The Interuniversity Research Centre on Sustainable Development (CIRPS) counts more than 300 professors, researchers and experts belonging to 11 Italian universities joining the Centre. Since 1988, it coordinates and participates in networks of excellence, research projects, and activities for local sustainable development (SD) and carries out Research, Education, Training and out-reach activities, as well as Technical-Scientific Services supply, through collaborations and agreements with Universities, Research Centres, Enterprises, national and international Institutions and NGOs.

CIRPS is a multidisciplinary research centre with a strong practical and research experience on sustainability science (SS) and SD.

Among Education and Training activities for SD: Post Graduate Professional Master in Development Co-operation and Project Design, that since 2001 offers a complex, qualified and critical training in International Cooperation and SD; PhD Program in SD and International Cooperation, which provides graduates with the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and competencies necessary to address complex, trans-disciplinary and transnational sustainability questions.

Beyond institutional educational activities, CIRPS has a deep experience in international university cooperation gained through coordination and participation to several projects below indicated aimed to promote institutional building, the integration of Third Countries into the European Research Area, curriculum development, technical-scientific capacity building and life-long learning activities: 1) Asia-Europe university forum aimed to investigate the state of the art of the academic relations between EU Member States and Asia, successful and obstructing factors and to elaborate concrete actions and medium-term strategies of university co-operation- EU (DG1B) and Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; 2) University Partnership for SD- Asia Link Europe-Aid Programme;3) eCUP: eContent at the University of Prishtina- Tempus Programme; 4) Further Developing Research Capacity and Collaboration at the University in Mitrovicë/Mitrovica and Prishtinë/Priština through the Creation of a Fellowship Program in Discipline-specific Areas –OSCE Kossovo;5) M2ERA: Morocco To European Research Area – VII Framework Programme, http://ec.europa.eu/research/iscp/pdf/morocco.pdf; 6) R&D Capacities: Creating R&D Capacities and Instruments for boosting Higher Education-Economy Cooperations- Tempus Programme, http://www.rd-capacities.org/; 7) EU-China Institute for Clean and Renewable Energy (ICARE)- http://www.master.eurec.be/en/About-the-Master/Latest-News/ICARE/ ; 8) Advanced Training for local government officers of MERCOSUR on issues of SD and good governance - Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; 9) Master on SD and renewable energy- Tempus programme, http://www.mansur-energy.eu/

CIRPS is founding member of the International Society for Sustainability Science (ISSS) (www.sussci.org/), aiming to integrate, structure and deploy knowledge generated on and through the practice of SS and to promote integration and cooperation among diverse academic fields and across geographic and national borders with a particular focus on developing and enhancing top-flight academic programs in SS. ISSS organizes annually the International Conference on Sustainability Science (ICSS). CIRPS hosted the 2nd edition of ICSS (http://icss2010.net) and organised the workshop A Roadmap for Industry-Academia Collaboration towards Sustainability held in NY at UN Headquarters as a follow-up of ICSS2010. Among accomplishments of ICSS process: promotion of educational programmes in SS, students and faculty exchanges, examination of the current practice of implementing interdisciplinarity into academic programs, promotion of new experiential-based pedagogical approaches, collaborative partnership for sustainability, research and education between University and local stakeholders.

From 2011 CIRPS is coordinating the constitution of the Italian Network of SS (www.ssitalia2011.it), aimed to provide a platform for inter and multidisciplinary debate on sustainability in Italy and to facilitate the promotion and institutionalisation of SS within the Italian academic context. Since the first meeting, a strong attention was directed to the role of education in the global process toward sustainability and the need of new training paths, structured in a trans-disciplinary perspective, aimed at the creation of a civil society increasingly aware about the sustainability problems and their possible solutions.

Role of CIRPS in the project:

• Coodinate the mapping exercise in Italy and complete the template for data collection.
• Assist in the development of an online platform of resources as well as get familiarised and review the online tool.
• Contribute to the bi-annual newsletters.
• Provide feedback to the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework.
• Contribute to the dissemination and exploitation of the project outputs, outcomes and future network activities.
• Participate and actively contribute to the discussions generated in regional and annual meetings, seminars and conference.

Operatioinancial manal and fnagement:

• The project team will coordinate the above administrative and academic project activities.
• Financial administration will be handled by the project team who will liaise internally with the institution’s finance department.