Agriculture in the Palestinian territories is a mainstay in the economy of both countries. The production of agricultural goods supports the population's sustenance needs and informally employs 90% of the population.On the other side, industrial and/or digital technologies are expanding in global phenomenon with an emphasis on digitalisation, automation, control and robotics in various operations related to soil cultivation management, optimization of crops nutrition, crop tending etc. Automated robotic systems can bring to agriculture flexibility in farmer decision making to select the optimal technological arrangements during the production process of the field crops, which entails not only economic but also the environmental and social aspects.The use of (digital) technologies could allow the agricultural sector to achieve big leaps in Palestine, especially in increasing productivity and introducing the cultivation of new strategic classes of crops. The knowledge about advanced agricultural technologies have therefore become key for the farmers in these regions, throughout the process of cultivation and harvest. Precision agriculture is an innovative concept in the countries of Middle East and especially in Palestine. This is not specifically about the technologies, but about the overall concept putting accent on understanding how the technologies can make the farming more accurate and controlled. The innovative character of the project serves not only the capacity-building aspect for Palestinian HEIs, but also addresses the challenges faced by the EU countries regarding ICT, technological developments, and creating a global research framework for innovation and development regarding the integration of newest (digital) technologies into agriculture and rural development.

"In Palestine, the undergraduate students encounter several problems to initiate their own businesses even they have several skills in IT tools. This returns to the traditional methods adopted in teaching IT courses that don’t contain innovative orientation methods. The current teaching methodologies concentrate more on how to use the tool but for which purposes it could be used for. These traditional teaching ways used in universities create a systematic traditional way of thinking which consequently makes graduates only seeking for jobs and ignoring creating their own jobs.Thus, there are needs to develop academic IT programs that respond to the needs of the lifelong profession, and to establishing academic-official-professional partnership to develop a vision for career-oriented education.This project aims to develop the curricula of IT programs in the Palestinian universities. This development will enhance the teaching methodologies among teaching of IT courses that will consequently influence the students' ability to use the IT tools. The project will contribute in developing of networked and specialized centers of competences for technology enhanced learning that help IT and non-IT graduates to improve them in innovative and creative thinking. Furthermore, the project will not only results a teaching material, but it will help in creation of a IT specialized portal that exchange the experience, teaching methods, and success stories among the students and the teaching in IT departments.The project belongs to ""Developing the Higher Education sector within society"" which include the following National Priorities as defined by the Palestinian Minister of Education and Higher Education in PS: • Development of partnerships with enterprises.• Knowledge triangle: education-innovation-research.• Development of lifelong learning in society at large.The project set these priorities as a domain to enhance the graduates' thinking to be more reliable and productive."

Freshman education across the country suffers from the absence of competency and skill-based instruction. There is no focus on life skills like problem identification, problem solving, planning and management of tasks, or proposing solutions to existing problems. The learners are provided with minimal opportunities for self-learning or outside classroom practice. Time efficient technology options and technology supported assessment are not utilized in large group instruction. The project will address a three-fold problem in the Palestinian higher education. It targets: a) the theoretically and content-based freshman instruction and assessment, b) the absence of formative assessment and self-directed learning at this transitional stage, and c) the lack or complete absence of technology supported assessment modules in large group instruction.The project utilizes technology to offer a wide range of options for providing teachers with timely feedback on learner achievements and engaging learners in peer and self- self-regulated learning and practice. Therefore, this project has used available technology options to provide timely feedback for learners and teachers in the context of massive education so improvement and adjustment strategies can be implemented on time. The outcome-based assessment in freshman education and adopting technology supported self-directed learning activities helped mitigate the negative impacts the traditional lecture-based instruction and exam-based assessment may have on the quality of freshman education in Higher education institutions country wide. The data collected from student beneficiaries showed important progress on four key levels: learner skills, learning methodologies, assessment methods and the use of technology. This modernization of learning and assessment methods was implemented in order to: • allow for time-efficient assessment and feedback practices • provide learners with self-learning opportunities • engage learners in giving feedback to their own peers• improving the quality of interaction in large group instructions• develop innovative technology supported classroom assessment techniques• create better match between freshman skills and market requirements in professional degree programs• provide timely feedback and satisfaction rate on large group instruction.Integrate higher order skills in the first year education courses.Create policies at national level to enhance the ecosystem for modernizing learning and assessment.disseminate good practice inside institution and at national level.To provide the necessary ecosystem for modernizing assessment practices in Palestine, the project team prepared and implemented 10 first year courses using competency based learning models, integrated modern learning methodologies and assessment options in the developed learning and assessment policies, and built capacity in Palestine for using technology to support large enrollment education.

The main idea of the project is to increase the conformance of Palestinian academia outcomes and the Palestinian rehabilitation service providers’ capabilities towards localising rehab technology. There is a gap between academia and the professional rehab sector needs. Despite that, there is an increasing number of researchers and students interested in rehab technology applications opposed by an increasing numbers of physically disabled Palestinian people due to wars. Given the lack of expertise, and proper course materials and curricula; researchers’ and students’ attempts to join the rehab technology field remain individual and unorganised. Lack of equipment to deliver rehab technology courses is a main obstacle to localise it. Project addressed problems; - Little professional rehab technology knowledge available amongst academics, therefore little guidance to students - Absence of advanced courses related to rehab technology from academic curricula - Absence of modern lab facilities to deliver related rehab technology skills - Little interest in investment in the rehab technology solutions and projects.The project’s impacts; - Development of rehab technology courses and improve academic programs at partner universities according to EU standards - Training of academics, rehab professionals and students in the field of rehab technology - Curricula development of three academic programs at the Palestinian partner universities - Establishment of one rehab engineering lab at one of the partner universities and make it accessible to students from other partner universities - Establishment of one rehab treatment and training lab at partner rehab service provider and make it accessible to partner universities - Enhanced practical performance of academics, professionals and students in the rehab technology and sciences field and applications - Enhanced networking between higher education sector and the rehab technology sector on the nationally and internationally

Develop Business and Economic Research Centers Capacity (BERC) aims to develop the quality of business and economic research environment in West Bank and Gaza strip. The literature shows that production of research is not according to the quality standards and suffering from many challenges. Researchers as well as teaching staff have inconvenient experience in contribution in the knowledge paradigm. BERC suggests significant areas to be addressed: the networking, standards and guidelines, research management, publication procedures, and research design and methodologies. To this end the partnership between EU and Palestinian HE will boost the quality of research. (Prep) WP1: Identify needs analysis and benchmarking for research center and research methodology curriculums including: Conduct self- assessment; Needs analysis and benchmarking; Present gathered data at kick-off conference.(Prep) WP2: Prepare training courses including: Select specific qualifications; Prepare courses modules; Select trainees .(DEV) WP3: Conduct BERC staff capacity building including: Deliver training courses in Publications Procedures; Research Management; Networking; Research Design and survey methods; Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods.(DEV) WP4: Developing research center at PHEI including: Establish research groups; Equip research centers; Develop strategic plan for BERCs; Implement research methodology curriculums standards; Conduct research hub protocols. generate a web site for each BERC(QPLN) WP5: Quality assessment including: Develop quality assessment plan; Project quality assessment; Annual quality assessment meetings.(EXP) WP6: Exploitation and dissemination of project deliverables including: Develop exploitation strategy; Establish training courses network; Develop dissemination plan ; Public promotional activities ; Project publications.(MGT) WP7: Project Management including: Project Representatives Meetings; Project Management and Admin.