NDU Associate Professors, Dr. Dima Jawad and Dr. Talal Salem, participated in a three-day project summit as part of the “Urban and Transportation Regeneration for Reducing Automobile Dependency in MENA area / UPGRADE”, funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, which was held at the Future University in Egypt (FUE) in New Cairo, on September 14-16, 2021.
Dr. Jawad and Dr. Salem presented the progress of “Work Package 3”, which aims to establish new and pre-existing Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning laboratories in several Universities across Lebanon and Egypt. The choice of laboratories is based on specific criteria following a survey on university facilities conducted in each of the participating universities.
They explained that the project, which is overseen by the Technische Universität Berlin (TUB) in Germany, aims at directing the development of higher education and research, and involving innovative transportation businesses to serve the needs of unprivileged minorities of society.
“UPGRADE is an Erasmus+ Joint Regional Project, aimed at Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education. The project consortium comprises the departments of Architecture, Urban Planning, and Civil Engineering in eight highly reputable Higher Education Institutes and one Research Center from six different countries. Two of which are Partner Countries (Egypt and Lebanon) -in which the project will be held- and four of which are Program Countries (Germany, Italy, Greece, and Spain) -by which the project will be supervised.”