Engineering has a pivotal role to play in solving humanitarian challenges, enabling communities to progress towards sustainable development. Because the issues of humanitarianism are not just engineering problems, there is need to introduce new designs of engineering education to embrace and exploit combinational expertise in community-based engineering. ENHANCE aims at nurturing humanitarian attributes through engineering education for serving unsupported communities effectively and responsibly, in identifying problems and defining sustainable solutions. The novelty of ENHANCE lies in integrating highly diverse, yet complementary, expertise in engineering Higher Education (HE). The objectives of the project involve: (a) mapping professional attributes for mitigating humanitarian challenges over the next 15 years; (b) assessing and evaluating current graduate engineering programmes in Partner Institutions under the enablers needed to ensure humanitarian attributes to graduates; (c) setting up tools for evaluating graduate engineering programmes; (c) building capacity in the field of community-based engineering with interventions in curriculum content, assessment and feedback, methods of delivery; (d) tasting, adopting and implementing in current curricula innovative (i.e. inclusive, interdisciplinary, problem-based) teaching and learning methodologies; (e) developing and testing the ENHANCE Training Kit for staff development/training. Outputs of the project will be disseminated to audiences from HE educators and students in the partner countries; modern media (podcasts, video’s, etc.) will be utilised to share insights with a wide audience. ENHANCE will allow us to ensure advancement of community-based engineering directly to a range of Official Development Assistance (ODA) recipients and to instigate longer-term developments with beneficiaries and end users. Nevertheless, outputs of this project will be applicable to many other countries facing global challenges.

The general objective of SMARTEX is to support the modernisation and internationalisation of Higher Education Institutes in Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan, in the context of the priorities identified in the New EU Consensus in Development and the EU Higher Education in the World. SMARTEX will also contribute to the cooperation between EU and Asian countries through joint initiatives and sharing of good practices. The aim of the project is to improve the level of competencies and skills in Asian HEIs by reforming bachelor degree programmes, which will bring national education systems up to the EU standards level and enhance competitiveness of graduates in the labour market. The specific objectives of the project are:1. To analyse the competences necessary for graduates of textile engineering and related faculties bachelor studies in Asian universities as far as technical and smart textiles are concerned.2. To update the curriculums of Asian Universities, by developing new or updating existing courses in textile engineering and related faculties bachelor studies. 3. To integrate innovative teaching/learning methods into the reformed curriculum of Asian Universities.4. To develop learning material for the new and updated courses and their correspondence to ECTS.5. To promote the internationalisation of Asian HEIs by implementing international exchanges of staff and students. 6. To build capacity of academic and administrative staff of Asian HEIs by training them in European HEIs7. To enhance the competitiveness of Asian HEI graduates in the labour market with the organisation of national and international internships in companies.

This project aims to adapt existing or create new Master of Science Programs in South East Asia Countries aiming at energy supply optimization focusing on Isolated Areas, such as unelectrified areas, island systems etc. Education on various aspects of Energy Supply covering Energy Management, Renewable Energy Sources (RES) utilization, Energy conservation, Intelligent materials application to energy sector and Demand Side management have become a reality on both EU and partner countries. Mastering Energy Supply focusing on Isolated Areas (MESfIA) emphasizes on meeting the need for systematic training on the aforementioned issues for application on the fragile environment of isolated areas. MESfIA main goal is to improve the capacities of the students and teachers of Partner Countries to apply specific skills for the efficient energy supply of isolated areas. This is in line with the needs of these countries where the unelectrified areas are rural areas and according to IEA unelectrified population exceeds 50 million people. MESfIA consortium will prepare a detailed planning of training cycles including scheduling and effort management for the implementation of training courses that will be run in each Partner country. The scope is to provide postgraduate training for Electrical, mechanical engineers and technicians so that they can realize and cope with the difficulties in Isolated Environments and the associated peculiarities with energy management on such systems even in stronger power systems. Apart from knowledge, MESfIA will aid in the legal establishment of recognized MSc titles so that their students can take advantage of participation in applying for jobs in regions with relatively low electrification level and many islands.Within this procedure MESfIA will aid in establishing EU-Asia co-operation at regional level-island regions as common problems require common solutions. This will be sought via workshops, conferences and well defined extovert actions.

