SUSNANO's overall aim is to boost the scientific excellence and innovation capacity in sustainable nanosensors for water pollution detection of Universiteti i Tiranes (UT) and its high-quality Twinning partners: Fundació Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia, Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci and Intelligentsia Consultants Sàrl. To achieve this aim, SUSNANO will implement a research and innovation strategy over 3 years based upon 5 objectives implemented via 5 corresponding WPs: Objective 1: Conduct exploratory research on sustainable nanosensors to detect water pollution in Albania The goal is to develop innovative sustainable nanosensors to detect heavy metals, pesticides and antiobiotics. The validated sensors will be used in field tests to provide an environmental assessment of rivers and lakes in Albania. Objective 2: Transfer knowledge between experienced researchers (ERs) of UT and the Twinning partners The goal is to organise short term staff exchanges, trainings and seminars for UT’s ER’s and the Twinning partners’ ERs to complement the preparatory research undertaken in Objective 1. Objective 3: Enhance career prospects of early-stage researchers (ESRs) of UT and the Twinning partners The goal is to enhance the career prospects of UT’s ESRs and the Twinning partners’ ESRs by organising short- and medium-term exchanges, training workshops/seminars, summer schools & joint PhD programme. Objective 4: Improve UT’s management and administrative capacity for European R&D programmes The goal is to improve the skills of UT’s Directorate of Scientific Research, Projects and Foreign Relations in proposal preparation, project management and innovation management for European R&D funding programmes. Objective 5: Raise the research profile of UT and the Twinning partners The goal is to raise the research profile and scientific reputation of UT and the Twinning partners through a comprehensive range of dissemination, exploitation, communication & outreach activities.

<< Background >>The Balkan region, including North Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia, Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, is endangered from high and various pollution, and due to the human neglect, a large number of animal and plant species were destroyed. Citizens of the region concerned about their worsening health condition, took to the streets to demand that authorities find long-term solutions. There is insufficient understanding of the problems and roles in responding to environmental challenges by both citizens and other stakeholders. In this regard, environmental communication is a practical and essential tool for action, which enables understanding of complex environmental issues and nature, and strengthens the role of individuals and organizations in environmental governance. However, environmental communication is not included in existing educational programmes in the Western Balkans and Croatia in a way that combines environmentalism, research, journalism, communication, advocacy and awareness promotion.<< Objectives >>ICS and its partners propose a project that will introduce an innovative and interdisciplinary approach to education through a six-months non-degree Online Programme in Environmental Communication.Objectives of the project:• Develop environmental communication professionals who can promote environment- and climate-conscious choices by individuals and social groups. • Create a new flexible and transdisciplinary model in a virtual setting that enables lifelong learning and validation of microcredentials in environment and communication education in the region.<< Implementation >>The project will include Training of Trainers and curriculum development on environmental communication, creation of ten online educational tutorials and learning game, development of a Learning Management System and a Mobile App for online collaborative learning of students from five countries, online courses and a hackathon for environmental problem-solving, production of a Guide for Excellence in Environmental Communication, and multiplier events. Students will be able to obtain a certificate and ECTS credits.<< Results >>• Strengthened abilities of 100 students and 20 educators in environmental communication and community engagement for environmental-friendly policies and change among people.• At least 15 student campaign plans for solving environmental problems in the region developed by the end of the program.• A Guide for Excellence in Environmental Communication published in six languages and promoted in the five project countries, and more widely through European and international networks of partner HEIs and EPALE.• Civic and social responsibility of students and lecturers reinforced, reflected as changes of their own attitudes and/or behaviour, or encouraging others to do so.The project will introduce innovations in the educational programming of the partner HEIs, through environmental communication as a new discipline and use of technology for education on environmental sustainability. It will also increase the understanding of environmental communication and its relevance in different sectors and aspects of society.Additionally, the project will open a new field of research and employment opportunities for educators and students in the region given the necessity of environmental communication in the society. Equally important is the possibility for region-based solutions to feed into European efforts in addressing environmental disruption through joint work of relevant and highly reputable HEIs in the Western Balkans and Croatia.In the long term, the programme has the potential to develop into a Regional Centre for Environmental Communications that will serve as a hub for training and research, organizing conferences and other public events, production of online resources and implementation of campaigns.

