EKA University of Applied Sciences (Ekonomikas un kultūras augstskola) is a partner in an international project Advancing circular economy in partner countries by development and implementation of Master programme "Waste management" (project acronym – UnWaste).

UnWaste wider objective is to influence current situation by (1) development engineering focused Waste management curricula on master level and (2) raising awareness on circular economy by means of higher education institutions new curricula development.

Specific objectives:

• Development of collaborative interdisciplinary master programme in Waste management in partner Universities;
• 50-70 students, 3-5  university instructors and an industry mentor from each partner university are enrolled in Waste management master programme;
• Academic content of Waste Management and relevant engineering curricula in Partner Universities to the EU standards and Bologna process would be developed;
• Knowledge transfer to teaching staff; provide a cross-country experience-exchange among teaching staff, students, and business people would be ensured by train the trainer session performed by EU universities and during internship in EU;
• Efficient utilization of experiences from relevant Waste management cluster projects;
• Rising of political and public awareness of the problems addressed by means of roundtables, consulting and visibility of project platform and relevant social media;
• Secure durability, transferability of the project results through efficient and targeted dissemination on the regional, national and cross-project levels.

Project consortium involves EU partner universities, partner universities from Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan. Project period: January 15, 2021 – January 14, 2024.

EU partner universities:

• Hochschule Wismar, University of Applied Sciences (Germany)
• Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia)
• EKA University of Applied Sciences (Latvia)

Partner universities from Russian Federation:

• TISBI University of Management
• Rostov State University of Economics
• Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University

Partner Universities from the Republic of Kazakhstan:

• A. Baytursynov Kostanay State University
• Sh. Ualikhanov Kokshetau State University
• Saken Seifullin Kazakh Agrotechnical University

UnWaste is financed and supported by the ERASMUS+ programme of the European Union Capacity building in the field of higher education (Project ref. No. 618715-EPP-1-2020-1-1-DE-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP).