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Description
In an everchanging world that has become fragile from so many perspectives, a world wherein peace has become volatile due to a war that remains incomprehensible to many, including to those directly involved, there is a need for actions that can bring about positive, sustainable, long-term change.This project is meant as a continuation of the previous projects which so successfully shaped individuals and provided them with skills and knowledge to bring about change, no matter how small, in their communities and beyond since thy returned from their mobility with a European mindset which enables them to become active citizens. It is also meant as an extension of the inter-institutional cooperation in higher education between Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (TUCN) and other European universities, meant to bring challenging teaching-learning opportunities to academic staff and students alike. This project envisages mobility between our university and three Norwegian universities: Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Osfold University College (HIOF) in Halden, and University of Agder (UIA) in Kristiansand.This project will contribute to the enhancement of the quality of our studies in certain fields. The main objective of the project is to increase the number of mobile students in the fields mentioned above, yet not limited to these, as well as to exchange knowledge and good practices through staff mobility. The main target group of the project is the academic environment: students, academic, and administrative staff from within TUCN and the three Norwegian partners.The three Norwegian partners will facilitate access of their Romanian counterparts (staff and students alike) to the laboratory infrastructure and will coordinate research in the fields of interest. Participating students will have the opportunity to work at a high level in the fields of interest.
Summary of project results
When submitting the project proposal we had in mind the many ways in which the world had become more fragile than ever before, viz. global warming, climate change, drinkable water and food shortage, limited resources, energy crisis etc. To all these the threat of war across our border came as an extra challenge. And all these threats created a gruesome context which required immediate action to at least slow down the pace at which these events unfolded. It was within this context that today''s young generation had to activate and evolve, and we considered that the academic environment would provide them with the tools and the information which would enable them to come up with sustainable solutions for at least some of the above-mentioned issues.
This being a mobility project, we considered that it would offer students and staff the suitable framework to approach these issues together with like-minded people from the partner universities from the donor country, share their knowledge and expertise, and identify possible solutions.
The actual implemented activities were 3 student mobilities for traineeship, and 6 staff mobilities, of which 5 outgoing and 1 incoming. Through these mobilities we have succeeded in better understanding the respective educational systems, the respective cultural backgrounds; we each got a glimpse into how research is carried out in the respective country; our awareness of the challenges each faces, as well as the approach each had to solution-finding has increased multifold. All parties involved have gained knowledge about their partner, and this sharing of know-how and expertise has better equipped us for future cooperation. The connection established through these exchanges will be further exploited beyond the framework of this project in that our cooperation will continue with more scientific papers written in cooperation and more project proposals submitted by multidisciplinary international teams.
Summary of bilateral results
Being a mobility project with donor partners, it facilitated our access to resources and laboratories which would otherwise have been unavailable to our students or staff. The outgoing students and staff members have improved their level of understanding of the Norwegian higher education system and have gained invaluable field-related knowledge, while the incoming professor has got a clearer image of our educational system, of our facilities, and the manner in which we can work together in the future. For the time being, several scientific papers written collaboratively are being evaluated for publication. This project has greatly simplified the collaboration in this regard. Clearly the end of this project does not mean the end of the cooperation with these partners; the collaborative activities (research, writing of scientific papers, even mobilities) will be carried out in the future.