The swissuniversities development and cooperation network (SUDAC) is funder of this project. SUDAC seeks targeted support for collaboration between the various types of Swiss higher education institutions in relation to research into global challenges as a prerequisite for achieving an excellent standard in education, research and innovation. This aim is based on the realisation that, for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary reasons, outstanding achievements in these areas are only possible through joint cooperation, both within Switzerland and with institutions from the various contexts in the Global South. Such partnerships face all kinds of challenges related to the content and structure of the collaboration. Even though these challenges vary depending on the types of higher education institutions involved, they also demonstrate commonalities, particularly in relation to international exchange with partners from the Global South. To achieve its aims, SUDAC wants to promote the development of consortiums that are oriented towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The consortiums called COFER’s must be interdisciplinary and encompass several types of higher education and partner institutions from the Global South. In order to cluster the activities of the Swiss higher education institutions, “hubs” called CLOC’s will be promoted in selected regions throughout the Global South. The project builds on the experiences of the numerous bilateral research partnerships of Swiss universities, the NCCR North-South, the KFPE, the EZA expert group of universities of applied sciences and universities of teacher education, as well as those of Leading Houses set up by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation with regional mandates.

Read more about COFER an CLOC here