The overall goal of the ASTRA is to enhance the financial sustainability and to secure additional funding for promoting the research activities in the areas of ICT and Social Sciences in the four participating Universities from Laos and Thailand. The objective of the project is to support the operation of Higher Education Institutions in Laos and Thailand, by increasing their staff’s capacity for accessing financial resources through the exploitation of relevant donour-funded Research and Development Programmes and by offering state-of-the-art consulting support services to private clients. In practice, 4 Research & Development Innovation Centres will be established (one in each participating Partner university) for serving the above-mentioned purposes.
ASTRA during its 36-month duration, will:
- Conduct in depth desk and field research on the specific needs of governance, financing models and funding opportunities in the ICT and social science fields in the Higher Education environment of Laos and Thailand
- Develop and design a comprehensive blended training programme, to ensure that the HEIs and their competent staff are fully equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills and resources to manage and implement the fundraising strategy
- Organise a large-scale, capacity building programme, which will focus on the transfer of knowledge and expertise from the EU experts to the trainers of the four Universities from South East Asia.
- Set up of 4 new Research and Development Innovation Hubs (one in each University from Laos and Thailand), ensuring their sustainable operation and access to donor funded programmes
ASTRA at a glance
- One comprehensive blended-learning training programme on accessing and acquiring funds through donour funded Programmes
- 60 academic staff from Laos and Thailand trained
- Set up, organisation and operation of four new Research and Development Innovation Hubs (2 in Laos and 2 in Thailand)
- More than 500 academic and professional staff directly reached through dissemination and exploitation activities