Sustainable Horizons — HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ACCES-101071300

SHEs - Sustainable Horizon, an European Higher Education Institutions (HEI) Project, will contribute to an inclusive society, supporting researchers/academics deeply thinking, respecting nature, practical problem-solving professionals, adapting to new challenges. We are six young HEIs, open to innovation, located in small cities within EU periphery, from South Extreme (Faro-Pt, Huelva-Es), Central (Zlìn-Cz, Ludwigshafen-De), Eastern (Timisoara-Ro) to North (Lahti-Fi) carried out activities of co-production with relevant economic regional impact. The goals are to support the institutional change in especially the Widening Countries HEIs (Pt-UAlg, Ro-BUAS, Cz- UTB) to, within the network and with the best practices, define road maps to effectively implement inclusive approaches to open science policies, gender balance plans, sustainability reports, researcher’s societal links. Our sustainability research approach will be anchors on traditional sciences (environmental, socioeconomics) but with strong interdisciplinarity innovation, allowing Entrepreneurship and Employability to impact regional ecosystems. Using our HEIs geographic proximity, historic, cultural and linguistic links, we aim to use SHE as a model of institutional change in HEIs associated partners (eg. Africa, Asia & South America) offering Distance learning PhD supporting locally at global level, sustainability and a Healthy Ocean and Planet. The data generated during the project will potentially be used by academia, industry and society at large interested in carbon-free innovative methodologies for approaching and mitigating carbon footprints and achieving them without significant detrimental effects, fostering also sustainable water quality management, in blue growth and circular economy – regionally and globally.