In the last two decades, and particularly since the onset of the global financial crisis, providing innovation-oriented knowledge has become a priority at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to address the widespread challenges of high unemployment towards smart and inclusive growth.At the global level, Asia is undergoing rapid changes and integrating into fast-evolving networks but growth is severely uneven, with extremely diverse trajectories in societal and economic development. The socio-economic landscape of the PCs targeted by Hub4Growth (Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal and Mongolia) shows countries with an urgent need for action at university level to increase innovation related capabilities and link more effectively knowledge produced with market opportunities, therefore promoting socio-economic integration in the coming years.Within this framework, Hub4Growth aims at boosting target PC HEIs’ capacities for entrepreneurship opportunities and structures towards economic development and employability. The project, in line with regional and institutional priorities of the participating PC HEIs, will promote good practices for setting business interfaces in universities, enhance human resources’ capacities, provide for coherent information and communication strategies amongst the universities and within the local business environment. It will also give necessary strategic input for the creation of long-term partnerships and collaborative innovation-related initiatives with enterprises.

INSPIRED (Innovative Solutions for Practicality and Impact in Refugee and Migration Oriented Education) responds to the need for a specific, multidisciplinary curriculum that would allow specialisation in those areas of EU law, which are topical in view of most recent developments in Europe and beyond. The rationale of this project proposal is based on three strategic objectives: 1) improving the quality and relevance of legal education in the field of refugee and migration oriented education at five European Universities; 2) the introduction of innovative learning methods in legal education such as virtual mobility, strategic use of ICTs, use of open educational resources, open and flexible learning and transnational collaborative learning, and 3) strengthening of the quality of specialized education through international mobility and trans-border cooperation. INSPIRED involves five partner universities: University of Osijek (Croatia), Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania), University of Pécs (Hungary), Inholland University of Applied Sciences (the Netherlands) and London South Bank University (UK). INSPIRED envisages the development of a joint International curriculum on the most acute topics of refugee and migration oriented education through the preparation of 3 sub-modules covering the sub-topics around migration and refugee law. The modules developed will be transformed into an E-Learning platform that will be accessible through open access to other universities and stakeholders in five countries and beyond. The joint curriculum will be tested through delivery of two Intensive Programmes in 2018 (Part I) and 2019 (Part II), which will involve the mobility of students and lecturers of five universities, followed by trans-national research papers of students and research results by lecturers of partner universities in the form of a project publication. INSPIRED project activities will also include lecturers and student mobility, Strategic Partnership Consortium meetings and multiplier events in each project country. The project will result in the following intellectual outputs: 1) Development of joint and multidisciplinary E-Module on Refugee and Migration Oriented Education (with 3 sub-modules). 2) Delivery of two intensive programmes in Lithuania (C1 – Part I/March 2018) and Croatia (C 2- Part II/March 2019). 3) Joint student research papers in the area of Refugee and Migration Oriented Education published. 4) Joint lecturers’ research papers in the area of Refugee and Migration Oriented Education published in a project book. Law students in five EU countries include students with different cultural backgrounds, students with special needs facing social obstacles due to health problems, students with fewer opportunities for mobility and coming from disadvantaged areas in project countries) will directly benefit from the project and around 300 other persons will make an indirect use of project results, as e-learning module and publications will be open to students of partner universities and externally to all interested in Life Long Learning programs. Among other project results will be increased mobility of students and lecturers, increased capacities in thematic areas and enhanced trans-border cooperation among partner organisations. The project builds upon proven successful cooperation among partner organizations in delivering courses in the area of Freedom, Security and Justice in a form of three informal intensive programmes in 2013-2015, exchange of lecturers and students and joint research. This project will allow partner universities to apply new multidisciplinary initiatives that multiply and upscale the effect of successful activities to a broader range of beneficiaries, ensure deeper integration of education and institutionalise trans-national cooperation in the format of a joint curriculum, so that sustainability of efforts could be achieved. It will have a positive impact on the participating students, as their access to specialised skills, e-learning will be facilitated and competitiveness in the labour market enhanced. University curricula will be improved through new methods of teaching, including enhanced digital integration in learning as well as student and staff international mobility. The project will impact on the creation of synergies and cross-fertilization of traditional legal education, of the sharing of best practices and real, on-the-job experience of practitioners in the area of refugee and migration oriented education.

Mediation is an effective interdisciplinary method of dispute resolution, where legal studies, entrepreneurship, administration and psychology converge. The EU has in the recent years embraced those alternative ways of dispute settlement for their main characteristics of being time and cost efficient. The applicable legislation - both on a European and national level, has been fully set out to meet those targets. However, an implementation process in practical terms is still underdeveloped in most, if not all of the Members States. The cultural and social challenge to change the general understanding about alternative dispute resolution methods continues along with the attempts to build trust in it as an efficient dispute settlement tool. Although assisted negotiation (or mediation) can find some historical antecedents in many countries, it is still poorly known in the layers of society subjected to litigation. Therefore in times when mediation legislation is still fresh, recently coming into effect, to raise awareness about its benefits among practitioners, the general public and more particularly – students, is crucial. Project is gathering 6 partner Universities and experts from mediation field. The object of this project is to create, operate, maintain and integrate in the curriculum of the partnering universities an online educational platform seeking to accomplish several main goals:1) digitalization of the teaching process to the extent possible by providing a database of information and materials allowing distance online studying;2) to facilitate the organization, administration and conduct of mock-mediation sessions and mediation tournaments among teams of students (especially useful in learning distance mediation and mediation with cross-cultural aspects). To reach this goal the partner universities will carry on multiple tasks including teaching activities for academics to increase their organizational and methodological skills necessary for organization of mock-mediation sessions and mock-mediation tournaments. A teaching material on methodology and the best practice manual will be elaborated to assist academics in organization of new mock-mediation sessions and mediation tournaments. The long term objective sought through the above is to allow students to practice the skills gathered in the course of their education in mediation and to additionally acquire specific training for conducting online dispute resolution processes

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Citizen Science is a rapidly expanding and diversifying field of innovation with significant implications for, and potential benefits to, society, policy, and various academic research areas. This heterogeneity leads currently to a fragmented and not fully coordinated European Citizen Science landscape. The ambition of EU-Citizen.Science is to build, fill, and promote a sustainable platform and mutual learning space providing different tools, best practice examples and relevant scientific outcomes that are collected, curated, and made accessible to different stakeholders, ranging from interested citizens over scientific institutions up to politicians and public media in order to mainstream Citizen Science in Europe. This breakthrough will be pursued through three interconnected lines of activity: (i) coordination of citizen science actions and leveraging of existing resources in the presently fragmented landscape of Citizen Science in Europe, (ii) engagement of quadruple helix stakeholders at all levels (local, national and European), and (iii) creation of a mutual learning space and a set of comprehensive co-designed training modules for the different target audiences. Moreover, following a transparent, open and inclusive approach, EU-Citizen.Science will promote interdisciplinary, cross-border, cross-sector collaboration, and give rise to significant social innovation and new business models through the creation of new partnerships and the provision of novel sustainability-supporting tools. The EU.Citizen.Science project involves 14 partners and 9 third parties, representing 14 European Member States and a variety of stakeholders ranging from universities, NGOs, local authorities, CSOs and natural history museums, along with several other project supporters. Many of the partners are already engaged in other SwafS projects related to RRI, co-creation and citizen science, as well as numerous initiatives at national or local level.