Focus Areas: Intercultural dialogue, digital literacy, media literacy, polarisation prevention, hate speech recognition, social inclusion

Key Activities: Moderated virtual exchanges, digital literacy training, facilitator training for youth workers, youth-created digital content production, online dialogue sessions

Virtual Mosaic is an Erasmus+ Virtual Exchanges project that brings together young people, students, youth workers and educators from Europe and the Southern Mediterranean region to learn, talk and create together online. It responds to current challenges by using intercultural dialogue and digital literacy as positive tools for connection. The project is coordinated by FSL – Formation et Sensibilisation Luxembourg and runs from April 2025 to March 2028.

Aim:

The main aim of Virtual Mosaic is to create safe, structured online spaces where young people from different cultures can meet, listen to each other and work together, while building the digital skills they need to recognise misinformation, hate speech and biased content.

Objectives of the Virtual Mosaic project are:

1. Enable participants to strengthen their verbal and written English skills so they can confidently communicate, collaborate and access knowledge in international and digital environments.
2. Support participants to use digital tools safely and effectively, including professional networking, online collaboration platforms and basic cybersecurity and wellbeing strategies.
3. Strengthen participants' learning to learn competence by helping them plan, monitor and reflect on their own learning, using English and digital resources to independently find, evaluate and apply information in new situations.
4. Strengthen participants' ability to cooperate, show empathy and responsibility in group and community settings.
5. Encourage participants to engage actively and responsibly in their communitie and promote inclusion.
6. Foster participants' capacity to appreciate, interpret and creatively express diverse cultural identities, challenging stereotypes and valuing differences with respect and openness.

Partners:

• FSL – Formation et Sensibilisation Luxembourg (Coordinator)

FSL is a Luxembourg-based association working in non-formal education, youth participation and inclusion. It designs training courses, exchanges and awareness actions in Luxembourg and internationally, with a focus on human rights, media literacy and intercultural dialogue.

• Stichting Friendshifts (Netherlands)

Friendshifts is a Dutch organisation supporting young people through creative, digital and peer-learning projects. It works on social inclusion, intercultural understanding and youth participation, often in online or blended formats.

• Liwan Space for Youth Development (Jordan)

Liwan is a youth organisation in Jordan that provides safe spaces, programmes and mentoring for young people to develop skills, engage in dialogue and participate in community life.

• Al-Quds Open University (Palestine)

Al-Quds Open University is a Palestinian higher education institution offering flexible, open and distance learning. It supports youth engagement, digital learning and international cooperation.

What is the “mosaic”?

The “mosaic” is both a metaphor and a product:

- a metaphor for bringing together voices, cultures, languages and experiences that are different, but that can form one meaningful picture when placed side by side;

- a product in the form of online stories, short videos, micro-learning units and dialogue outcomes that will be collected and made visible by all partners on their websites and channels.

Each virtual exchange will add a new “tile” to this mosaic — a testimony, a joint activity, a short reflection, or a youth-created digital piece.

Who is it for?

- university students and young people in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Jordan and Palestine

- youth workers and educators who want practical tools for online dialogue

- youth organisations working on inclusion, media literacy, intercultural and interreligious dialogue

Building Capacity in Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Education and Research through a Partnership Program in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe for Agricultural Transformation (BREEDTECH)

Erasmus+ Capacity Building of Higher Education Projects at Al-Quds Open University (2014-2024)

Al-Quds Open University has been participating in the programme since 2015 through capacity-building projects in the field of higher education and transnational cooperation projects, based on multilateral partnerships with a large number of European countries.
Over the past years, al-Quds Open University has been leading three capacity building projects and participated in four projects as a partner University as illustrated below:

Enhancing Early Childhood Education and Care in – CARE (2021 -2025)

Key Results: CARE project will focus on placing the rights of the Palestinian child on the list of the government priorities to achieve the highest degree of equality and justice in obtaining non-compulsory education in areas where children do not have the opportunity to enroll in kindergarten. In addition to enrolling children in kindergarten, the project will employ the most recent means to contain them, solve their problems, and provide advice to all who interact with them at this stage, nursery, kindergarten educators and parents.
Consortia: Al-Quds Open University (Applicant), Al-Aqsa University, Al-Rawdah Technical Community college, Al-Ummah University College, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Development, Ramallah Women Training Centre, PANEPISTIMIO KRITIS, UNIVERSAL LEARNING SYSTEMS LTD, PIXEL - ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE, UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PALERMO, INSTITUTO POLITECNICO DE BRAGANCA, ROYAL HOLLOWAY AND BEDFORD NEW COLLEGE.
Budget: EUR 961,244
Link to the Project website: http://www.care.edu.ps

Boosting Innovation in Education and Research of Precision Agriculture in Palestine – BENEFIT (2019-2023)

Key Results: The project is designed to provide students with new curriculum that meets the achieved development in the agriculture sector, provides them with theoretical and practical skills to realize the needs of local and global labor markets. The project is intended to promote critical thinking to solve problems related to the agriculture sector. New developed curricula will be part of the agricultural programs at the faculties of agriculture in the Palestinian universities.
Consortia: Al-Quds Open University (Applicant), Al-Istiqlal University, An-Najah National University, Hebron University, Palestine Technical University Kadoorie, Panepistimio Patron, Slovenská poľnohospodárska univerzita v Nitre, College of Applied Sciences, Angel Kanchev University of Ruse
Budget: € 790,845.00
Link to the Project website: http://benefit.edu.ps

