MACCARD project aims at improving the higher education training offer on urgent issues common to two Latin American neighboring countries, Ecuador and Peru, by implementing an interuniversity Master in Climate Change, Agriculture and rural Sustainable Development in the Universities of Toribio Rodriguez de Mendoza (UNTRM) and the National University of Jaen (UNJ) in Peru, the Regional University of Amazon (IKIAM) and University of Azuay (UAZUAY) in Ecuador, while enhancing the quality of teaching and contributing to strengthen cross border cooperation between Ecuador and Peru HEIs and between them and EU Programme countries.The project involves the University of Sassari (UNISS, IT) as coordinator and Granada University (UGr, ES) as European Programme Country HEI. A new Master on climate change with a focus on Agriculture and Sustainable development , in each local University both in Ecuador and Peru, contributes to build the necessary expertise and develop professionals able to conduct studies and to plan and implement reliable measures to respond to climate change challenges and threatens on crucial sectors. The project will be developed carrying out the following steps: 1) An updated need assessment of the curricula of the involved Latin American Universities related to Climate change, Agriculture and Rural Sustainable Development(CCARSD) 2) Depending on the results of the previous step, a new Master Degree on CCARSD will be defined 3) a new e learning environment will be implemented and new e learning materials will be created by EU HEIs professors and uploaded in the interactive e learning platform 4) 32 local teachers will be involved in an active training where they will learn new teaching methodologies in the field of CCARSD to be further applied in the new Master Degree 5) which will be implemented in each of the local University addressing 60 students. Master' students and teachers will be involved in exchange and mobility activities.

This project addresses the pressing issues of social exclusion of vulnerable communities in remote and rural areas in Ecuador and El Salvador by creating an online educational environment that can foster cultural diversity, promote indigenous heritage and strengthen social cohesion in an environment-friendly way in both countries and beyond. The consortium of seven HE institutions (2-Ecuador, 2-El Salvador, 3-EU) will develop a multilingual online portal that has two functions: it will serve as (a) a collection of tangible (traditional crafts) and intangible (folklore, oral traditions) cultural heritage fast disappearing in the remote areas; (b) a compendium of educational modules, methodologies and trainings, realised by didactisation of the authentic original materials collected, to be used by HEIs, re-skilling institutions and organisations promoting sustainable tourism. The consortium will collaborate intensively to transfer know-how, experience and good practices. The Ecuador and El Salvador partners will collect and record materials among the vulnerable indigenous communities in remote areas, transcribe and translate them into Spanish. The European partners will develop the online portal and educational modules, methodology trainings and sustainable tourism support modules based on the authentic materials. Then, the Ecuador and El Salvador partners will pilot the educational modules, methodologies, and sustainable tourism support materials in their HEI´s already existing and newly-establish programmes as well as in re-skilling workshops and trainings. Finally, all partners will present the portal to target audiences (educators, social workers, tourist agents) in Latin America and the EU.The aim of the project is to use a combination of technologies, education and cultural heritage preservation to improve the situation of vulnerable indigenous communities in remote areas in an environment-friendly and sustainable way.

IThe project arises to alleviate the problem of the application of technological accessibility in Higher Education Institutions (HEI). HEIs in Latin America have limited governance and resources for the implementation of institutional strategies for attention to diversity, particularly disability. One of the actions to be highlighted in the project is that aimed at the training of students from their entry to their job placement.In general EduTech seeks to improve Accessible Virtual Higher Education through the construction of management skills through the establishment of a Technological Accessibility Unit in the HEIs. These units will base their management procedures mainly through an Accessibility Volume, which consists of a compendium of six guides that are part of a framework. Such a framework will be tailored to each of the HEIs according to the needs diagnosis and will generate good implementation practices when carrying out pilot actions. At the end of the project, a set of recommendations and a sustainability plan will be generated that will ensure the continuity of the initiative.The most important results of the project will be the development of accessible open educational resources (OER), accessibility support tools for teachers and students, accessible open courses, contemplating the universal design for learning. As a boost to research, a cooperation network will be created that will allow the exchange of good practices and success stories. The results of the project will be available through a series of publications in congresses and impact journals.In the long term, the results of the project could impact on the educational and occupational insertion of students with disabilities by providing them with adequate training, involving the appropriation of knowledge and social coexistence.