. Encourage Universities’ expertise on key issues (agroindustry, environment and climate change, sustainable tourism and cultural property, circular economy) related to trans-border development by building a network platform for local know how dissemination and resources sharing.3. Building and experiment shared curricula in order to support regional integration trans-border development by facilitating and implementing CLAR System in the involved Universities.NUCIF objectives combine in order to determine a concrete change in present situation:1)Cross-borders Network institutionalization and creation of an open governance model which allows to bridge the gap between Universities and society, building good trans-borders cooperation practices starting from companies and society’s requirements and gain efficacy in main social/economical problems solving; 2)Knowledge Hub specialization allows to improve knowledge and research by implementing cooperation among research centers EU/LA on the 4 above mentioned issues. At the same time, the Project aims to disseminate the know how developed through the Knowledge Hubs, by making it available to all stakeholders; 3)Exchange and implementation of CLAR system encourages students and professionals’ mobility, breaks the existing gap among different credits systems, facilitate the contamination among training and professional programs, contribute to reinforce weakest areas. NUCIF Project implemented different actions, through a precise methodology as follow: - Knowledge, skills and practise were transferred and disseminated during international conferences (also via web); training sessions through webinar; academic and research specialization on the 4 main areas though study trips in EU.- For CLAR System adoption the Canteros CLAR and the training-intervention methodology were implemented.- An open source software has been implemented for management, control and evaluation activities, it allowed to monitor every step of the Project;- Dissemination activities were implemented through traditional channels (radio, publications, events.) and on line channels (NUCIF Sharing Platform, Social, webinars).- Creation of four Knowledge Hubs on the key themes of cross-border development to encourage the specialization of universities and the construction of a network platform for the dissemination of know-how to the territory and its stakeholders. The results were shared through the knowledge sharing platform, allowing the know-how accumulated by the KHs from all the territorial areas to be distributed and made available to all the subjects in the network (universities, schools, companies, NGOs).

"The starting point of the project was the standard and widely accepted definition of internationalization as ""the process of integrating an international dimension into the teaching, research and service functions of the institution"". In our opinion, this definition does not capture the essence of a process whose ultimate goal should be to integrate the institution into the emerging global knowledge production and transfer network. In this respect DHIP conceived internationalization of HEIs as the process of integrating the institution and its stakeholders into a globalizing world. This process calls for a change in existing structures, operating modes and mind-set in order to allow the institution as a whole to join and contribute to the emerging global knowledge and learning network. The DHIP project has allowed the Latin American (LA) partners to increase their capacity of managing an internationalization process effectively and to generate a spill-over effect on the three target countries through the developed good practices and tools. This has been achieved thanks to a new tool, the Internationalization Enhancement Plan (IEP). IEP enables an integrated approach, based on a strategic vision of internationalization and on a multidimensional, integrated and recursive operating plan containing process improvement actions, services, communication tools and marketing skills. IEP also identifies milestones, deliverables, mid-term results, expected results and monitoring, and evaluation criteria.Despite the pandemic forced the Consortium to reschedule some tasks, all the activities planned in the proposal were realized:WP1: N. 7 Territorial Fora held; N. 9 video conference rooms implemented in LA;WP2: N. 9 IEPs implemented and officially approved with formal administrative act; N. 3 LA tutoring meetings;WP3: N. 9 organizational redesign of the IROs (and N. 9 IROs equipped); the development of training activities on internationalization (N. 9 Training Webinars and N. 3 study visits in Europe); N. 27 Multicultural and social events realized; N. 78 international agreements signed;WP4: quality plan definition and continuous quality monitoring; development of the Impact Evaluation System;WP5: DHIP Guidelines on internationalization in higher education; N. 18 Twinning Events; N.1 Dissemination Event and N. 1 Final Conference. WP6: effective project and financial management; constant monitoring of activities and results; continuous sharing of information. DHIP achieved the following specific objectives.1 - Developed and/or improved effective HEI internationalization strategies for each LA partner consistent with the ECHE principles and priorities through the design and implementation of IEPs.2 - Increased and/or consolidated a network of contacts and regional alliances with peers and with other institutions or associations for mobility, academic exchanges, including the use of Tuning tools, to effect the shift to student centred learning, and experience with the Latin American Reference Credit - CLAR.3 - Developed soft skills and transversal competencies and provided specialist training on strategic topics for the implementation of the IEP.4 - Developed participation, communication and networking tools able to connect HEI internationalization policies with the needs/vocations of the local production systems.5 - Promoted the dissemination of institutional strategies for internationalization based on good practices among the Latin American HEIs community and supported the development of strategic alliances with other LA and EU HEIs and the inclusion of communities of knowledge and of practice that boosted the viability of IEPs and generated new initiatives and activities."