The External Relations Deanship at Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) held an introductory workshop on the ninth call for project proposals within the Austrian Partnership Program in Higher Education and Research for Development (APPEAR), which is funded by the Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalization. The workshop was held in the presence of: Dr. Hisham Madi-Deputy Dean of External Affairs, Engineer Amani Al-Maqadma-Head of External Relations Department, and a group of interested persons from various faculties and departments of the university.
Dr. Madi welcomed the attendees, thanking them for their attendance and interest in the Austrian’s APPEAR Partnership Program, which aims to enhance research and institutional capacities in higher education institutions through several partnership stages, noting that the application for the program ends at the end of May 2022.
Eng. Al-Maqadma presented a summary and statistics of the previous program results, as since 2009, the program has funded (107) cooperation projects distributed over the three phases of the program: the preparatory stage, the academic partnership, and the advanced academic partnership stage, in addition to a number of master’s and PhD scholarships to study at Austrian universities.
Eng. Al-Maqadma spoke in detail about the program and its domains, and indicated that the program aims primarily to enhance scientific research, institutional capacities in higher education, research and management in partner countries through academic partnerships with Austrian higher education institutions and scholarships of masters and doctoral degrees as a contribution to achieving sustainable development goals. .
She also explained the target groups, the budget, the project implementation period, and the application requirements for each stage of the program in its third cycle, which will continue until 2027. She stressed the need to fit and link the project with one of the sustainable development goals, and to take into account the gender strategy in the submitted projects.
In conclusion, Eng. Al-Maqadma demonstrated the components and sections of the application form, the mechanism for evaluating the submitted proposals, the project’s budget items and the timetable for progress for each stage. She also provided some advice for submitting a competing proposal and assisting factors to the success of the proposed project, including the project’s alignment with the program’s objectives and priorities, continuous cooperation and communication with the Austrian partner and the need to coordinate with External Relations and benefit from their previous experiences .
