Capacity Building Project Research Articles

The potential role of lung microbiota and lauroylcarnitine in T-cell activation associated with checkpoint inhibitor pneumonitis

Checkpoint inhibitor pneumonitis (CIP) is a potentially fatal adverse event characterized by new pulmonary infiltrates in cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. This study aims to explore the interplay between lung microbiota, dysregulated metabolites, and host immunity in CIP. We recruited thirteen hospitalized CIP patients, eleven idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients, and ten new-onset non-small cell lung cancer patients. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples were collected for 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The percentages of immune cells were determined using manual counting and flow cytometry. Interactions among microbiota, metabolites, and lymphocytes were analyzed using cultured mouse splenocytes and human T cells. Proteobacteria emerged as the dominant phylum, notably abundant in both the CIP and IPF groups. Vibrio, Halomonas, Mangrovibacter, and Salinivibrio were the predominant microbiota because of their discriminative abundance patterns. Vibrio (r=0.72, P-adj=0.007) and Halomonas (r=0.65, P-adj=0.023) demonstrated strong correlations with lymphocytes. Vibrio metschnikovii and Mangrovibacter plantisponsors were more abundant in the CIP group than in the IPF group. Lauroylcarnitine, a key intermediary metabolite co-occurring with the predominant microbiota, exhibited a potent effect on cytokine secretion by mouse and human T cells, notably enhancing IFN-γ and TNF-α production from CD4 and CD8 cells invitro. Lauroylcarnitine, co-occurring with the predominant lung microbiota in CIP, could activate T cells invitro. These findings suggest potential involvement of lung microbiota and acylcarnitine metabolism dysregulation in the pathogenesis of CIP. This work was supported by Peking University People's Hospital Scientific Research Development Funds (RDJ2022-15) and Provincial Key Clinical Specialty Capacity Building Project 2020 (Department of the Respiratory Medicine).

Seeking the “best CLCs practice” in China: A case study based on a conceptual framework of education entrepreneurship

AbstractRural adult schools, implemented by Community Learning Centers (CLCs) as part of the Capacity Building Project, face inadequate and irregular funding in China. Moreover, these schools lack technical guidelines for project implementation, posing additional challenges. This study employed the “entrepreneurship‐impact” matrix conceptual framework to conduct a case study and identify best practices related to CLC operation. Revealed through the study is an educational entrepreneurship model for implementing CLC projects. Resources, regulations, and outsider technical support shape educational entrepreneurship, with all factors influencing project implementation through the mediation of entrepreneurship. However, this influence is conditioned by loosened regulation. This study concludes that best practices emerge only when external conditions favor entrepreneurship and suggests that greater attention should be directed toward fostering circumstances conducive to educational entrepreneurship.

Nurses' experiences of hospital‐acquired pressure injury prevention in acute healthcare services in Victoria, Australia: A qualitative study using the Theoretical Domains Framework

AbstractWe investigated nurses' experiences of hospital‐acquired pressure injury (PI) prevention in acute care services to better understand how PI prevention may be optimised. We used the Theoretical Domains Framework to systematically identify barriers and enablers to evidence‐based preventive practices as required by the International Guideline. This study was one element of a complex capacity building project on PI surveillance and prevention within the acute health service partners of Monash Partners Academic Health Science Centre, an accredited academic health partnership located in Melbourne, Australia. We adopted a qualitative descriptive design. We interviewed 32 nurses that provided care in intensive care units, general wards and COVID wards of four acute care services. Nurses were recruited from four large acute care services (three public, one private) located in Melbourne. Most of them worked with patients who were at high risk of hospital‐acquired PI on a daily basis. Interview transcripts were coded and analysed using thematic analysis guided by the Theoretical Domains Framework. The domains referred to most frequently by all participants included: Knowledge, Skills, Social/Professional Role and Identity, Beliefs about Capabilities, and Environmental Context and Resources. The key barriers discussed by nurses included gaps in nurses' knowledge and skills related to identification and staging of PI, heavy nursing workload and inadequate staffing levels, stigma and self‐blame related to PI identification, and exacerbating impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Main facilitators discussed were training programmes, nursing audits and feedback, and teamwork. Participants suggested improvements including accessible and tailored training, visual reminders, and addressing heavy workloads and emotional barriers nurses face. Investing in tailored training initiatives to improve nurses' knowledge and organisational changes to address low level staffing and heavy workloads are urgently needed to support nurses in delivering optimal care and preventing hospital‐acquired PI.

