HERD Maritime 2010-2014

New announcement for Albania: The last opportunity to apply for funds through HERD Maritime will be September 10. 2013.

The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has since 2010 run a Programme in Higher Education, Research and Development in the Western Balkans (HERD.) The overall aim of HERD is to contribute to economic growth and social development through co-operation in higher education and research in the region.

Aalesund University College administer HERD Maritime. Project Applications shall be prepared in partnerships between institutions in Western Balkans and in Norway. Project proposals shall have a lead partner institution in Norway, which shall submit the application to AUC via the Sector Manager at The International office for registration and further processing. (HERD Maritime Application Form and Guidelines for Applicants.) Croatian projects are from 2012 not eligible for funding.

The Board of HERD Maritime visited in March 2013 Albania and had meetings with educational institutions, and ministries to be informed about challenges and priorities in the Maritime sector. A report from the mission has been made in Norwegian. The main conclusions in the report are:

Both the Adriatic Ocean and the Ionian Sea are increasingly important transit routes both in the north-south and east-west axis in Europe. The ports along the Adriatic and Ionian Seas therefore play a central role in a future of an integrated European transport system. This will lead to increasing challenges in logistics, security, environmental monitoring and port control in the near future. Given an increasing growth in the maritime sector in the area and Albania's strategic location, the country will play an important role in challenges that require international cooperation.

The country's ability to meet its obligations and rights, meeting international requirements and realize their plans as a maritime nation depends on many factors, among others whether the Albanian universities are able to perform their key role both in education and research in the maritime areas.

In meetings with ministries and educational institutions in charge of coastzone management, two areas seemed to be considered to be of great importance.

• In Aleksander Moisiu University of Durrës there is a strong desire and need for assistance to build up its own maritime college to meet the country's urgent need for expertise aimed at 'maritime transport', a key factor for the country's economic development. The main focus can be areas within shipping, logistics, international transport and freight handling, maritime infrastructure and port operations, maritime law, security and environmental and maritime tourism.
• The University Ismail Qemali, Vlora need assistance and cooperation to further development in all the maritime areas of both education and research. The university emphasized on development of modern ship design, product development and maritime engineering in general. They also want to focus on innovation and interaction with modern maritime industry. In addition, they need assistance to develop the education of nautical staff so that they can solve international certificates.

The objectives of HERD Maritime are

1. Institutional Development: To contribute to educating a national work force that has adequate innovative qualifications in the maritime sector by building, in the longer term perspective, sustainable capacity of higher education institutions.
2. Applied Research and Development: To stimulate innovation, product and process development in the maritime sector through support to applied research and development in the Western Balkans.

The scope and objectives of HERD are outlined in the HERD Programme Document dated 01.03.2010.

For further information contact:
The Secretariat’s Sector Manager Liv Møller-Christensen, Aalesund University College, Box 1517, N 6025 Aalesund. Phone: +47 70161336 / 99040928, fax: +47 70161300, e-mail: lm@hials.no