The OPEN-ASIA project`s proposal aims to support the digital economy and connectivity in the India and Malaysia (PCs) by advancing the implementation of Open Science principles and values considering the best practices of the European Union and needs of socio-economic environment in both PCs. A coherent regulatory approach is needed to support private and public investment in the ‘digital’ infrastructure, as well as policies and incentives to bridge the digital divide, particularly in remote regions. The academic community in PCs have recognized the importance and advantages of open science principles, which is manifested through the numerous initiatives undertaken by the government bodies, faculties, libraries, and journal publishers. However, in the absence of coordination, compromise on standards, and a solid legislative support, these initiatives seem isolated and ineffective from the global point of view. Project aims to improve institutional OS policies and practices through a series of bylaw changes that will prepare researchers for the labour market and society by facilitating their career development. Further, it will enhance their level of competences through a series of practical trainings in transversal and transferable skills. Thus, it will harmonize the digital transformation of university research potentials and foster regional cooperation in the ASIA region converging with EU developments in higher education sector.Bottom-up innovations by pioneers, paralleled by top-down OS incentives and policies, are crucial steps in the direction towards change. However, wide-scale adoption of OS practices requires a culture change that leads to normalization among members of the scientific community. The network of local OS-Hubs can overcome these challenges. Hubs will play a central role in identifying obstacles that hinder scholars in opening up their workflows, hence providing the needed support to foster culture change at the university level.

MYSUN is a NATIONAL STRUCTURAL ACTION in Malaysia which aims to promote university campuses as “living laboratories” for sustainability and energy efficiency by strengthening the partners’ capacities and creating a national-level framework that will support other Malaysian HEIs in developing a sustainable culture on their campuses. Fully in line with the Erasmus+ priorities of improving management and operations of HEIs, and backed by the Malaysian Ministry of Education, this framework (including a national network & policy recommendations) will support the entire Malaysian HE system in achieving its sustainability objectives. The initiative fits in both with the Malaysian government's on-going efforts in sustainable development, and the needs identified in the 8 PC HEIs for external support for increasing their capacities and the foster collaboration at a national level. Specifically MYSUN aims to• Build the human capacities in university campuses’ sustainability & energy efficiency in Malaysia;• Develop a platform to promote and support a culture of sustainable HEI campuses in the Malaysian HE system through the establishment of the MYSUN Network and the delivery of a pilot MOOC on sustainability in HEI campusesIt will achieve this through a series of actions centred on1) Analysis & Training (analysis of Malaysian HEI campus sustainability practices to identify training & institutional needs; training delivered through ToT workshops, seminars and a pilot MOOC)2) Institutional Strengthening (through Sustainability Offices, Sust. Campaigns & Sust. Plans)3) Strategic Development at National Level (through local roundtables, + national workshops & conferences org. by national MYSUN Network)4) Ensuring high-quality, visible and on-time + on-budget results

The Postgraduate Micro-Credentials for Food Security and Climate Change (PMC FSCC) aims to deliver learner-centered short-term courses, through micro-credentials to address food security and climate change concerns. Led by Kasetsart University, the project partners include 9 other beneficiaries and one affiliated entity in Southeast Asia and 2 beneficiaries in Europe. The project tasks are grouped into 5 Work Packages: Project Management and Coordination, Micro-credentials Development and Training, Micro-credentials University Policy and Quality Plan, Monitoring and Evaluation of Microcredentials, and Communication and Dissemination. 9 of the project partners, including 2 from EU, have previously worked together to develop a Joint Master of Science program in Food Security and Climate Change, (MS FSCC) with co-funding from ERASMUS+ in 2016-2019. The current proposal intends to utilize advances in digital technologies to develop and offer online modules that will address the twin issues of food security and climate, through micro-credentials. Results of a needs assessment study and consultation workshop, with representatives from the agri-business sector, government, and non-government organizations will provide input to determine the learning outcomes. Simultaneous to the training for module developers and the actual writing and production of online content, there will be workshops to harmonize and institute university policies to support the establishment and recognition of micro-credentials. A system for the assessment and quality assurance shall also be developed and utilized in the pilot offering of the micro-credentials. Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms shall also be established for the program sustainability. Beyond the project’s lifetime, the developed PMC FSCC micro-credentials will be continuously offered by the universities under the regular programs of the UC.

