Climate Labs seeks to strengthen the applied research and innovation capacities of ten partner universities from Mexico, Brazil and Colombia through the design and implementation of Social Innovation Labs for mitigation and adaptation to Climate Change. In a network with Universities from Spain, France, and Italy, plus Ashoka as a non-academic expert partner, the project seeks to build interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder labs that will institutionalize the applied research and innovation for climate change in the territories the partners are inserted. In a term of three years, the project expects to train scholars, students and staff members in Latin America, who will form changemaker leader teams, design and implement labs according to the needs, strengths, challenges and characteristics of the institutions and territories they serve. In this period, each university will also implement a pilot project, get connected with international relevant networks as well as other national institutions, build the physical and virtual infrastructure of the lab, and develop strategies for the sustainability and scalability of the project. The project seeks, ultimately, to build strong and connected areas of innovation and applied research within universities impacting in the overall capacities and strategies of the partner countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

The project aims to contribute to the improvement of the employability indexes and the labor insertion of the graduates of the higher education institutions of the countries of the Pacific Alliance (Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile), through permanent monitoring and analysis. Needs and characteristics of the labor market and the construction of national guidelines and policies that contribute to the creation of a relevant training offer and the strengthening of the academic programs offered by HEIs in the participating countries.

Eradicating all forms of exclusion, discrimination and marginalisation that result from disparities and/or inequalities, as well as reducing the student drop out rate remain key challenges for the higher education (HE) sector in Latin America. Through the design and testing of educational centers for support and development (CADEP), the ACACIA project aims to foster solidarity and cooperation among HE institutional departments and staff in order to develop innovative educational resources and improved strategies to deal with the socio-emotional distress of students at risk of desertion. Thanks to better intra- and inter-institutional cooperation, the project will provide solutions to strengthen HEIs’ staff skills, modernise HEIs’ organizational structures, decrease student drop out rates and ultimately promote respect of the other’s differences. The structure of the educational centers, articulated in mutually supporting modules, has been developed by a team of researchers and administrators from 14 HEIs in 8 countries from Latin America and Europe. It represents an innovative and replicable tool for HEIs to provide students, especially the most vulnerable, with integrated support using a differential approach. Concretely, the project will set-up three pilot centers in Colombia, Peru and Nicaragua to support and monitor students at risk, carry out training sessions for staff at HEIs, explore new strategies for teaching and improve the use of ICTs in educational practices. Thanks to the project, more than 4,000 teachers and 200,000 students from 11 Latin American universities will benefit from an innovative and relevant professional profile, helping to improve academic results and reduce the drop out rate among students.

This is a project-based on cooperation between 5 European and 10 Latinamerican universities. The main objective of the Project is to integrate social innovation in academic curriculum and learning environments in Latin American Universities to promote quality improvement in academic programs through fostering competence to solve regional social problems. This implies: 1. Design and apply educational models to promote competences on social entrepreneurship and social innovation amongst university students.2. Design and offer academic strategies to develop competences on social entrepreneurship and social innovation.3. Design valuable methodological tools for academic programs to improve understanding of the community`s needs and offer inclusive, sustainable solutions for detected problems.4. Design a monitoring system to evaluate curricular development on social entrepreneurship and innovation competences.5.Design and implement institutional policies and programs for administrative, academic and support management to promote social innovation in Latin American Universities.6. Create alliances between Latin American and European Universities interested in promoting social entrepreneurship.7. Support existing social incubators in participant universities to improve links between educational tools and students learning process to foster creativity and sustainability in social projects.With these activities, the Project will achieve short and long term impact at four different targets: institutions, teachers, students, external/Social Stakeholders. Then, the Project has some specific key indicators that serve to review the progress and the impact of the actions:1.Reporting the state of art of Social Entrepreneurship in participant institutions2.Guidelines of competencies on social innovation. 3.Toolbox for teaching social innovation including methods for working with different external stakeholders (NGO’s, Companies, Communities) 4.Selection and Confirmation of pilot courses and teachers that will implement social innovation methods or activities inside their courses. 5.Teachers’ participation in the training program on how to design and implement social entrepreneurship within selected courses during the pilot period.6.Implementation and monitoring of pilot projects7.Identification and early development of institutional support actions to enhance innovation and social entrepreneurship in HEI. 8.Results and impact of pilot projects To accomplish this, there are seven important moments or milestones in the project. 1.Kick-off meeting- Mexico (Starting Point, Clarification on Tasks & Expectations)2.Valencia meeting (Progress and Difficulties of the Project)3.Teachers online training (Expectations)4.Porto Alegre’s meeting (Satisfaction and Usefulness)5.Pilot’s implementation (Progress and Difficulties)6.Talca’s meeting (Results and Impact, this meeting changed from the city of Talca to Bgotá). 7.Final Meeting (Results and Impact)By now, we have passed through all the moments mentioned above covering 8 key indicators listed before. There were changes to some of the actions conceived at the beginning. These changes were discussed with the Steering Committee, as part of our internal quality measures; and later, were discussed with our Project Officer, to grant here authorization. The changes imply an improvement in the impact and the results of the project. The previously expected impact was: the implementation of a methodology in SI and SE in 20 pilot courses, 450 students implicated, 55 trained teachers, the reinforcement of social incubators in the participant universities with an impact in the communities, and the implementation of measures for the mainstreaming of social innovation. The final impact overpassed these numbers: 70 courses, 1614 students, 56 teachers trained.