FORWARD

The devastating wars in Palestine and Ukraine have severely disrupted higher education systems, hindering their continuity and regularity without compromising the minimum level of quality.

Universities face challenges such as damaged infrastructure, limited access to resources, and a lack of practical training opportunities for students. These challenges arise in parallel with other critical societal challenges such as urban resilience, including water management, energy sustainability, housing and sheltering, food security, and gender equity. This is even compounded by the limited skills needed to collect, analyze, manage and share field data, which are essential for any attempts seeking solutions for supporting community resilience.

The identified needs include training curricula, practical case studies, and FAIR data management to address urban resilience challenges in energy, housing, sheltering, food security, water, and gender equity. Collaboration with EU universities and partners through joint programs, mentorship, and capacity-building will help war-affected universities develop reconstruction strategies and support their communities. This engagement empowers higher education to tackle urgent challenges while reaffirming the EU’s commitment to education and peacebuilding.

In response to the urgent need for resilience in war-affected regions, FORWARD will develop an interdisciplinary online training program in urban resilience, targeting students and academics from relevant academic programs (e.g., urban planning, disaster management, engineering, information technology) as well as professionals from non-academic institutions and civil society organizations working in the field.