LUDOVIKA UNIVERSITY OF PUBLIC SERVICE

The EUSecure Project has been launched


Launch of the EUSecure Project: An Interdisciplinary Training on EU Security, Resilience and Sustainability - A Simulation Supported Massive Open Online Course (SimMOOC)

By the leadership of Ludovika-UPS and with the partnership of the Piraeus University of Greece, the University Fernando Pessoa in Porto, Portugal, the University of Salento in Lecce, Italy and Sapientia, the Hungarian University of Transylvania, the EUSecure Project has been launched with its Kick-Off Meeting held on the 12th of November 2021. The project is funded by the European Union Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Programme with 335.070 euros, will last 3 years and aims at developing a transdisciplinary course related to the EU’s current and possibly future security challenges.

The partnership recognizes the responsibility of higher education institutions in forming a new society where citizens and leaders have a clear view of issues that are key to the European Union’s and its citizens’ security, resilience and sustainability. These concerns that societies face now, are of a new and unknown magnitude and complex dimensions, which needs proper understanding and adequate policy responses. Therefore the project’s generic objective is to contribute to European cooperation in security-related issues through education by offering students, professors, researchers but also to practitioners and the interested public

-a new international and interdisciplinary platform of study and

-cutting edge and practice oriented knowledge.

The course will consist of a handful of security-related modules, such as the Megatrends in the 21st century, the EU power and its strategic autonomy in a multipolar world, Maritime security, Migration, Cyber security and the risks of Artificial Intelligence, Critical infrastructure protection, Water security and water geopolitics, Social media issues and fake news, and of course public health and pandemic management etc. These modules will be developed by an international team of professors and tested in the framework of two international training events: a winter seminar and a summer school. The teaching methodology will combine traditional teaching methodologies and on-line learning, and will be complemented by a simulation exercise.

The participating institutions have a long history of expertise in the above topics, Piraeus University having a department of International and European Studies, the first ranked in Greece, the University Fernando Pessoa hosting its own teaching hospital, Salento University excelling in research in Critical Infrastructure, Sapientia having a strong public health department, and Ludovika having the experience of organizing large scale simulation exercises for students of all faculties, just to mention a few of the highlights.

In the framework of the Strategic Partnership Project, the team will develop a handful of Intellectual Outputs, such as a Simulation Guidebook and a complete Open Educational Resource database for online learning. The course will also be taught as a trans-university elective as of the autumn 2022/2023.

Professor Anna Molnár, head of the International Security Studies Department of Ludovika is the scientific coordinator of the project on behalf of Ludovika, Associate Professor Antonella Longo On behalf of Unisalento, Associate Professor Foteini Asderaki on behalf of UniPi, Associate Professor Claudia Ramos on behalf of UFP and Dr Ferenc Török from Sapientia.

12 November 2020