Increase international mobility of students and staff as well as international cooperation within programme countries

The project "Values in Action: promotion of responsible, secure and educated civil society in Latvia through research and model development" (project Nr.  VPP-IZM-2018/1-0013) is implemented within National Research Program " Latvian heritage and future challenges for the country's sustainability".

The overall aim of the project implemented by Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences (ViA) as the Lead Partner, and Riga Stradins University (RSU) as the Project partner, is to strengthen civil society in the development of new policy approaches and to model directions fostering social and territorial cohesion based on European democratic values.

European microcities such as Ventspils and Valmiera play an important role in European economy. They become regional economic hubs, offering comprehensive services, opportunities and a dynamic environment for development. Ventspils and Valmiera are similar in profile. They are the next generation of microcities that use global and digital potential and introduce a series of innovation. Ventspils and Valmiera have formed a strong partnership to address several common challenges.

The project “aNATOmy: knowledge through experience” aims to help foster awareness and understanding of NATO, its values, policies, and activities, and to increase the level of debate on peace, security, and defense related issues.  

Goal of the project is to increase international mobility of students and staff as well as international cooperation with partner countries.

The world is experiencing a high demand for high-quality cybersecurity specialists due to an increasing number of cyber attacks and their technological advancement. In the Baltic countries, the geopolitical situation sets cybersecurity as a top priority.  All economic sectors depend on the protection against cybercrime. In more than 90% of cyber incidents, humans could be seen both as attack targets and defenders having a broad set of technical and generic competencies. There is an enormous lack of research regarding the role of human factors in cybersecurity internationally. The establishment of an international cross-disciplinary research team will address the urgent need for a scientific understanding of human limitations and capabilities in the cyber kill chain.

Summary: In 2020, through joint cooperation between Vidzeme University College and the Nature Conservation Agency (NCA), the resources of both institutions were concentrated in order to establish a comprehensive inventory of visitors to specially protected nature territories (SPNTs) - laying the foundations for long-term monitoring. In order to obtain as accurate data as possible, the data available to other organizations were included, data on tourist accommodation or visits at SPNTs, where visitors are registered, were collected. When developing an in-depth monitoring methodology, locations were identified where stationary automatic visitor counters would be installed and where it would be possible to place temporary - portable automatic visitor counters.

The main objective of the project (Nr 1.1.1.5/20/A/002) is to raise awareness of science in the wider community, particularly youth, as well as to present the public with the profession of scientist; to demonstrate the impact of such science as the daily human life of natural science, social science and humanities: to bring researchers closer to the Latvian society and raise interest in research.

Goal of the project: Integration of simulation games in strategic communication studies for the development of future competences. The aim is to create and test pedagogical innovations in strategic communication teaching in three Baltic universities through academic staff training, development of teaching aids, and development of a prototype of an interactive collaborative digital learning and teaching platform.