Cultural heritage, origin products and biodiversity in rural areas are often underutilized or exploited according to short-term logics. SUS-TER addresses the need of developing specific knowledge, skills and abilities for the elaboration and support of inclusive and sustainable territorial valorization of these local resources. SUS-TER will develop a new interdisciplinary profile of “Territorial Enhancer” capable to activate and facilitate these processes of sustainable valorisation. He/she will be able to design and implement: - local forms of interaction between resources, society and local economy, applying a territorial development paradigm - local systems of governance of biocultural rural territories and associated knowledge and know-how- territorial marketing plans, applying methodologies that allow local enterprises to participate in markets competitively, sustainably and inclusively.This general aim will be pursued by means of the design, elaboration and testing delivering of an innovative course, based on the concepts of modularity, integration of theoretical and practical knowledge, blending of different learning methods, recognition within existing HEI curricula. Territorial laboratories will play a key role in the methodology, allowing for the integration of knowledge and practice by means of a learning space linking teachers, producers, entrepreneurs and public authorities. The course will be delivered at international level and within each university. It will be recognized by the Universities according to their institutional rules, as such or as part of existing curricula. The course and teaching materials will be in Spanish. Preliminarily, a specific training for academic staff will be carried out.SUS-TER will impact students and Universities, but also SMEs, NGOs, collective organizations, international, national and local development agencies, allowing for inclusive and sustainable processes of valorization of rural heritage.

Climate change (CC) has become a structural phenomenon which will imply severe and irreversible impacts. In this context, tourism has received increased attention as a high-energy and often environmentally destructive sector, significantly contributing to the pollutants that are causing CC. This is particularly true in many LA countries, where tourism is of undisputed importance for employment generation. It is clear that this sector must adapt, as must the research, teaching and training associated with it. HEIs have a role to play in innovating curricula related to tourism, so that it addresses CC needs and proposes dynamic solutions that graduates can bring to market. HEIs also have a role to play in continuous professional development, as most tourism professionals need upskilling to best address the changes in the sector caused by CC. CLIMAR aims to link inter-disciplinary research, innovation & knowledge transfer to HE curricular development and continuous professional training, so as to prepare the tourist sector to best face climate change and to mitigate its impacts. It targets specifically HEI in Colombia, Panama, Argentina and Mexico and has the following specific objectives:i) Support the creation of transnational and multidisciplinary research groups specialized in CC, Circular Economy & Tourism (CC&T), among HEIs from EU and LA and reinforce their capacities to increase regional knowledge on CC&Tii) Promote research-based collaborative teaching in CC&T, via the development of a transversal study module that can be inserted in different courses at the postgraduate leveliii) Enhance university-NGO-industry-public administration knowledge transfer so as to contribute to sustainable development and new employment opportunities, via a professional development course in CC&Tiv) Ensure sustainable academic relations and strategic partnerships among HEIs from EU and LA, based-upon multi-disciplinary approach

This is a project-based on cooperation between 5 European and 10 Latinamerican universities. The main objective of the Project is to integrate social innovation in academic curriculum and learning environments in Latin American Universities to promote quality improvement in academic programs through fostering competence to solve regional social problems. This implies: 1. Design and apply educational models to promote competences on social entrepreneurship and social innovation amongst university students.2. Design and offer academic strategies to develop competences on social entrepreneurship and social innovation.3. Design valuable methodological tools for academic programs to improve understanding of the community`s needs and offer inclusive, sustainable solutions for detected problems.4. Design a monitoring system to evaluate curricular development on social entrepreneurship and innovation competences.5.Design and implement institutional policies and programs for administrative, academic and support management to promote social innovation in Latin American Universities.6. Create alliances between Latin American and European Universities interested in promoting social entrepreneurship.7. Support existing social incubators in participant universities to improve links between educational tools and students learning process to foster creativity and sustainability in social projects.With these activities, the Project will achieve short and long term impact at four different targets: institutions, teachers, students, external/Social Stakeholders. Then, the Project has some specific key indicators that serve to review the progress and the impact of the actions:1.Reporting the state of art of Social Entrepreneurship in participant institutions2.Guidelines of competencies on social innovation. 3.Toolbox for teaching social innovation including methods for working with different external stakeholders (NGO’s, Companies, Communities) 4.Selection and Confirmation of pilot courses and teachers that will implement social innovation methods or activities inside their courses. 5.Teachers’ participation in the training program on how to design and implement social entrepreneurship within selected courses during the pilot period.6.Implementation and monitoring of pilot projects7.Identification and early development of institutional support actions to enhance innovation and social entrepreneurship in HEI. 8.Results and impact of pilot projects To accomplish this, there are seven important moments or milestones in the project. 1.Kick-off meeting- Mexico (Starting Point, Clarification on Tasks & Expectations)2.Valencia meeting (Progress and Difficulties of the Project)3.Teachers online training (Expectations)4.Porto Alegre’s meeting (Satisfaction and Usefulness)5.Pilot’s implementation (Progress and Difficulties)6.Talca’s meeting (Results and Impact, this meeting changed from the city of Talca to Bgotá). 7.Final Meeting (Results and Impact)By now, we have passed through all the moments mentioned above covering 8 key indicators listed before. There were changes to some of the actions conceived at the beginning. These changes were discussed with the Steering Committee, as part of our internal quality measures; and later, were discussed with our Project Officer, to grant here authorization. The changes imply an improvement in the impact and the results of the project. The previously expected impact was: the implementation of a methodology in SI and SE in 20 pilot courses, 450 students implicated, 55 trained teachers, the reinforcement of social incubators in the participant universities with an impact in the communities, and the implementation of measures for the mainstreaming of social innovation. The final impact overpassed these numbers: 70 courses, 1614 students, 56 teachers trained.

Climate Labs seeks to strengthen the applied research and innovation capacities of ten partner universities from Mexico, Brazil and Colombia through the design and implementation of Social Innovation Labs for mitigation and adaptation to Climate Change. In a network with Universities from Spain, France, and Italy, plus Ashoka as a non-academic expert partner, the project seeks to build interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder labs that will institutionalize the applied research and innovation for climate change in the territories the partners are inserted. In a term of three years, the project expects to train scholars, students and staff members in Latin America, who will form changemaker leader teams, design and implement labs according to the needs, strengths, challenges and characteristics of the institutions and territories they serve. In this period, each university will also implement a pilot project, get connected with international relevant networks as well as other national institutions, build the physical and virtual infrastructure of the lab, and develop strategies for the sustainability and scalability of the project. The project seeks, ultimately, to build strong and connected areas of innovation and applied research within universities impacting in the overall capacities and strategies of the partner countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

"With the capacity building project ""DigiUGov"", the project partners aim to make a significant contribution to an inclusive digital transformation at universities in Colombia, Mexico and Europe. By supporting (early stage) researchers, digital teaching and research will be strengthened locally, internationally connected and finally consolidated through the establishment of corresponding structures and governance mechanisms at the participating institutions. With the same objective, the digitalizationof the university administration will be promoted through international exchange and adequate consultation formats. Science managers and representatives of the various status groups at the participating universities are being recognised as key players and their competences are being strengthened. The systematic engagement of civil society actors and relevant companies in the exchange formats and in the implementation projects ensures that the project goals set are accurately and that they can be adapted to the needs of the situation during the project. The capacity-building goal of the project is to enable the establishment of sustainable structures at the partner institutions by involving and activating these groups and through pilot projects."