HEADCET aims to support Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of Argentina, Paraguay, and Chile in tackling the challenges of sustainable development by enhancing their relevance for the labor markets and the society at large. The project specifically focuses on Circular Economy (CE) and Social Innovation (SI) which are strongly interrelated in Latin American (LA) Countries and are considered crucial to foster a more sustainable growth and to identify new jobs opportunities. To do this, HEADCET will support LA HEIs through a wide set of interrelated actions:- Training Services for University Engagement - Updating curricula on CE, SI and sustainability to make universities’ offer more compatible with labor markets demands. - Development of pilot Offices for sustainable development & circular economy (Oficina Desarrollo sustentable y EC - ODEC). ODEC will be conceived as university centers specialized in offering services of support and counselling on projects of SI and CE. The project will set-up 3 pilot ODECs that will represent a concrete job opportunity for graduates and young researchers.- Implementation of COllaborative Local Labs (COLLs): to directly involve local stakeholders (SMEs, NGOs, public agencies) on initiatives and skills needed in the regional ecosystem of each Latin-American university on CE and SI. - Organization of Career Development Centres (CADEC) for meetings and job-matching between students/graduates and companies around CE competencies and jobs- Creation and promotion of a regional network on CE and SI, enriched with EU partners, in order to take advantages of the opportunities under the Programme “Regional Coalition on Circular economy in Latin America”.The project consortium is composed by 6 LA HEIs and 3 European HEIs and a University Center with established experiences on engagement, CE and SI. The consortium is complemented by Fundacion Eurosur that has strong expertise and knowledge on LA countries and networking management.

Currently, most decisions in the academic settings in Latin American HEIs are based on preconceptions or feelings. If data is used, it is in the form of database reports that only provide the most basic level of information. Due to the last decade modernization of academic systems in most Latin American HEIs, there is a large amount of data being produced every day, but this data is usually ignored.This project aims to build local capacity in Latin American HEIs to create, adapt, implement and adopt Learning Analytics tools to improve academic decision making processes. These tools will facilitate the process and analysis of large amount of data produced by the different educational process that occur inside Latin American HEIs (registration, academic performance, online systems usage, etc.). Stakeholders will use the output of these tools to inform and support their decisions. These evidence-based decision making process improves the performance and quality of the education inside the HEI.To be able to develop the local capacity to create, adapt and use Learning Analytics tools in Latin America, first a framework that describe the methodological, technical, institutional, ethical and communal aspects of the deployment of Learning Analytics in the context of Latin American HEIs should be developed by the project. Moreover, the project will adapt two existing tools created originally in the context of Europe to the Latin American context. One will be directed to academic administrators and the other, to professors and counselors. Both of these tools will be piloted to test their efficacy.The final result of the project will be the compilation of the LALA Handbook, a guide containing the LALA Methodology, the Infrastructure recommendation and the adoption experiences and best-practices gained during the pilot. This handbook will be the guiding resources to any other Latin American HEI interested in adopting Learning Analytics to modernize their operations.

