<< Background >>The COVID pandemic has restricted opportunities for physical mobility of higher education students. Consequently, institutions are exploring alternatives to international exchange by focusing on teaching excellence through Internationalization of the Curriculum (IoC). This strategy allows for the infusion of international, intercultural, and global skills into all curricular aspects of universities. It enables students within the walls of their own university to gain exposure to, and practice engaging with, the wider world. When purposeful actions are taken to internationalize teaching and learning, universities have the opportunity to equip students at home with the competencies and attitudes that allow them to contribute to global society. Recent studies at the University of Minnesota have demonstrated that professional development initiatives for academics and staff in IoC can have demonstrable outcomes for students in international classrooms. Despite the promise of IoC, many academics have not moved beyond student mobility and international exchange. A thorough needs analyses done by some partners in preparation for the project showed that while all the institutions prioritize internationalization of teaching and learning in their strategies and all aim at building capacities of academics in this regard, none of the partners with the exceptions of THUAS and UMN, provide their academics and doctoral students with a professional development scheme tailored to the needs of international educators. This project will support purposeful, institutionally-relevant steps towards internationalization of the formal and informal curricula and seeks to support academics and staff in taking ownership of internationalization within their institutions. We intend to disrupt the belief that international education is 'someone else’s responsibility,' and that international experience is something that only happens to students who study abroad. The project primarily targets academics, doctoral students, and university leadership inside and outside the partnership. We strive to empower academics and staff to follow their own trajectory to becoming International Educators, developing their teaching but also the collaborative, intercultural and leadership competences that are required if they are to support the development of the same competencies in students at their home institutions. Other targets are national agencies for internationalization in education, policy makers in relevant ministries, local authorities and institutions, and professional organizations. Associations for quality assurance in higher education will also be invited to participate.<< Objectives >>The project aims to enhance excellence of teaching and learning at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) by supporting and training academics to upskill and innovate their pedagogies to address the needs of students, to create inclusive international classrooms, and to embrace a new complex role as International Educators who are prepared to equip all students with global competences and harness the diversity in their classroom. The project will achieve this by introducing, piloting and disseminating a novel format of professional development: Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). Our broader goal is to transform internationalization, away from its current understanding as a bonus for the mobile elite, towards prioritizing the rights of students to gain global perspectives and skills as an inherent part of their higher education. When this goal is achieved, international classrooms of teaching and learning will become an indicator of quality in higher education and diversity and inclusion part of the shared institutional narrative.<< Implementation >>We will do this by:- introducing and piloting an innovative format of professional development, Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), that use transdisciplinary groups of diverse stakeholders (academics, non-academics, and students) in a collaborative and intercultural approach that allows for continuous professional development of international teaching skills. - providing the PLCs with action research methodology and instruments that interconnect education, research and innovation, so that academics can work collaboratively on their educational interventions, in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research, and reflect on their trajectory to innovation. - documenting the experiences and learnings of the participants in the pilot PLCs and disseminating these through webinars, publications, extensive partner networks, multiplier events and other activities so that other HEIs may use the PLC - involving university decision makers in the project to create sustainable ways of capacity building of HEIs in internationalization of curriculum and developing and implementing strategies that reward and incentivize excellence in teaching through IoC.The project team’s learning community is the backbone of the project. It comprises representatives from seven universities: The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) in the Netherlands; University of Minnesota (UMN) in the USA; Palacký University (UP), University Hradec Kralove,(UHK) and Ostrava University (OU) in the Czech Republic; Jaen University (UJA) in Spain; and Örebro University (ORU) in Sweden. The project team will integrate transdisciplinary educational and research perspectives and develop and coordinate all the project activities and results. It will take advantage of the diversity of its team members, which includes researchers, teacher trainers, evaluators, curriculum design experts, university decision makers as well as a transatlantic perspective. The inclusion of UMN widens the scope of European strategic partnerships with a world leading institution in IoC. UMN brings unique expertise in the University’s program of internationalization of teaching and learning which has its origin in 'pre-Erasmus times' when the concept of internationalization of curriculum was coined by Czech émigré, Josef A Mestenhauser, Internationally Distinguished Prof. Emeritus at UMN. We are particularly honored by the European Association of International Educators as an Associated Partner to the project and their role will be to provide input and expert guidance to enhance the quality of the project, and together with UMN will considerably enhance the impacts across EHEA and beyond.Two teaching and learning activities will be held. The first will prepare the ground for establishing and piloting the PLCs (TLA1: 'How to design and use PLCs' ). The second is aimed at ensuring the sustainability of the project and will involve university decision makers in a Leadership Forum (TLA2: ‘Creating Institutional Narratives’). This will provide an opportunity for decision makers to become familiar with the learnings of the project and explore how the innovation can be incorporated into institutional strategies and institutional cultures.<< Results >>The core project result (PR2) focuses on piloting the innovative PLC model developed by the THUAS as a professional development format for internationalization of teaching and learning. A minimum of three PLC pilots will take place, in tandem and triplet collaboration between partner universities, in inter-institutional and transnational settings, using an action research approach. The pilots will focus on specific issues for improving the competences of academics as international educators drawn from a defined 'Portfolio of Roles of International Educators' (see ANNEX). An Action Research Tool Kit (PR1) will be collated and adapted for use in the pilots. It will comprise various action research instruments previously developed and used by individual partners to unpack internationalization of teaching and learning and capacity building. The insights, impact and methodology of the pilots will be captured in two didactical products: a Case Study Patchwork (PR3) which will document the learnings from the pilots; and a GUIDE to PLCs (PR4) as an Interactive Road Map which will provide advice on using PLCs for internationalization of teaching and learning. The guide will particularly focus on how the PLC methodology can be adapted for different institutional cultures. Some guides will be translated to local languages. The final project result 'Recommendations for Building Institutional Cultures for Diversity-Excellence-Inclusion' (PR5) is an outcome of the second teaching and learning activity involving institutional leadership. Whereas PLCs facilitate a bottom-up change, involving HEIs decision makers is a top down approach and is the key to supporting the development of the desired institutional cultures of rewarding excellence, inclusion and diversity. The principles of widening participation and inclusion pursued throughout the project are seen as crucial factors in the conceptual design of the project, ensuring the sustainability of the project activities and their impact. All project partners have committed to run follow-up PLCs at their institutions after the project’s completion, in the local languages and tailored to the culture-specific needs of the respective partners. Furthermore, we have carefully chosen Ass. Partners (EAIE, Učitel naživo, Teiresias, Asociación Enseñanza Bilingüe) whose specific expertise will add up to the quality of project results, help us make our results more accessible and considerably widen the international scope of the project's impacts.