The 3rd Transnational Partners’ Meeting (TPM) of the “SCALe – Smart City ASEAN Learning Network” European project was successfully held in person, on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, at the Phnom Penh International University (PPIU) in the capital city of Cambodia. It served as a coordination meeting among the project partners in the context of SCALe’s implementation, taking into account that the project’s core objective is to develop a series of micro courses focused on smart city skills, which can complement or enhance existing academic programs, or even be combined to create entirely new ones.

The 3rd TPM brought together the project partners so as to discuss a broad range of topics related to the publicity and visibility of SCALe, its financial management, the monitoring of the project’s implementation, its progress, and the planning of future actions.

The DAISSy Research Group of the Hellenic Open University (HOU), the Greek partner of SCALe, was represented at the 3rd TPM by Professor Achilles Kameas, Director of DAISSy and Scientific Coordinator of the project, and Dr. Theodoros Panagiotakopoulos, Project Manager at DAISSy and SCALe Manager. They both participated actively in all TPM sessions, contributed updates on the deliverables under the Research Group’s responsibility, and also expressed suggestions and recommendations regarding the next steps of the project’s implementation. In parallel, DAISSy-HOU fully seized the opportunity to develop new collaborations with universities in Southeast Asia, initiating a series of meetings on the sidelines of the SCALe project events.

It is noteworthy that DAISSy-HOU  plays a multidimentional role in SCALe, since it has contributed to the definition of the required skills that was used into the development of the micro course collection, as well as to the design of the educational methodology for developing and delivering e-learning modules. Furthermore, the Research Group was involved in the development of educational material and coordinated the implementation of both in-person and online workshops, while also being responsible for the evaluation and the drafting of reports related to these activities.

In this context, and upon the conclusion of the 3rd TPM, DAISSy-HOU offered commemorative gifts and expressed its gratitude to the representatives of the local universities that hosted the meeting’s sessions.

Undoubtedly, the 3rd Transnational Partners’ Meeting (TPM) featured a lively exchange of views among the SCALe partners and was held in a spirit of teamworking and mutual respect. It served as a seamless continuation of the successful workshop held on July 21–22, 2025, co-organized by PPIU and DAISSy-HOU, focusing on smart cities and, more specifically, the development of educational programs for acquiring knowledge and building skills related to emerging and future smart city professions in Southeast Asian countries.

SCALe is a three-year project (July 2023 – June 2026), co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, which is implemented by a consortium of fourteen (14) partners across two (2) EU Member States (Greece and Italy) and three (3) Asian countries (Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand), with DAISSy Research Group of the HOU, being the Greek partner.

For more information about the SCALe project, undergoing by DAISSy-HOU:

• Websites:  http://daissy.eap.gr/en/projects/scale/, https://projectscale.eu/

Focusing on smart cities and particularly, on the development of educational programs aimed at knowledge acquisition and skills building for emerging and future smart city professions in Southeast Asian countries, a highly successful capacity-building workshop was held for the benefit of selected Asian universities. The activity took place in person on July 21–22, 2025, as part of the “SCALe – Smart City ASEAN Learning Network” European project. It was co-organized by the DAISSy Research Group of the Hellenic Open University (HOU), the Greek partner of SCALe, and the National University of Management of Cambodia (NUMC). It was hosted at the university’s facilities in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, with the primary goal of transferring know-how from European to Asian universities.

The workshop serves the main goal of the SCALe project, namely to develop a set of short courses based on smart city skills, which may supplement or enhance existing academic programs, or even be combined, so as to form new ones.

Specifically, the first day of the workshop was dedicated to presentations on technological, structural, and educational topics. Achilles Kameas, Professor at the Hellenic Open University, Director of DAISSy, presented relevant European frameworks, policies, and tools supporting digital citizenship, whereas Dr. Theodoros Panagiotakopoulos, Project Manager and Researcher at DAISSy, delivered a speech on the role of the Internet of Things (IoT) in smart cities.

During the sessions of the second day of the workshop, the developers of the short courses presented their structure and content. The main objective was to ensure a clear understanding of the requirements and pedagogical approach for delivering these courses by the academic and teaching staff of every university participating in the SCALe consortium.

In parallel, DAISSy-HOU fully exploited all possibilities provided by the workshop, in order to strengthen existing collaborations with Southeast Asian universities and to forge new partnerships, aiming at knowledge exchange and the joint development of future initiatives.

SCALe is a three-year project (July 2023 – June 2026), co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, which is implemented by a consortium of fourteen (14) partners across two (2) EU Member States (Greece and Italy) and three (3) Asian countries (Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand), with the DAISSy Research Group of the HOU, being the Greek partner.

For more information about the SCALe project, undergoing by DAISSy-HOU:

• Websites:  http://daissy.eap.gr/en/projects/scale/, https://projectscale.eu/