LAPASSION (Latin-America Practices and Soft Skills for an Innovation Oriented Network) is a project from the program Erasmus+ within the line KA2 – Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education (reference 585687-EPP-1-2017-1-PT-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP). It involved partners from Portugal, Finland, Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile. LAPASSION consortium had as motivation to create a unique solution to address different problems affecting youth in HEI, helping students to obtain a better training in terms of innovation, soft skills, and internationalization. This solution was achieved by means of LAPASSION MP/I (Multidisciplinary Projects/Internships) for students’ teams to help them to co-create, and co-develop projects proposed by enterprises and other organizations, or to accelerate innovative ideas in an international context involving students from several countries.The aim of LAPASSION was to increase the innovation culture of HEI and the connection with Enterprises/Organizations (E/O) with impact in Employability, and Internationalization. This aim is pursued by implementing MP/I for co-creation, co-development and acceleration of innovative ideas, integrated in the educative project of the involved institutions. MP/I was implemented by means of students' teams involving students with different backgrounds, different graduation levels, and from different countries, and solving challenges posed by E/O. The sustainability of the project is currently ensured in Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, and can be extended to other Latin-America countries, like Colombia.LAPASSION is a consortium with 15 partners, including 13 Higher Education Institutions (4 from Europe and 9 from Latin America), 1 Association of Enterprises from Portugal, and 1 Council of the Federal Institutes from Brazil. The list of the partners is the following:Polytechnic of Porto (IPP, Portugal, coordinator)Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK, Finland)University of Vigo (UVIGO, Spain)University of Salamanca (USAL, Spain)Federal Institute Riograndense (IFSUL, Brazil)Federal Institute of Triângulo Mineiro (IFTM, Brazil)Federal Institute of Goiás (IFG, Brazil)Federal Institute of Maranhão (IFMA, Brazil)Federal Institute of Amazonas (IFAM, Brazil)University of the Republic of Uruguay (UDELAR, Uruguay)Technological University of Uruguay (UTEC, Uruguay)Foundation of Professional Institute (DUOC, Chile)Catholic University of Chile (PUC, Chile)Association of Enterprises of Portugal, Commerce and Industry Chamber (AEP, Portugal)Council of Federal Institutes of Brazil (CONIF, Brazil)LAPASSION involved 7 editions (sets) of multidisciplinary projects for students plus several other additional editions not supported by LAPASSION budget (3 in Porto, 4 in Uruguay, 1 in Brazil, and 3 in Chile), in a total of 18 sets of projects.The challenges selected by the 7 original editions of LAPASSION were the following:-Santiago/Chile (2018): How to improve conditions for Senior Populations?-Uruguay (2019): How to improve conditions for children?-Uberaba/Brazil (2019): Food for the Future-São Luís/Brazil (2019): How to improve the Human Development Index of the State of Maranhão?-Manaus/Brazil (2020): Socio-Environmental Technologies for the Sustainability of the Amazon-Goiania/Brazil (2020): How to contribute to an Inclusive and Sustainable Society?-Pelotas/Brazil (2021): Accessibility and Assistive TechnologiesA total of 192 staff members have been trained by LAPASSION, and 226 students were directly involved and funded by LAPASSION for the 10-weeks experiences of multidisciplinary projects (185 from Latin America). More 211 students were trained with LAPASSION-base practices and without funding from the project during the last years.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) face nowadays new opportunities and challenges arising from the evolution of educational technologies and from the new professional profiles demanded by the labor market. MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have been an opportunity and a challenge at the same time, allowing new ways of lifelong learning, and the provision of quality and open education able to reach even the most disadvantaged groups. The technologies and experience gained through MOOCs are also being used to improve teaching on campus through SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses). However, the MOOC movement, which emerged in the US and was enhanced by Europe, has little impact in Latin America, as it can be seen by the fact that Latin American HEIs are barely represented in the major MOOC initiatives.The MOOC-Maker project proposes to build management capabilities of MOOCs (and SPOCs) in Latin American HEIs so that they can offer quality courses aimed at improving access to teaching and learning programs in Latin America, and developing in students the skills and knowledge required in the 21st century. To do so, the MOOC-Maker project will create an intercontinental network between Europe and Latin America, where the experience, best practices, and success cases from European partners will be the starting point. In the short term, this project will upgrade the educational offerings, teacher training and support services from HEIs in Guatemala, Chile and Colombia, improving their teaching on campus, encouraging lifelong learning of alumni, and contributing to equitable access to education. This effect will be transferred to the Latin American society as a whole, promoting the acquisition of updated knowledge and skills, and promoting the employability of young people.

By focusing on urban resilience, CARE addresses one of the most urgent topics in EU and Latin America (LA). Most LA countries are dealing with climate risk management issues, but they lack a holistic and common approach to resilience. International cooperation seems then the best-fit environment where to develop joint learning tools, go in depth on peculiar research and deliver support to policy makers. An urban resilience framework calls for a process that brings together diverse departments and sectors to identify appropriate measures, responses and recovery. It needs transversal competences, e-skills, creativity and flexibility. CARE aims to challenge those issues by promoting HEI staff’s and students’ interdisciplinary skills by developing innovative educational approaches to planning. Furthermore, it aims to bring the challenge within the core of urban municipalities by directly and indirectly training professionals and officers to shape resilient policies.To attain this goals, CARE proposes an alternation of desk activities and workshops aimed at the collective production, development, sharing, testing and dissemination of Open Educational Resources (OERs), based on the use of collaborative Conceptual Maps. Being publicly available on the CARE e-learning platform in English and Spanish, they are expected to empower programme courses in HEIs (CARE Cmaps) and provide targeted training for professionals, public officers, policy makers (Open Training Modules).CARE outputs will challenge the complex and interconnecting issues related to urban resilience. It will operate to transfer resilience conceptual issues into operational capabilities in local government, civil society and professional communities.Finally CARE aims at establishing a network among LA, Europe and outside, to improve their educational capacities on urban resilience, as well as to transfer CARE results and findings to an operational policy perspective at different territorial levels.