Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro are Partner Countries in the Western Balkans (WBs) region with a young population, dynamic economy and serious need for growth, development and green transition. Recent studies show that Internet of things (IoT) can help developing countries grow and achieve sustainable economics and green transformation. Six WB HEIs want through this proposal to build the necessary capacity and invest in knowledge and practical application in the field of IoT and green transformation. Trainings and knowledge exchange with the 3 EU HEIs from Bulgaria, Greece and Austria will be a founding step towards a green future in WB HEIs and region. Three associate partners – an innovation fund, a port and an ICT company are here to model the academic society and business oriented innovative ecosystem. IoT-ECO will support WB HEIs to:1. Assist academic staff improving their knowledge and expertise in the field of green ecosystem - energy efficiency, air pollution, Industrial IoT.2. Introduce IoT to society and raise awareness of its potential for green transformation.3. Establish IoT-ECO hub in the WB HEIs network to facilitate creative projects, design, and technology transfer with a focus on resilient solutions.4. Develop a virtual prototype of Green transformation ecosystem model of the Port of Durres and make it available at the IoT-ECO hub.5. Integrate and harmonize study programs with the needs of the industry in relation to IoT and green transformation. Develop new and updated courses and integrate them in the syllabi for providing the skills and competences that future engineers need.Teachers and staff involved in the consortium are 39 and the main target beneficiary with mobilities courses and trainings are the students in the WB HEIs. Larger impact on society will be obtained through networking and dissemination activities with focus to younger students, people with disabilities, business representatives and governmental institutions.

In recent years there is mounting evidence that type 2 diabetes (T2D) is associated with cognitive impairment and dementia, which can be considered as a “new” long-term diabetic co-morbid complication with dramatic consequences for patients and their families and a significant impact for healthcare systems. At present there are no reported phenotypic indicators or reliable tests to identify T2D patients at risk of developing dementia. Since the retina is ontogenically a brain-derived tissue, we propose that the evaluation of retinal parameters related to either neurodegeneration or microvascular disease will be robust and valuable biomarkers to identify those T2D patients at higher risk of developing cognitive impairment and dementia. On this basis the overarching aims of the project are: 1) To investigate the common mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of DR and cognitive impairment in the T2D. 2) To use the retina as a tool to identifying individuals with T2D at a higher risk of developing cognitive decline or dementia. Our multidisciplinary consortium (RECOGNISED) consist of top research leaders in the field belonging to 15 prestigious institutions as well as EATRIS, IDF-Europe and Alzheimer Europe and 3 SMEs. RECOGNISED will apply innovative approaches to identify the molecular mechanisms involved in the high prevalence of cognitive impairment and dementia in T2D population and will use this knowledge to characterize clinical phenotypes (personalized medicine) based on retinal functional and structural characteristics and serum biomarkers in order to stratify the risk and severity of cognitive decline. Previously collected data from registries, cohorts and biobanks will be appropriately exploited and robust new data will be generated that will guide clinical recommendations and open up new therapeutic strategies. Ultimately, RECOGNISED project will help to reduce the huge societal and economic burden associated with diabetes-related cognitive impairment.

The GN4 Phase 3 Network (GN4-3N) proposal for part b of the third Specific Grant Agreement (SGA3(b) is made in response to the H2020-SGA-INFRA-GEANT-2018 (Topic [b] Research and Education Networking) call, received 17 October 2018, under the 68-month Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) established between the GÉANT Consortium and the European Commission in April 2015. It is proposed to last 48 months to implement, as the call requests, a very ambitious restructuring of the backbone network operated by GÉANT in order to provide equal access to clouds and other e-infrastructure services in the European research area and beyond. It will improve the overall resilience and reliability of the GÉANT network significantly and offer a base for future improvements in access, transmission speeds and capacity wherever needed. The outcome of GN4-3N project will offer uniform network access and choice of services to many more partners, eliminating the "digital divide" wherever technically and economically feasible. This project proposal is based on technical and economic studies carried out during 2017-2018 in the GN4-2 project which have given the Consortium clarity on the resourcing, financial and effort, needed to realise the huge ambition of this undertaking. It exclusively covers the engineering, procurement, acquisition and installation of the new backbone network. The day-to-day network operations as the elements of it is commissioned is the responsibility of the teams described in accompanying the GN4-3 project. The GN4-3 and GN4-3N proposals are intimately connected through common teams and the technical, management and procurement expertise built-up over previous GN projects. This is what makes this ambitious proposal realistic. GN4-3N and GN4-3 have simply had to be proposed as distinct projects, due to the different funding model (with no depreciation) to be used in GN4-3N project.

The conclusions of the follow-up evaluation of MNE HEIs, conducted by EUA Institutional Evaluation Program in 2018, highlighted significant shortcomings in the field of internationalization. In order to overcome these shortcomings, IESP project aims to enhance international competitiveness and visibility of MNE HEIs, by providing the best model for strengthening capacities for various aspects of internationalization. The project’s activities will result in: developed guidelines for enhancing internationalization; installed IT equipment with software for administration of mobility at IR offices and Language support centres; redesigned English web sites; capacity building of teaching/researchers staff in internationalization strategic planning, internationalization of research and innovation, and improved teaching skills for delivering courses in English; capacity building of administrative staff related to internationalization and improving English skills; developed internationalization strategies with action plans; developed supporting documentation for internationalization; designed catalogues for courses in English; developed summer schools in English; developed teaching materials in English; developed criteria for assessing quality of internationalization; established bodies for monitoring and evaluation of internationalization; established and equipped Language centres for support of internationalization. The project will have positive impact on the international competitiveness and visibility of the MNE HEIs as a result of the developed capacities and implementation of targeted internationalization measures. HEIs will improve their management, decision and policy making, and better respond to the needs and requirements of the society, and will be brought closer to EHEA/ERA through increased international visibility and networking with EU HEIs.