The Danube Region is a major international hydrological basin and ecological corridor in Europe. Water resources are shared across borders and go beyond national interests, which implies a regional approach to environmental protection and biodiversity conservation. According to the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region, these challenges are best addressed together by strengthening institutional cooperation and capacity building in education. Present ecological and aquatic bioassessment education in the Danube area/Western Balkans Region does not meet the requirements of European environmental legislation and policies. The aim of the ECOBIAS Project is to develop and improve knowledge/skills/technical resources for ecological monitoring and aquatic bioassessment (EMAB) in accordance with the national and EU policy at seven Western Balkan PC HEIs . The specific objectives of the Project are: i) to develop/modernise and implement the advanced master curricula in EMAB in line with the Bologna requirements; ii) to develop and implement Lifelong Learning courses for professionals in the environmental monitoring sector in line with EU Water Framework Directive; iii) to equip seven EMAB laboratories; iv) and to develop regional academic network and ECOBIAS-NET platform in order to organise and promote regional cooperation in EMAB. Field-based learning and flexible learning pathways will allow students to adapt curricula outcomes in accordance to specific job requirements and stakeholders needs. Development and intercalibration of ecological status assessment system at national and regional levels is long lasting process which require extensive database of regularly monitored biological and environmental attributes. Therefore, building capacities in HE in the Western Balkan Region for the area of ecological monitoring and aquatic bioassessment represents a necessary and inevitable step toward the integration of EU environmental policy in the Region.

UNIVERZITET U NOVOM SADU (RS) - coordinator

SVEUCILISTE U ZAGREBU (HR)

UNIVERSITAET DUISBURG-ESSEN (DE)

UNIVERZITET U NISU (RS)

Internacionalni univerzitet Travnik u Travniku (BA)

JAVNA USTANOVA UNIVERZITET U TUZLI UNIVERSITAS STUDIORUM TUZLAENSIS (BA)

University of Mostar (BA)

UNIVERZITET DONJA GORICA PODGORICA (ME)

UNIVERZITET U BANJOJ LUCI (BA)

UNIVERZITET U ISTOCNOM SARAJEVU (BA)

UNIVERZITET U SARAJEVU (BA)