The changes in educational paradigms and development of ICT are promoting the modernization of universities and the establishment of open and flexible study programs, freeing academic boundaries.Quality, accessibility and innovation are concepts that are driving the changes of virtual higher education. ACAI-LA Universities Network undertake the challenge of modernizing and internationalizing higher education, and contributing to development and social cohesion in Latin America, with an academic offer in pursuit of excellence, equitable and innovative.This academic offer will be available in the ACAI-LA Virtual Campus with accessible:- Life long learning program, MOOC.- Master for training of trainers, MOOC, certified by the consortium universities.This university campus will integrate online services for: support to students, support to graduates and job placement, and guidance to teachers in methodologies and innovative educational techniques.The curricula will:- Be open and flexible.- Form its students with ICT skills required by the labour market.- Include educational materials and laboratories, accessible to social groups with learning difficulties because of economic, ethnicity, gender or disabilities reasons.- Be available in: English, Spanish, Mayan and / or African descent languages.A sustainable business model will be supported for capacity building in:- Young graduates.- Teachers, who create innovative educational, quality and accessible resources.This scientific and educational cooperation network shows the diversity in Latin America. The ACAI-LA Network consists of three European universities and eight Latin American, four of which are located in less developed countries of Central America and the others are from South America. This condition will improve the impact, dissemination and exploitation of project results, publications and open educational materials.

The CITYLAB project aims to enhance the quality of HEI’s in Latin America through problem based-learning. A problem-based learning is a proven innovative approach for introducing real-world problems in the education program with huge possibilities to transform the quality of learning and teaching. It is a kind of active, integrated and constructive learning method that works from a student centred approach and emphasizes on learning to learn and learning by doing, and breaks with traditional teaching methods such as ex-cathedra lectures. In order to introduce and spread PBL, it is required to work on specific problems through multidisciplinary approaches. We choose to work on typical urban problems, such as urban planning, conservation, energy and climate change, poverty and crime, employment, …which are in general complex, and wicked problems that can only be properly addressed through multi-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary working methods. Moreover, the selection of urban problems, and the transdisciplinary approach which works directly with urban actors, provides the opportunity to structurally strengthen the relation between universities and cities and to make education more socially relevant. The project departs from existing niches of problem based learning methods in curricula of Architecture, urban planning and urban engineering in 12 Latin American universities, and gradually involves other faculty members such as sociology, economics, environmental engineering, law, criminology, administration and political sciences, ….through the development of CITYLABS. The CITYLABS are accredited modules that will be integrated in existing curricula and which work directly in partnership with selected cities on urban problems. Teachers from different faculties will be involved and trained to implement PBL methods in their CITYLAB module. The Global Network of Cities, Local and Regional Governments will act as a linking partner between universities and cities.

Insights into the functioning of the innate immune system are crucial to be able to design appropriate immunotherapies. However, we still lack basic knowledge regarding the regulation of innate sensing by nucleic acid sensors named endosomal Toll-Like Receptors (TLRs). Our project aims at deciphering the molecular mechanisms governing the regulation of nucleic acid sensing by endosomal TLRs through the control of their intracellular trafficking. Focusing on TLR3, we will study important molecular players to determine how and where TLR3 traffics, meets its ligand and signals. This knowledge will be transposed in a mouse model of TLR3-dependent and antigen specific immune response. The control of innate immune receptor signalling through their trafficking is a relatively nascent field that shows immense potential for the discovery of molecules that could precisely control signaling and the downstream immune response during immunotherapeutic strategies