With the rise in population and drop in the economy, Jordan needs new ideas and schemes involving the younger population for the country to strive in the future. JOB-JO is an initiative brought together by universities in the South of Jordan lead by Mutah University, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, as well as European partners. The aim of the project is to promote youth employment and reduce poverty in Jordan’s remote areas which will empower economic and social aspects of these communities as well as provide women more opportunities for success. Although the literate rate in Jordan is high, and people are getting more educated than ever, the employment rate is low due to many social and economic factors. As most universities provide the best education possible, students still lack many skills that would be easy to gain. The career centers would provide services in order to teach and train unemployed graduates to be requalified for more job opportunities. Services such as training courses, skills and communication workshops, as well as support entrepreneurships and initiatives brought by the community would be offered. These services would have European influence through exchange programs as well as the great relationship to happen between universities in Jordan and the experienced universities in Europe. The short term impact would be to allow graduates to gain skills and training needed for their professions where in the long term, these career centers would foster the economic growth and reduce the unemployment and poverty in the remote areas of Jordan.

The wider objective of the project is to develop and implement interdisciplinary teaching modules in smart grid and grid integration of renewable energy systems (RESs) and establishing an international training center in this field of knowledge where this center aims to facilitate the development of a well-trained, highly skilled smart grid workforce. The developed courses are available for different programmes in the faculties of Engineering and for graduates and community members. Indicators for the progress of these wider objectives are:• The modules are prepared (WP3)• Courses are implemented in curricula of different universities (WP6)• Training sessions and workshops are successfully launched in the training centre (WP10)• Increased interest in the topic of smart grid and Grid-connected RES in MENA universities (WP8).• More visibility of MENA universities internationally, demonstrated by the number of international research & number of attendees to the international conference (WP8).Specific objectives of the AT-SGIRES projectThe specific project objective is to introduce the topic of smart grid and grid integration of renewable energy systems to the curricula of undergraduate and postgraduate programs in different Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries and possibly European Union (EU) universities. An additional specific objective is to deepen understanding of the smart grid projects and grid-connected systems among communities, workforce and university members, and graduates in the MENA region. Furthermore, AT-SGIRES project aims to develop and implement online teaching modules in the field of smart grid impacts of renewable energy for wider dissemination. This also means to enhance cooperation amongst universities in beneficiary countries on the one hand and with EU universities on the other hand in the project field. Finally, another important specific objective is to build the capacity of the teaching staff members in the partner and associated universities through training workshops.Indicators of these specific project objectives are• Courses are integrated into study programs at universities and accredited (WP6)• Courses are developed and uploaded to the virtual online environment (WP3)• Workshops and training sessions are offered for partners and stakeholders (WP5)• Regional and international network is established (WP2)• Centre membership program is developed (WP10). Outputs of the AT-SGIRES projectThe outputs of the AT-SGIRES project are structured through ten work packages (WP1 to WP10), which are described in detail in the following sections. The indicators of progress are• Publishing of report on the Current Situation and the need for Smart Grid education programme (WP 1)• Establishment of e-learning portal (WP3)• Preparing six modules (WP3)• Establishment of Smart Grid laboratories (WP4)• Staff exchange of visits between partners (WP5), • Implementation and teaching of modules (WP6)• 2 evaluation reports (WP7)• Launching of the project website and publishing six newsletters (WP8)• Dissemination of projects activities through workshops, events, seminars, social media, and the website (WP8)• Establishment of the training centre, and developing its operation plan and membership programs (WP10)These indicators are measured by the number of participants in the related activities. Furthermore, the activity on the website and the number of local participants at workshops are measured. There are a number of assumptions and risks to sustain these outputs discussed in the sustainability plan. Activities in the AT-SGIRES project are strongly connected with the WPs, which are described later. Therefore, all of the AT-SGIRES activities required the input of all project partners.