Community-engaged Research Partnerships as Healing Spaces for Health Professionals and Researchers

Abstract: Drawing from collective experiences in our capacity building project: Health Equity Activation Research Team for Inclusion Health, we argue that while community-engaged partnerships tend to focus on understanding health inequities and developing solutions, they can be healing spaces for health professionals and researchers. Data were obtained from a 15-month participatory ethnography, including focus groups and interviews. Ethnographic notes and transcripts were coded and analyzed using both deductive and inductive coding. Practices of radical welcome, vulnerability, valuing the whole person, acknowledging how partnerships can cause harm, and centering lived experience expertise in knowledge creation processes were identified as key characteristics of healing spaces. Ultimately, health professionals and researchers work within the same social, political and economic contexts of populations with the worst health outcomes. Their own healing is critical for tackling larger systemic changes aimed at improving the well-being of communities harmed by legacies of exclusion.

Reach, Adoption, and Implementation Strategies of a Telehealth Fall Prevention Program: Perspectives From Francophone Communities Across Canada.

Introduction. A fall may impact a person's physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. Fall prevention programs are being implemented to reduce these negative outcomes. However, linguistic barriers in health services may reduce access to such prevention programs. A telehealth fall prevention program was designed to increase access to such programs in French for Francophone minority communities in Canada. This capacity-building project aimed to support community partners to deliver this telehealth program and document strategies used to reach, adopt, and implement the program within various Francophone and Acadian Minority Communities. Methods. A sequential explanatory mixed methodology was used to document reach, adoption, and implementation strategies and describe the lived experiences of program facilitators and organization representatives. Reach, adoption, and implementation were documented and analyzed descriptively, while lived experiences were analyzed using content analysis following the Consortium Framework for Implementation Research. Results. Twelve organization representatives or program facilitators from eight organizations operating in four different provinces participated in the study. Three themes emerged from the qualitative data on reach and adoption: external context, internal context, and capacity building. Four themes were identified as barriers and facilitators to implementation: level of preparation and time management, interpersonal relations and telepresence, exercise facilitation and safety, and technological problem-solving. Conclusion. Using tailored reach and adoption strategies such as prioritizing provinces with higher proportions of needs and training local community program facilitators may lead to the successful implementation of a new telehealth fall prevention program. Results from this study could potentially inform other primary prevention programs or telehealth program implementation.

Critical Dialogue and Capacity-Building Projects Reduced Alcohol and Substance Use in a Randomized Clinical Trial Among Formerly Incarcerated Men

Background: Rates of alcohol and/or substance use (ASU) among residents of predominantly Black and marginalized communities are similar to ASU rates in White communities. Yet ASU has worse consequences in predominantly Black and marginalized communities (e.g., higher incarceration). Objective: We randomized participants to one of 16 intervention conditions using a 24 full factorial design to optimize a multilevel intervention reducing ASU among 602 formerly incarcerated men with substance-use-disorders (SUD). Candidate intervention components included (1) critical dialogue (CD; six weekly 2-hour-long group sessions vs. no CD sessions), (2) Quality of Life Wheel (QLW; six weekly 1-hour-long group sessions vs. no QLW sessions), (3) capacity building projects (CBP; six weekly 1-hour-long group sessions vs. no CBP sessions), and (4) delivery by a trained peer versus licensed facilitators. Outcome was percentage of days in which participants used alcohol, cocaine, opioid, and/or cannabis in previous 30 days. Results: Intent-to-treat analysis did not meet a priori component selection criteria due to low intervention attendance. After controlling for intervention group attendance (percentage of sessions attended), peer-delivered CD and CBP produced statistically and clinically significant main and interaction effects in ASU over 5 months. Per the multiphase optimization strategy framework, we selected peer-delivered CD and CBP for inclusion as the optimized version of the intervention with a cost of US$1,380 per 10 individuals. No adverse intervention effects occurred. Conclusion: CD and CBP were identified as the only potentially effective intervention components. Future research will examine strategies to improve attendance and test the optimized intervention against standard of care in a randomized-controlled-trial.

