"The number of satellite programs dedicated to Earth observation has increased significantly over the last decades and will further increase in the future. Remote Sensing (RS) data offer the potential for more and more detailed and accurate mapping of land and contributing to the decision making. There is a large gap between the data collection and application. The application oriented education can contribute to increase the fields of applications. RS can be an essential tool in decision making, as it provides up to date information for decision makers on several aspects of Earth sciences, including hydrology, ecology, oceanography, glaciology, geology. Furthermore it has military, intelligence, commercial, economic, planning, and humanitarian applications. The EU space strategy in the document “2016 Communication on a Space Strategy for Europe” fosters the uptake of space techniques applications. ""The Commission’s aim is to optimize the benefits that space brings to society and the wider EU economy. Achieving this means boosting demand among public and private users, facilitating access to and use of space data, and stimulating the development and use of innovative downstream applications."" The demand is in line with the practice observed in the field of RS, which has wide range of potential applications unused.Beyond the international demand on broaden the range of RS applications both for public and private users and deepen the knowledge on the RS applications, also a demand on national level (Thailand, China) has been feedbacked. Universities can contribute to these demands by preparing widely accessible educational materials and supporting tools. The Learning Management System (LMS) developed within the frame of the IRSEL project may strengthen research, results in an uptake for the knowledge society, promoting the professional development of staff of related interdisciplinary fields. The LMS contains 20 modules in the field of Remote Sensing applications. The developed modules are available on the Moodle platform of the partner universities, and can be accessed by their students and academic staff. In line with the EC policy initiative on open access, the consortium partners are committed to developing project materials for mutual benefit. Accordingly, the core content of the LMS can be accessed by the professional society at large, as a „reduced feature” of the modules (degrading the content to pdfs) is provide openly for anyone, accessible at the link ttps://lms.irsel.eu/ . After a simple registration procedure one can get access to these pdfs, note however, that the though the content is similar to the „full feature”, that is the more attractive, interactive.The project has aimed to support the e-Learning education with high quality software, hardware, and a reasonable research facility for delivering the necessary tools for data acquisition and data processing. The equipments are integrated into the Knowledge Centre with the aim to serve the Remote Sensing application related education and research activity beyond the project timeframe. Knowledge Centres at each partner universities have been installed. The software and equipment park has been planned and validated by considering the available resources of each partner universities.Beyond the students at partner universities, the users of the LMS shall include students, managers, practitioners, and policy makers who may or may not be having background knowledge in RS. The program aims to deliver an understanding of environmental issues in the context of sustainable development from both, a theoretical and practical perspective as well as essential knowledge, instruments, and techniques for sustainable management of challenging environmental development issues."

"The LEAD project is a capacity building joint project focusing on the strengthening and improvement of governance and academic leadership of universities in the context of innovation, modernization and internationalization of higher education institutions in China. The project aims to enhance capacities of academic leaders of HEIs on university governance and leadership, develop and implement training for academic leaders on university governance and academic leadership, support and enhance internationalization of HEIs, strengthen EU-China cooperation on university governance & academic leadership and foster a better understanding of academic leadership approaches in the EU and China.The target groups of the project are HEI academic leadership, including Rectors/Vice Rectors, Presidents/ Vice Presidents, Deans/Vice Deans, Directors of Central Education and Research Policy offices, Heads of departments, and potential academic leaders. The project activities include Leadership and Governance workshops and training, job shadowing, Academic Leadership round tables, seminars, developing new formats of training modules, such as MOOC modules on HEI Governance and Academic Leadership, and dissemination conferences and events.The Consortium is a strong and unique European and Chinese partnership composed of four European universities, one European university association, and five Chinese HEIs. The LEAD project consortium has implemented six series of workshops and training in China and Europe. The LEAD MOOC on ""University Governance and Academic Leadership"" has been developed and is available online for all relevant stakeholders. The project has attracted wide interests from Chinese and European HEIs. A book entitled ""University Governance and Academic Leadership in the EU and China"" has been completed and published. The results of the project have contributed to the enhancement of mutual understanding among Chinese and European university stakeholders and the competence development & modernization of HEIs on university governance. The project has also contributed to multi-level and cross-regional cooperation among stakeholders on academic leadership development. More cooperation has been facilitated among the project partners and beyond the partnership."

The LEAD2 project is built on the results of the LEAD project, but with significant new & innovative contributions. The rational for setting up the LEAD2 project is two-fold: 1)need for deeper & broader innovative capacity building on university governance and academic leadership among Chinese and European HEIs, 2)the lack of Knowledge Base and Referencing tool for academic leaders. Therefore, the LEAD2 has four main objectives: 1)customise innovative specialized & targeted blended training for academic leaders, 2)deepen the understanding of university governance and academic leadership (AL) in diverse contexts through comparative studies, 3)create an online Knowledge Base and Referencing Tool for academic leaders, 4)establish an EU-China Center on AL. The key results will include 1) customised blended training (MOOCs & F2F workshop series) targeted for young, middle-level and top-level academic leaders; 2)research reports and publications that significantly contribute to the understanding of university governance and AL in China and the EU; 3)created online Knowledge Base and Quick Referencing tool for (potential) academic leaders; 4)a sustainable EU-China Center on AL. The project will have significant impact in further strengthening the EU-China cooperation in university governance, supporting the modernisation and internationalisation of HEIs and fostering innovative capacities of Chinese and European universities. It will also further contribute to the EU-China High Level People-to-People Dialogue (HPPD), especially the EU-China cooperation in higher education. The key stakeholders include university academic leaders at different levels including potential academic leaders, Chinese and European HEIs, and relevant policy makers.The Consortium is a strong and unique partnership with 6 European and 6 Chinese universities, which ensures a complementarity of expertise and also regional relevance of capacity building in different parts of China & the EU.