The need to boost innovation in EU finds one of its major obstacles in the shape of its HE system, which is considered the key knowledge engine of Europe. Such a system is still fragmented and requires to undergo a deep process of modernization, in order to tackle an increasing intra-EU innovation divide. In this effort, mobility plays a pivotal role pooling competences and resources without draining local and regional knowledge ecosystems. However, mobility goes beyond the transnational dimension. Indeed borders and divides are not just geographical, but can be clearly observed along other dimensions. By referring to the EU paradox, it has been already emphasized the divide between the academic and the business/social sectors (sectoral divide). From another perspective, due to intra and inter-organizational barriers in HEIs, there is a need to tackle the divide between diverse knowledge domains (disciplinary divide). Thirdly, the need to conjugate efficiency with efficacy requires to explore smart combinations of both digital and face to face education. The C-Extended aims at contributing to the EU effort in overcoming boundaries in HE, exploring mobility opportunities going a step further than those focused on geographical barriers. It views mobility also as that occurring from theory to practice (intersectoral) and theory to theory (interdisciplinary) while exploring new opportunities to conjugate the needs for effective physical presence with that of efficiency by means of digital technologies (blending). Such a vision is here addressed, more specifically, by designing, testing, monitoring and evaluating an Interdisciplinary/Intersectoral/Blended-Mobility Scheme targeted to master level students in a core scientific domain (in our pilot ICT related) whom are offered to undergo, transnationally, an interdisciplinary pathway (here either energy-climate or socio-economic), engaging also in an intersectoral experience while exploiting blended learning opportunities. More generally, the objective is to propose to policy makers a novel pathway in reforming higher education enabling new forms of intersectoral and interdisciplinary dialogues and cooperation between societal actors from the business, public and social sectors while fostering a stronger collaboration and sharing best practice within and across HEIs. The proposed scheme will be targeted to master level students (30 in the current testing) in a core scientific domain (in our pilot ICT related) whom are offered to undergo, transnationally, an interdisciplinary pathway (here either energy-climate or socio-economic), engaging also in an intersectoral experience while exploiting blended learning opportunities. In terms of activities, the project will design, develop and disseminate six intellectual outputs, being the key one the Interdisciplinary Intersectoral Blended Mobility Scheme (IIBMS). On the base of these outputs, learning activities are envisioned to implement the proposed mobility scheme with selected participants across the countries of the 6 partner HEIs. In particular the participants will engage in three main learning activities: 1) interdisciplinary modules during standard Erasmus+ mobility scheme at participating HEIs (host universities). These are 6 per each of the 2 interdisciplinary pathways; 2) blended learning activities in their home universities for the newly developed interdisciplinary modules before and after the physical mobility; 3) interdisciplinary and intersectoral placement in an organization embedded in the local ecosystem of host universities relying on the project’s mobility funding for up to 2 months. Methodologically, the project will rely on a mix of methods each able to match specific requirement, ranging from top-down analysis to guide the development of the proposed mobility schemes, to bottom-up through a constant monitoring, evaluation and assessment of the project development, based on the acquisition of both quantitative and qualitative data. In terms of main results, besides the tangible outputs and the actual testing of the scheme, the project aims at disseminating and extending these results to new HEIs as well as new HE networks, both in the ICT field and in other core scientific domains. As for the impact, the C-Extended Strategic Partnership aims to contribute towards bringing mobility schemes a step further, providing to regional, national and EU policy makers evidence based recommendations that could feed into the reflection on the evolution of successful instruments such as the Erasmus+/Erasmus Mundus or the EIT. Indeed, beyond the currently envisioned ground testing, the main impact will be the provision of a sound and concrete instrument to transform the C-Extended experience into a seed model able to be transformed in a novel pedagogical methodology for HE. Indeed, the ultimate aim of the C-Extended is inscribed in its own name: to contribute Extending the Erasmus vision a step further.
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