243 Community-Campus Research Incubator (CCRI) Grant Program: 13 years of partnerships improving community health

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: With the knowledge that population health will not improve without including community voices in research, analysis of the UCI Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS) Community-Campus Research Incubator (CCRI) grants awarded since 2010 provides the foundation for understanding research partnerships impact on community health. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Over the past 13 years, the UCI ICTS CCRI program has funded 63 partnered research pilot or capacity-building projects, providing up to $30K annually to academic-community partnerships. Each year since 2010, between 3 and 7 projects were funded up to $5,000 annually for capacity-building activities and up to $10,000 annually for pilot research activities. Additionally, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a collaboration between the UCI ICTS and the local Healthcare Agency provided up to $20,000 to research partnership teams to study impact and interventions related to the pandemic, where 10 CCRI awards were given out. Evaluations of these research teams was completed at the end of the project, and at years 2 and 3 after the project ended. Analysis of the projects and partnerships aim to reveal the impact of these projects. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: In 2023, we compiled all evaluation data collected from 2010 – 2023 from the CCRI partnership grants, including traditional metrics of publications, subsequent grant applications submitted & awarded, presentations given, and return on investment for ICTS granted funds. Less traditional metrics include number of students trained, new tools or databases created, knowledge disseminated, and advances in clinical care. Since 2020, Translational Science Benefit Model metrics have been collected on community, policy, economic, and clinical domains. Since 2015, data on each CCRI partnership has been collected at the start and end of each project, with questions about attributes of each partner, trust, community engagement principles, and anticipated/actual impact of each project. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Organizing outcomes from the data collected will provide deep understanding of important components, functioning, and types and reach of partnered health research. This understanding will inform future action of the CCRI program in terms of what can be accomplished with a given amount of funding, and the constitution of successful partnerships.

Emerging wireless communication technologies in Iraqi government: Exploring cloud, edge, and fog computing

This study aims to structure the implementation of a governmental cloud of things (CoT), edge computing (EC), and fog computing in Iraq in the context of sustainable wireless communication. A base of literature was built that included any challenges, opportunities, and best practices relevant to these innovative technologies to set up the background for this paper. A concept model was created that included core components (cognitive technologies and fog computing), key processes (resource analysis, infrastructure design), and stakeholders (governments, industry, community). A strategic methodology made up of stakeholder involvement, capacity building, and pilot projects was used in the project. Concerning IoT planned deployment and services provision, network infrastructure was put in place to support the devices and a higher level of security measures were recommended. Using scenario hypothesis, MATLAB simulator was employed to simulate data value distribution as well as received power distribution based on different institutions for 12 months. Monitoring and evaluation should be followed to measure performance indicators and effects on this process. Continuously improvement strategies were the highlight of the session which further stimulated innovations. Acquainted projects will be put in the function to extend the range of activities by including additional government agencies, regions, or sectors. Reporting of the collected data and funding will be done with stakeholders to share and pool knowledge.

Mapping Human Resources to Guide Ophthalmology Capacity-Building Projects in Honduras: Sub-national Analyses of Physician Distribution and Surgical Practices.

To map ophthalmologist locations and surgical practices as they vary sub-nationally within Honduras to maximize the impact of efforts to develop cataract surgical capacity. An anonymous survey was sent to all Honduran ophthalmologists with questions on surgical volume, department-level location, type of facility in which they work, surgical methods, and age. Surgical volume, population, and poverty data sourced through the Oxford Poverty Human Development Initiative were mapped at the department level, and cataract surgical rates (CSR; surgeries per million population per year) were calculated and mapped. Sixty-one of the 102 Honduran ophthalmologists contacted responded. Of those, 85% perform cataract surgery, and 49% work at least part time in a non-profit or governmental facility. Honduras has fewer surgical ophthalmologists per million than the global average, and though national CSR appears to be increasing, it varies significantly between departments. The correlation between CSR and poverty is complex, and outliers provide valuable insights. Mapping ophthalmological surgical practices as they relate to population and poverty at a sub-national level provides important insights into geographic trends in the need for and access to eye care. Such insights can be used to guide efficient and effective development of cataract surgical capacity.

