The general objective of this project is to contribute in the development of the research and innovation capacities of HEIs in Albania and Kosovo by enhancing their institutional capabilities, staff skills and networking.For both countries, improved capacities are needed in terms of the HEIs research management and adopted methodologies, but most importantly a closer cooperation of the universities with other actors in the innovation ecosystem, especially local actors as businesses and international partners. The cause for poor performance in both countries, in terms of innovations, lays not only in the economic structure of Albania and Kosovo (dominantly composed by SMEs), but also on the underdeveloped capacities of the HEIs, and the weak links they have developed locally and internationally. The needs analysis for both countries reveals two major fields for action:- The need to improve the HEIs capacities for research and innovation,- The need to foster the links and cooperation among the actors in the innovation ecosystem.As a result, the project seeks to support the development of capacities for research and innovation in intra and inter institutional level.The foreseen outputs can be summarized as follows:- Newly established/ strengthened research and innovation support structures- Modernized teaching and mentoring methodologies that enhance students’ capacities for research - Trained researchers and managers - Research quality indicators developed- Enhanced International linkages through interdisciplinary research groupsThe short term impact is to have increased capacities for research in the HEIs participating in the project, as well as generate synergy and a stronger cooperation among them.The expected long term impact is improved research performance in quantitative and qualitative terms.

A Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is a framework to share and re-use spatial data amongst public authorities, private sector and citizens. SDI are based on a series of agreements on technology standards, institutional settings and policies to unlock geospatial resources for a wide range of applications: e.g. environmental monitoring, transportation planning, health care, urban planning, etc. Since they are based on complex and permanently evolving technologies, and require innovative organisational, legal and institutional settings, the academic education related to SDI is challenging. No single university can provide education covering the complete geospatial field, so joint efforts are necessary. Especially since many of the societal challenges are cross-border and cross-policy phenomena. BESTSDI project is based on the results of the EU IPA2010 project “INSPIRATION – Spatial Data Infrastructure in the Western Balkans” (2012-2013) and the project “Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the region of Western Balkan” (IMPULS), being under execution. The BESTSDI project refines and extends these developments in three ways:1) A successful SDI requires an active participation by all national and local governments within a country, its private sector and citizens. This active participation is impossible without appropriate SDI knowledge and skills. Thus, education on SDI must be properly introduced in higher education study programs for future professionals and life-long learning courses for present professionals. 2) An SDI comes to life, if published geospatial data is widely being (re-)used. BESTSDI covers both spatial data provision as well as its (re-)usage. Data (re-)usage scenarios cover requirements arising in the regional priority domains agriculture, forestry and fisheries. 3) All BESTSDI partner countries are either candidate or potential candidate countries of joining the European Union and have the obligation to implement EU Directives and policies.The BESTSDI project has raise knowledge level and awareness on SDI in higher education institutions in Western Balkans region developing SDI curriculum which has been implemented in teaching at all 15 partner institutions. It has provided students with new knowledge and skills to emerging labour market needed to implement EU Directives and policies on national levels. Moreover, it has attuned curricula to equip the students with transversal skills, such as entrepreneurship and general digital skills, improving their ability to work with other people. Through the project 15 SDI labs have been established at the partner universities supporting modern education methods and approaches enabling more than 2.500 student to attend new or modernized courses with SDI content in third year of project lifetime. The BESTDI project has also supported development of methodology and business models for introduction of delivery of the Life-long courses for professionals at the partner universities what has been implemented in third year of project lifetime.The BESTSDI project has also supported project partners to take proactive role u development of national SDI's in their countries. For this purpose for the first time project partners (academic institutions) delivered for the first time the annual national SDI reports promoting importance of SDI education and stakeholder cooperation. This resulted for partner countries universities in cooperation with several other projects, agreements with the national authorities, new conferences, strengthening regional cooperation and internationalization of universities.

The AHEAD (AI-informed Holistic Electric Vehicles Integration Approaches for Distribution Grids) project will create a simulation environment capable of predicting the most convenient location to place the electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and optimise both the usage of the power grid resources, and the charging stations located in urban and rural areas. This simulation environment will exploit the unique features of currently available AI models and include two layers: the spatial mapping one (placing the chargers where the people need them to be), and the power grid one (placing the chargers where the grid can support them). Innovative smart charging algorithms will be designed and tested in the model, to minimise the impact of EV charging pools on the network, and ensure the consumers have economic benefits. Moreover, these smart charging algorithms will be tested in three demonstration sites, dedicated to assessing the technical and economic feasibility of smart charging light and heavy-duty EVs, and boats. To this end, AHEAD gathered relevant partners from all the EV value-chain: technology providers who want to test their equipment in the real world, grid operators, who want to optimise the usage of the grid resources and mitigate the EV charging impact, and research institutions, who aim at advancing the knowledge on the topic and producing value for society. Particular attention is going to be placed on the user experience and cybersecurity part of the demonstrators, with specific partners who focus their efforts on understanding how to minimize the impact of smart charging on the user experience and on creating a model to represent cyber-attacks on the chargers to suggest efficient defensive mechanisms for system protection.