Lao PDR’s economic growth is based on natural resources and 78% of the population depends on smallholder agriculture for income and employment; which is however affected by hazards such as drought, flood, erratic and more intense rainfall. It is thus vital for agriculture to develop resilience to climate change and ensure food security. Intelligent Geotechnologies (combining mapping, earth observation, geographic information systems and artificial intelligence) play a fundamental role in supporting sustainable and climate-resilient agricultural practices. The use of such essential instruments in Lao HEIs however is very limited or non-existent. The main objective of the project is, therefore, to build capacity on Intelligent Geotechnologies to confront the lack of pertinent knowledge and skills. The project’s main activities are: developing curricula, innovative courses, and training material, establishing a crop-type mapping framework, equipping laboratories, building training capacity, disseminating and ensuring the exploitation of the results.The geographical distribution of the 4 Lao PDR universities and 3 associated partners covers the entire country which is the essence of a national project. At least 52 HEI staff and 190 students and stakeholders will be trained during the project, and 1000 students and stakeholders will be trained within 5 years after the project; benefiting also 180 experts and policy-makers during dissemination workshops. The project will vitally contribute to the digital transformation in Lao PDR, indirectly benefiting the whole society especially the rural one.Four innovative modular courses on intelligent geotechnologies and their application on climate-resilient and adaptable agricultural practices, a methodological crop-type mapping framework, active engagement of students in field campaigns, e-learning tools, modern equipment, durably trained staff and aware stakeholders are the main results and outputs of INTEGRAL.

The most important challenges facing the Laotion universities is to set up appropriate structures (IROs) and harmonise internationalisation practices as proposed by the Ministry of Eucation and Sport of the People Democratic Republi of Laos. This harmonisation should include the sharing of basic and current practices, long established already in countries belonging to the European Higher Education Area, which could facilitate the exchange of students and academic staff, the development of joint projects or other international activities. Also the project general objective aims at increasing the academic quality and research activities of universities in the PDR of Laos through the development of internationalisation capacities. The specific objectives are: -To consolidate Internationalisation structure, & build human capacities of HEIs by means of targeted training programmes in 5 HEIs;- To accompany the governance reforms of MoEs and enhance international networking through strategic actions in key areas of the Laos higher education system.The OPEN project will achieve the above-mentioned general and specific objectives by achieving the concrete following outputs: 1. Increased cooperation and sharing of good practices via the needs analysis and Institutional Building. 2. Strengthening of Internationalisation of higher education system through the promotion of HEIs governance reforms. 3. Enhancement of managerial and administrative staff capacities in dealing with internationalisation issues.4. Establishment of a National Network. 5. Increase public awareness and understanding of Internationalisation.

Over the past 50 years, the continued miniaturization of transistors has allowed them to run faster and dissipate less energy. This meant more efficient computation and radical changes in the electronics industry. On the same time, automation and robotics have also developed all these years to an unprecedented level: faster and more flexible production lines and higher level of automation have been created.This radical change affected all the industrial and societal sectors, and it is difficult for a country to keep-up to the globalization changes, if its educational system does not keep-up with these. For specific regions of Asia however, this process have not been developed adequately. To this end, the Digi-CHE-Asia project focuses on enhancing the Digital Capacities of these countries through specific actions and cross-fertilization of ideas and methodologies with successful examples from Europe.The Digi-CHE-Asia project has 3 main pillars: a) the enhancement of undergraduate studies via suggestions to optimize curricula, b) the development of an innovative MSc programme in relation also with VET courses for professionals and c) the inclusion of public and private stakeholders, especially from the manufacturing and high-tech industry in order to give the opportunity to students and professionals to increase their capacities in Electronics, Automation and Robotics (EAR) and thus becoming invaluable assets to the modern industries.Additionally, Digi-CHE-Labs will be created in order to create a focal point of EAR in each University, where interested students, academics, professionals and industry experts will have the opportunity to exchange ideas and keep up-to-date with the new technological advancements.It is expected that the Digi-CHE-Asia project will have an important impact at academic, industrial and societal level, allowing the participating countries to become important players in the manufacturing and high-tech industry.

The SFARM project aims to create a new MSc programme in a specialized academic area and key regulatory/policy issue, namely “Sustainable Agriculture” that is as much absent from HEI graduate and postgraduate programmes in the region as it is needed. SFARM aims to address this absence and the needs of the region to have an MSc programme that will generate qualified personnel and experts that will work and reinforce the thriving regional agricultural industry and have a lasting impact in improving the environment in all partner countries. The qualifications acquired from the graduates of SFARM will be innovative and based on the sector’s manpower needs. The project is structured in such a way as to ensure that the developed curricula will be indeed innovative, tailor-made to specific needs and unprecedented for the region. Curriculum development will be carried out through the participatory method based on the needs of the participating countries. Novel environmental technologies and agricultural solutions, products of research in this area will be incorporated in the SFARM curricula. The new innovative curricula that will be developed will integrate the latest advancements of the “agri-tech” sector that can be immediately applied by agricultural workers in partner countries for sustainable agriculture.

ANGEL aims to build the capacity necessary in eleven ASEAN Universities for balancing the high potential economic growth and innovation in the partner countries with their lack of capacities in green entrepreneurship as well as resolving entrenched issues and challenges of poverty, low quality jobs in the informal sector, digital divide and leadership gaps.ANGEEL will support develop an innovative green entrepreneurial-leadership ecosystem that will foster:• Guidance: an online guide will offer practical, personalized information for building and leading a green enterprise; a targeted training programme, complemented with personal coaching will support the creation of start-ups.• Engagement: a university network will reach and mobilize both internal and external stakeholders through its ANGEL- Innovate Unit. Internal stakeholders would include faculty members, administrative staff, researchers, students and relevant external partners could be social entrepreneurs, start-ups and government agencies that relates to green entrepreneurship). The ANGEL- Innovate unit will orient learners to the process of design thinking; effective and responsible leadership, supporting grassroot green entrepreneurship and developing patent/copyright. • Exchanges and sharing: the ANGEL-Hub will be a centre for the development of early-stage startups in green technologies, energy and sustainable development; the ANGEL-Site will provide all the information for the development and visibility of startups; the ANGEL-Community will connect all relevant parties in the University and external stakeholders in exchanging experiences and ideas.• Support: the ANGEL-Enterprise team will have the mission to support and advance ANGEL in the long term through a) the development of expertise in the commercialization of Universities’ knowledge and technology, b) partnership-building with the external regional/national/international entrepreneurial ecosystem.