TNE - Engines

The recent exacerbation of economic and environmental inequalities due to COVID-19 pandemic highlighted on one side the present fragility of the socio-economic ecosystems and on the other side the need to support higher education institutions and systems in playing their fundamental role for socio-economic recovery, growth and prosperity. The growing North-South divide, the ageing and demographic change, the climate change impact, the social exclusion and poverty, the inequalities and migration flows, the digital divide, the growing loss of confidence in democratic institutions at national and international level, require the development of innovative research and technologies and new and clever methods and processes of social innovation mechanisms. Universities have a double role in coping with the present challenges:

1- as education providers, they prepare professionals and future decision makers with the needed competencies and new skills for a quickly changing job market and society, as well as support green and sustainable economic recovery linked to the UN Agenda 2030

2- as employers, they must be able to make the due changes in their policies for creating the preconditions for ensuring inclusive education, equality, non-discrimination and civic engagement for the whole academic community.

Italian HE system proved to be fully engaged in this compulsory transformation and committed to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, promote LLL opportunities for all and achieve the key objectives of UN Agenda 2030. Education is a key gateway out of poverty (SDG1), a precursor to fair, responsible and sustainable industrialization (SDG9), and creation of decent jobs for all (SDG8). Education delivered fairly helps to break down inequalities (SDG10) and provides the future policy makers and professionals with the knowledge and capacities to ensure availability of water (SDG6) and affordable energy (SDG7) and make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable (SDG11). Several reports highlight how more than half of children that have not enrolled in school and a quarter of the global illiterate population live in sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, the geographical target of the ENGINES project is the Africa Continent, with focus on the sub-Saharan region, the Mediterranean and the Middle East countries for the deep interlinkages, entanglements and exchanges with Italy and among them. These areas have different socio-economic characteristics but share a high rate of unemployed young people and a low presence of women in the workforce. Thus, promoting the Italian model in these countries, through an increased mobility of students and staff, will help the Institutions of both shores of the Mediterranean Sea to improve the capacity to play their role in the society.

The General Objectives are: • To provide guide and support to both Partners and Associates for a new vision of HEIs global role and for their transformation to become more relevant, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and socially responsible.

• To re-think, in strict cooperation with the Associates, the three fundamental missions together with an efficient and effective alignment of university governance structures and operational policies.

The fields on which the project will develop its strategy are the STE(A)M subjects, for the specific interest expressed by the Associates, their strong innovation capacity, the increasing interlinks with Arts intended also as cultural heritage preservation and enhancement. Specific Objectives are:

• Increase the quantity and quality of the exchange programmes of students (+20%)

• Increase the attractiveness of the Italian HE system, as provider of quality and inclusive education (+10% of students and staff from Institutions with less experience)

• Increase the Associates’ knowledge of the Italian universities, the teaching methods and the services provided to the academic community (10% agreements increase)

• Learn together how to improve the nature of the institutions in terms of public service and good and their capacity to balance local and global demands (number of innovative initiatives jointly planned)

Importo totale finanziamento: 1.924.597,23 € 

Importo totale UniUrb: 215.968,80 € 

Struttura UniUrb di riferimento: Dipartimento Scienze Pure e Applicate (DiSPeA)

Referente UniUrb: Prof. Alberto Renzulli