-The project consortium consists of 11 universities from 8 countries in Europe and Southeast Asia. The project aim is to build competencies in digital transformation for higher education institutions in Southeast Asia by developing digital strategic plan, improve the quality of learning and teaching methodologies and pedagogical approaches for digital learning. This project seeks to meet the challenges from impact of COVID-19 where the quality of education in Lao PDR, Cambodia and Malaysia are affected. The motivation of the project encompasses the need of new capacities to better plan their campus digital infrastructure to prepare for delivery of digital education to ensure quality graduates are not compromised. This competency development in digital transformation includes the senior leaders, ICT managers and faculty members. These countries also in need to address the digital divide and to transform their industry workforce in digital economy which the preparation should start at the universities. The main outputs of this project are the institutional digital transformation plan and policy, training materials and Train for Trainers (ToT) for developing campus ICT infrastructure & digital learning management system, developing skills for designing digital content for delivering digital education, effective digital teaching, assessment and monitoring & quality assurance. For sustainability, a Open Educational Resource portal and learning training centres will be established in respective countries for all other institutions in Southeast Asia countries. The direct beneficiaries are all 5 universities in Lao PDR, at least 20 universities in Cambodia and 40 universities in Malaysia. The training is based on the results of the DX.sea Project and uses the materials created by an inter-disciplinary team from partner countries and Malaysia. The expected outcome is the ability of academic and non-academic to deliver quality digital teaching and learning effectively.

The over-arching goal of this project is to test the unanswered question of whether the functioning of tropical forest ecosystems-such as how much biomass they produce-depends on how diverse they are and therefore whether replanting degraded forests with diverse mixtures of species can accelerate their recovery and help fund replanting costs through carbon credits. Tropical forests are being lost all over the world and of the remaining area more is degraded secondary forest than undisturbed old growth. This degradation occurs largely through selective logging which has negative effects of the functioning of the forest (e.g. how productive it is and how much carbon it stores) as well as on its biodiversity. This is important because work outside of the tropics in ecosystems like temperate grasslands has demonstrated a positive relationship between biodiversity and a range of ecosystem functions, including primary productivity. However, the challenges of scientific research in the tropics mean we have much less evidence of whether there is a positive relationship between levels of tree diversity and aboveground biomass production in tropical forest ecosystems. Indeed, some ecological theory suggests that species in these ecosystems are so similar ecologically that many species could be lost with little or no impact on how these ecosystems function. Twenty years ago, we started a collaboration with local foresters, conservationists and scientists in Sabah (Malaysian Borneo) to set up a long-term experiment to test whether there is a relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in these tropical forest ecosystems. The project, the Sabah Biodiversity Experiment, is one of the world's largest ecological experiments, making it of particular relevance to real-world efforts to restore and sustainably manage tropical forests. The experiment has adopted the existing forest restoration activity of 'enrichment planting' to plant more than 100,000 seedlings of native tree species across an area of 500 hectares of logged forest, allowing the recovery rates of naturally regenerating control plots to be robustly compared with those planted with different diversities (1, 4 or 16 species) and mixtures of tree species. We will assess restoration progress relative to nearby old growth forest, especially the neighbouring undisturbed area where we have repeatedly mapped and measured every tree within a 50-hectare area (the Danum Valley ForestGeo Plot) as part of a global network to monitor forest health. The large size of our research plots means they are difficult to repeatedly monitor in fine detail using traditional field methods. We will therefore combine targeted field sampling with cutting-edge remote sensing technologies to explore how tree enrichment planting has shaped the recovery of canopy structure, aboveground carbon stocks and plant diversity across hundreds of hectares of degraded forest. Our project will take advantage of existing data acquired for our study sites using two complementary technologies: LiDAR and satellite remote sensing. Airborne LiDAR uses a laser mounted on an airplane or helicopter to precisely measure the height of the vegetation and reconstruct the 3D structure of the forest canopy and underlying terrain in exquisite detail, allowing forest carbon stocks to be accurately mapped across entire landscapes. To get a more detailed and longer-term picture, the project will also use freely available satellite timeseries data (Sentinel 1-2, Landsat 8 and PlanetScope imagery) to map annual changes in forest aboveground carbon stocks (using Google Earth Engine). In the final phase we will work with local partners including the Sabah Forestry Department on a cost-benefit analysis of forest restoration and communicate these results so that they can inform their local and regional management policies for the conservation and restoration of forests and the carbon that they store.