Both Russian Federation and Kazakhstan are the countries which, on one hand, boast huge territory (1st and 9th largest countries in the world, accordingly), and, on the other hand, had experienced relatively small household waste during Soviet times (due to much smaller household consumption). As a result, the main way to handle waste in both countries was (and remains) the landfills; yet the situation had drastically changed during the past decade, and now the waste per person in these countries is close to the EU level. This lead to the lack of knowledge and competence in waste management, resulting in efficient practices in the field. It influences lower impact that EU initiatives on waste management and circular economy have on the environment.Though Russia and Kazakhstan have a very different score on Environmental Performance Index (52nd place and 101st place, accordingly), in terms of waste management, measured by environmental vitality, they have very similar scores: Russia scores 55.99 points and Kazakhstan – 53.35 points. This indicates systemic problems in creation of waste management infrastructure, including lack of specialists who can deal with the increasing and overwhelming amount of waste using holistic approachThe project aims to develop Waste management master programme that would be implemented in 6 Russian and Kazahkstan universities. The programme is based on learning-by-doing pedagogical techniques, and will be taught in Russian, Kazakh and English.The envisaged impact includes 50-70 master students annually enrolled in Waste management programme, not less, than 30 faculty members for Russian and Kazakhstan universities who had undergone train by trainer sessions by EU partners and internships in EU companies. Not less than 30 students participated in the EU internships.

The proposed project is aiming to enhance interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity in ICT education at the higher educational institutions in Russia and Kazakhstan. Both involved partner countries have inherited their higher education systems from Soviet Union, where the key feature was fundamental education and deep focus on technical skills, but which rarely involved sufficient interdisciplinary training or development of soft skills. As currently both interdisciplinarity and entrepreneurial soft skills become an important factor for labour market, and thus partner country universities require guidance in its development. While contemporary ICT-tools and pedagogical approaches are being widely implemented for hard skills development, in the sector of soft skills partner country universities are falling behind their EU counterparts.The project is achieving the proposed goal by developing and implementing IT-entrepreneurial module in the curricula of IT-majors on bachelor, master and PhD levels. The developed module includes ICT competence hard skills module, entrepreneurial soft skills module and acceleration block that are included in student curricula. The project also aims to develop assessment algorithm for measuring of entrepreneurial soft skills.

According to the findings of EU research project “East West Transport Corridor-2”, the European transport sector (esp. Eastern Europe, the Baltic Sea Region) depends also on Logistics competence level in KZ and RU. In spite of “Customs Union” btw. RU and KZ (created in 2010) and highly prioritized national strategies in KZ and RU for Logistics Management, the current competence level and educational realities there do not meet the real demand of the EU partners (cf. EWTC-2). There is a disastrous unbalanced approach in RU, KZ; huge investments nowadays in hard-infrastructure (roads, railways, terminals) vs. very low educational level in Logistics. It is not the lack of financial resources or political will in KZ or RU, but the lack of specialists, deficits Logistics competences that prevent partner countries from efficient implementation of their strategic transport policies; it keeps also the EU companies from sustainable growth in this sector. In response to identified challenges and to the great improvement demand of Logistics competences in KZ and RU, the project aims at implementation of MSc Programme “Green Logistics Management” to be implemented in partner Universities by Sept 2017.LogOn-U sets ambitious goal to advance Trans-Eurasian accessibility through strengthening Logistics competitiveness, and brining Partner Universities in KZ and RU on international level according to Bologna process in fields of sustainable, i.e. “Green” Logistics Management. The international component will be strengthened via promoting inter-regional cooperation, since modern transport challenges are mostly of global nature, thus a common and consolidated approach is needed. Through complex measures and project activities the academic content at relevant faculties in Partner Universities in Logistics Management will be brought to the EU standards and Bologna process. Durability, transferability of the project results will be secured through efficient and targeted dissemination.