Engaging Communities In Renewable Energy Projects For Sustainable Development

The pressing need to battle climate change and make the shift to sustainable energy sources has led to the emergence of renewable energy projects as critical solutions. While reducing the negative environmental effects of conventional fossil fuels, these programs hold up the prospect of clean, plentiful energy. However, the effective adoption of renewable energy into our world's energy system involves more than simply technological improvements; it also calls for the support and active participation of local communities. This study examines the value of community involvement and evaluates measures to strengthen local community to support renewable energy projects. With an emphasis on social acceptance, customized project design, and economic potential, the significance of incorporating local communities in the planning, implementation, and management of renewable energy projects are examined. The examination of capacity-building projects also reveals information about education and training activities, community leadership growth, technological transfer, and knowledge exchange. The advantages of combining resources, encouraging innovation, and promoting supportive policies are highlighted in the collaborative partnerships between governments, NGOs, business organizations, and local communities. Renewable energy projects may genuinely become engines for sustainable development by embracing community involvement and capacity-building, meeting local needs and aspirations while paving the path for a greener and more resilient future

Beyond The Nuclear Explosion Verification Monitoring, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Offers A Strong Capacity Building System Support

Purpose: The United Nations (UN) General Assembly, as part of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament measures to prohibit nuclear test explosions and any other nuclear explosions in all environments (in the atmosphere, oceans, and underground) adopted the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Thus, it ultimately enhances international peace and security. It is an essential step aimed at making the world a safer place. States that agree to sign on to this Treaty will be contributing to the protection of human health and the environment against nuclear test explosions and their severe impacts. This paper seeks to demonstrate that the CTBT beyond its global prohibition measure against all nuclear explosions, is offering a strong Capacity Building System support to State Signatories such as the Republic of Ghana. The CTBT global verification regime is built to monitor States Signatories compliance with the Treaty. CTBT Organization (O) through the International Data Centre (IDC) provides States Signatories with technical assistance to support their verification responsibilities to ensure effective global monitoring.
 Methodology: The Republic of Ghana through the Capacity Building project under the IDC technical assistance to States Signatories is a beneficiary of equipment support commissioned in July 2021. Under this project the GCI-III/VSAT equipment set was received from the IDC, establishing a new communication link for forwarding IMS waveform data from some selected stations in Africa in near-real-time to the National Data Centre – Ghana (NDC – GH). The IMS seismic data also contributes to prompt access to information on seismic events within our respective geographic territories globally, thus playing a complementary role.
 Findings: The monitoring data generated provides essential civil and scientific applications to greatly support to mitigate the effects of natural or man-made disasters. This is an example of what the CTBT is providing to Member States beyond the Treaty’s main purpose.
 Unique contributor to theory, policy and practice: It is therefore important for the international community to fashion out other multilateral agreements considering the possibility of incorporating the potential additional benefits States can derived from such agreements.

The Impact of Cl4STEM Online Community of Practice on Science and Mathematics Teachers’ Knowledge and Professional Development in Nigeria

Connected Learning for STEM (CL4STEM) is an innovative teacher capacity-building project piloted in Nigeria. It aimed at science, technology, engineering, and mathematics teachers’ capacity building to foster higher-order thinking with inclusion and equity (HOTIE) in their classroom practices. It adopted a model of mobile-based communities of practice (CoP) as one of the strategies for CL4STEM teacher professional development. Hence, this study investigated the impact of the CL4STEM project online CoP on science and mathematics teachers’ subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and professional practice for achieving HOTIE in their classrooms. The study adopted a survey research design involving documentary content analysis and a one-group pre-test-posttest design to collect qualitative and quantitative data to achieve the objectives of the research. The population of the study was all science; biology, chemistry, and physics teachers in senior secondary schools in selected states in Northern Nigeria. Purposive sampling was used to select one newly qualified biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics teacher per subject area from twenty sample schools in the population, thus a target sample size of 80 science and mathematics teachers, 20 each per subject. Content analysis of the module reports and evaluation of lesson plans were used to obtain qualitative data on the science and mathematics teachers’ CoP practices and professional learning. The Pre-test and post-test on the teachers’ subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge were the instruments for quantitative data collection. The instruments were validated by the project consultant and science and mathematics education experts. Four research objectives and four corresponding research questions guided the study. Descriptive statistics, descriptive content analysis, and descriptive narrative were used to analyze the data. The study revealed that online CoP has remarkably impacted teachers’ subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge and professional development.

