The Malaysian wood and furniture industry is one of the major contributors to the Malaysian economy, estimated in nearly €4bn of exports and about 300,000 workers. In fact, in 2017 Malaysia was ranked as the 9th World country in furniture exports and 17th in production. Consequently, the National Timber Industry Policy 2009-2020 established innovation and technology, and human capital development as the main challenges of the industry. Moreover, the blueprint for the Malaysian National Industry 4.0 policy framework is expected to have a focus on the training aspects and update workers knowledgeLikewise, the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 was launched by the Ministry of Education whose prime aim was to address the mismatch in the supply and demand of graduates, with employers reporting the lack of knowledge, skills and attitudes required in graduatesFollowing all these recommendations, MAKING4.0 will establish a European-Malaysian collaborative consortium integrated by 4 Malaysian and 3 European Universities, the Wood and Furniture Technological Centre of Murcia (Spain), and the Malaysian Timber Industry CouncilMAKING4.0 aims to develop an innovative Master on Industry4.0 technologies for engineers of wood and furniture smart factories that will update High Education and increase competitiveness of the Malaysian manufacturing industryTo achieve this objective, different technical activities will be carried out: 1. Analysis and comparison of the current HE offer and wood industry in Malaysia and Europe 2. Definition of the training path, learning content structure and methodological aspects 3. Development of training materials and guides for trainers 4. Performance of a test analysis to validate and accredit the Master courseAs a final result, MAKING4.0 will procure a new Master in Malaysian universities related to Industry4.0 and the woodworking industry, teached in English and with a high impact on the Malaysian HE and manufacturing industry

"The Project’s overall aim is to support Partner Country HEIs in building their capacity to develop and deliver high quality and specialisation academic programmes that can suitably prepare young scientists and professionals to provide applicable solutions to various societal problems, focusing on these resulting from climate change, mainly disaster risk vulnerability and susceptibility. In achieving so, the partnership will develop a specialised MSc in ""Geomatics for Disaster Risk Reduction"" of 120 ECTS that will be accredited and delivered in Partner Country HEIs. A notable share of academic, administrative and technical staff of Partner Country HEIs will have the opportunity to participate in Educational Study Visits and Trainings that will provide them with the necessary supplies to not only effectively deliver the MSc, but also transfer their skills and knowledge to their colleagues, multiplying the effects of these capacity building activities. All teaching and learning material that will be used during the capacity building activities for staff, as well as a comprehensive introductory training programme to the specific topics of the MSc for prospective students, will be included in the interactive Virtual “GIS for DRR” Learning Environment (VLE) that will be developed for the Project. Since the delivery of such a specialised and technology-oriented MSc requires a high-quality level of corresponding facilities, a fully equipped ""GIS for DRR” Laboratory will be established in each Partner Country HEI. Through a range of dissemination events, the Project will reach multiple target groups, including local communities, public authorities of local, regional, and national level, labour market actors, policy makers, etc., aiming not only to disseminate the Project, but also raise awareness about climate change impact on disaster risk, and facilitate exploitation and sustainability of results."

MICROCASA is the first international project aimed at sharing the European experiences and building institutional capacities in Southeast Asia to co-create, promote and deliver short competence-oriented educational units leading to micro-credentials with the goal of solving various economic and social problems. Focusing on different aspects of micro-credentialing, for instance course content co-creation, educational technology, transparent quality assurance, technologies for issuance and verification of digital micro-credentials, the project builds a comprehensive set of competences and technical capacities in Southeast Asian Universities. Leveraging on the partner networks, as well as on the links to the national educational authorities and regional initiatives, MICROCASA has an ambition to have a systemic impact on the ASEAN region as a whole. The project plan builds around the following groups of activities:•Regional Micro-credentials Study and Roundtables, which will allow gathering factual data and experts opinions about the barriers and enablers for introducing micro-credentials into the regional HEIs, as well as to benchmark the regional approaches to the ones in the EU;•Micro-credentials capacity building Programme covering all abovementioned aspects of micro-credentialing;•Pilot development, delivery and evaluation of the set of Digital Competences courses granting micro-credentials;•Targeted awareness raising and dissemination activities spreading the excellence beyond the project consortium.On the European side, the project consortium includes 3 European Universities with complementary competences, Italian NARIC Agency and the quality assurance expert company. The representative group of 6 Southeast Asian University includes central agenda-setting national Universities, as well as Universities with regional development missions.

The Project is cooperation between Telematica University E-Campus (Co-ordinator, Italy), Chukurova University (Turkey), University of Northumbria (UK) and six Universities in Asia - Beijing University of Technology (China), Lanzhou Jiaotong University (China), University Putrus Malaysia, University Sains Malaysia, Naresuan University (Thailand) and Chiang May University (Thailand). Integration of Sustainable Renewable Energy Solutions into Built Environment is going through a rapid acceleration to bring the level of technology deployment up to modern requirements due to aggravated air pollution conditions across Asian countries. Tackling this burning issue requires a new type of engineers with a deeper professional background in the subject area. The current content of modules and teaching methods used in partner Universities must undergo deep modernisation processes with input from EU Universities and international companies and with collaboration of experts in Mechanical , Civil and Architectural Engineering and Built Environment, and all these specialities are presented in the Project Consortium. The project aim is the deep modernisation of existing syllabus on Integration of Sustainable Renewable Energy Solutions into Built Environment, improving quality of education and teaching, which includes enhancing existing and application of new learning and teaching tools, methodologies and pedagogical approaches. This will involve modernisation of learning outcomes and ICT based practices. At least 48 modules in all 6 partner Universities will go through modernisation. Approximately 50% of modules content will be renewed with structure, outcomes and teaching methods being revised. In application to all 6 partner Universities the modernised part of the selected modules will be worth about 240 ECTS credits. Additionally, Improvements in Skills Development of PhD students will be carried out for meeting career targets.

CIRCULAR seeks to boost the social innovation ecosystem in Malaysia, Cambodia and Laos by bringing together and reinforcing the links between Teaching, Research, Innovation and Society in order to collaboratively design and test innovative solutions to mitigate waste management problems, promote circular economy approaches and improve the quality of life of local communities.It will pursue the following specific objectives:- Design a new collaborative model for reinforcing HEIs’ third mission and for enhancing effective and successful Knowledge Square cooperation for social innovation with a specific focus on the topic of circular economy. - Enhance community-based participatory research and citizen science at the same time promoting a new pedagogical framework for embedding community engagement actions as part of Higher Education study programmes. - Set-up Living Labs as open innovation ecosystems that integrate education, research, development and innovation, and regional development to help trigger the adoption of green and more sustainable practices and a more efficient use of resources.- Build the capacities of academics to design, organise and implement collaborative social innovation programmes that promote students’ active citizenship and simultaneously contribute to solve everyday sustainability and climate-change problems.- Build the capacities of researchers on new methodologies and updated strategies to conduct community-based research activities on the topic of circular economy and waste management.- Empower students and young people to become socially-engaged, climate-conscious and active citizens and raise the awareness of students, young people and members of local communities on the topic of circular economy and sustainable development, and promote alternative consumption habits and waste management practices underpinned by knowledge, research and innovation generated by Higher Education Institutions.