The analysis carried out in cooperation with Local Universities (LUs), city and national authorities, stakeholders, during ah-hoc meetings, highlighted the need to improve transport services in Georgia (GE) and Ukraine (UA), benefiting of the new opportunities offered by telematics which boost innovations in smart passenger and goods mobility. The increasing pressure on achieving societal goals within the transport sector (e.g., reducing traffic emission, improving traffic safety, reducing congestion) is one of the main drivers for its smart development.There are still many challenges for implementing smart mobility, and to what extent this potential will be materialized depends on its design and management by public authorities as well as by the competence of experts.Besides, a lack of experience on planning, management and control of these services emerged in GE and UA, also due to inadequate academic paths for supporting exploitation and dissemination of smart transport culture, including the limits of their research and their limited international relationships.Then, SmaLog was designed to overcome such identified lacks. SmaLog reformed and conformed the academic paths for supporting exploitation and dissemination of smart transport culture, including the overcoming of the limits of current scientific research and limited international relationships in involved PCs. LUs were the key-actors to start and consolidate this process.In SmaLog Consortium, 11 research institutions, 4 from EU, 5 from UA and 2 from GE have been collaborating to:•develop and test/implement/delivering Masters (120/90 ECTS) in smart transport and logistics for cities (SmaLog) in GE and UA;•support the implementation of laboratories dedicated to SmaLog;•disseminate through the newsletters, events, workshops, seminars, the importance of high educational programmes, and to promote research in urban transport and logistics exploiting the opportunities offered by new technologies;•set up national coordinated networks of HEIs, public bodies, private companies and NGOs involving them in the wider European research network on smart urban transport and logistics.Therefore, starting from this consideration, SmaLog strengthened the role of research in managing smart transport and logistics in cities on an evidence-base in UA and GE, and thus transferred to UA and GE the most recent knowledge and good practices developed in Europe as well as worldwide in the field of smart mobility.These aims were achieved thanks to a mix of activities such as: education, training, workshops, conferences and public events, web-based and physical dissemination and exploitation activities. The main outputs were:•SmaLog masters formally approved and delivered;•new and updated courses;•two first completed cycles of master students in SmaLog (first graduates);•distance learning advance courses for staff in SmaLog;•guidelines for developing PhD in PC HEIs in SmaLog;•teaching and training materials developed for supporting lectures’ delivering and students’ study;•staff training and students’ studying at ProgC HEIs;•guidelines for IQAS, and its implementations in PC HEIs;•internationalization of teaching/training on smart transport and logistics for cities;•internationalization of research on smart transport and logistics for cities;•urban smart transport and logistics networks in GE and UA;•active involvement of PC HEIs members in international smart transport and logistics for cities research;•implementation of local laboratories on urban smart transport and logistics;•dissemination and strengthening of culture of smart transport and logistics;•agreements of cultural and scientific collaboration between each PC and ProgC HEIs.

Georgia is on its way to constructing a new country with civic society respecting democratic values. Within the deepening of global competition, it is apparent that to assure economic development, it becomes essential to use the comparative advantage and create the regional strategy oriented on knowledge. In the achievement of this goal, regional universities will play important role as centers of generation and diffusion of knowledge, creation of qualified working force and the base of the development of regions of the country. In Social-economic Development Strategy “Georgia 2020” and Unified Strategy for Education and Science for 2017-2021, which reflect the priorities and problems that need to be resolved in order to achieve long-term, sustainable growth, regional development plays a significant role in the development of the country and is viewed as an important factor for achieving success on a national level. The aim of the project is to make Georgian regional HEIs more relevant to the communities and regions they are located and to serve as a basis for regional development. Mission and Strategy of Regional Universities will be developed in compliance with regional needs. The project will support the network of Regional Universities in planning and development of relevant strategy and mission. Involvement of the Universities in the development of Regional Strategy will increase. Close collaboration with local authorities and other social partners will take place. Cooperation with EU universities and sharing their experience will introduce the best practices that will improve and modernize management structures in universities and will make their administrative structures compatible with those of the European universities. Changes in management at institutional level will raise productivity of the university administration management that will in its turn have an impact on creation of new regional policy.