"Recently, artificial intelligence and robotics (AIR) have been making huge advances enabling them to enter new applications, constituting disruptive forces to various aspects of our lives. Developing countries such as Jordan and Lebanon suffer from slowing economies and high unemployment rates. These problems will worsen as AIR technologies succeed in automating more jobs and shifting production and jobs to the countries that employ these technologies to efficiently offer better services and products. Therefore, it is essential for all countries to engage in using and developing these technologies to create new businesses, improve existing products and services, and foster human prosperity.The consortium of this proposal is taking the initiative of ""Developing Curricula for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (DeCAIR)""; a project that intends to develop curricula in the areas of AIR through new master's and bachelor programs. These programs will give students opportunities to specialize in AI technologies, Robotics technologies, or using AI solutions to develop smart and autonomous robots that can solve unconventional problems. Additionally, DeCAIR will improve the curricula of existing masters and bachelor programs in the areas of AIR, establish relevant modern laboratories, and implement modern teaching methods such as flipped learning and project-based learning. All this will improve the graduates' practical skills and enable them to exploit these revolutionary technologies to solve local and regional problems, create new jobs, and to start new ventures.Other project aims are to improve the teaching capacity at universities of the Partner Countries, build a network of highly qualified professionals in these areas among partner universities, and improve collaboration with local and regional industries and community for applying AIR technologies in solving industry and community problems."

MS@CPS is a collaborative effort among EU and MENA countries for the establishment of an International Master of Computer Systems on Cyber Physical Systems. The envisioned master programme will focus on the contemporary recent technologies in the fields of Embedded Systems (ES) and Knowledge-based Systems (KBS) that provide the needed expertise for a CPS education and tremendous economic opportunities and furthermore span various important applications in our daily life such as: Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous cars, smart phones, embedded systems, big data, semantic computing, cloud computing, etc.The curriculum of MS@CPS program will be designed by analyzing the existing curricula in the area of embedded and knowledge-based systems, then a field study of market requirements and needs in the MENA region will be conducted. In parallel, the consortium members will review and examine pedagogical teaching and learning methods to fulfil the program objectives. Further, the curriculum of MS@CPS will be strongly aligned with the special requirements of the industry in the MENA countries in order to establish the skills of the students for strengthening the economy. In particular, MS@CPS will arrange several activities in cooperation with the industry partners to provide an open platform for students and industry, which will strengthen the students' skills and establish joint internships and master thesis. By providing solid skills in entrepreneurship and adopting proven mechanisms from program countries, the graduated students of MS@CPS will be able to establish their own start-ups. By enrolling in this program, the students will benefit from the multi-cultural experience and contact with different teaching styles responding to labour market needs, foster innovation and create top talents as the mobility readiness and complex system solution handling are highly valued skills for technology-driven companies.

This project is responding to the emerged needs and challenges in Jordan. This include climate change, low employment rate of engineers, the gap between workforce supply and demand, the rapidly growing market of Electric vehicles and Hybrid vehicles (EV and HEV) and the need for servicing and maintaining them.The main scope is to equip the engineers with the needed practical skills in the field of EV and HEV and qualify them to local, regional and international markets, through developing a professional diploma and integrate some of these courses within existing programmes. Through this diploma, students will get the needed skills to maintain and operate Electric and Hybrid vehicles with appropriate knowledge in the fields of climate change, vehicle manufacturing systems, and life cycle assessment.The envisaged impacts within this project include:• Increase the employability of Engineers in Local, Regional and International Market • Reduce air pollution and mitigate climate change impact on Jordan, through increase the use of EV/HEV• Enhance the quality of the vocational training provided in the vocational training centers, through employing the trained engineers in those centers• Improve the level of provided services for repairing and maintaining electric and Hybrid vehicles in Jordanian enterprises. • Satisfying industry and economical needs by empowering engineers.• Helping to move Jordan forward to become a host for Electrical and Hybrid vehicles industry in future