Cluster meeting on permanent structures created by EU funded projects

 

The "projects' clustering" approach has been introduced by EACEA (the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency) in the 2016 Tempus and Erasmus+ CBHE Monitoring Strategy, with the aim of contributing to improving the impact assessment of the Programme/Action in a Partner Country and/or a specific thematic area.

 

In the framework of many Tempus/Erasmus+ projects implemented in Lebanon, specialised centres, offices of liaison, poles of innovation or students support services have been set up at national or institutional levels. The projects clustering meeting that is going to be held on May 18, 2017 aims at gathering all Tempus/Erasmus+ projects in which concrete/physical structures were built to see how much these established structures are still active and operational, how much they are overlapping within the institutions, if any, or at the national level, to measure their status as a sustainability indicator and to draw some lessons for future project designers as well as for the programme itself.

 

The meeting will specifically aim at:

 

• describing the actual operational situation of these structures after the closing of the projects that created them,

• sharing knowledge and promoting synergies between the projects with the aim of improving their quality and supporting their dissemination/sustainability efforts,

• identifying best practices and overcome common obstacles,

• avoiding overlaps between projects and structures,

• raising awareness among stakeholders about these structures,

• enhancing the Programme/Action overall visibility and impact,

 

19 projects involving 15 institutions have been identified for this clustering meeting and 4 types of structures have been observed.

The types of structures established in the framework of these identified projects (17 Tempus and 2 CBHE) can be categorised as follows:

✓ Centres for providing services to students, academics and researchers.

✓ Centres for developing studies, for innovation and QA.

✓ Centres of training on leadership, governance and internationalisation.

✓ Platforms for national or regional networking on different subjects.

 

Each institution will designate one person to present the state of play of all the structures established by the different Tempus/E+ projects. This will help us better organise the discussions during the meeting and better formulate our recommendations.

A programme for the Clustering meeting will be developed and in depth ideas for thoughts will be put forward.