Egypt’s population is growing rapidly, yet natural resources like water and land suitable for habitation and agriculture are limited while others like renewable energy sources are not yet readily accessible. Therefore, the “Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt’s Vision 2030” was developed by the Egyptian Government to prepare for the social and economic consequences. It includes challenging goals and targets in areas like land reclamation, agriculture and food processing as well as research, technology development and higher education. These goals can only be met, if new holistic approaches are being pursued that embrace the latest technological developments and are both sustainable and interdisciplinary. Feedback from stakeholders of the quadruple helix of producers and industry, universities, policy makers and society, clearly demonstrates a need for specialists in “Sustainable Resources Management” who have a generalist background in uncertainty prediction and different fields of sciences, like ecology and environmental sciences as well as engineering, including civil, water, electric, electronic and agricultural engineering. They need to be able to plan, set up, maintain and optimise complex systems like aquaponics farms and automated ground water pump systems that are both PV driven and connected to the grid. Thus far, cross cutting study programs are plainly focused on agricultural graduates, while appropriate offers for engineers and environmental scientists are missing. This limits progress and restricts technological optimisation and long term environmental effect prediction. Therefore, this project will develop an interdisciplinary study program, offering MSc and advanced diplomas in Sustainable Resources Management. It will focus on crosscutting issues, employ the latest learning methodologies and address technical as well as social and skills, required to implement sustainable technical solution to the challenges in food production and processing.
1. Modify existing curricula to supply the market with qualified graduates from interdisciplinary oriented programs and pilot them for at least 2 semesters to get feedback for improvement.2. Develop a capacity building programme to train local teaching staff different dimensions of sustainable resource management.3. Offering two PhD Schools to equip future academia with the knowledge to solve tomorrow’s challenges.4. Develop a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) as Open Education Resource (OER)
The increasing effects of climate change such as desertification, drought and intense weather conditions call for interdisciplinary educated graduates to face future challenges. For this endeavor, new programs including the dimensions of solar technology, hydrology, irrigation techniques and mechanical, electrical, soil engineering and urban planning als well as ecological and environmental aspects had to be developed. In addition, the recent pandemic showed that virtual learning is necessary.
<< Background >> The increasing effects of climate change such as desertification, drought and intense weather conditions call for interdisciplinary educated graduates to face future challenges. For this endeavor, new programs including the dimensions of solar technology, hydrology, irrigation techniques and mechanical, electrical, soil engineering and urban planning als well as ecological and environmental aspects had to be developed. In addition, the recent pandemic showed that virtual learning is necessary. << Objectives >> 1. Modify existing curricula to supply the market with qualified graduates from interdisciplinary oriented programs and pilot them for at least 2 semesters to get feedback for improvement.2. Develop a capacity building programme to train local teaching staff different dimensions of sustainable resource management.3. Offering two PhD Schools to equip future academia with the knowledge to solve tomorrow’s challenges.4. Develop a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) as Open Education Resource (OER) << Implementation >> The implementation was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic from month 3-30 of the project. This hindered the consortium's physical interaction, training, dissemination and the development and piloting of the programs. An extension of 8 months ascertained the complementation of the project. WP3 was affected by the WP leader's death and the affiliated entity's resulting inactivity. Furthermore, another challenge was receiving approval from the Ministry of Higher Education to launch the new programs. << Results >> The results meet initial expectations and were on the whole achieved as planned. Exceptions include initially planned physical events especially in the framework of the capacity building and dissemination activities. For the capacity building, online equivalents were developed and offered, such as online workshops and seminars as well as online available learning materials. At a later stage, physical events were performed whenever possible for example in combination with management meetings.