The Free Network project is a Joint Action to be implemented in Central America. Its general objective is improving business opportunities for research-based entrepreneurs, promoting spin-off services in Higher Education Institutions and strengthening the innovation ecosystem in Central America. The FREE Consortium identified a lack of institutional regulations supporting the creation and development of spin-off, and the absence in most of the Central America universities of specific units with qualified and skilled staff. As consequence there is a very limited capacity to exploit the research results coming from academic/research staff and students. In this context FREE proposes facilitating the creation and development of spin-off companies. The project specific objective is the creation and modernisation of spin-off support services within 12 CA Higher Education Institutions through institutional and capacity building and the use of a regional network and platform.The FREE Network activities, implemented by 12 CA HEIS and 3 EU HEIs, will include: - in-depth needs analysis on research-based entrepreneurship in PC will provide a good insight of the situation of the CA HEIs in terms of spin-off regulations and units supporting research-based entrepreneurs;- capacity building for Innovation Support Offices (ISO) staff;- creation/adaptation of ISOs with appropriate institutional legislation, qualified HR and relevant infrastructure for providing spin-off support services;- creation of a regional platform for transferring good practices and exploiting synergies at regional level; - an ambitious disseminating and exploitation strategy of the project outputs;

MEANING will be implemented in Central America, and specifically in El Salvador and Guatemala as a Joint Action under category A-Curriculum development in the field of Engineering.The main project objective is to enhance the modernisation of the Higher Education sector and to increase student's employability in the field of Industrial Engineering in El Salvador and Guatemala This will be achieved by means of developing/implementing an innovative and high quality (in compliance with national/EU standards) Master Programme in Industrial Engineering, with three relevant specializations (Robotics, Telecommunications & Computer Sciences), for Salvadoran and Guatemalan students, but also beyond.The project has been defined with a logical sequence of complementary and interlinked activities (preparation, development, sustainability, quality, dissemination & exploitation) in order to face the challenges identified by the consortium in the proposal drafting step and with the aim of satisfying their real needs. Basically there is a considerable number of students at PCs enrolled in Engineering related studies; however their competences are limited, due to the fact that the current study programme offer (where theMaster level is almost inexistent) is not fully aligned with the real needs of the labour market, especially in the area of Industrial Engineering, a growing economic sector of high importance for partner countries.

The PROFIC project will explore the topic of Intercultural competence curriculum development through professional development and pedagogical testing in higher education institutions in Latin America. Intercultural competence (a set of abilities for successfully dealing with different cultures and diversity) is one of top 10 graduate competences needed for the modern labour market. Universities are expected to provide their students with the competence to deal with different cultures and use the cultural diversity of their surrounding as an advantage for innovation. However, this task is put on academic and administrative staff, who might not have all the necessary skills to tackle rising diversity challenges or to support development of intercultural competence in their teaching. Studies and previous research experience show that, on the one hand, academic and administrative staff in universities might need to develop a higher level of intercultural competence themselves. In order to competently deal with such complex cultural challenges the PROFIC project will investigate, develop and test a holistic, customized, flexible and reflective professional and curriculum development programme that would provide LA HEI’s with increased knowledge, awareness, skills, attitudes and tools to be an intercultural competent professional (Region 8, priority 1). Moreover, through the use of work-integrated learning supported by technology enhanced learning and use of mobile technology and development of Open-Educational Resources (OER) Toolkit to support staff in integrating IC in their curriculum, the project will also address (Region 8, Priority 3) of New technologies in higher education. Therefore, the PROFIC project is committed to developing a learning programme and related OER tools a step change in how intercultural competence is perceived and tau at the individual, institutional, national and international level.

In El Salvador the link between labour market and Higher Education Institutions (HEI) is still week. The market has low level of trust in HEIs as serious partner in solving technical and technological or any work-related problems, but also cannot see their role in creation of skill and knowledgeable graduates who are fit for employment. The main aim of the project is to improve competences of higher education graduates in El Salvador through development of generic model of dual education (DUALELS model) and legal and strategic framework for introduction of dual education on order to support different needs and interests of students, companies, higher education institutions (HEIs) and to provide recommendations to HEIs for implementation of dual education in El Salvador. The model will be implemented as a pilot test at seven universities in El Salvador.The overall aims of the project are•Improvement of competencies of higher education graduates in El Salvador according to the needs of employers, •Increase motivation to study as well as to improve the employability of graduate students,•Enable students from lower income families to access higher education, and•Improvement of legal and strategic framework in El Salvador to adapt to dual higher education.