Community-Based Evaluation When Localizing Sustainable Development Goals

The purpose of this practice note is to demonstrate how a community-based approach to evaluation can be used to support the evaluations of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals in local community settings. The authors argue that using a community-based evaluation approach that is stakeholder-driven, participatory, and action-oriented is one mechanism to address this challenge. They illustrate the utility of such an evaluation approach by identifying their key learnings through a national capacity-building project.

Academic Leadership Development: An Exploratory Study on the Impacts at the Institutional Level Based on an Erasmus+ Capacity Building Project

While demands on academic leadership in higher education have been increasing, there has been a lack of empirical studies exploring the effectiveness and impacts of leadership development interventions. In addition, recent studies suggest a model of leadership development based on an international approach. Unfortunately, the evaluation of those programs is limited in the available literature. This study thus presents the results of the impacts of a higher education (HE) academic leadership development program at the international level which consist of 12 universities in China and Europe. The project was implemented over a 4-year period, delivered through workshops, training programs, and exchanges. Following 2 years of project implementation, the mid-term impact was assessed through surveys and semi-structured interviews. Among the participants who had joined the program for more than 12 months, 51 Chinese participants and 41 European participants voluntarily took part in the online survey; of those, 21 participants were involved in the semi-structured interviews. Ultimately, the findings indicated that the program has had positive impacts on a variety of aspects, including cross-institutional networking, collaboration, partnership, and HE-related policy development and practices. Furthermore, this study has provided empirical evidence on how an academic leadership development program contributes to assisting academic institutions in broadening their connections, networking, and partnerships in order to achieve their institutional goals of development and innovation. As such, the research findings are useful for policymakers, university administrators, and related stakeholders. Lastly, the approaches taken by the academic leadership development program utilized in the current study can be applied widely in different contexts.

Impact of Community Engagement on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): The Global Goals to Local Implementation

The All-Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia -Sustainable Development Goals (APPGM-SDG) is a bipartisan initiative under the Parliament of Malaysia to implement and promote Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Malaysia. The SDGs projects in Malaysia wereheld through Non-Governmental Organization or the Civil Society Organization alliance with the purpose of raising awareness about the SDGs as well as providing capacity building projects that can give greater impacts on social, economy and wellbeing amongMalaysian citizens. The main objective of SDGs projects is to analyse the impacts on SDGs in relations to targets and indicators from solutions providers. The Mixed Methods methodology were used in this project by integrating qualitative and quantitative analysis to discover solution providers expertise in delivering capacity building trainings and beneficiaries outcomes in terms of personal, skills, network, system, SDGs projects and gender constructs. The selectedlocations within Johor Parliamentary Constituency covered eight SDGs projects associated with community engagement context especially in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). In addition, the effectiveness of the SDGs projects was measured based onproject planning, feasibility and implementation, the main parameters that influence the performance and quality of the SDGs projects by the solution providers. The findings showed the most substantial constructs that influence the greater impact of the SDGs projects to the beneficiaries were personal and technical skills. The lessons to be drawn from the experiences of the selected projects, among others are how effective the SDGs project can helped improve the household income, increased community engagement, and enhanced general well-being in overall.

‘Migratising’ mobility: Coloniality of knowledge and externally funded migration capacity building projects in Niger

This article explores coloniality of knowledge reproduced through EU funded Migration Capacity Building Programmes (MCBPs) in Niger, considering the period between 2015 and 2021. MCBPs are donor funded programmes aim to introduce EU-driven migration concerns and understandings into domestic policymaking, primarily in non-EU states. The article identifies two ways that MCBPs reproduce specific understandings of mobility as migration: firstly, by reproducing an understanding of mobility along the state/population/territory nexus and secondly, by categorising different types of migration and corresponding policy responses. It argues that the knowledge reproduced through MCBPs is historically embedded in colonial attempts at mobility governance and fails to take account of the pluriversal understandings of mobility in Niger. The article argues that historically and contemporarily, mobility governance in Niger is shaped by ‘negotiated misalignment’, which refers to the mismatch between MCBPs and pre- and co-existing knowledge systems on mobility in a context of strategic actor interaction. Finally, the article analyses the ‘gaze’ of MCBPs in its mutually constitutive material and discursive formation. Drawing on Fanon, it shows that MCBPs reproduce logics of colonial subject formation.