Reinforcing Access to Cross Border Employment at Palestinian Higher Education Institutions – PHEIs - REACH (2019-2023)

Key Results: The project will contribute effectively to maximizing the benefits of CBHE objectives by modernization of higher education institutions. The project, through its planned activities, aimed at the modernization and capacity building of higher education, and promoting a professional culture of cross border working, which is a new approach for all PHEIs and local enterprises, in order to strengthen the relation between higher education and society.
Consortia: Al-Quds Open University, An-Najah National University, Birzeit University, Middlesex University Higher Education Corporation, Palestine Polytechnic University, The Society of Women Graduates, Universidad de Alicante, Università Telematica Pegaso, Telematica Universa V Ljubljani.
Budget: € 948,112.00
Link to Project: http://www.reach.iugaza.edu.ps

Teaching English as a Foreign Language in the Palestinian HEIs: An e-Learning Initiative that Bridges Educational and Socio-Political Gaps – TEFL (2018 -2022)

Key Results: The project will disseminate the culture of blended learning environment, and information communication technology (ICT) integration and set up plans for reaching them. The modernization of the existing courses and curricula is an important feature to improve the quality of Higher Education institutions (HEIs) in Palestine. Trained staff, infrastructure, curricula, relations, innovative methodologies will all act as a strategic momentum force to partners who guarantee the coverage of this intervention at different levels, private sectors, government, and the larger community through the participation of community members. Establishing and strengthening the strategic links with these different involved parties is the role of each individual partner. The innovative character of the project serves the capacity-building aspect for the Palestinian HEIs and bridges the gaps, addresses inclusion and the proper technological developments. This project focuses on creating a new dynamism regarding ICT integration into education, which will ensure the utilization of new and modernized methodologies to provide a top-notch quality of teaching materials.
Consortia: Al-Quds Open University (applicant) , Al-Istiqlal University, Anadolu University, Confidence for Learning and Training, Palestine Ahliya University College, Palestine Technical University - Kadoorie (PTUK), Technische Universität Chemnitz, Universal Learning Systems LTD, University of Wolverhampton.
Budget: € 929.151,00
Link to the Project website: http://tefl-epal.ps

Virtual Reality as an Innovative and Immersive Learning Tools for HEIs in Palestine -TESLA (2017-2021)

Key Results: TESLA is the first project in Palestine where common educative technologies are put together in four different universities. The project will lead to setting up policies relevant to sharing resources, privileging collective work towards a unified framework for course development and engineering in the future. On the individual level, TESLA project has extremely changed the academics and the technical perspectives . On the institutional level, the project provides a controlled simulating environment which will be reflected on the operating costs for DNA extraction kits, analysis kit, measuring equipment for geography, topography, and geology. This immersive experience fosters learning retention that beats a textbook or PowerPoint presentation hands down. On the national level, TESLA is the first experience gathering a common shared experience using virtual reality (VR) technology.
Consortia: Al-Istiqlal University (Applicant), Al-Quds Open University, Arab American University, Palestine Polytechnic University, University of Patras, Slovenská poľnohospodárska univerzita v Nitre, Synchrone Technologies, Politehnica University of Bucharest.
Budget: € 608,951
Link to the Project website: http://tesla-vr.net/index.php/en

Research Output Management Through Open Access Institutional Repositorie Research Output Management Through Open Access Institutional Repositories in Palestinian Higher Education-ROMOR - (2016-2019)

Key Results: The project resulted in important outputs and actions towards the institutionalization of scientific research management, promoting the research fundraising, and encouraging the interoperability and partnership locally and internationally. The main results of the project are: Better informed faculty members and students and others on open access (OA) publishing and the need and benefits of open access institutional repositories (OAIR) for research output preservation in the form of documents and data sets. Development of four OAIRs in partner PS HEIs for collecting, preserving and sharing the research outputs freely worldwide, and the development of policies for research output management and OA at partner PS HEIs.
Consortia: Islamic University of Gaza (Applicant,) Al-Quds Open University, Palestine Technical University – Kadoorie (PTUK), The Board of Trustees of The Birzeit University, PS, Technische Universitaet Wien, AT, Universita Degli Studi Di Parma IT, University of Brighton, UK, University of Glasgow, UK.
Budget: EUR 1,117,516.00
Link to the Project website: http://romor.iugaza.edu.ps/romor

BERC Develop Business and Economic Research Centers Capacity at Palestinian Higher Education Institutions (2015-2018)

Key Results: The project is an opportunity for the academics in the Palestinian Higher Education institutions (PHEIs) to learn and recognize the learning system of the European universities. The project is a platform for building the capacities of the PHEIs representatives, academics in managing the research centers through establishing one research center in each local partner university and developing the staff management skills. The project enhanced the capacities of partners in managing similar projects and it was a strength point for some, as it helped them to apply and make advantage of ERASMUS+. It also contributed to the development of individuals through promoting the culture of teamwork in research groups instead of the common practice of individual work. The students improved their data analysis skills and they will utilize the research centers to perform the analysis by themselves without hiring a specialized person for the analysis tasks.
Consortia: The Islamic University of Gaza, PS, Al Azhar University, PS, Birzeit University, PS, University College of Applied Sciences, PS, Al- Quds Open University, PS, University of Huddersfield, UK, University of Almería, ES, University of L’Aquila, IT. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE.
Budget: € 832 191,00
Link to the Project website: http://berc.iugaza.edu.ps