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Rationale
Apart from environmental benefits, renewable energies offer great potential for the local socio-economic development in Latin America. As renewable energies can be produced locally, they provide a wide range of local job opportunities (from high-skilled to low-skilled labour, from high-tech to agriculture), foster local investments and reduce the need for importing fossil fuels.
However, the sector of renewable energies cannot develop adequately due to a lack of expertise. Local enterprises and other public and private institutions related to the renewable energy sector are in great need of technical and methodological support in order to implement technologies, strategies or political frameworks. |
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Due to the innovative nature of this field HEI are very important actors in this sector, especially in terms of research as well as educating future employees. Despite the value of the topic of renewable energies, it is not as yet prominently featured in the curriculum of Latin American universities (and EU universities) as it should be.
On the basis of the above needs, the Joint European-Latin American Universities Renewable Energy Project “Fostering innovative labour market-oriented educational & research approaches in the field of renewable energies at Latin American and European institutes of higher education” is being proposed as part of the ALFA programme. The purpose of the project is not only to improve the academic quality of European and Latin American higher education institutions, but also to strengthen their role to contribute to economic local development and social cohesion. |
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