The Terrestrial Ecosystems Management Laboratory of the Open University of Cyprus trains Jordanian and Palestinian postgraduate students in Water Resources Management

The Open University of Cyprus (OUC) is involved as a partner in the research project "Innovations in Water Education: Enhancing Water Security and Socio-economic Development in the Eastern Mediterranean under Climate Change" (acronym: WaSec), which is funded by the Erasmus+ Programme. One of the primary goals of the project is to review and upgrade undergraduate and postgraduate programmes of study of the participating Universities operating in Jordan, Palestine, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands, and Cyprus, on water/natural resources management and climate change adaptation with an emphasis on Mediterranean conditions. The OUC research team, led by Professor Ioannis Vogiatzakis and r. Professor Thanasis Hadzilacos, contributes in the project mainly by offering knowledge and know-how in the use of distance learning methods and tools. The material created as part of the project will be used in various educational activities (i.e. postgraduate courses, professional training, software training) and is expected to be freely available when the project ends.

In the context of the project, partners have designed and developed a new joint postgraduate programme that has already been approved in Palestine. The educational material developed was presented and pilot tested during an event that was organised on January 12, 2022, during which Dr. Vassilis Litskas, research associate at the OUC Terrestrial Ecosystems Management Lab, run an online course on the topic of quantifying greenhouse gas emissions from food production and soil carbon storage. Postgraduate students from the Palestine Technical University Kadoorie (PTUK), the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), the Al Quds University (AQU), and the University of Jordan (UJ), participated in the course.

The WaSec project is expected to be completed by mid-August 2022, and has already been recognised in Palestine as a Good Practice example for Erasmus+ projects.