ENHANCE is a structural project that will operate at a macro level targeting the Vietnamese HE system (R&I management and implementation). Thanks to a complementary consortium involving 6 of the most relevant VIET HEIs with geographical balance, 3 EU HEIs with huge experience in R&I and international cooperation and the participation of MOET and MOST (HE and S&T authorities). The project is in line with national priorities that give a predominant role to R&I in the mid/long term and its activities have been designed as a response to Vietnam real needs.ENHANCE will strengthen capacities by promoting effective R&I management and implementation via:•Building human capacities in R&I Management and Implementation (targeted training programme with relevant topics selected on the basis of the in-depth SWOT analysis of the national R&I system)•Strengthening institutional capacity and enhancing national networking with the creation of a Network of Research and Innovation Offices in Vietnam that will be a national level reference for R&I in service of the academic/research community & HEI management, as well as for continuous dialogue with HE and S&T authorities.Capacity Building will be multimodal with a tailor made approach for the different targets (R&I Units, academic/researchers & HE authorities). R&I Units will be in charge of their replication for generating impact and benefit at national level. Networking events will be organised to bring together HE & authorities to foster mutual dialogue and the improvement of R&I at policy level. This will be possible thanks to the drafting of the ENHANCE White paper with recommendation for VIET R&I improvement. Dissemination of the action will be multimodal and intensive for increasing exploitation and long term impact. Excellence of the main outputs will be ensured by a well defined internal Quality Monitoring & the contribution of 2 top level external QA experts who will provide recommendations on most relevantoutputs.

Trained midwives can avert maternal and newborn deaths. With the support of international organizations and national policy initiatives midwifery has become a rapidly growing field, in which HEIs can play a critical role. SafeMa project will develop a midwifery professional training course on ‘Advanced Midwifery Practice’, comprising of eight modules that can be taught as short courses, and facilitated internship. It will fully align with ICM Global Standards for Midwifery Education and focus on specific learning objectives that respond to identified skills shortages. Its methodology will promote clinical and research skills and experiential, hands-on learning.The course will be at the core of the SafeMa Hubs: model teaching, research and pedagogic resource centres in midwifery, established in each partner university. Hubs will also support midwifery at the local and regional levels, with particular emphasis to remote rural areas, partnering with hospitals and health centres, for improving youth awareness, attitudes and behaviour about reproductive health and women rights. They will themselves be strengthened by the creation of partnerships with other national and international institutions and organisations. Hubs will support a Research Cluster aiming to produce interdisciplinary research of rigour and relevance both locally and globally in a diverse range of areas relevant to midwifery. The RC is expected to act as an incubator for larger research projects and funding. SafeMa will support strong synergies with UN, WHO, ICM, FIGO, IPA and other projects that work towards the empowerment of midwifery and the cooperation with local, regional and national authorities and health services, the national associations of midwives and other key stakeholders.

In the current labour market scenario, it is crucial that all the universities, especially those from the emerging countries, will be equipped with an own permanent observatory to analyse and understand the working sectors, acquiring information about the demand and offer, taking into account the jobs’ and the sectors’ needs in a defined territory. This kind of tool would allow universities not only to provide useful information to their students, in order to guide them in the employment search, but also to adapt the training offer according to the effective needs of companies and enterprises. With this project, we intend to transfer this good practice to the universities in Vietnam, in order to help them develop an own Observatory system, to achieve the following objectives:1. To monitor the emerging economic sectors, providing a national overview and a deeper description at local level2. To understand and describe the enterprise’ structures and organisation3. To list all the professional roles within the enterprises, and to describe them in detail (tasks, activities, required competencies and skills)4. To find out, together with the entrepreneurs, the training gaps of each professional role, to collect feedback and suggestions on the best training offer for young people, who would like to develop their job career. 5. To activate a constructive dialogue between the teachers (who need to train students for the work) and enterprises (who create jobs thanks to their activities). The Observatory will carry out research on specific economic sectors, that will be published on a web platform for professionals where it will be possible to consult the professional qualifications (resulted from the Observatory's research) through predefined researches (eg by economic sector, by qualification, etc.) or by keywords.

Chronic disease is the major cause of death in the partner countries, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Russia.All the partner country governments have prioritised action in relation to chronic disease. The World Health Organisation point out that there is a need to increase the capacity of health care workers in this area and has noted that training of health care staff at primary level is inadequate to deal with diabetes. To improve healthcare outcomes and reduce the economic burden of chronic disease, enhanced training at post-graduate level is necessary. There is very little or no provision in the specific area targetted by this project in the partner countries.The specific objective of the project is to support the modernisation of the curriculum by developing new and innovative courses and methodologies in health studies related to chronic disease at masters level.The key deliverables are: •conducting a study tour of EU universities; •developing the approach and requirements for the masters programme; •developing programme curricula in line with the ECTS guidelines; •developing 12 modules and short courses; •developing a staff training and mobility programme; •running three one- week competence enhancing courses in the EU; •running 32 one-week “train the trainers” courses in partner HEIs. •launching the masters programmes with further “train the trainers” courses; •conducting 3 one-month long student mobilities.The impact of the project will be felt in the health sector by having health care workers trained in the new curricula, i.e. the use of the holistic approach to patient care and public health promotion, which acts as a model for other specialists in the sector. The final beneficiaries from the project are the patients who ultimately benefit from improved health competencies and governments who can reduce the costs of treating chronic disease.

Due to a strong hierarchy in Asian society, there is hardly any real reflection on the trainings and teaching approaches and possible improvements in university teaching and industry settings. However, the way content is trained and the pedagogical skills and used tools of trainers and teachers are at least as important as the content. Using the right pedagogical approach and tools can significantly increase the impact of teaching and training in a higher education and for any business sector. With an Industry rapidly developing, Vietnam and Thailand are in big need of better skilled teachers and trainers and for a stronger collaboration with the related academic providers of pedagogical training.Increasing the skills of any person performing teaching and training and equipping them with the right methods and tools is the aim of the INCEASE project team, introducing PARTICIPATORY approaches and REFLECTING methods such as the “vignette research” together with the right supportive digital training tools. INCREASE will:- Develop and introduce new courses on currently underrepresented innovative participative and reflective methods and tools for teachers and trainers as pre-service and in-service training and on different levels and apply those on 2 selected economic sectors (food and hospitality) - Develop and implement a participatory process to continuously identify and address needs, resources and strategies for educational organizations and companies (participatory lab approach) - Introduction of innovative digital trainings solutions- Frame all activities in a sustainable network and approach (Inspire garage) to ensure easy reproduceable and adaptability to other sectors and content to maximize the impactWith this, the INCREASE project aims to sustainably modernise and update the pedagogical and didactical training capacities of teachers and trainers in Thailand and Vietnam across Universities and Businesses to increase its value for society and Industry.