The BERNICA project is aimed at fostering education and research capacities of the Central Asian region in the promotion of healthy nutritional habits in order to improve the health of the population. Ten Central Asian medical universities with the support of two European Universities will build local expertise in the development and running of innovative curricula in Nutrition & Dietetics in line with Bologna principles and ENQA standards through a series of training sessions. All Partner Countries’ universities will develop different future-oriented courses/modules with innovative learning scenarios targeted for the various auditorium – undergraduate, graduate students, working medical doctors, and nurses.European partners will share their knowledge and good practice with the purpose to Increase research and innovation capacities of target universities in this field.The fulfillment of the project activities will lead to fostering regional and international networks through joint initiatives, and sharing of good practices in education, research, and practice in Nutrition & Dietetics.

Aim of the project is to support the modernization, professionalization and internationalization of postgraduate training in the field of children care management in Central Asia (CA) Countries - Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - in cooperation with HEI from Italy, Germany and Poland willing to share their expertise and experience in the fields of Pediatrics, Pediatric Surgery and Child Neuropsychiatry postgraduate training. It’s a joint project organised as a feasibility study to become, if successful, a structural project for a sustainable and long lasting improvement in the organisation of postgraduate medical training in CA countries, not only in paediatrics but possibly also in other fields of medical care. By-product of the project will be to emphasise the importance of children care in the ongoing process of Health Care Reform in CA countries, thus contributing to reduce the infant mortality, through an updated approach to the modern techniques of neonatal and pediatric care, widely resorting on the tools made available by ICT. Outputs will be new curricula and new training strategies devoted to an integrated, holistic care of the child, harmonised with those adopted in EU countries and aiming to achieve the same results. To offer a solid and sustainable basis on which to ground these results, state-of-the-art ICT teaching and teleconferencing systems will be provided to all partners, with on-the-job training. Project’s preparatory activities of situation analysis and paediatric facilities census will also provide Governmental authorities an invaluable tool, offering a sound basis on which to build any future project of intervention on the health system and manpower devoted to the care of children in CA Countries.Ultimate impact will hopefully be a reduction in infant mortality and a substantial increase in life expectancy at birth for the populations of partner Countries, now living in average some ten years less than EU population.

The ultimate goal of this project is to enhance quality of medical/health education in the countries of Eastern Partnership (Georgia, Moldova, Belarus) and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan) through setting instruments and goals of peer review. 12 institutions in 5 partner countries will take an advantage of knowledge and expertise share from 2 institutions from Bulgaria and Lithuania. The relative uniformity of problems in higher medical/health education in partner countries are derived from the common past. Through different capacity building interventions, execution of peer reviews, knowledge sharing, laying foundation for sustainability and wider dissemination of project’s end products, we envisage the following results to be achieved: 1. Increased awareness on peer review process in academic and administrative domains in partner country institutions; 2. A Multinational Peer Review Board (MPRB) established; 3. Consistency of a continuous peer review process in partner country institutions achieved; 4. Capacity of faculty members and administrative staff in: a. conducting effective self assessment tasks; and b. peer reviewing their vis-à-vis increased; 5. An annual scientific-practical journal of “Peer Review in Medical/Health Education for Eastern Europe and Central Asia” (PRIMED-EECA) established; 6. The level of internationalization of HEIs elevated; 7. Awareness on project’s achievements among the key stakeholders increased. The project will ensure that the achieved results are sustainable and being exploited in the foreseeable future by establishing the above mentioned journal and an independent cross-national Peer Review Association for Medical/Health Education of Eastern Europe and Central Asia (PRAMED-EECA) aimed at: a. Providing a pool of highly qualified and readily available peer reviewers; and b. Assisting medical schools in the targeted regions in effectively preparing for international accreditation.