Partnership in Scientific Research, Innovation and Higher Education to promote cooperation, social cohesion, youth employment and sustainable development in the Western Mediterranean Region
The 5+5 Dialogue countries agreed on strengthening the potential of youth and gender balance, which is fundamental to the development and prosperity of the Mediterranean Region. They ensure full opportunities to access higher education and recall that training and professional integration of young people and job creation must remain a priority for projects within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Union for the Mediterranean, and in the context of the EU-Africa partnership.
Network of Higher Education Institutions within the 5+5 Dialogue
Lead country: Portugal and Tunisia
This action intends to strengthen the network of Higher Education Institutions within the 5+5 Dialogue Member Countries, by stimulating the discussion of qualitative and innovative aspects on effective management and institutional capabilities. Initiatives within this Action will cover, amongst others:
- Task 1. Creation of an online thematic cluster of HEIs within 5+5 Dialogue.
- Task 2. Collection of HEIs information on actions to support students beyond their academic cycle.
- Task 3. Dissemination of results and exchange of good practices emerging from good cooperation standards between HEI from the Western Mediterranean Region.
Quality Assurance and Blended Learning
Lead Countries: France, Mauritania, Morocco, and Spain
This new action aims to develop a new perspective and increase collaboration on quality assurance and blended learning in the scientific and higher education systems of the 5+5 Dialogue countries. The action consists of three main areas of activities:
- Enhancing the collaboration in quality assurance in higher education and scientific systems.
- Contributing to the definition and common understanding of blended learning.
- Challenges in the practice of “quality assurance and blended learning”.
Skills Development and Circulation of Talents: Blue Skills to feed Jobs in the Euro-Meditteranean Region
Lead country: Italy
Italy supports the initiative on enhancing capacities and developing skills for Sustainable Blue Economy in the EuroMediterranean region. The action aims at promoting technology transfer and knowledge exchange among the blue economy stakeholders including the involvement of the productive sector and industries and boosting transferable skills and promoting employability for young professionals. The initiative is focused on:
- Advanced Master Programme on Sustainable Blue Economy (a second-level university Master’s degree held in English) – Yearly edition;
- Summer School on Sustainable Blue Economy in the Mediterranean – Yearly training of trainers event;
- International mobility programme: multilateral scholarships to ease the circulation of researchers and talents, mainly for Ph.D. and Postdoc researchers;
- Professional traineeship: multilateral scholarships available for students and/or researchers hosted by partner countries (Training and Research in Partner’s Labs);
- Specific workshops and conferences: organisation of a minimum one thematic event (workshop or conference) on one main issue identified per year related to sustainable blue economy topics in the 5+5 Dialogue countries;
- Awareness and scientific communication for public outreach and citizen science;
- Online Platform management: for both the Blue Skills initiative portal www.blueskills.ogs.it and the official website of the 5+5 Dialogue for research, innovation and higher education at OGS Trieste https://www.fiveplusfiverihe.org/.
This action is fully supported financially by the Italian Ministry for University and Research (MUR) and implemented by the Italian National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS). It has been labelled by the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) in 2019 and received the Best Project Award for Skill Development and Circulation in November 2021 by the WESTMED initiative supported by the European Commission.