The overall objective of “WE4HER Leadership” is to transform the governance of Mediterranean Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) through the promotion and adoption of a culture of gender equality. More specifically, “WE4HER Leadership” aims to increase the proportion of women among the top decision-making bodies of the HEIs, thereby contributing to a more inclusive management and governance of these institutions. Indeed, while women are in the majority among the lower echelons, they become a minority as you rise in the hierarchy. The existence of such an injustice not only deprives the HEIs of half of their available human capital, but it is also harmful to the University communities and to society as a whole. The project partners – coordinator Aix-Marseille Université (FR), Autónoma de Madrid (ES), Roma Sapienza (IT), Constantine 3 (DZ), Mostaganem (DZ), Antonine (LB), Université Libanaise (LB), Sousse (TN) and Tunis El Manar (TN) – are all politically engaged to achieving gender equality.They will work together to progress along this road: collecting gendered data; increasing decision-makers’ awareness of the existence and causes of gender inequality; creating a political framework to support gender equality; instituting training that has been shown to reduce gender bias in recruitment decisions; and finally improving awareness of gender-based harassment and how it is addressed. Each partner will implement these actions in light of his own prior experience and institutional setting, helping each other through sharing of experience and peer learning. They will then share the lessons learned, methodologies and outputs with other HEIs of the region.Because this 36-month project specifically focuses on the institutional transformation of the HEIs, its primary target groups are the academic and administrative staff. However, the entire academic communities will benefit from the project impacts.

CUPAGIS is aimed to modernize curricula in precision agriculture using new technologies in physical sciences - Geographic Information System/GIS, big data, remote sensing- through analyzing and updating existing curricula according to educational needs; developing new certified curricula according to the new achievements in the area, the labor market demands and the Bologna Process; to test innovated curricula and to disseminate the results. The CUPAGIS consortium consists of 11 partners plus 1 associated partner with the required expertise, educational skills and business connections. The outputs/results and products are: • Review of the current curricula in precision agriculture through analysis, •Agreement on instructional strategy and guidelines for BA/MSc curricula design including the use of new Educational Technologies • A set of new core curricula and transferable modules including innovative teaching facilities •Updated current two cycle curricula and programs in precision agriculture according to the Bologna requirements and the new developments • Developed, implemented and accredited new practice oriented, student- focused core, and transferable curricula including ECTS • Bringing the Higher Education Institutions of DZ closer to labor market. Besides that innovative teaching facilities: a new equipped laboratory PAGIS, a class VCR, a Precision agriculture using sensing data Service Office PASENSO. Focus on the content, agreed structure, new instructional strategy and the use of new educational technologies with regard to the European modernization agenda for higher education will as a whole function as the envisaged impact.

Entrepreneurial training and support can be a catalyst for innovation and development (EU, UNDP, UNESCO, OECD). Yabda project (Yabda يبدأ is the Arab word for beginning, initiating) aims to build the capacity necessary in ten Maghreb Universities for exploiting the high research and development potential of the region and transitioning university research to the marketplace.Yabda will develop an innovative ecosystem that will foster: -Guidance: an online guide will offer practical, personalized information for building an enterprise; a targeted training programme, complemented with personal coaching will support the creation of start-ups.-Engagement: a university network will reach and mobilize faculty members, administrative staff, researchers and students. The Yabda-Innovate unit will orient students to the process of design thinking; at its core will be the business/marketing, engineering and computer science departments. Through the Yabda-Law unit Law faculty members, staff and students will help potential entrepreneurs and startups with their patent/copyright etc., before seeking expert advise. The Yabda-Student unit will provide grassroots support group to entrepreneurship.-Exchanges and sharing: the Yabda-Hub will be a centre for the development of early-stage startups in green technologies, energy and sustainable development; the Yabda-Site twill provide all the information for the development and visibility of startups; the Yabda-Community will connect all interested parties in the University in exchanging experiences and ideas.-Support: the Yabda-enterprise team will have the mission to support and advance Yabda in the long term through a) the development of expertise in the commercialization of Universities’ knowledge and technology, b) partnership-building with the external regional/national/international entrepreneurial ecosystem. Yabda will stimulate an entrepreneurial mindset that will foster innovation in the entire Maghreb region.

In the MENA region the unemployment rate among HE graduates is among the highest in the world as a direct result of the mismatch between education outcomes and expectations of the labor market. With the fast evolving pattern of the market-needs as a result of revolutionary technologies such as Industry 4.0, AI, robotics and machine learning, a new shift in human resource requirements map is at hand leaving HEIs with an inevitable time-pressing challenge to adjust the learning processes to yield particular competencies that expand way beyond the technical knowledge that has been the focus for many decades. It is thus the aim of this project is to develop a generation of globally-exposed HE graduates, equipped with essential character, social and cognitive skills blended with academic competencies, with a higher degree of readiness for the fast-evolving community and job market, and who are capable to integrate effectively in multi-cultural, diverse eco-system. Hence, Competence-tailored Student Journey Map that blends academic and academic-complimentary competencies during the student lifetime is introduced. A pilot set of competence-tailored 35 short- and 10 long-term extracurricular activities & “quests” are designed and programmed into the LMS & SIS of partner HEIs, along with 35 courses (120 ECTS) in Engineering and ICT restructured to align with SDGs in competency-based format, targeting the full envisioned picture of the future “Global Citizen” possessing competencies that were clearly identified via an exhaustive gap analysis developed at the beginning of the project. A target of at least 60 students at each of the 7 partner HEIs in Egypt, Jordan and Algeria is planned. Student-Stakeholders Engagement Portal, where employers and students share their profiles and where both have open arena to engage in internships, summer jobs, capacity building programs is essential in the proposed integrative (academic/extracurricular/industry engagement) approach.

The Mediterranean basin is famous for its natural diversity, but also an area with pressing environmental problems. Countries on its southern shore are particularly vulnerable to these issues, since their socioeconomic reality is full of difficulties directly connected to their environment: Apart from general issues such as waste management, water and air pollution and their effects on the population’s health, these countries face severe challenges through desertification, deforestation and threats to biodiversity caused directly by environmental change and with severe implications for their economies, especially regarding agriculture and the tourism sector.Consequently, strategic environmental change management will be crucial to seize socioeconomic opportunities linked to environmental change and minimize its risk. Therefore, the wider objective of this project is to enable Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian HEIs to develop and implement a new master’s curriculum in the field of Mediterranean Environmental Change Management. Master Study and Ecosystem Building (MEHMED) aligned with the EU Bologna educational approach (duration of 1,5 year, 90 ECTS).To this end, EU HEIs will transfer their knowledge and experience from related degrees to the Partner Country HEIs and participate in the joint development of a new curriculum in accordance with EU and international standards and labour-market requirements to prepare students to apply their knowledge, skills and competences in the field of environment and sustainable development. The new master will assume an interdisciplinary approach, through the collaboration of various faculties and by involving graduate students from different academic fields. MEHMED will be developed in collaboration with various Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian public and private stakeholders in the environmental sector, and include an internship module thematically linked to the students’ master’s theses to improve alumni’s employability.