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.

HumAct responds to two mains sets of challenges and provides an integrative solution to them. The first challenge is the enhancement of capacities in the field of higher education in the partner countries of Cape Verde and Mozambique, in collaboration with the programme countries of Greece and Portugal. The second responds to the professionalization needs in the humanitarian sector in the partner countries. HumAct’s focus is on: building capacity with regard to content in the substantive aspects of humanitarian action (HA), with a particular focus on climate change and displacements; building research capacity of educators and students; enhancing the pedagogical strategies of educators; and strengthening community-university relationships. Despite Cape Verde’s and Mozambique’s vulnerabilities to climate related disasters, and the impacts of internally and externally displaced people, particularly in Mozambique, neither of the partner institutions have curricula that specifically address HA. This project will fill that gap by, inter-alia, fulfilling the goals of developing contextually relevant curricula, modernisation, internationalisation, and by developing the HEIs within the broader contexts of their societies. The methodology is premised on democratic, participatory and collaborative decision-making among all participating institutions, and on experiential, participatory and emancipatory approaches to the capacity building initiatives, teaching, research, field practice education, and community engagements. The HumAct project responds to two of the greatest threats of the 21st century – climate change and displacements, the latter induced by environmental disasters and a range of socio-political, economic and cultural factors that see the increasing phenomena of forced migration, asylum seeking and refugeeism across the world.

This project intends to give a significant contribution in high education, proposing a specific master programme to form innovative managers, researchers and local developers, but at the same time providing a strict connection with industry and society, in a framework of blended learning approach. Precisely, the main aim is to allow SMEs and other kind of companies or institutions identifying good practices and new behaviours to face innovation challenges. The master degree students shall be capable to deal with innovation in traditional sector products, but also with the most advanced technologies, such as nanotechnology, biotech and ICT most innovative tools, with particular attention to the environmental problems in order to achieve sustainable solutions. Concerning sustainability, competences related to the circular economy will be trained, particularly promoting resource productivity with the aim of reducing wastes and avoid pollution. Industrial products and systems should be designed in order to close the loop, recycling and reusing post-consumer waste to make new products. This innovative approach must be fostered, especially among manufacturing enterprises, and the expected results of the master degree will be well prepared managers and researchers, fundamental in implementing sustainable innovation.Therefore, the programme will create competences for transforming knowledge into added value for society, providing entrepreneurship training to innovative participants, supporting with innovative financing (crowd-sourcing) such new opportunities, and interacting for solving environmental problems with new tools and rationale of the circular economy. In term of future impacts, this project will create capacities in managing technology and innovation in social and productive applications while constructing bridges for overcoming the “Valley of Death”, or the “European Paradox”, in a world of uncertainty, sustainability and complexity.

By developing this project, the consortium aims to contribute for the resolution of several challenges, such as unemployment among young graduates; difficulties to attract private funds to research; the academics' needs for constant pedagogical skills update; difficulties to promote the transference of knowledge; the difficulty to attract students from social disadvantaged classes and mantain them; the need to promote entrepreneur minds to contribute to decrease economic and social crisis; the use of crowdsourcing as a tool to create a network; the difficulty of attracting users from different regions and finally, the need to improve students' career guidance.In order to achieve the purposed goals, were defined three core activities: the platform development, where different stakeholders will be connected; the platform room to promote its use; and the entrepreneurship, crowdsourcing and employability stakeholders' training to help them to improve these skills and create opportunities through the use of the platform.

Population growth, increased prosperity and rapid urbanization are bringing global demand for natural resources to a point increasingly beyond the Earth’s carrying capacity. Together with climate change, those pressures are causing significant environmental degradation in many parts of the planet. Latin America is particularly vulnerable. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) constitute urgent calls and drivers for higher education to be part of future generations of engaged citizens aware of their role in creating fair and healthy societies.The Change the Climate project addresses three main needs: environmental management at all levels of higher education activities, integration of environmental management with sustainability strategies and institutional quality management, and customized strategies for sustainability in education. The project’s main goal is to increase Latin-American University’s contribution to Sustainable Development, through the implementation of environmental systematic practices and quality processes in alignment with the UN SDGs, improving the management and operations of higher education institutions. The project will deliver tools and guides for environmental impact analysis and SDGs mapping in campus operations and educational activities. An environmental management system will be implemented in each partner university decreasing their environmental impact; sustainability awareness will be assessed thoughout the academic communities; strategies for sustainability in higher education will be developed for curricula improvement; and a common open online course on sustainability will be created in English, Spanish and Portuguese.The project’s impact will reach stakeholders beyond the project partnership at local, regional and national levels contributing to behavioural change for sustainable futures.