Brussels, 29/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - The new European Commissioner for Education and Training, Jan Figel, welcomed the launch of two pilot projects on Thursday, which will allow cooperation on education to be stepped up between the EU and Australia and New Zealand.
-In New Zealand, a pilot project called "Leonardo: a multi-national exploration of education and research in the field of the concept of interaction" will allow at least 36 students to take part in research at post-graduate level, over three years. The project, which will receive funding of 225,000 EUR from the European Commission and the same from New Zealand, will be managed in Europe by the Faculty of Applied Sciences of Hagenberg (Austria), and will include the partner universities of Lancaster and Nottingham (United Kingdom) and of Ljubljana (Slovenia). In New Zealand, the project is run by the University of Canterbury, with the University of Waikato and the Wanganui School of Design.
- in Australia, the pilot project "Sharing our heritage: masters in management of cultural heritage", to which each side will contribute 300,000 EUR, for an exchange programme for teachers and 80 students, who will also study at the Unesco World Heritage Centre. In Europe, the scheme will be managed by the Brandenburg University of Technology (Germany), together with the Universities of Louvain (Belgium), Valencia (Spain) and Dublin (Ireland). In Australia, it will be managed by the University of Western Sydney, with the Charles Darwin University, the Curtin University of Technology and Deakin University. (Info: http: //europa.eu.int/Commission/dgs/education_culture/index_en.htm).