The main goal of the project is to change the strategic framework in order to provide implementation of dual education in HE system of Georgia.The overall aim of the project is:• Improvement of the competencies of graduates in Georgia according to the needs of employers,• Increase of the employability of graduates and their motivation to study,• Improvement of accessibility to HE of students from lower income families.Dual Higher Education (DHE) will enable students to acquire more relevant knowledge and skills by combining classical school education with knowledge and skills acquired at the work place. Consequently, this will provide them with competences and skills that are more in line with needs of employers and it will significantly increase employability.Statistically, first employments are happening usually in the companies who offer work-based learning. This will not only raise the motivation of students, but also raise the interest of companies to cooperate with HEIs in design and implementation of the study programs based on DHE.It is expected that companies would give input to curricula, organise and eventually provide scholarships schema to selected students, offering organised training led jointly with HEIs and being involved in the assessment of the knowledge. In order to achieve these aims, the project needs to realize the following concrete objectives:• To identify needs and specific requirements of companies in different industrial sectors and businesses for DHE and to find companies willing to participate in pilot implementations of DHE;• To develop a flexible and generic dual HE model to support different needs and interests of all stakeholders, and to provide recommendations to HEIs for implementation of DHE;•To propose amendments to the national qualifications framework;•To test the specific DHE models generated from the generic model, by realizing their pilot implementations during the project and to analyse achieved results.

The INTEGRITY Programme stands to be a national initiative of Georgian universities, implemented by the means of generous support and funding of the Erasmus+ CBHE Programme - SM pillar ‘Modernization of policies, governance and management of higher education systems’, presumably impacting the entire HE system. The rationale of this collaboration supported the provision of higher education with INTEGRITY through the core objective to enhance the quality of teaching and learning processes that are based on the principles of academic integrity, supported by policies, mechanisms and tools that help prevent and detect cases of plagiarism in higher education institutions in Georgia. Specific objectives implemented are as follows: 1. Introduction of plagiarism detection – Turnitin Feedback Studio in Georgian universities, acquiring licenses and integration into the existing Learning Management System(s).2. Design and launch of PR Campaign on Plagiarism in Georgian HEIs targeting both students and faculty/teaching staff.3. Development and delivery of capacity building training for faculty in Effective Teaching and Learning Assessment (TLA) with the focus on the principles of academic integrity.4. Development and enhancement of student academic support services outside the classroom to boost Academic & Writing Skills (academic writing centers/student services centers/volunteer senior student tutors/ library services).5. Review Academic Writing Curriculum against standards and requirements established in the EU- adopting modern standards established for academic communication to prevent plagiarism.6. Elaboration and passing of university policies that are conducive to quality teaching and learning processes based on the principles of academic integrity. The project covered the following key areas for intervention: 1. Quality of Teaching & Learning & Faculty Training; 2. Student Academic Support Services; 3. Academic Writing; 4. Institutional Policies and Mechanisms; 5. PR Campaign and Awareness Raising. The relevance of this initiative responded to these internal and external forces demanding the measures of academic integrity in Georgian academia. a) The external QA measures emphasizing regulation of Plagiarism; b) 'The Problem of Plagiarism and Its Perceptions in Georgia' (2016) research report; c) The national needs assessment of GE HEIs in December 2016 by ISU;d) EU HE Standards; c) The successful case of piloting Turnitin at ISU transferring knowledge to other partners. While delivering Education during COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, which created the largest disruption of education systems in history, affecting nearly 1.6 billion learners worldwide, including Georgia, the project became essentially relevant. In the emergency distance education, the project provided the tools (Turnitin) and resources (tailored training sessions) required for distance learning during university closures. The INTEGRITY consortium (14 Georgian HEIs, 2 government authorities, and 4 EU HEIs), has delivered a flagship SM project in Georgia with great achievement and added-value at the (a) individual (50,300 students informed, 20,703 students trained, engagement of 1260 lecturers via launching 60,000 Turnitin licenses/366,000 submitted papers in 2633 academic courses and introduction of new and updated 27 academic writing courses, enhancing assessment and digital skills of over 655 admin and 3061 academic staff, and training of 71 non-HEI individuals, (b) institutional (14+7 GE HEIs),(c) sector (transferable to the entire HE sector through dissemination program and gained experiences), and (d) society levels (changing perceptions and culture on academic integrity through dissemination reaching out to 17,516 participants).