IncluSTEM’s context has emerged throughout the so-called “refugee crisis” in 2015 with many migrants coming to Europe striving for a future. Higher education institutions across Europe have been and still are overwhelmed by the many migrants with previous higher education or the determination to make a career in Europe and - in spite of the Lisbon Recognition Convention (LRC) which encourages a flexible approach to the recognition of qualifications held by refugees, displaced persons and persons in a refugee-like situation across Europe - ignored the necessity to adapt to this new (prospective) student group. This eventuates in the over-qualification of many migrants since they are forced to find employment irrespective of their previous education or qualification. The successful inclusion into European society and the labour market is, hence, hindered and the migrants potential left untapped. At the same time, the European labour market is facing a major change: the Digital Era which confronts a big share of the working population with the need to acquire new (digital) skills. Many companies across Europe have been looking desperately for professionals in the STEM and IT sector to be able to cope with the challenges ahead. The core partners of IncluSTEM therefore join forces to create a “Hub of Expertise” to tackle both of these challenges together. By collaborating on these issues, KTH Stockholm, TU Berlin and UP Madrid managed to create an all-encompassing “A Handbook of Best Practices for Inclusive Higher Education”. Every partner brings different strengths and areas of expertise into this Strategic Partnership in order to follow their objectives of:Developing a model to build inclusive higher education institutions for students with a migration backgroundRaising awareness for both the students with a migration background’s needs as well as the needs and challenges of the university staff working with them on an institutional-level as well as on a European Higher Education Area-levelDeveloping innovative and flexible teaching and learning methods tailored to the target group’s needsStrengthening a European identity of every actor involvedThe three project partners, however, know that their motivation and expertise is not enough to create sustainable and effective change for students with a migration background. Without the cooperation and consent of policy-makers, public institutions like employment offices or NGOs and the civil society, inclusion and most-importantly the recognition and validation of these students’ skills is not feasible. Therefore, IncluSTEM aims at: Implementing a Quadruple Helix Model to include agents from all levels and backgrounds in order to create and implement a realistic and functional action planThe participants of IncluSTEM are people with a migration background who are interested in studying within the field of STEM, preferably with previous experience in this field. Furthermore, teaching and administrative staff in the institutions will be able to follow training sessions that will prepare them for the special demands and challenges that working with this target group entails. The number of participants therefore depends on the demand and resources available at each of the partners institutions. However, as many of the intellectual outputs will be made available via an online-learning platform, the number of participants can be big for most of the deliverables.The activities carried out by IncluSTEM reach from:- Developing an “Onboarding Handbook” which provides a number of best practices for advising students with a migration background in preparation for taking up a study programme as well as throughout their entire study cycle;- Implementing STEM study-specific language courses in English, German, Spanish and Swedish online and offline which is particularly important as the field of STEM tends to become more and more international and therefore demands more than one working language;- Create structure, content and teaching methods for “Training for employability” which will boost the students’ chances of finding employment after finishing their studies; - Developing an action plan to set up job-matching schemes across all partner universities to help all participants of IncluSTEM to access the relevant job market- Receiving constant feedback and self-assessment of both students and staff to improve and consolidate course contents, teaching methods and measures for inclusionAll the outputs created throughout this Strategic Partnership will be developed in close cooperation and ongoing exchange with partners from different institutional backgrounds of the Quadruple Helix Model to ensure a solid and sustainable delivery of IncluSTEM’s project goals.The desirable results and long-term impact of IncluSTEM are the restructuring and optimisation of recognition procedures of students with a migration background.