"Project aims to strengthen forestry higher education in Laos and Thailand based on the priority themes of ‘Sustainable forest management’ and ‘Forest restoration & rural livelihoods’; with the crosscutting themes of climate change mitigation & adaptation. Both countries have high levels of forest loss and degradation, and are highly vulnerable to climate change. Within this context, a key challenge for both countries are to make forest management more sustainable, socially inclusive, and to conserve and restore forests while providing development opportunities. Yet, their HEIs are inadequately equipped to provide the education services needed to address these challenges. Forestry students need to be trained not only in production forestry, but also in social, environmental, economic, and policy aspects. The project includes 2 Programme HEIs (UH & CZU), and 2 Partner HEIs each in Laos (SKU & SU) and Thailand (KUFF & CMU). Following the regional priorities, project aims to support modernization and internationalisation of Partner HEIs curriculum, and support the development of new teaching and learning tools (including MOOCs & open source ICT tools), innovative methodologies and pedagogical approaches. Expected Outputs:- 2 new MSc programs developed in Lao HEIs: ""Forest resource management"" and ""Rural livelihoods & forest environment""- 22 New courses developed, and 21 existing courses upgraded - Upgraded teaching material and equipment- 1 journal article published on forestry HE development in Laos & Thailand- Dissemination videos, posters, newsletters and leaflets produced.Expected Impacts: - Increased number of graduates with the knowledge and skills needed for sustainable forest management, forest restoration and rural livelihoods, climate change mitigation and adaptation- Improved management and conservation of forest resources for sustainability and livelihoods - Improved research capacity and engagement in international processes"

Lao PDR’s economic growth is based on natural resources and 78% of the population depends on smallholder agriculture for income and employment; which is however affected by hazards such as drought, flood, erratic and more intense rainfall. It is thus vital for agriculture to develop resilience to climate change and ensure food security. Intelligent Geotechnologies (combining mapping, earth observation, geographic information systems and artificial intelligence) play a fundamental role in supporting sustainable and climate-resilient agricultural practices. The use of such essential instruments in Lao HEIs however is very limited or non-existent. The main objective of the project is, therefore, to build capacity on Intelligent Geotechnologies to confront the lack of pertinent knowledge and skills. The project’s main activities are: developing curricula, innovative courses, and training material, establishing a crop-type mapping framework, equipping laboratories, building training capacity, disseminating and ensuring the exploitation of the results.The geographical distribution of the 4 Lao PDR universities and 3 associated partners covers the entire country which is the essence of a national project. At least 52 HEI staff and 190 students and stakeholders will be trained during the project, and 1000 students and stakeholders will be trained within 5 years after the project; benefiting also 180 experts and policy-makers during dissemination workshops. The project will vitally contribute to the digital transformation in Lao PDR, indirectly benefiting the whole society especially the rural one.Four innovative modular courses on intelligent geotechnologies and their application on climate-resilient and adaptable agricultural practices, a methodological crop-type mapping framework, active engagement of students in field campaigns, e-learning tools, modern equipment, durably trained staff and aware stakeholders are the main results and outputs of INTEGRAL.

BRECIL is a project acronym for Building Social Research Capacities in Higher Education Institutions in Lao PDR and Malaysia. The project has a wider objective which is to develop human capital and facilitate individual learning and institutional mechanisms in Social Science research in higher education institutions in Lao PDR and Malaysia through research training and capacity building, including research governance, leading to sustainable high quality research, conditions for cooperation and potential for policy impact. In order to fulfil the general objective, the project has specific objectives with the first aiming at developing and empowering researchers in Social Sciences via training and peer learning to design, prioritize and undertake research, write up and publish research findings and inform policy. This objectitive is spesically designed to feed the knowledge transfer component and targets to be achieved within two years by September 2019.The second objective is to develop good governance of research by enhancing the capacity of research departments and teams in universities, to fund, manage and sustain themselves by September 2020. By that time, the partner country HEIS will be equipped with a research governance component and develop a better research management mechanism in their respective universities.The final objective is to create a sustainable research capacity building programme in Social Sciences including the utilization of ICT technologies leading to sustainable high quality research, conditions for cooperation and potential for policy impact by September 2020. This will bring the sustainability component throughout the project lifecycle. Therefore, it is clear that the wider, specific as well as the aim of the project are connected and rooted in the national documents on one end and on the other end, the realization of the project and project results will provide defined changes and provide platform for changes in specified fields.

Forests play an important role for Lao's economy and not only in rural areas. However, the continue degradation of forestry resources threaten the progress made in rural poverty reduction and food security. This situation translates into three key challenges for the Lao government:• To stop the degradation of forest resource• To make forest management schemes environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive• To conserve and restore forests while at the same time improving livelihoods and food securityThe government of Laos HEIs to be fundamental to become adequately prepared to respond to these challenges and to achieve a sustainable socio-economic development. Improving the quality of forestry higher education remains one of the highest priorities in Laos however, several issues hindering progress: • Lao’s forestry higher education system is still at an early stage, and inadequately prepared to effectively handle the enormous challenges• There is a strong regional disparity in forestry higher education. Particularly, post-grad courses are only available in the capital city Vientiane• The limited and centralized options for post graduate studies make it difficult for the universities to build their own human capital in the forestry sectorThe aim of the project is to strengthen the forest-related higher education system in Laos to improve domestic capacity to sustainably manage forests for the benefit of the people and the environment, while at the same time enabling Laos to effectively respond to the demands and opportunities of international processes such as the Agenda 2030 (SDGs) and Paris Agreement on CCKey outcomes are:- Upgrade and further internationalization of the MSc program at NUoL - Accredited new MSc program at SKU - Roadmap for developing a new MSc program at SU - Upgrade of teaching and academic tools in Lao HEIs- Institutionalisation of traineeship programs in at least 2 Lao HEIs- Enhanced S-S & N-S-S cooperation among HEIs

The most important challenges facing the Laotion universities is to set up appropriate structures (IROs) and harmonise internationalisation practices as proposed by the Ministry of Eucation and Sport of the People Democratic Republi of Laos. This harmonisation should include the sharing of basic and current practices, long established already in countries belonging to the European Higher Education Area, which could facilitate the exchange of students and academic staff, the development of joint projects or other international activities. Also the project general objective aims at increasing the academic quality and research activities of universities in the PDR of Laos through the development of internationalisation capacities. The specific objectives are: -To consolidate Internationalisation structure, & build human capacities of HEIs by means of targeted training programmes in 5 HEIs;- To accompany the governance reforms of MoEs and enhance international networking through strategic actions in key areas of the Laos higher education system.The OPEN project will achieve the above-mentioned general and specific objectives by achieving the concrete following outputs: 1. Increased cooperation and sharing of good practices via the needs analysis and Institutional Building. 2. Strengthening of Internationalisation of higher education system through the promotion of HEIs governance reforms. 3. Enhancement of managerial and administrative staff capacities in dealing with internationalisation issues.4. Establishment of a National Network. 5. Increase public awareness and understanding of Internationalisation.