The European Commission has earlier this month published a new communication on research and innovation as “sources of renewed growth" and released a new report on cost-sharing in higher education. Meanwhile, the European Research Council (ERC) has published details on the number of proposals submitted for its Consolidator Grants competition.
New EC communication on R + I as sources of renewed growth
Earlier this month, the European Commission published a new Communication entitled "Research and Innovation as sources of renewed growth". More...

EUA’s Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP) is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, a milestone that will be marked by an event in Brussels. Hosted by the Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the European Union, the event will take place on Thursday 18 September 2014, from 14.30 until 17.30, and will be followed by a drinks reception.
The event will include contributions from institutions that have been evaluated by IEP as well as those who have been involved with the Programme in a range of capacities. More...

The Spanish Rectors’ Conference (CRUE) and the CYD Foundation will organise, from 14 to 15 July in Madrid, a meeting on the role of the university in smart specialisation strategies for innovation.
Further information is available in the draft programme and the registration form on the CRUE website. More...

Twelve universities and companies in eight European countries are running a project called EMMA (European Multiple MOOC Aggregator). Supported by funding from the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme Framework Programme of the European Union, the EMMA project is described as a 30-month pilot action that will provide access to MOOCs in “different languages and supported by automatic transcription”.
According to the project website, the first EMMA MOOCs are due to go live in September 2014 and are provided by universities in Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK on subjects such as business management, social innovation and cultural heritage, and climate change.
It also notes that “EMMA will operate in two main modes: as an aggregator and hosting system of courses produced by European universities and as a system that enables learners to construct their own learning paths using units from MOOCs as building blocks”. Once operational, EMMA will be open for other providers who wish to make their MOOCs available in multiple languages and across borders.
For more information please visit the project website: http://europeanmoocs.eu/. More...

The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) contributes to the Global Inventory of National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs). This inventory is prepared by two EU agencies, namely the European Training Foundation (ETF) and the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), and two UNESCO units, namely UNESCO’s section for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (UNESCO-TVET) and UIL. More...

On 19 to 28 May 2014 experts from Africa, Asia and Germany met at the International Conference on Non-formal Adult Education in Wuppertal, Germany.  The primary objective of this meeting was to generate recommendation-based action plans concerning adult education.
The event was organized by the United Evangelical Mission (UEM), a faith-based global communion of churches in Africa, Asia, and Germany that work together to promote adult education within a lifelong learning perspective through a variety of institutions and projects. Angela Owusu-Boampong, Programme Specialist at UIL, delivered a presentation on CONFINTEA and lifelong learning. The presentation outlined global issues concerning adult education and presented the CONFINTEA process including the second Global Report on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE). This resulted in a discussion about several UIL activities currently underway in countries at the Conference.
Results from discussions regarding conceptual issues for practitioners working in the field of adult learning and education will be submitted to the UEM to inform their biannual general assembly. More...

The Second Conference of the European Society of Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA) Network on Policy Studies in Adult Education entitled, Interrogating Sustainability in Adult Learning Policy: European and Global Perspectives took place from 18 to 20 June 2014 at the University of Aalborg in Denmark. Around 50 participants, predominantly university professors and researchers from Europe and other regions gathered to analyse how sustainability is – and could be – integrated into policies for adult learning.
UIL contributed to a panel on literacy with a presentation by Ulrike Hanemann, highlighting key findings of the second Global Report on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE 2), and to a paper session with a presentation by Chripa Schneller on the Impact on Distance Education on Adult Learning (IDEAL) project. Both presentations were well received by the conference participants.
The European Society of Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA) Network on Policy Studies in Adult Education is one of the 12 active networks of ESREA and is holding a conference every two years since 2012. The conference proceedings and papers will be published and all information will be available on http://www.esrea2014.learning.aau.dk. More...