The DIRE-MED project sought to establish, through university cooperation, a lasting relationship of mutual trust and intercultural awareness between the countries of the Mediterranean, promoting the mobility of people, exchange and, in the long term, greater economic and cultural integration in the region region.During its lifetime, DIRE-MED has:- developed a collection of good practices in terms of international mobility management.(https://www.diremedproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/574184_D1.2_recueil-BP-1.pdf)- defined an internationalization framework and an action plan to facilitate exchanges of students, academic and non-academic staff of HEIs in the Mediterranean Bassin.(https://www.diremedproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/574184_D2.1_cadreinternationalisation.pdf)- strengthened the capacities of the staff of the International Relations Offices of HEIs in Partner Countries, in order to configure them as “Offices of international opportunities” through training seminars, training visits and workshops at the local level.(https://www.diremedproject.eu/leprojet/renforcement-des-capacites-du-personnel/)- set up 69 mobilities: 32 student mobilities and 37 staff mobilities (20 academic staff and 17 administrative staff). 8 were made in the North / South direction, 16 in the South / North direction and 45 in the South / South direction.(https://www.diremedproject.eu/mobilites/)- organized 2 intercultural dialogue events to articulate university-society cooperation through the promotion of intercultural dialogue (https://www.diremedproject.eu/le-projet/promotion-du-dialoguesocial-et-interculturel/). The first one hold in Tangiers and the second one online, due to the pandemic crisis.- defined recommendations at the national level of each of the 3 Maghreb countries and at the regional level. (https://www.diremedproject.eu/wpcontent/uploads/2021/03/574184_D2_3_recommandations.pdf)Finally, the partners have defined a sustainability plan to ensure the sustainability of theachievements of the project beyond the end of the project. (https://www.diremedproject.eu/leprojet/plan-de-soutenabilite/).

PREVENT - PRocurEments of innoVativE, advaNced systems to support security in public Transport - focuses on pre-empting attacks in public transport by enabling earlier detection of terrorists and potentially dangerous objects, tracking of detected individuals or situations and coordinating the response of security forces. This focus is shared, from the start, by 22 organisations from 10 countries, public transport operators, security forces, public buyers, city authorities of which 12 are consortium partners and 10 are members of the PREVENT User Observatory Group (UOG). PREVENT implements a progressive and iterative process to deliver 6 jointly defined Common Security Scenarios that capture threats and vulnerabilities. It also delivers a vulnerabilities and threats taxonomy directly applicable to the public transport world. For these scenarios, PREVENT undertakes a gap analysis between available solutions, existing standards, on-going research and identified needs, from which it elaborates a multi-dimensional roadmap of innovations and solutions. The roadmap is an online interactive tool that feeds the sustainability of PREVENT’s community. The highest priority innovations in the roadmap are selected by practitioners and public buyers to define a Common Challenge. This Common Challenge serves as the basis for a PCP, for which the buyers’ group is created, the lead buyer is selected, tender documents are generated. PREVENT includes a governance mechanism that ensures that the different phases are open to additional practitioners and public buyers. PREVENT includes a Security Advisory Board to manage the confidentiality of the sensitive knowledge generated by its activities, and a GDPR advisor to guide the elaboration of a Common Challenge fully compliant with Europe’s privacy and data protection regulations. PREVENT structures its governance and results (public and confidential) to foster sustainability of the collaboration beyond the end of the project.

Making the bridge from the first to the second implementation phase of the Mission Ocean and Waters (MOW), CO-WATERS will strengthen the growing momentum by developing and animating a Coalition of waterfront cities, regions, islands and third parties (e.g. universities, NGOs, investors etc) supporting these in their local journeys to reach the MOW objectives. CO-WATERS will deliver to the Coalition a wide range of networking, knowledge exchange and support services (twinning, working groups, interactive trainings, advisory support) to further empower Coalition members to think and act systemically, engage citizens and local stakeholders and enhance access to funding and financing streams that will support their MOW transition journey (WP1, WP2, WP3, WP5), as per their needs (modular approach). At the same time, in close collaboration with the EC Mission Ocean and Waters Secretariat and in line with existing labelling schemes (e.g. Cities Mission Label, Sustainable Island Label), CO-WATERS will develop the MOW Label (WP4) and will pilot the Label application process with two waves of applicants, who will receive tailored support. The services provided by CO-WATERS will be appropriately sequenced so that Coalition members receiving these can also smoothly apply for the MOW Label – without having to follow new processes / trainings / courses of action which will stretch their limited resources. In order to maximise value for Coalition members and ensure alignment and coherence, the project will strongly align and build on key actors and activities in the EU COM and the EU Missions’ space, as well as other related EU and international initiatives and projects (including investor networks).

Beyond developing knowledge, the University has an important role to play in the economic development and employability of the students they have taught, in particular PhD students that produce scientific results for the University and who can be a source of innovation and generate jobs. However, in several North African Universities, the lack of infrastructure dedicated to Innovation and Technology Transfer or, when it exists, the need to consolidate its position in the Innovation chain ecosystem, is creating a fundamental problem in the world race for Innovation and University performance. This is particularly pressing as the needs of businesses in terms of support for innovation are developing. In answer to this, the SATELIT project offers solutions locally (reinforcing skills and the exchange of good practices), nationally (the modernisation of national programmes) and on a regional scale (polarising Education and Innovation) by mobilising the driving forces.The SATELIT project will involve 22 partners from 6 countries in the Western Mediterranean (France, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria) : 12 Universities, 3 Ministries of Higher Education, 3 Chambers of Commerce and Industry, 2 Research Centres, 1 local Authority, 1 University Association.Its wider objectives are to- bring together Higher Education and the Socio-economic world in North Africa- consolidate the Triangle of Knowledge and Innovation- reinforce skills and the exchange of good practices- increase the employability of PhD students