Volcanoes are complex systems that transfer magma from deep storage zones to the surface through a set of dykes and conduits. At each level, numerous coupled phenomena modify the chemical and physical properties of the magma and the state of the surrounding medium, producing geophysical and geochemical signals that may be detected at the surface. In the case of andesitic volcanoes, magma reaches the surface as lava flows, domes that may destabilize gravitationally or explosively to form nuées ardentes (pyroclastic flows) that travel many kilometers along the flanks of the volcano or via vertical explosive columns of fragmented magma. These different eruptive styles generate drastically different human, structural and environmental impact. In order to improve our understanding of these magmatic processes and their interplay with eruptive dynamics, DOMERAPI project proposes a multi-disciplinary approach that involves and integrates petrological, geochemical and geophysical methods. This strategy is quite appropriate to understand complex dynamic systems where any individual technique would give only a narrow and limited perspective. DOMERAPI includes analysis of existing data, but also designs new and novel field observations and innovative laboratory experiments. As a major objective, results obtained by different disciplines will be integrated in numerical conduit flow models and interpreted in terms of physical processes, to assist in eruption forecasting and eruptive scenario definition on volcanoes forming lava domes. This project is focused on Merapi, the most active volcano of Indonesia, a target relevant in the framework of the CNRS/INSU “site instrumenté” VELI (Volcans Explosifs Laboratoires Indonésiens) and scientifically exceptionally challenging after the paroxysmal eruption of October-November 2010. Such a project provides the opportunity to investigate the transition between moderate and violent explosions related to dome growth and collapse and the long-term impacts of such an event on dome-forming type volcanoes. To reach that goal, the permanent monitoring system must be implemented with a dense multiparametric network of sensors with cutting-edge technology, making Merapi one of the best monitored volcanoes in the world. The results will have major implications for understanding magmatic processes, volcanoe monitoring, hazard assessment and risk reduction on other explosive island-arc volcanoes, such as the French volcanoes in the West Indies. This cooperative project brings together Indonesian and French research teams that are highly specialized in their own field, such as in volcano monitoring, experimental petrology, physical volcanology, geophysical structure imaging or numerical modeling of magmatic processes. It involves the four main French laboratories in this domain, which will reinforce the cohesion of this community and the synergy between the different disciplines of volcanology, a necessary condition to impulse volcanological research beyond the current state of the art. Associated American and German researchers will bring their scientific and technical expertise to this international exciting project. The partners are engaged in a common effort to pool their data and skills with the major objective of proposing an integrative model of Merapi’s eruptive behavior, one of the world’s most dangerous and populated volcano.

Bridging the skills gap for graduates is a key challenge globally and has a detrimental effect on both individual employability, local, national and regional growth and development. Both the EU and ASEAN are putting significant resources towards addressing the issue. Partner institutions have expressed a need for the activities planned in this project. In spite of the focus on development of professional skills development for employability in recent years nationally, regionally and locally (including several EU funded projects), the penetration rate remains low, particularly in STEM education.EASTEM will facilitate employability of STEM gradutes and enhance the quality of STEM education by bridging the skills gap through student centered competence development approaches, increase visibility and sustainability for institutional STEM education activities through the creation of 10 STEM Education centers and a sustainable STEM Education network. The project will also facilitate competence orientation of educational programs and increase university industry engagement Staff development in cascade format is used to address lecturer and student competence development. Sharing of good practices provide collaborative insights into partner institution contexts. All major teaching and learning materials will be made available in four languages (English, Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese)Outputs includeChange in attitude (Lecturers, students, institution)Inclusion of industry-based problems in teaching, Asian staff development sessions in student centered competence developmentAsian partners having developed and lead student focused test bed moduleFunctioning centers of Excellence in STEM education Increased visibility of STEM educationActive engagement with industry partnersAS partners staff development sessions for external partnersnational/international network of STEM Education centersUniversity strategy plans updated with focus on competence development