The 10th-12th of March 2020 the Launching Conference and Steering Committee of the Project MACCARD Master in Climate change, Agriculture and Sustainable Rural Development co-funded by the European Union through the Programme Erasmus Plus Capacity Building in Higher Education was foreseen to be held in Tena, at IKIAM University, one of our Ecuador Project Partners.

Unfortunately, due to COVID 19 emergency, we were obliged to cancel the event. However, our Partners from Ecuador, Peru, Italy and Spain virtually met online for the Kick-off meeting and the Steering Committee during three intensive working sessions from the 10 to the 12 of March 2020.

The project has a duration of 3 years from January 2020 to January 2023.

MACCARD foresees the development of a new Master on Climate change with a focus on Agriculture and Sustainable development, in four Universities both in Ecuador and Peru: Universities of Toribio Rodriguez de Mendoza-UNTRM and the National University of Jaen-UNJ in Peru, the Regional University of Amazon-IKIAM and the University of Azuay-UAZUAY in Ecuador in collaboration with the European Universities of Sassari-UNISS (Italy) that coordinates the Project, and Granada-UGR (Spain). The Project aims at contributing to build the necessary expertise and develop professionals able to conduct studies and to plan and implement reliable measures to respond to climate change challenges and threatens in crucial sectors while strengthening cross border cooperation between Ecuador and Peru HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) and between them and EU Programme countries.