Through INOVIA’s project, the mains actors of the higher and vocational education system in Brazil, Costa Rica and Bolivia, will develop adaptative capacities in the field of agrofood processing, in a context of technological, economic and social changes of the sector. The aim will consist with professionalizing the training system and promoting its integration in the productive sector, to enhance employability and integration of graduates and actively participate to the local economic development, in a shared knowledge and innovation approach among stakeholders.INOVIA aims to establish:-The Capacity of higher education institutions to operationally implement new innovative training programs with a skills oriented approach, with the cration of three modules, with one in e-learning- The foundation for the development of an appropriate and contextualized professionalization system, facilitating the introduction of experience, practice field and promoting interaction with the professionals.- Strengthening of exchange gateways and cooperation with the professional sector, through the establishment of an appropriate and scalable service offering (expertise, development, technology transfer, lifelong training) and the development of collaborative projects in a logic of public / private partnerships.- Strengthening of cooperation between partners at regional and international level.The consortium gathers major players in the partner countries and relevant international institutions in agricultural and food sectors, with a common objective to contribute to the sustainable development of products from the agricultural and food sectors in Latin America.

The main objective of the PONCHO project is to encourage the process of internationalization of Latin American Universities partners in the project, with special focus on the Universities of peripheral areas of the region, whose geographical position or the volume of students have been unable to develop their internationalization in the same way as capital universities or major universities in the region. The PONCHO consortium is then composed mainly with universities having no experience in project of capacity building (former Alfa) and only 4 Latin American institutions have experience: Asuncion, Goias, San Simon and Nacional del Sur. Hence the exchange of good practices from the more experienced partners to the not so experienced partners is highly valued in order to increase, not only EU-Third country cooperation, but also Third country-Third country cooperation.To develop its objectives, PONCHO will work at three levels: at technical level: through the training of the IROs staff; at academic and students level: through the organization of Info days and Students Camp where academics and students will receive training and awareness session to approach them to internationalization, intercultural and integration using non-formal training tools; and finally at institutional level: through an online platform and the organisation of International Fair where the institution will be able to develop on one side their support process for a good internationalization and on the other side, through international marketing and network, to increase their international presence. The focus of active participation and collaborative decision making of the project will be implemented in the preparation, management, dissemination and optimization and quality control and through the PONCHO platform the consortium will not only be able to work together but also to develop new collaborations with other universities of the region.