"With the capacity building project ""DigiUGov"", the project partners aim to make a significant contribution to an inclusive digital transformation at universities in Colombia, Mexico and Europe. By supporting (early stage) researchers, digital teaching and research will be strengthened locally, internationally connected and finally consolidated through the establishment of corresponding structures and governance mechanisms at the participating institutions. With the same objective, the digitalizationof the university administration will be promoted through international exchange and adequate consultation formats. Science managers and representatives of the various status groups at the participating universities are being recognised as key players and their competences are being strengthened. The systematic engagement of civil society actors and relevant companies in the exchange formats and in the implementation projects ensures that the project goals set are accurately and that they can be adapted to the needs of the situation during the project. The capacity-building goal of the project is to enable the establishment of sustainable structures at the partner institutions by involving and activating these groups and through pilot projects."

Climate change (CC) has become a structural phenomenon which will imply severe and irreversible impacts. In this context, tourism has received increased attention as a high-energy and often environmentally destructive sector, significantly contributing to the pollutants that are causing CC. This is particularly true in many LA countries, where tourism is of undisputed importance for employment generation. It is clear that this sector must adapt, as must the research, teaching and training associated with it. HEIs have a role to play in innovating curricula related to tourism, so that it addresses CC needs and proposes dynamic solutions that graduates can bring to market. HEIs also have a role to play in continuous professional development, as most tourism professionals need upskilling to best address the changes in the sector caused by CC. CLIMAR aims to link inter-disciplinary research, innovation & knowledge transfer to HE curricular development and continuous professional training, so as to prepare the tourist sector to best face climate change and to mitigate its impacts. It targets specifically HEI in Colombia, Panama, Argentina and Mexico and has the following specific objectives:i) Support the creation of transnational and multidisciplinary research groups specialized in CC, Circular Economy & Tourism (CC&T), among HEIs from EU and LA and reinforce their capacities to increase regional knowledge on CC&Tii) Promote research-based collaborative teaching in CC&T, via the development of a transversal study module that can be inserted in different courses at the postgraduate leveliii) Enhance university-NGO-industry-public administration knowledge transfer so as to contribute to sustainable development and new employment opportunities, via a professional development course in CC&Tiv) Ensure sustainable academic relations and strategic partnerships among HEIs from EU and LA, based-upon multi-disciplinary approach

In the last decade internationalisation has become a primary component in the strategy of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to meet their goals and institutional missions. These changes have been reshaping gradually the processes and models traditionally followed by universities to interact and cooperate internationally. In the case of Latin American (LA), despite some progress, many obstacles to a more coherent and cohesive international interventions are identified. One of the key problems, widely found among their institutions, is related to the lack of professionalism of their International Relation Offices (IROs). Despite the heterogeneity among LA HEIs, a common picture in many universities is still the following: poor implementation of internationalisation strategies, lack of autonomy in decision-making processes, poor prioritisation of the staffs in charge of internationalisation within the governing bodies or lack of project management culture to conduct international actions. As a consequence, internationalisation in the region remains spontaneous, reactive, widely implemented in individual bases and without a comprehensive and integrated vision of all the key activities of their mission.Taking this into account, the project aims to contribute to improving the management culture on internationalisation of HEIs in LA through the following results:I) Development a comprehensive training program aimed at professionals of the IROs of LA HEIs.II) Development benchmarking and comparative studies to identify the main characteristics of the internationalisation processes in LA in order to formulate adequate and tailor-made policies and actions.III) Development of a Guide on Internationalisation Management for HEIs that can serve as a model for the creation and improvement of IROs in LA HEIs.IV) Enabling a specialised service to assist HEI in the implementation of their policies/strategies of internationalisation and international cooperation.

A global discussion is taking place among Higher Education (HE) stakeholders to strive for HE that does better justice to the needs of the learner and of society. The relevance of study programs is probably the most pressing issue in HE today worldwide, including the countries in South America. In the public eye HE institutions should offer high quality programs that contribute significantly to the welfare of society by preparing graduates well for work and for civic and social engagement. To meet this need, a paradigm shift is required from traditional expert-oriented teaching to student-centred and active learning, based on competences and learning outcomes. Although there is full awareness that this shift is to be made, HE institutions and their academic staff in SA (and beyond) lack capacity, expertise and experience to make this happen. Building on work already done in Europe and in LA, ACE aims to develop effective mechanisms to give student-centred education a serious boost by acting as a catalyzer in 6 South-American countries, involving 13 key universities. ACE covers in each country 1-4 core academic fields, Nursing, Environmental Engineering, Education and History, representing as many HE sectors. At the heart of the project are 20 local working groups (WGs) consisting of 5 academics and of 5 student representatives each. The broad involvement of (local) staff and students is a unique feature. The WGs are all represented in transnational Subject Area Groups. Its members will be empowered to train their local WGs to reform their own programs. For this purpose, subject area qualifications frameworks will be made, based on (updated) meta-profiles developed in earlier LA projects. These will be complemented with in-depth training at 7 transnational meetings. As a result, ACE will result in 20 well informed learning communities that have reformed their programs and be equipped to assist other programs to make the reforms so urgently needed.

MIMIr- ANDINO is primarly designed to aid, assist and soccour partner universities in Latin America to understand the status quo of their innovation and research management systems, performance, efficacy, and practices and devise pathways to overcome impediments, hindrances, fiascos and pitfalls that prevent them from achieving recognised stature in the international landscape. The core tread to accomplish this goal is to measure existing innovation and research activities, to gauge regulatory framework management, administration and tools, and to scope opportunities for overcoming bureaucratic obstacles, stimulating conditions and elevate mindsets. Coupled to provision of comparative analysis to European processes, practices and state-of-the-art, the consortium will identify areas for change, targets for improvement, and a trajectory to excel. Accordingly, partner universities will be informed on the organisation of management of innovation and research in European universities, understand present model, principles, and standards, and embrace and partake the opportunity for support, guidance and corroboration from European partners.