MARE PROJECT FINAL MEETING
The "Marine Coastal and Delta Sustainability for South East Asia (MARE)" project sets goals to promote sustainable governance and management of coastal, delta & marine, socio-ecological systems in Malaysia, Viet Nam and adjacent waters through tertiary education. MARE is part of the Erasmus+ program of the European Union (EU) with the participation of 13 member institutions, including Vietnam Maritime University. The main coordinator of this project is the University of Bremen, Germany with the implementation period of 3 years, from 2020 to 2023.
The Final Meeting was held in Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment on 5 – 7 September 2023. Attendees from all partner institutions in Europe, Malaysia and Vietnam have gathered to attend this event. The final meeting has brought key takeaways, namely (1) Future cooperation; (2) Presentation of the partners; and (3) Decisions taken and next activities.
After the opening session, MARE partners have shared opportunities for future cooperation. Specifically, Prof. Francesca Tolve – CNR’s International Affairs Department presented a brief CNR’s cooperation activities with the CNR funds amount to 30,000 to 50,000 Euros per year per laboratory, prioritizing the Earth and Environment field. In this occasion, VMU was honored to sign the MOU with CNR for future cooperation. Besides, Prof. Dr. Shaharin Anwar Sulaiman were the representatives of UTP to give a brief introduction on UTP’s cooperation activities in training programs for different levels: BSc, Master, and PhD programs.
Next, Prof. Dr. Igor Novopashenny, University of Bremen (UNIHB) presented the
introduction by the project Coordinator on the state of the project, emphasizing the actual situation of all work packages from all partners involved in the project. all Vietnamese partners from CTU, HCMUNRE, VMU, VNIO presented the results of the WP2.1. Revision of existing and development of new BSc/MSc courses. Also, the e-book results of CTU, HCMUNRE, MCD, VMU and VNIO have been presented. After 8 months with several meetings taken place in Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, and Hai Phong, the e-book has been completed with totally 224 pages including references.
Participating in the MARE project, VMU has increased its experience in project work, developed programs and teaching materials, connected with many partner institutions and research cooperation opportunities, and received support from the project. project in human resource training and equipment provision. VMU is extremely proud to participate in the project and hopes our contributions would bring a lot of value to stakeholders. Although the project has reached its final stage, VMU as well as other partner institutions will continue to connect and have more academic cooperation activities.