The T@sk Project aims to reinforce the delivery of Social Services in Albania by empowering Albanian Higher Education Institutions in the field of Social Work. T@sk pursues its main aim through extensive investment in the professionalization, internationalization and digitization of teaching and learning activities of Albanian HEIs for Social Work, and by promoting a stable, proactive and innovative relationship with key actors in Social Services delivery: professional Social Workers, public agencies for Social Services planning and supply, national and international NGOs. Albania suffers from deep unequal distribution of Social Services, predominantly concentrated in urban areas and poorly diversified in terms of citizens’ needs. The intensification of the process of European integration coincided with EU institutions’ requests to invest in the centrality of human rights and the implementation of policies aiming to integrate minorities, and granting social rights to unprivileged citizens. In this scenario, professional Social Workers play an essential role. Social Work is currently a regulated profession in Albania. It has changed profoundly over the last decade, as a consequence of new laws and regulations that have transformed the previous system of cash benefits management into a system that should be based on case management at different levels of society: individuals and families, groups and communities, centralized and decentralized institutions. The qualification requirements expected of Albanian Social Workers hinge upon recent and insufficient investment in HEIs in Social Work. The delivery of Social Services suffers from a widespread lack of professionalism. Social Work graduates continue to account for only a minority of employees in the Social Services. This is as a result of the fragile positioning of the Social Work profession in the Albanian labour market.Within this complex framework, the T@sk project operates according to a strategy developed at three main levels, coinciding with the project’s specific aims: 1)Improve the competences and skills of Academic staff (direct targets) and of students (indirect targets) at the Universities of Tirana, Shkoder and Elbasan that offer a BA and/or MA in Social Work;2)Develop the triangulation of knowledge, professional practice and political investment between HEIs and stakeholders that – at different levels – are responsible for the delivery of Social Services in Albania;3)Promote and circulate international Best Practices that can be tailored to specific social needs in Albania, paying particular attention to vulnerable groups of underprivileged women and children at risk of social marginality. By pursuing these specific aims, the T@sk Project’s ambition is to achieve assessable outcomes at the level of HEIs and Albanian society in terms of: a)Internationalization, increased level of technological innovation, planning the curricular capacity and management competence of key actors in HEIs: teachers, students, administrative staff and senior officials through participation in training sessions and peer-to peer exchanges; b)Professionalization of the relationships between HEIs, professional Social Workers and policymakers in the social policy arena through joint participation in the training and dissemination activities of the project;c)Promotion of social cohesion, equality of access to Social Services, capacity to design tailored services for citizens with different levels of need. By achieving the specific aims and expected outcomes listed above, the T@sk project will contribute to modernizing the functioning of HEIs in the field of Social Work and create a solid background for strengthening the Albanian Welfare State.

Information Technology (IT) is a key aspect for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). IT is present in almost all HEIs activities and, as a result of this importance, is a strategic asset that needs to be managed in an effective and efficient way. Moreover, IT will transform the way education is delivered, managed, and accessed by students. On the other hand, IT Governance is one of the concerns for organizations all over the world. IT Governance is the organizational capacity to control the formulation and implementation of IT strategy and in this way ensure the fusion of business and IT. Apart from generic IT Governance models and standards (COBIT, Calder-Moir, ISO/IEC 38500, …), literature reported several efforts on IT Governance for HEIs, being University-oriented IT Governance Frameworks in Spain, one of the most important, cited, and recent ones and the pioneering work from Juiz. This project gathered a set of researchers from four European universities with a wide experience in developing and deploying IT Governance (including ITG4U and dFogit) framework models from three different countries (Spain, Germany, and Norway) to develop, adapt and test a new IT governance framework to be implemented in several Universities in Albania. The project was developed in three main blocks: first, the training and capacitation of stakeholders, second, the assessment and development issues, and third the deployment. Results of this project include a better governance model for IT in Albanian HEIs as well as an overall modernization of the governance processes for HEIs and a contribution of the cooperation between EU and Albania.