According to the survey of World Economic Forum [tinyurl.com/jzlr5le], Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is the one of the top technological drivers of change for future of jobs, employment, skills and workforce strategy in the 4th Industrial Revolution. According to Forbes prediction, embedded smart sensors, remote monitoring systems, big data, data analytics, and machine learning will be considered as the top 5 engineering skills in 2020 [tinyurl.com/jajppcp]. In order to prepare the society for such an enormous diversity, modernising Higher Education (HE) towards integrating IIoT skills for engineers is an extreme requirement.The main goal of the IoTRAIN project is to achieve the modernization and internationalization of higher education in Iran and Iraq, taking into account the huge changes introduced by Internet technologies in society and business, and to design, develop and enact teaching, peer-production and continuous improvement processes. IoTRAIN is particularly designed to target the growing demand of professional IIoT skills by enhancing the IIoT-related trainings in Iranian and Iraqis HE institutions (HEI). In this regard, IoTRAIN covers a careful analysis of existing and future technological gaps in IIoT and provides required trainings towards improving competitiveness of future Iranian and Iraqis engineers. IoTRAIN delivers an IIoT competence model consisting of the state-of-the-art skills in IIoT at the European and international standard levels. The provided model adopts up-to-date training materials of the European partners of the project and provides necessary high-level training with the aim of improving competitiveness of future Iranian and Iraqi. Furthermore, IoTRAIN delivers a Digital Engineering competence model consisting of the state-of-the-art skills in digitalization for engineers and experts following European and international standards.

GraDAna consists of 5 EU partners (3 top HEIs+2 SMEs) and 7 top Iranian HEIs. The involved Iranian HEIs lead research & education nationwide and are geographically balanced. The project seeks to foster HE cooperation between EU and Iran. It improves entrepreneurship and employability of Iranian HE graduates by elevating their competences in the emerging field of Data Analytics (DA). Involved EU partners have outstanding background in DA and related disciplines. GraDAna transfers know-hows, experiences and best-practices to Iranian HEIs through its sustainable international university-enterprise cooperation plans.GraDAna aims at:Exploiting Iran’s potentials in science and industry as a “terra incognita”, especially after the recent removal of long time sanctions and new cooperation agreements between Iran and EuropeansImproving entrepreneurship, employability and competitiveness of graduates through modernised trainings in DA and related disciplinesSupporting the 2nd largest unemployed group of graduates in Iran (IT sector) by enhancing their professional competencesAddressing “Iranian Governmental Policy on Developing Strategies to Support VET for HE Graduates”Proving the extrovert, multicultural and collaborative EU approach to globalizationSharing European expertise from internationally renowned HEIs and cross-fertilization with Iranian priorities in HEInclusion of regional business/industry stakeholders in the project events.GraDAna has strong impacts on:Capacity building in HRM through training and mobility of HE staff and graduatesAdvancing international competitiveness of Iranian IT sector by modernizing domain specific know-how in lines with European standardsStimulating successful entrepreneurship and economic growth in Iran by shortening the gap between HE & enterprises in IT sectorSustainable dissemination and exploitation of the project results in micro and macro levels through engagement of regional/national/international stakeholders.