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.

MIMIr- ANDINO is primarly designed to aid, assist and soccour partner universities in Latin America to understand the status quo of their innovation and research management systems, performance, efficacy, and practices and devise pathways to overcome impediments, hindrances, fiascos and pitfalls that prevent them from achieving recognised stature in the international landscape. The core tread to accomplish this goal is to measure existing innovation and research activities, to gauge regulatory framework management, administration and tools, and to scope opportunities for overcoming bureaucratic obstacles, stimulating conditions and elevate mindsets. Coupled to provision of comparative analysis to European processes, practices and state-of-the-art, the consortium will identify areas for change, targets for improvement, and a trajectory to excel. Accordingly, partner universities will be informed on the organisation of management of innovation and research in European universities, understand present model, principles, and standards, and embrace and partake the opportunity for support, guidance and corroboration from European partners.