The main objective of I-MAT is to empower the capacity of Latin American HEIs (Colombia, Peru and Brazil) to attract students and academic and non-academic staff to mobility initiatives, through digital and innovative approaches.The specific objectives are: to bring together key actors in European Countries, responsible for international mobility and cooperation, to better understand the challenges that these three countries are facing to attract students and academic and non-academic staff to mobility initiatives and its exacerbation by the COVID-19 pandemic; Filter the best practices/strategies used in European HEIs to attract the targeted group to mobility initiatives, through digital and innovative approaches; Support Latin American (LA) partner countries in addressing the challenges that their HEIs are facing to attract the focus group to mobility initiatives; Address concrete recommendations and good practices to those involved in mobility initiatives; Create and implement a training framework to strengthen the LA HEIs capacity to attract the targeted group to mobility initiatives, through digital and innovative approaches.The planned activities are distributed among specific work packages dedicated to different phases (Preparation, Development, Implementation and Impact and Dissemination):The preparation phase will include a status report, based on surveys to LA HEIs and Fact-Finding Study Table for EU Partner HEIs on International Mobility. Based on these results, the development phase will focus on innovative tools to attract the targeted group for international mobility (Catalogue of Innovative Tools of the best European practices and its adaptation to the targeted LA HEIs; International Mobility Interactive App “I-MOB”) and Training programmes in the LA partner HEIs for academics and administrators working with international mobility strategies. The Implementation phase will include activities in the LA HEIs to attract the targeted group to International Cooperation and Mobility.

This project intends to give a significant contribution in high education, proposing a specific master programme to form innovative managers, researchers and local developers, but at the same time providing a strict connection with industry and society, in a framework of blended learning approach. Precisely, the main aim is to allow SMEs and other kind of companies or institutions identifying good practices and new behaviours to face innovation challenges. The master degree students shall be capable to deal with innovation in traditional sector products, but also with the most advanced technologies, such as nanotechnology, biotech and ICT most innovative tools, with particular attention to the environmental problems in order to achieve sustainable solutions. Concerning sustainability, competences related to the circular economy will be trained, particularly promoting resource productivity with the aim of reducing wastes and avoid pollution. Industrial products and systems should be designed in order to close the loop, recycling and reusing post-consumer waste to make new products. This innovative approach must be fostered, especially among manufacturing enterprises, and the expected results of the master degree will be well prepared managers and researchers, fundamental in implementing sustainable innovation.Therefore, the programme will create competences for transforming knowledge into added value for society, providing entrepreneurship training to innovative participants, supporting with innovative financing (crowd-sourcing) such new opportunities, and interacting for solving environmental problems with new tools and rationale of the circular economy. In term of future impacts, this project will create capacities in managing technology and innovation in social and productive applications while constructing bridges for overcoming the “Valley of Death”, or the “European Paradox”, in a world of uncertainty, sustainability and complexity.