The participation of Women in STEM in the Latin-America region is a very complex problem in which necessarily call for actions from different actors, such as governments, private sector, families, as well the different levels of education (since childhood to higher education). In order to make concrete contribution, Higher Education Institutions need to focus on those needs and situations in which it has certain influence for making real progress, such as:- Significant minority of Women choose and access to STEM programs at tertiary level. The lowest rates appears in science and engineering programs. - Data is scarce, showing a need for analytical and systematic methods, which reflect actual participation of women in STEM at HEIs. - Tertiary studies with a high math component such as STEM seem to be excluded from the studies options by girls in secondary schools. - Lack of bridges between public policy and institutional actions led by HEIs. In this way, and aligned to the Erasmus + Capacity Building priority for improving management and operation of higher education, in terms of access to and democratization of Higher Education, the W‐STEM Project aims at Improving strategies and mechanisms of attraction, access and guidance of Women in Latin-American STEM Higher Education programs. For achieving this main objective, W-STEM project, will • Measure the gender equality in enrolment and retention rates in STEM programs.• Implement Universities’ policies, strategies and organizational mechanisms for improving attraction, access and guidance at undergraduate levels in STEM programs. • Promote STEM studies vocation and choice in girls and young women in secondary schools as well as guidance in the first year of the STEM program. • Develop an online training package for Higher Education Institutions to implement effective strategies to enhance attraction, access and guidance of Women in STEM programs.

"With the capacity building project ""DigiUGov"", the project partners aim to make a significant contribution to an inclusive digital transformation at universities in Colombia, Mexico and Europe. By supporting (early stage) researchers, digital teaching and research will be strengthened locally, internationally connected and finally consolidated through the establishment of corresponding structures and governance mechanisms at the participating institutions. With the same objective, the digitalizationof the university administration will be promoted through international exchange and adequate consultation formats. Science managers and representatives of the various status groups at the participating universities are being recognised as key players and their competences are being strengthened. The systematic engagement of civil society actors and relevant companies in the exchange formats and in the implementation projects ensures that the project goals set are accurately and that they can be adapted to the needs of the situation during the project. The capacity-building goal of the project is to enable the establishment of sustainable structures at the partner institutions by involving and activating these groups and through pilot projects."

This is a project-based on cooperation between 5 European and 10 Latinamerican universities. The main objective of the Project is to integrate social innovation in academic curriculum and learning environments in Latin American Universities to promote quality improvement in academic programs through fostering competence to solve regional social problems. This implies: 1. Design and apply educational models to promote competences on social entrepreneurship and social innovation amongst university students.2. Design and offer academic strategies to develop competences on social entrepreneurship and social innovation.3. Design valuable methodological tools for academic programs to improve understanding of the community`s needs and offer inclusive, sustainable solutions for detected problems.4. Design a monitoring system to evaluate curricular development on social entrepreneurship and innovation competences.5.Design and implement institutional policies and programs for administrative, academic and support management to promote social innovation in Latin American Universities.6. Create alliances between Latin American and European Universities interested in promoting social entrepreneurship.7. Support existing social incubators in participant universities to improve links between educational tools and students learning process to foster creativity and sustainability in social projects.With these activities, the Project will achieve short and long term impact at four different targets: institutions, teachers, students, external/Social Stakeholders. Then, the Project has some specific key indicators that serve to review the progress and the impact of the actions:1.Reporting the state of art of Social Entrepreneurship in participant institutions2.Guidelines of competencies on social innovation. 3.Toolbox for teaching social innovation including methods for working with different external stakeholders (NGO’s, Companies, Communities) 4.Selection and Confirmation of pilot courses and teachers that will implement social innovation methods or activities inside their courses. 5.Teachers’ participation in the training program on how to design and implement social entrepreneurship within selected courses during the pilot period.6.Implementation and monitoring of pilot projects7.Identification and early development of institutional support actions to enhance innovation and social entrepreneurship in HEI. 8.Results and impact of pilot projects To accomplish this, there are seven important moments or milestones in the project. 1.Kick-off meeting- Mexico (Starting Point, Clarification on Tasks & Expectations)2.Valencia meeting (Progress and Difficulties of the Project)3.Teachers online training (Expectations)4.Porto Alegre’s meeting (Satisfaction and Usefulness)5.Pilot’s implementation (Progress and Difficulties)6.Talca’s meeting (Results and Impact, this meeting changed from the city of Talca to Bgotá). 7.Final Meeting (Results and Impact)By now, we have passed through all the moments mentioned above covering 8 key indicators listed before. There were changes to some of the actions conceived at the beginning. These changes were discussed with the Steering Committee, as part of our internal quality measures; and later, were discussed with our Project Officer, to grant here authorization. The changes imply an improvement in the impact and the results of the project. The previously expected impact was: the implementation of a methodology in SI and SE in 20 pilot courses, 450 students implicated, 55 trained teachers, the reinforcement of social incubators in the participant universities with an impact in the communities, and the implementation of measures for the mainstreaming of social innovation. The final impact overpassed these numbers: 70 courses, 1614 students, 56 teachers trained.

The Innovative Manufacturing and Construction Research Centre (IMCRC) will undertake a wide variety of work in the Manufacturing, Construction and product design areas. The work will be contained within 5 programmes:1. Transforming Organisations / Providing individuals, organisations, sectors and regions with the dynamic and innovative capability to thrive in a complex and uncertain future2. High Value Assets / Delivering tools, techniques and designs to maximise the through-life value of high capital cost, long life physical assets3. Healthy & Secure Future / Meeting the growing need for products & environments that promote health, safety and security4. Next Generation Technologies / The future materials, processes, production and information systems to deliver products to the customer5. Customised Products / The design and optimisation techniques to deliver customer specific products.Academics within the Loughborough IMCRC have an internationally leading track record in these areas and a history of strong collaborations to gear IMCRC capabilities with the complementary strengths of external groups.Innovative activities are increasingly distributed across the value chain. The impressive scope of the IMCRC helps us mirror this industrial reality, and enhances knowledge transfer. This advantage of the size and diversity of activities within the IMCRC compared with other smaller UK centres gives the Loughborough IMCRC a leading role in this technology and value chain integration area. Loughborough IMCRC as by far the biggest IMRC (in terms of number of academics, researchers and in funding) can take a more holistic approach and has the skills to generate, identify and integrate expertise from elsewhere as required. Therefore, a large proportion of the Centre funding (approximately 50%) will be allocated to Integration projects or Grand Challenges that cover a spectrum of expertise.The Centre covers a wide range of activities from Concept to Creation.The activities of the Centre will take place in collaboration with the world's best researchers in the UK and abroad. The academics within the Centre will be organised into 3 Research Units so that they can be co-ordinated effectively and can cooperate on Programmes.