CORRIENTE XXI aims to support the needs of both Peru and Ecuador towards the sustainable management of aquatic (both marine and freshwater) ecosystems and resources, both nationally and in a trans-boundary context. Aquatic ecosystems harbour unique biodiversity and provide key ecosystem services to people. The core idea of CORRIENTE XXI is that investment in all aspects of the HE curriculum, its research-basis, its improved international embedding, its emphasis on new teaching approaches are the primary trigger for eventual preparedness of the policy-communities , in both countries as well as jointly, to (aquatic) environmental challenges related to the 21st century. CORRIENTE XXI addresses pressing environmental issues by providing 1) research-based academic training ; 2) a framework for transboundary HEI cooperation towards science-based solutions to shared challenges, as a policy-support; 3) an uplift and academisation of teaching personnel and improved student in/through/outflow quality.CORRIENTE XXI will result in two new Master programmes in Ecuador and three updated Master programmes in both countries. Activities (workshops, staff trainings, job-shadowing activities, an integrative conference, an innovative job fair, a Summer School) will train Peruvian and Ecuadorian staff with innovative and integrative skills, providing outputs like training modules for fieldwork practices and curriculum development, innovative pedagogical skills, transferrable and dissemination skills, training tool-kits, e-learning platform and a portfolio of competences. CORRIENTE XXI will lift the quality level of the involved master programmes, increase employability and raise awareness on the importance of aquatic sciences and management; translating to more effective guidelines for policy and management both nationally and in transboundary regions and increasing (inter)national scientific collaboration.

The project will develop and establish a new standard of higher educational and scientific knowledge exchange between European and Latin American countries. This will be done leveraging existing Master’s courses/programs of Water Management at the various partner universities. Water is regional priority around the world but synthesis of water resource management aspects from local-to-global scales is not currently included higher education curriculum. This leaves local populations vulnerable to future shifts in climate at global scales and changes in land usage at regional scales. We will change this by boosting the curriculum development in the field of water resource conservation and management from the perspective of climate change adaption and impact mitigation. In detail, we want to 1) improve knowledge, skills and competences of the next generation of leaders in the field of water resource conservation and management thereby contributing to long-term growth, prosperity and social inclusion, 2) incorporate up to date scientific and technological knowledge into the curriculum development to enhance capacities to tackle future water resource management problem anticipated due to climate change, 3) increase local expertise in order to help optimize the water use (water related ecosystem/environmental services) and sustainable exploitation of water resources, in particular in relation to the severely increased water consumption of agricultural intensification and urbanization and installation of hydropower dams, 4) enhance the skills and competences of young people on water resource conservation and management to ensure their competitiveness in the future labour market, and 5) promote common educational values, faster social integration, enhance intercultural understanding and language skills.

Currently, most decisions in the academic settings in Latin American HEIs are based on preconceptions or feelings. If data is used, it is in the form of database reports that only provide the most basic level of information. Due to the last decade modernization of academic systems in most Latin American HEIs, there is a large amount of data being produced every day, but this data is usually ignored.This project aims to build local capacity in Latin American HEIs to create, adapt, implement and adopt Learning Analytics tools to improve academic decision making processes. These tools will facilitate the process and analysis of large amount of data produced by the different educational process that occur inside Latin American HEIs (registration, academic performance, online systems usage, etc.). Stakeholders will use the output of these tools to inform and support their decisions. These evidence-based decision making process improves the performance and quality of the education inside the HEI.To be able to develop the local capacity to create, adapt and use Learning Analytics tools in Latin America, first a framework that describe the methodological, technical, institutional, ethical and communal aspects of the deployment of Learning Analytics in the context of Latin American HEIs should be developed by the project. Moreover, the project will adapt two existing tools created originally in the context of Europe to the Latin American context. One will be directed to academic administrators and the other, to professors and counselors. Both of these tools will be piloted to test their efficacy.The final result of the project will be the compilation of the LALA Handbook, a guide containing the LALA Methodology, the Infrastructure recommendation and the adoption experiences and best-practices gained during the pilot. This handbook will be the guiding resources to any other Latin American HEI interested in adopting Learning Analytics to modernize their operations.

In the EU-BEGP project nine universities in Latin America (Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru) will collaborate with two universities in EU (France, Spain) towards modernisation of courses and programs in the energy sector, with emphasis upon circular economy towards energy sustainability. The collaboration is inspired by two earlier successful Erasmus+ CBHE projects. It will re-use both the framework and learning material developed from these projects while developing and implementing specific new courses and programs adapted for the local conditions in the partner countries. More specifically it will significantly enhance capacity building on an educator-to-educator basis towards a significant modernisation of energy curriculum in the partner countries. The project will contribute on the paradigm shift towards global-but-local student-centred education in a digital and online learning environment.The EU-BGEP project will allow collaborative creation of learning material to create/update programs and courses, which includes a baseline of 3 Master programs, 1 “Diplomado” program, 3 expert courses, 15 courses, and 7 short courses, with more than 1000 expected students to be trained at the end of the project in all the partner countries. Furthermore, 10 remote labs will be implemented, enabling real experimental experience to students in remote areas, and 10 entrepreneurial challenges will be run in collaboration with local industries, thus contributing to the employability of young professionals. A specific Quality Improvement Process, with transnational and global peer review, will be implemented throughout all the learning resources, ranging from individual modules through courses and full programs.A significant strength of the EU-BEGP project is that it is part of an intended global collaboration of online digital learning resources, courses, and programs in the energy sector (the “EXPLORE Energy Digital Academy”). All material developed will be included in this framework and the EU-BEGP consortium will have full access to all the already existing, and to be developed, high-quality material. Such global collaboration takes this Erasmus+ CBHE project to a higher level by projects building upon each other, strongly increasing the impact far beyond what an isolated CBHE project would reach.

Latin American countries face the challenge of transforming into knowledge-based societies. Adaptation to these challenges has prompted universities to revise their traditional functions and assume a proactive role in contributing to economic and social development of the society. TETRIS general objective is to enhance to building trust in academic research and in university-industry collaboration by improving the effectiveness of Technology Transfer activities at the Partner Country HEIs. The project aims to improve the level of institutionalization of the ‘third mission’ of the partner universities from Latin America. The development of innovation schemes at institutional level will facilitate and encourage university-industry partnerships. More systematic efforts are required to unlock the potential of research and innovation results. The project will address the regional priority by a carefully designed set of capacity building actions targeting two intervention areas: i) institutional policies on IP and technology transfer and ii) institutional set-up and mechanisms for technology transfer and innovation. The project has three phases: the initial phase is about detailed assessment of Technology Transfer performance and will result in individual development needs. The next phase is the design and development of organisational, operational models and technology transfer mechanisms. The last phase is dedicated to the implementation: universities will adopt and implement elements of the previously developed models that suits best the institutional strategy and capability. Upskilling professionals and improving the knowledge transfer function together will allow them to actively engage with the innovation ecosystem and will have a multiplier effect on research and education. The project will contribute to increase openness and transparency by developing a technology transfer innovation scheme.