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.

Institutional weakness and the lack of territorial management instruments and mechanisms is one of the main problems faced by local , departmental and national governments in Latin America in the field of management and development of rural territories. To face this situation, initiatives to be taken must necessarily include research on management and territorial development mechanisms at municipal level, the dissemination of good management practices of territorial development and mostly the diffusion of new ideas and postgraduate training under a pragmatic pedagogical approach focused on action and case studies.EARTH project addresses the lack of skilled human resources and to the weakness of training programs in HEIs related to rural development management and planning. Overall objective is to capitalise the experience of EU partners, in view of enhancing the management, governance, teaching, research and outreach capacities of PC HEIs’ to reinforce their role in the promotion and management of processes of local rural development. This will allow to better align PC HEIs research and teaching activities with pressing local socio-economic challenges and key national development goals related to rural development and to become better integrated into their external environment and be better positioned to contribute to local economic growth of the rural sector. These objectives will be realized also through an online library, a white book summarizing and presenting a repertory of good practices, a method manual, online workshops and international courses for putting in common educational programs, quality assurance procedures, teaching materials, and to improve them with input from society in terms of required skills and jobs in rural development topics. As a result, the promotion of homogenization dynamics affecting educational patterns will improve international cooperation ability and effectiveness supporting the efforts played at national and regional levels.

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).