The purpose of this project is to address the problems related to expert workforce in the field of diagnosis, monitoring, and maintenance of the power systems and related components in the partner countries by bringing innovation in higher education teaching and learning methods in order to fill the expertise gap and enhance its relevance for the labour market and the society as a whole. The project will help Nepal and Bhutan to produce in-house human resources in the field of condition monitoring of power equipment making both the countries independent of external consultants. The main objective of the project is to implement real problem based teaching and learning methods in the curriculum of HEIs of the partner countries. This is possible thanks to the expertise and know how of the EU partner Universities and their long term teaching in this field. The Project will also help the EU partners to renew their education in this field and build a sustainable flow of students in both directions.

The objective of the Cimceb project was to initiate and strengthen the education in the areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency in buildings to enhance the possibilities to decrease the energy consumption and minimize the environmental impact in the participating countries in Nepal and Bhutan.The project supported the modernization, accessibility and internationalization of the partner countries universities and improved the quality of higher education and its relevance for the labor market and society.Cimceb developed new and innovative education programs in two Nepalese universities and in one Bhutanese, including hands-on facilities for students, in order to improve the level of competences and skills in the universities.The activities started by analyzing the need in the society of higher education programs on Energy Efficient Building Technique in Nepal and Bhutan. As supposed, this subject was of great interest for the syndicate of engineers, construction companies, real estate owners and users; the work proceeded by developing courses and Master programs.An important part was the development of the laboratories, which are used in the courses to get a deeper understanding of the theoretical subjects. In order to improve the capability of the teachers, training courses and study visits were performed in the European universities, in Nepal and BhutanEven if the proposed plan for the Cimceb project was to start a full master program in one university and develop separate courses in the other two, all three partner universities started Master programs within Cimceb project. About 50 courses have been developed and approved within the universities. Three education laboratories have been completed with necessary tools. The result of the Cimceb project has also furthered the cooperation between the partner universities of Nepal and Bhutan as well as between partner universities and EU-partners.

Poverty and inequality are major challenges in Nepal. Low education level of individuals from disadvantaged groups and marginalized groups reflects to inequality. Access to and participation in education is essential requisite for equality and prosperity. The present project develops management and practices in the higher education of Nepal to enhance equity in access to education and support during the academic careers. Outputs:1) Developing strategic cooperation between the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) and the universities in Nepal to increase the support to and commitment of universities to enhance equity in enrollment and during academic careers. A Letter of Intent will be composed in the project. 2) Developing organizational structure and new services for potential applicants from the above mentioned groups to enhance capacity building of the managers and teachers producing education services in Nepal, as well as to enhance capacity building of managers working in administration in universities and teachers teaching disabled students and students coming from disadvantaged or marginalized groups. This means that education will be organized and five properly equipped support centers with competent staff and well-planned services will be established. 3) Improving learning environment to facilitate students coming from above mentioned groups to start their studies in higher education institutes. There will be easy access environment, learning materials and capacity to support these students in the HEIs. The immediate impact will be the improved commitment in management of universities to enhance equity in access to and in support during the academic careers in HEIs. In addition, cooperation and contacts between universities and secondary level schools, local authorities and NGOs representing disabled and marginalized groups will be improved. Remarkable impact is the strengthened cooperation with the MoEST.

Nepal is one of the least developed countries in Asia. Digital transformation is challenging Nepalese society yet providing great possibilities for development. Almost 80 % of Nepalese inhabitants live in rural areas but internet penetration is still below 40 %.Infrastructure around internet connections is advancing fast and online education will already soon fit perfectly to Nepal and enable high-quality educatiImprovements in quality of online education: Curriculum design: will have the following short term, medium-term and long term impacts. The project participants will first see a general need and understand the importance of redesigning curriculum to teach in an online environment, and at the initial stage recognize the need of linking the curriculum with employability. The medium-term goal is redesigning the curriculum synergizing market needs, learning objectives with students experience in mind from an online perspective. And finally application of pedagogical competencies in designing actual courses with a direct link to competencies linked to working life. Create new online courses that fulfil both the learning objectives from an online pedagogy and develop competencies for working life. The ultimate goal is that these new online pedagogical competencies could be learnt first by teachers, then during the dissemination stage passes the knowledge to other teachers so that more effective online courses would be created and offered within partnership institutions.Pedagogical model development of online education: the project participants will first become exposed to various Pedagogical models in online education online tools, systems, and ecosystems. The medium and long term is a development of online courses using online pedagogical models, and then implementing the course. The ultimate goal is to create a platform so that participating members from each organization would teach other teachers from their institutions how to effectively use the principles.

The PRESHINE (Pressions sur les Ressources en Eau et en Sols de l’Himalaya Népalais) project addresses the question of the availability and usage of water and soil resources in the Everest area (Solu-Khumbu) in a context of climate change and of profound transformations caused by tourism to a mountain territory within the Sagarmatha National Park. Here the resource is regarded as a construct, a product not only of physical processes that occur in this high- and middle-mountain region affected by the monsoon, but also of all the societal factors (socio-economic, technical, political and cultural) that lead to establishing water as a resource and to regulating its access and sharing between different usages (agro-pastoral, domestic, tourist, energy). Bringing together researchers from the social sciences (geography, agronomy, history and landscape ecology) and from the environmental sciences (hydrology, glaciology, meteorology, pedology, biochemistry), the PRESHINE project is a follow-up to the PAPRIKA (Cryospheric Responses to Anthropogenic Pressure in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya Regions: Impacts on Water Resources and Society’s Adaptation in Nepal) project. PRESHINE's purpose is to follow new paths of research introduced by PAPRIKA, this time starting from questions raised by the programme’s social science researchers, with the environmental scientists then stepping in to measure and modelize water availability. It is a question of evaluating spatiotemporal shifts according to the usages but also with the representations that the various actors have of climate change (snow and melting glaciers, deregulation of the monsoon), and their effect on the territory. Indeed, in the Himalayas, numerous authors admit that water will be the resource most affected by climate change (drop in availability, modification of its temporal distribution due to changes in precipitations, increased risk of flooding, etc.). The melting of glaciers along with the consequences of this on the reduction in freshwater stocks has become the symbol of this. However, in the Everest area, glaciers only partly contribute to the flow of rivers, with most of the water coming from rainfall. Even though high-mountain streams receive a good supply of water from glaciers, it is not the case in the middle mountains where there are no glaciers. Thus, villagers who live off rainfed agriculture, cattle breeding as well as mountain tourism, suffer more from changes in prevailing precipitations (monsoon and spring rains, winter snow) and from the reduction in snow cover—that impact the cereal and vegetable production reserved for tourists, as well as fodder outputs for pack animals carrying goods for tourists— than by the melting of glaciers. The latter occurs between the two tourist seasons (spring and autumn) and has the advantage of supplying streams before the monsoon; these streams provide a driving force for the mills and micro-electric plants set up in tourist areas in the high mountains. The aim therefore is to compare the significant social factors of change identified within the PAPRIKA programme (developing mountain tourism, setting up Sagarmatha National Park, launching market gardening to supply vegetables to lodges for tourists, which requires large amounts of water for watering plants, setting up micro hydro-electric plants or implementing new techniques for tapping and using water) with the effects of the identified climatic changes (prevailing precipitations, surfaces left free by melting glaciers and by the reduction in snow cover, duration of snow cover and its role in the storage and release of water, and in soil conditions for agriculture). All these factors are likely to lead to changes in water and soil resource availability and, in return, to changes in socio-spatial practices.