SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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Erasmus Mundus Asia Regional mobility programme lots from 2010

On Friday 9 July 2010, the European Commission, through its Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) decided upon the 2010 Erasmus Mundus Action 2 – Strand 1 – Partnership programme.
Deadline for submission of applications was 30 April 2010. Each selected partnership project will have a mobility flow of 100 individuals, and a budget of Euro 2.475 m.
This is a follow-up programme to the previous mobility scheme entitled Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window (EMECW). This programme has been running for some years now with an aim to foster co-operation between higher education institutions and the exchange of students, researchers and academic staff between EU Member States and targeted so-called Third countries, including India and the rest of South Asia.

Full information about existing South Asia related EMECW/Erasmus Mundus Action 2 projects.

Ten European-Asian university consortiums were now selected for the Asia Regional lots, No 11 and 12. They differ from the previous EMECW programmes in being strictly one-way mobility programmes, from Asia to Europe, not vice-versa.
Lot No. 11 is primarily devoted to South Asia, where the proposals should include universities in at least three of the following group A countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh; besides at least two of the following group B countries: Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Philippines, Thailand, China, and North Korea.
Lot No. 12 on the other hand is primarily devoted to South-East Asian countries, but also also gives the possibility to include Sri Lanka, India and/or Maldives as group B countries.

Lund University (LU), that already successfully coordinates one of the existing Indo-European Erasmus Mundus Action 2 programmes, was now again selected to coordinate one of the five new Lot 11 projects.
This consortium consists of 20 universities, eight in Europe and 12 in Asia, out of which five are in China (Peking, Tsinghua, Fudan, Zhejiang and Xiamen universities), and four in India (Delhi University; Jadavpur University, Kolkata; Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK); and Tata Instititute of Social Sciences, Mumbai).
The remaining South Asian partner universities in the LU-led consortium are Karachi University, Pakistan; Tribhuvan University, Nepal; and Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Bangladesh.
The European universities besides Lund are University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; University College Dublin, Ireland; University College London, UK; University of Milan, Italy; University Pierre and Marie Curie, France; University of Vienna, Austria; and Warsaw University, Poland.
The project has been named EMEA – Erasmus Mundus Europe Asia – and will be open for applications from November 1, 2010 and remain open until December 15.
SASNET is closely involved in the planning for the programme.
The project coordinators are Ms. Elisabeth Axell and Ms. Katarina Wingkvist, International Relations, Lund University.
Go for the EMEA project web site.

Kick-off meeting for EMEA project

A first consortium meeting was held in Lund 23–24 September 2010. Group photo to the right.
Representatives from 19 of the 20 consortium member universities came to Lund for a hectic meeting to decide upon the principles for the selection process, discuss the implementation of the project, and to elect a steering committeee.

The meeting was inaugurated by Lund University’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Per Eriksson, and also attended by Pro Vice-Chancellor Eva Åkesson, who gave a presentation on ”Erasmus Mundus and internationalization at Lund University”.
Mr Joachim Fronia, Head of Unit for EU’s Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) participated in the meeting providing valuable information regarding the Erasmus Mundus programme in general, and the Action 2 projects in specific.

Shahana Urooj Kazmi	Kondepudy Sreenivas	Shariff Kabir	Krishna Belbase
P.M. Prasad	Bipin Jojo	Pradip Narayan Ghosh	Mridul Bose

Among the participating consortium representatives from South Asia were Prof. Kondepudy Sreenivas, Dean International Relations, University of Delhi, India; Prof. Pradip Narayan Ghosh, Vice Chancellor, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India; Prof. Shariff Kabir, Vice Chancelor, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Bangladesh; and Prof. Shahana Urooj Kazmi, Pro Vice Chancellor, Karachi University, Pakistan.
On the day preceding the kick-off meeting, Prof. Kazmi gave a lecture at Lund University on ”Devastating Floods in Pakistan: A story of Pain, Grief and Suffering – Can We Help?”. More information about this seminar.

Also present at the Lund kick-off meeting were the International coordinators from Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, India, Dr. Bibin Jojo, School of Social Work; from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, Dr. P.M. Prasad, Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences; from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, Dr. Mridul Bose, Dept. of Physics; and Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal, Mr. Krishna Belbase, Centre for International Relations.

During the kick-off meeting, it was also decided to set up four thematic groups – on quality assurance, on development of joint projects, on events/conferences, and finally on a visibility strategy for the project. SASNET’s deputy director Lars Eklund is a member of this visibility strategy group.

An article about the new EMEA project was published by the Lund University magazine LUM in its No. 8/2010 issue. The article is written by the journalist Britta Collberg, and also focuses on Prof. Kazmi’s plea for support after the floods disaster in Pakistan. It is entitled ”Universitetet i Karachi vädjar om hjälp till översvämningsoffer”. Go for LUM 8/2010, and find the article on pages 14-15.

Four other Asia Regional Lot 11 projects

Four other university consortiums were also selected for Lot 11.
They are coordinated by the following European universities:

– University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain
More information.
Includes the following South Asian universities:
     Kabul University, Afghanistan
     Royal University, Bhutan
     Tribhuvan University, Nepal
     International Islamic University, Pakistan
     Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan
     University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
     University of Pune, India
     Maldives College of Higher Education, Male

– Karl August University, Göttingen, Germany
Uppsala University is a Swedish partner university. Deadlines for applications are set for 15 January 2011 (BA/MA), and 30 January 2011 (PhD/Post-docs/Staff).
More information.
Includes the following South Asian universities:
     Royal University, Bhutan
     Kathmandu University, Nepal
     Tribhuvan University, Nepal
     Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan
     University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
     Khulna University, Bangladesh
     University of Pune, India
     University of Delhi, India
     Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India

– University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France
Web page for this project (EMMA)
Includes the following South Asian universities:
     University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
     Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh
     BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
     Jadavpur University, India
     Kathmandu University, Nepal
     COMSATS Institute of Information and Technology, Pakistan

– University of Rome Sapienza, Italy
Web page for this EU–Nice project
Includes the following South Asian universities:
     Nangarhar University, Jalalabad, Afghanistan
     Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal
     National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET), Nepal
     Ned University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan
     University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Lot 12 consortium with South Asian partners

Five consortiums were also selected for the South-East Asia oriented Lot No 12 (that still may include South Asian partner universities). The following lot coordinated by a European university has South Asian partner universities:

– University of Science and Technology 2, Montpellier, France
Uppsala University is a Swedish partner in this Maheva project consortium. Note that Maheva is only open to PhD, post-doctoral students and staff. Deadline for applications is 22 November 2010.
Web page for this project
Includes the following South Asian universities:
     University of Madras, Chennai, India
     University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

See the full list of selected 2010 Erasmus Mundus Action 2 – Strand 1 – Partnership programmes.

Uppsala University partner in South Asia related lots

As mentioned in the lists above, Uppsala University is a partner in one of the Lot 11 consortiums – the one coordinated by the University of Göttingen – as well as in the Lot 12 consortium led by University of Science and Technology 2, Montpellier.
Besides Uppsala University is a partner in another South-East Asia focused Lot 12 consortium, namely inthe Lotusproject, led by Ghent University, Belgium (more information about this Erasmus Mundus lot).

The local coordinator for these lots at Uppsala University is Mr. Jonathan Schalk at the university’s International Office.
More information about the Erasmus Mundus Action 2 Scholarships 2010-2011 at Uppsala University’s Mundus web page.