Guiding Refugees via European Exchange and Training (GREET) is ACA’s new project starting in April this year. Funded under the Horizon 2020 Science4Refugees call, the project aims to contribute to the integration of highly skilled refugees in European higher education through mutual learning and exchange of good practices among national support structures and higher education institutions (HEIs) in 9 European countries (Austria, Belgium/Flanders Germany, Greece, Finland, France, Norway, Sweden and the UK). By scaling up successful practices in Germany and Finland by means of a peer learning activity (PLA) and disseminating its results through EU-level and country webinars, the project will enable debates at European level on current practices and obstacles for their implementation, search for joint solutions and improvements for a better and more effective integration of highly skilled refugees residing in the participating countries. The results of both PLA and webinars will be disseminated at a stakeholder event in Brussels in June 2019, and systemised and stored in an online compendium, available for the wider higher education community. The project also aims to create a strong community of practice of organisations and institutions involved in refugee integration both through project activities and by creating a group to facilitate discussions and share relevant information and updates. 

The core consortium is composed of the Brussels-based ACA Secretariat (the coordinator), and ACA members DAAD (Germany) and EDUFI (Finland) but it will also involve some of other ACA members (UHR, OeAD, IKY, FKA) and HEIs from the participating countries. Scholars at Risk, Scholar Rescue Fund and VUB’s Mohammad Salman will be involved as well as members of the Advisory Board, who will provide their vast knowledge and experience in supporting refugee students and scholars find their way into higher education systems.

The project will provide the much needed venue for the national support structures in Europe to meet and exchange their practices, but it will also give them the opportunity to get updated about the work of their own constituencies (HEIs) in integrating students and researchers with refugee background in the HE systems of their countries.

The GREET kick-off meeting will take place in Brussels on 11-12 April, after which the dates and locations of relevant activities for the participating organisations and the wider audience will be shared via the ACA Newsletter and partners’ website. If you wish to know more about the project, please contact ACA’s Policy Officer Marija Mitic at marija.mitic@aca-secretariat.be.