Transforming Latin America cities through knowledge and education
The aim of the project is to strengthen capacity for Smart Sustainable Cities (SSC) development, improving que quality of education in Latin America and develop a network for cooperation among the partners from different regions in the world.
Although the Smart Sustainable City (SSC) is concept that has gained great attention in Latin America, there is still a need for improving and developing new teaching and learning tools, as well as new curricula in all levels of education process in the field of SSC.
Objective
Considering the gap between the capacities needed for SSC and the competencies that have been taught in the HEI level – the project aimed to build new education programmes to address specific competencies required for governance of SSC in Latin America, providing new skills for graduates and access to international market.
The main objectives of the project are to strengthening and building capacity of selected academic institutions located in cities in Latin America and Europe for:
- Improving the quality of higher education in the field of SSC, enhancing its relevance for the labour market and society at large
- Increasing the competencies in developing countries in Latin America to address the challenges of the digital world
- Continued development of competencies in SSC through training and education programmes
- Multi-disciplinary problem-oriented education and teaching on SSC
- Developing a network for cooperation among the partners from different regions of the world
- Collaboration with associate partners, city administration, businesses and other SSC stakeholders
- Knowledge, experience and good practices sharing and joint initiatives on SSC between academic partners located in different cities and countries and across Europe and Latin America, all supported by their local SSC ecosystem.
Duration and partners
Duration: November 15, 2018 to November 14, 2022
Partners: 12 partners, 4 from Europe and 8 from Latin America:
- Danube University Krems (DUK), Austria (Coordinator)
- Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
- Technological University of Delft (TU Delft), The Netherlands
- Gdansk University of Technology (GUT), Poland
- Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS), Argentina
- National University of La Plata (UNLP), Argentina
- Facultade Meridional (IMED), Brazil
- Pontificia Universidade Catolica of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Brazil
- Externado de Colombia University (UEC), Colombia
- Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería Julio Garavito (ECI), Colombia
- Universidad Católica del Norte (UCN), Chile
- Technical University Federico Santa María (UTFSM), Chile
Funding
Funding source: Erasmus + – KA2 – Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices – Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education.
Project Number: 598273-EPP-1-2018-1-AT-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP
Agreement/decision number: 20183538
Budget: Total budget 999 826,00 € (contractual) and 827 316,75 € (Declared). – within the total budget, 96K € were for TalTech
Final results of the project
The project results include identifying 93 competencies for SSC through stakeholder workshops with 300 experts, which were used to suggest a library of 31 university courses (suggested syllabus and content). In addition, the trainings delivered reached 237 academic and administrative staff. Eight teaching cases with a focus on LA were created. A 6-week MOOC was created and had 1147 learners. Above 500 students were reached through the implemented courses. A joint Master Programme was accredited. The dissemination events had over 1000 attendees in total.
Sustainability and Responsibility
The impact of the project will be sustained by (from project proposal):
- Developing new curricula to be adopted by the HEIs
- Establishing a network for cooperation among the partners to share the diverse expertise developed or reinforced during the project
- Providing long-term access to the e-learning platform (MOOC) including all developed content and teaching and learning tools
- Applying for the Key Action 107 for exchange of student and staff in both ways (Europe and Latin America)
- Providing an environment for international mobility for students to the countries of the project
- Applying for the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master by several members of the consortium
- Developing partnerships between project partners and their associated partners concerning the ongoing provision of competencies and decision-making support for the implementation of SSC strategies, that should remain after the project is completed.
The role of FinEst Centre for Smart Cities
In this project, jointly with other partners, the Taltech was responsible for preparing and executing the tools for capacity building in the Latin America in the field of smart cities. These tools, among other things, include hands-on workshops for training the Latin-American researchers and lecturers and preparation of joint R&D projects. Taltech was directly responsible for the WP6 Implementation of specialized courses (Continuous education programme) and Co-leader for the WP7 Quality Assurance and Sustainability. Specific tasks are:
- Lead the Task 2.1 (Development of Smart Sustainable Cities roadmap)
- Support with the content development (T2.3) on WP2 (“Development of training modules”)
- Support on the Dissemination activities
- Lead the Task 9.2 on the implementation of the IT platform for project management
Coleader of the Quality and Monitoring activities (Quality Assurance and Sustainability Work Package – WP7). The core of this WP is to monitor how teaching content, tools and materials are developed within the consortium, to evaluate the content and progress made, and to provide on-time feedback to project partners and the European Commission.
