The overall objective of “WE4HER Leadership” is to transform the governance of Mediterranean Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) through the promotion and adoption of a culture of gender equality. More specifically, “WE4HER Leadership” aims to increase the proportion of women among the top decision-making bodies of the HEIs, thereby contributing to a more inclusive management and governance of these institutions. Indeed, while women are in the majority among the lower echelons, they become a minority as you rise in the hierarchy. The existence of such an injustice not only deprives the HEIs of half of their available human capital, but it is also harmful to the University communities and to society as a whole. The project partners – coordinator Aix-Marseille Université (FR), Autónoma de Madrid (ES), Roma Sapienza (IT), Constantine 3 (DZ), Mostaganem (DZ), Antonine (LB), Université Libanaise (LB), Sousse (TN) and Tunis El Manar (TN) – are all politically engaged to achieving gender equality.They will work together to progress along this road: collecting gendered data; increasing decision-makers’ awareness of the existence and causes of gender inequality; creating a political framework to support gender equality; instituting training that has been shown to reduce gender bias in recruitment decisions; and finally improving awareness of gender-based harassment and how it is addressed. Each partner will implement these actions in light of his own prior experience and institutional setting, helping each other through sharing of experience and peer learning. They will then share the lessons learned, methodologies and outputs with other HEIs of the region.Because this 36-month project specifically focuses on the institutional transformation of the HEIs, its primary target groups are the academic and administrative staff. However, the entire academic communities will benefit from the project impacts.

Entrepreneurial training and support can be a catalyst for innovation and development (EU, UNDP, UNESCO, OECD). Yabda project (Yabda يبدأ is the Arab word for beginning, initiating) aims to build the capacity necessary in ten Maghreb Universities for exploiting the high research and development potential of the region and transitioning university research to the marketplace.Yabda will develop an innovative ecosystem that will foster: -Guidance: an online guide will offer practical, personalized information for building an enterprise; a targeted training programme, complemented with personal coaching will support the creation of start-ups.-Engagement: a university network will reach and mobilize faculty members, administrative staff, researchers and students. The Yabda-Innovate unit will orient students to the process of design thinking; at its core will be the business/marketing, engineering and computer science departments. Through the Yabda-Law unit Law faculty members, staff and students will help potential entrepreneurs and startups with their patent/copyright etc., before seeking expert advise. The Yabda-Student unit will provide grassroots support group to entrepreneurship.-Exchanges and sharing: the Yabda-Hub will be a centre for the development of early-stage startups in green technologies, energy and sustainable development; the Yabda-Site twill provide all the information for the development and visibility of startups; the Yabda-Community will connect all interested parties in the University in exchanging experiences and ideas.-Support: the Yabda-enterprise team will have the mission to support and advance Yabda in the long term through a) the development of expertise in the commercialization of Universities’ knowledge and technology, b) partnership-building with the external regional/national/international entrepreneurial ecosystem. Yabda will stimulate an entrepreneurial mindset that will foster innovation in the entire Maghreb region.

The Mediterranean basin is famous for its natural diversity, but also an area with pressing environmental problems. Countries on its southern shore are particularly vulnerable to these issues, since their socioeconomic reality is full of difficulties directly connected to their environment: Apart from general issues such as waste management, water and air pollution and their effects on the population’s health, these countries face severe challenges through desertification, deforestation and threats to biodiversity caused directly by environmental change and with severe implications for their economies, especially regarding agriculture and the tourism sector.Consequently, strategic environmental change management will be crucial to seize socioeconomic opportunities linked to environmental change and minimize its risk. Therefore, the wider objective of this project is to enable Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian HEIs to develop and implement a new master’s curriculum in the field of Mediterranean Environmental Change Management. Master Study and Ecosystem Building (MEHMED) aligned with the EU Bologna educational approach (duration of 1,5 year, 90 ECTS).To this end, EU HEIs will transfer their knowledge and experience from related degrees to the Partner Country HEIs and participate in the joint development of a new curriculum in accordance with EU and international standards and labour-market requirements to prepare students to apply their knowledge, skills and competences in the field of environment and sustainable development. The new master will assume an interdisciplinary approach, through the collaboration of various faculties and by involving graduate students from different academic fields. MEHMED will be developed in collaboration with various Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian public and private stakeholders in the environmental sector, and include an internship module thematically linked to the students’ master’s theses to improve alumni’s employability.