PROJECTS

aNATOmy: knowledge through experience

The project “aNATOmy: knowledge through experience” aims to help foster awareness and understanding of NATO, its values, policies, and activities, and to increase the level of debate on peace, security, and defense related issues.

The project aims to emphasize NATO’s values and role in ensuring security of our country. The main target groups that we aim to reach with this project are four: (1) young people (age group 18 to 34), especially woman, (2) women (age group 35+), (3) families (households), and (4) broader, non-specialized publics, including the Russian speaking minority in Latvia. During the project, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences (ViA) as the Lead partner with project partners – the television channel in Latvia “ReTV” (ReTV) and "ZF projekti" Ltd - the biggest online quiz show provider in Latvia - will produce the following:

• A factual-documentary film (46 - 48 minutes long) about the daily life of NATO Allied Forces soldiers from the point of view of two young people (two students - one woman, one man);

• Online quiz about NATO and live discussion on quiz’s break sessions;

• Promotional content for the documentary film in TV (channel ReTV) and in the social media profiles of ViA and ReTV.

The project will run for five months, from August 1 until December 30, 2021. The total budget of the project requested from NATO is 9966 EUR.

“SEMPRE Accelerators for Service Co-Creation

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Project aim: SEMPRE Accelerators is an extension of the project SEMPRE—Social Empowerment in Rural Areas. While the focus of SEMPRE/1 was the development of business ideas with tools such as the social business model canvas or the theory of change, the extension stage will go further. The partners will apply additional support mechanisms to accelerate the growth and development of eight of the most promising micro projects and turn them into successful, self-sustaining social start-ups that consistently offer services and/or products on local and regional markets of the Baltic Sea Region. The project will thus create eight good practice examples of dynamic and successful social start-ups that enrich the social service landscape and take pressure off established service providers and public authorities who face increasingly difficult framework conditions for service provision in rural areas. Also the project will enhance three main outputs of the original SEMPRE project - The Empowerment Handbook, The Organisational Roadmap for Leaders and the Guidebook for Empowerment Training. One additional output of the extension stage project is a framework for a more inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem. Its objective is to sensitise decision-makers responsible for innovation support schemes and funding programmes for the potentials and needs of disadvantaged entrepreneurs.

Project duration: 09/2019 - 01/2021 (24 months)

Lead partner: Diaconie of Schleswig-Holstein

Partners:

Diaconie of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
University College South Denmark, Denmark
Academy of economics Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Sunderby Folk high school, Sweden
Lutheran Diaconia, Lithuania
Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Latvia
Diaconal centre Liepaja, Latvia
Estonian evangelical Lutheran church), Estonia

Funding source: The project is implemented by Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programe. Total funding of project partner (Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences) is 100 000 EUR, ERAF co-funding is 85 000 EUR. The total funding of project is 998, 069.65 EUR.

Project manager: Madara Narņicka

Research participants: Anna Broka, Hanna Mihailova, Kaspars Osis.

Project homepage: http://www.sempre-project.eu/

Higher education student and staff mobility between Programme and Partner Countries

Erasmus+

Goal of the project is to increase international mobility of students and staff as well as international cooperation with partner countries.

Type: Erasmus+

Full title: Erasmus+ programme KA1 “Higher education student and staff mobility between Programme and Partner Countries”

Number: 2019-1-LV01-KA107-060300 (-LV)

Goal of the project: Increase international mobility of students and staff as well as international cooperation with partner countries

The target group: Students and staff at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences and its partner institutions

The leading partner: Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences

All project partners:

Armenia (Yerevan BRUSOV State University of Languages and Social Sciences)
Bosnia and Hercegovina (The University of Zenica)
Gambia (The University of Gambia)
India (Dr. Y.S.R. National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality Management; Indira Gandhi National Tribal University)
Israel (ORT Braude College)
Kosovo (University of Business and Technology Kosovo)

Project implementation period: 01.08.2019. – 31.07.2021.

Main activities: Student and staff exchange

Study directions: Business administration, information technologies, communication and journalism, political sciences, tourism

Total budget: EUR 159 072,00 (122 940,00 EU; 36 132,00 Latvian national co-financing)

Project funding: EU funding, Latvian national co-financing

Erasmus+ Charter: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/sites/erasmusplus/files/files/resources/he-charter_en.pdf

Information for partners: http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/sites/erasmusplus/files/library//guide-credit-mobility_en.pdf

The selection process of students takes place at sending university based on following criteria - academic performance and achievements, adequacy of exchange study content to the study programme, already used abroad study and internship opportunities (preference is given to students who have not participated in Erasmus+ exchange), study semester, motivation, english or particular national language skills, involvement in various professional activities and projects, other criteria of the partner university.

Student selection has to be documented (including criteria used), after the selection partner university provides an official protocol in order to participate in the particular Erasmus+ KA 107 project. After the selection, university nominates the selected student and only final chosen student has to apply at ViA university for studies (fill in the online application), not all potential candidates.

The selection process of staff takes place at the host university (Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences)

Contacts:

Project manager at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences: Tatjana Mažāne

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Phone: +371 22042022

Advancing Human Performance in Cybersecurity, ADVANCES

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The world is experiencing a high demand for high-quality cybersecurity specialists due to an increasing number of cyber attacks and their technological advancement. In the Baltic countries, the geopolitical situation sets cybersecurity as a top priority. All economic sectors depend on the protection against cybercrime. In more than 90% of cyber incidents, humans could be seen both as attack targets and defenders having a broad set of technical and generic competencies. There is an enormous lack of research regarding the role of human factors in cybersecurity internationally. The establishment of an international cross-disciplinary research team will address the urgent need for a scientific understanding of human limitations and capabilities in the cyber kill chain.

