The Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, in the framework of the Call for Proposals EACEA/13/09 of the Erasmus Mundus External Co-operation Window Programme (EM ECW) for Lot 21B countries (i.e. Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica), has approved a proposal led and co-ordinated by the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia which comprises a Consortium of 20 universities, 8 of them from Europe and 12 from Latin-America, in addition to 25 other prestigious universities that participate as Associate members.

This Project, formulated by the Vice-rectorate for International Relations and Co-operation through the International Affairs Office, has been awarded 2,947,475 EUR in funding from the European Commission to promote student and teaching staff mobility in higher education between the European Union and Latin-America, thus providing opportunities to encourage the improvement of higher education in socio-economically disadvantaged groups. To this end, 180 mobilities have been foreseen between the Latin-American countries mentioned above and Europe, in both directions. Mobility will start in 2010 and will finish in 2012, and it is aimed at five different groups: undergraduate students, master’s degree students, PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, and academic staff.

The Consortium is made up of the following institutions:

European Members:

- Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV)(Coordinador)

- Universiteit Gent (UGENT)

- Universidade do Porto (PORTO)

- Technische Universtität München (TUM)

- Universidad de DEUSTO (UD)

- Universidad de Granada (UGR)

- Politecnico di Torino (POLITO)

- Malmö University (MU)

Latin-American Members:

COLOMBIA

- Universidad Nacional (UN)

- Universidad de Antioquia (UDEA)

- Universidad del Valle (UV)

- Universidad Tecnológica del Chocó (UTCH)

- Universidad del Cauca (UC)

- Universidad del Quindío (UQ)

- Universidad de Santander (UDES)

- Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar (UTB)

COSTA RICA

- Universidad Nacional (UNA)

- Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (ITCR)

PANAMA

- Universidad de Panamá (UP)

- Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá (UTP)