In recent years, there has been increasing recognition at many levels that finding and implementing solutions to complex global problems requires deeply integrated activity from many disciplines, often called a transdisciplinary approach, and a workforce with the capabilities to implement such an approach. Traditionally higher education (HE) has been organised in discipline siloes with organisational, language and world view barriers to mutual understanding, let alone the sort of transdisciplinary action necessary to address complex global problems. This project will develop and implement within Thailand, a transdisciplinary postgraduate programme focused around the issue of climate change and specifically the call to action encompassed in Green Deal agendas. The courses will be implemented in the first instance by a Faculty of Agriculture (Kasetsart University), a Faculty of Public Health (Thammasat University) and a School of Environment, Resources and Development (Asian Institute of Technology) supported by Maastricht University (Netherlands) and Heidelberg University (Germany). Together the partners will develop and deliver nine transdisciplinary courses focused on Green Deal approaches, which will be combined at the end of the project to form a new degree of Master of Science in Transdisciplinary Practice.Partnerships with key government, private and civil society organisations are considered to be critical to ensuring the relevance and impact of the courses; so, these agencies will be involved from the beginning in planning the overall programme, developing and delivering curricula for each course. In addition, opportunities will be provided for personnel from these agencies to participate in courses for training.Through the Hub for Innovation in HE, the project seeks to engage other HEIs and relevant agencies to foster transdisciplinary education and practice, disseminate information and lessons learnt and sustain capacity building initiatives.

The irruption of Human Resource Management (HRM) as a strategic element for quality development of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is relatively recent. Few decades back and until our days, HR approaches just focused on staff recruitment, employment contracts and payment of salaries. This scenario is deeply changing with the international growth and increasing complexity of Higher Education. HRM aspects such as staff motivation, continuous development, evaluation, and strategic planning are gathering momentum under HEIs’ strategic plans worldwide.The evolution of HRM is, however, slow and certainly challenging in developing countries. In Southeast Asia, HEIs are facing significant difficulties derived from disparities in their countries’ political and social structures as well as the backgrounds of their Higher Education systems. Well-structured HRM strategies could very much contribute to HE development and HEIs’ autonomy, thus supporting the processes of reform towards regional growth. Against this background, HR4Asia aims at contributing to Higher Education organisational reform in Southeast Asia by improving HRM at the target HEIs from Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam and Thailand.This global objective will be pursued by means of three specific objectives, namely: • Building capacity in HRM at Southeast Asian HEIs to enhance organizational performance;• Improving HRM Strategic plans for more staffing autonomy; • Setting up of the ASEAN University HR Network as a regional forum for the exchange of knowledge and best practices.With these, HR4Asia will introduce in Southeast Asian HEIs a scheme to developing and implementing innovative HRM approaches, paying attention to transversal and additional skills, such as communication and self-learning, as well. Tailor-made dissemination activities addressing non-partner HEIs, Ministries of Higher Education and other stakeholders will promote the project objectives, paving the way for its sustainability .

WANASEA is a joint project between European, Thai, Vietnamese and Cambodian institutions. By promoting a better academic integration and international cooperation, WANASEA aims to improve the quality of higher education and enhance its relevance for society in the area of Water and related Natural Resources Management (WNRM). Along with the booming economy of the Greater Mekong Subregion, many concerns relate to growing pressures from industrial activities, agricultural use, growing population and consequences of climate change. This calls for appropriate mechanisms of WNRM in terms of energy supply, irrigation or habitat. To reach these objectives, our strategy is to strengthen international multidisciplinary research cooperation. Interactions between HEIs, and with non-academic stakeholders will be promoted, mainly through capacity-building and networking activities. Starting with an in-depth analysis of the main stakeholders and existing university courses related to WNRM, the project includes biannual trainings for HEI support staff and an annual ASEAN Water Platform joining researchers, students and professionals involved with WNRM. Additionally, intense networking activities, such as webinars, virtual debates, information sharing and dissemination of opportunities will insure long lasting effect in terms of research output and appropriate policy recommendations. Both students from EU and Asian partners will be offered opportunities to attend and to create links for future collaborations. Experts and professors from EU will provide Asian HEIs with recommendations for syllabus development, innovative research methodologies or e-learning activities. WANASEA will offer an organised framework dedicated to professional interactions between academic and non-academic stakeholders involved in WNRM, thus improving the quality of HEIs’ curricula and research capacities at regional level.

Chronic diseases (CD) are the cause of 70% of all global deaths. Organ transplantation (tx) is the only treatment with long term perspectives for patients who suffer from end stage organ failure (ESOF), induced mostly by CD. Asia has the lowest rate of organ tx and the greatest growth rate of people entering chronic and ESOF. A recent analysis shows that education is one of the drivers to improve the number of well-trained specialists, and thus the delivery of care to patients with ESOF. ODISSeA proposes suitably adapted and accredited postgraduate curricula in organ donation for specialists. The program will start with a preliminary Training for trainers’ program for future local trainers to ensure the efficient implementation of the postgraduate program in their universities during and after the project lifecycle. Together with a pool of 40 future students and EU experts they will design, validate and develop the Postgraduate Training Program in Organ Donation (30 ECTS) based on a student centred lifelong learning strategy. The program will include face to face and online components, on three levels of difficulty, from level 1 (basics/awareness) consisting of multimedia educational capsules, motion graphics & storytelling, to level 2 (medium), with webinars to boost debates and engage participants, and finally, level 3 (advanced/high), where participants will be encouraged to continue with in-depth online interactive modules (self-training) and local seminars.On-the-job improvement projects will help them apply the knowledge & skills acquired to their professional contexts and propose improving plans with measurable outcomes. The project will involve different stakeholders to maximize impact on HEI systems in SEA, on direct program beneficiaries: 40 trainers, 280 students, 400 attendees in the informative events as well as indirect ones: patients, work peers, hospitals, organ donation systems, with the ultimate goal of improving the delivery of care to patients

The SEASIN project has supported and promoted social innovation as a means to achieve sustainable and inclusive socio-economic growth, social cohesion and equity in South East Asia, through intercultural, curricular and extracurricular activities. It has achieved this by establishing Social Innovation Support Units (SISU) within the Partner Countries to promote and support University-social enterprise cooperation, social entrepreneurship and graduate employability with a particular emphasis on social innovation projects, incubation and training. A range of learning and teaching tools have been developed, at a formal level through the development of doctoral and postgraduate programmes and more informally through CPD training of stakeholders in social innovation as well as through books and reports and a social innovation platform – a virtual space for sharing social innovation practices and learning outcomes (both at a regional and a local level) as well as facebook and other media. The project has established international cooperation and internationalisation through a network of SISUs across the region and beyond, introducing a training, mentoring and transfer scheme to ensure that there is an effective roll-out that extends outside the original partnership. In addition, the project has specifically involved local communities and in particular disadvantaged groups to give them access to University facilities and strengthen the ties between HEIs and their local social environment. Two HEI partners represented each Partner country (Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand), along with three social enterprise from the region (Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia) who lent their specific experience of delivering social innovation training and other initiatives. The EU Partners – three HEIs (Scotland, Portugal and Spain) and a global social innovation network (UK based) - offered a wide experience of delivering international innovation projects and embedding social innovative initiatives within their own institutions. The project partners have also created a global social innovation network with a virtual platform for users from all over the world to engage with each other, manage projects and access online tools to help support their growth in the future.