The three Baltic countries and their partners from Norway and Liechtenstein make the team to investigate human behaviour in cybersecurity by combining research areas of computer science, psychology, and human genomics. The project aims to develop a comprehensive, science-based interdisciplinary framework to develop and assess generic and subject-related competencies of the current and future cybersecurity workforce. The data will be gathered based on the participants of international cybersecurity exercises. Risk assessment and educational components will be tested in the student environment. Statistical and data mining tools will be used to interpret multilayered data and to find correlations among genetic, behavioural, and technical skills under stressful conditions.

The project will result in the creation of a set of methodologies and tools that will include specific software components to gather and analyse data, self-report tools to collect factual data on social behavioural patterns, recommendations to consider specific biological marker information, a custom genotyping array, a methodology to develop and assess competencies, and the risk assessment process based on the joint interdisciplinary data.

Main objectives:

The main objective is to advance the performance of the cybersecurity (CS) specialist by identifying possible improvements from three different perspectives: by regarding the human as a biological entity, by analyzing behaviour patterns of the person, and by addressing the necessary knowledge and skills of the cybersecurity specialist.

The project is based on a hypothesis that it is possible to map cyber competencies required to solve cyber-crime, defend infrastructure, or be resilient to cyber abuse and then to develop a rational competence improvement path for a CS specialist. When dealing with critical infrastructures or handling life mission-critical support systems, tools that enable the assessment of human traits or inherent risks are non-existent, or research components are not validated scientifically.

The envisioned results include a) identification of key performance indicators in individual/team level training/exercises to develop an evidence base for a comprehensive assessment of cyber competencies, b) development of methods to assess and predict the performance of a human in individual tasks and collaborative decision-making environments in cyberspace, c) development of specific tools to advance the performance of a human in learning to cope with challenges during stressful situations that require technological knowledge.

Funding:

The Advancing Human Performance in Cybersecurity benefits from nearly €1 million grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants under the Baltic Research Programme. The aim of the programme is to consolidate the research potential of the Baltic States, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, strengthen regional cooperation in research relevant to the countries of the region, and fill the gap between the national research funding and the European Union Structural Assistance.

Research results on the promoter's page:
https://cs.vu.lt/projects/ADVANCES

Grant: Baltic Research Programme, European Economic Area (EEA) Financial Mechanism 2014-2021

Programme operator: the Research Council of Lithuania

Project No: S-BMT-21-6 (LT08-2-LMT-K-01-051)

Project duration: 01/01/2021 – 31/12/2023

Project promoter: Vilnius University, project leader dr. Agnė Brilingaitė (Institute of Computer Science, Cybersecurity Laboratory)

Principal investigator at the institution: dr.sc.ing. Ginta Majore

Project partners: Vilnius University (Lithuania), General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania (Lithuania), Norwegian University for Technology and Science (Norway), Østfold University College (Norway), Riga Technical University (Latvia), Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia), University of Liechtenstein, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences (Latvia)

Technological Solutions for Managing the Flow of Visitors in Specially Protected Nature Territories

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Summary: In 2020, through joint cooperation between Vidzeme University College and the Nature Conservation Agency (NCA), the resources of both institutions were concentrated in order to establish a comprehensive inventory of visitors to specially protected nature territories (SPNTs) - laying the foundations for long-term monitoring. In order to obtain as accurate data as possible, the data available to other organizations were included, data on tourist accommodation or visits at SPNTs, where visitors are registered, were collected. When developing an in-depth monitoring methodology, locations were identified where stationary automatic visitor counters would be installed and where it would be possible to place temporary - portable automatic visitor counters.

Thus, it would be possible to generalize the results more precisely to all existing tourist attractions in the Latvian SPNTs. For this purpose, it is necessary to purchase five new automatic visitor counters, which are planned to be placed temporarily, covering a much wider number of SPNTs throughout the territory of Latvia. They would be operated as portable counters, including in places where there is no NCA infrastructure for visitors, but there is a flow of visitors. In addition, one creative solution is needed to record water tourists in rivers, which has so far been out of sight of census data (traditional counters and cameras do not work in such a large area). In general, it would provide new knowledge on visitor flow dynamics, anthropogenic load, return on public investment, and data for solutions on planning the workload, sustainable tourism solutions, environmental education potential, etc. The obtained data will be applicable to the situation in Latvia as a whole, in order to use them for making informed decisions on the daily management and protection of the territory and to find solutions for more efficient management of the flow of visitors to SPNTs. The monitoring methodology envisages that the data could be comparable and accumulated sequentially every year. In turn, an already established geospatial data collection platform and filters would allow easy selection of the required period, area, or an SPNT category.

Funding/ programme: Latvian Environmental Protection Fund

HESPI role: Project implementer

Cooperation partners: Nature Conservation Agency

Project funding: 16538,89 EUR

Project scientific manager (e-mail): HESPI Lead Researcher Andris Klepers (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Involved staff: HESPI research staff Agita Līviņa

More: https://www.hespi.lv/en/node/546