Data-Driven Stakeholder Management in EU Capacity Building Projects – Case of Erasmus+ Project

Data-driven management of stakeholders could be one of very important factors of successful project administration, particularly with regards to strategies involving different players such as those engaged in EU capacity building initiatives like Erasmus+. Effective stakeholder management entails identifying and overseeing various stakeholder groups to meet their needs and expectations, which is of a great importance for final success of the project.

Cross-border collaboration and capacity-building for improved health emergency response planning in Southern Africa

Background Many countries were ill prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic and the sudden border closures introduced to stem contagion. To address this planning and response gap, Health Systems Trust and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine jointly implemented a capacity-building project among eight Southern African countries during 2022. The intention was to strengthen collaboration among the countries in implementing public health emergency response strategies. Shared analysis of cross-border movement patterns, and building neighbouring countries’ capacity to identify priority areas for such response planning, strengthened relationships for communicating health risks and events. Approach This chapter presents findings from project participants’ perspectives on whether and how the project supported improved regional collaboration for emergency responses to public health events, and their perceptions of how the project strengthened their border health systems. Country delegates were convened in multi-sectoral regional and sub-regional meetings and workshops to facilitate cross-border public health information-sharing and co-ordination, and to align surveillance for emergency preparedness and response. They drafted procedures to: strengthen cross-border and multi-sectoral communication; prioritise points of entry for cross-border co-ordination; map population movement patterns; and identify national and regional border health priorities. Training focused on points of entry to enhance planning for future disease outbreaks by introducing the Population Connectivity Across Borders Toolkit for analysing population movement data to guide the design of public health interventions. Conclusions Collaboration with global and regional institutions strengthened the countries’ ability to comply with International Health Regulations in responding to communicable disease outbreaks. The outcomes indicate that sustained engagement, refinement of standard operating procedures, and multilateral agreements that ensure balancing of country priorities with global health requirements, can be achieved. Continued analysis of and reflection on country work plans are needed to assess similarities and differences in priority identification, which will guide future training and development of regional strategies to build stronger border health systems.

Prospects and Challenges of Capacity Building Projects in Higher Education: University of Dar es Salaam Experience

The development of skills and competences is a fundamental objective of capacity-building projects in order to achieve successful long-lasting outcomes. This study is about factors that influence effective implementation of capacity-building projects at the University of Dar es Salaam. For it is necessary that capacity building projects implemented by higher education institutions achieve a standard of performance that results into better and sustainable outputs. The study was guided by a qualitative research approach and a case study design. It involved five selected capacity-building projects at the University of Dar es Salaam. The sample included respondents from both members of top management, stakeholders and project beneficiaries. The study revealed that among the three successful of the five selected capacity-building initiatives each achieved the majority of its primary objectives. Among the elements that helped these projects succeed were the careful objective-setting and execution that come from committed and qualified leaders. The study learned in order for a project to succeed, dedicated full-time supervisors and operators who are specialized in that field and possess in-depth project management skills are needed. The following are recommended among others: a charter outlining the precise responsibilities of each management entity and participants, better disbursement of cash and decentralisation of responsibilities. Keywords: Higher education, Capacity building, Projects, Success factors, Challenges

DOCUMENTATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ASSESSMENT AND MITIGATION OF BUILT CULTURAL HERITAGE IN CENTRAL ASIA: THE ERAMCA PROJECT

Abstract. The ERASMUS+ initiative funded, in 2019, a Capacity Building project named ERAMCA (Environmental Risk Assessment and Mitigation in Central Asia) to build up a study plan at the Master of Science level (120 ECTS in 2 academic years) open to Architects, Civil, Building, and Environmental Engineers to build-up a new generation of professionals able to work in a team with different specialities to document Cultural Heritage assets by considering environmental risks. These new professionals will be able to set up the helpful basic knowledge to plan future actions of preservation and enhancement by following the most recent development in the restoration field at the international level.The ERAMCA project started with a survey of the basic knowledge of architects and engineers in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on the documentation of natural and anthropic risks.By considering the common knowledge, the Partners of the ERAMCA project (3 European Universities from Italy, Germany, and Croatia and 4 Universities from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) realised a study plan by concentrating the teaching activity on the following disciplines: Geomatics, Restoration, Structure and Seismic Engineering, Hydrogeology and Geotechnics.ERAMCA project is in its last year of activity, and the final results can be presented and discussed among the Cultural Heritage Documentation community to offer possible suggestions for future actions to diffuse documentation strategies.