Leadership in Small States Erasmus Project

Project Title

Leadership in Small States

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Open and distance learning; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

Small states face structural disadvantages related to their size in the international community. Having a small population inherently inhibits the aggregate structural power of states and creates hurdles that need to be compensated for. A small state´s administrative capacity is more limited than the capacity in bigger states, making it more challenging to engage in decisive and independent policy making. Good leadership skills are required to be able to practice the correct prioritization and tactical bargaining in international diplomatic surroundings. Small states need to defend their interests in their key sectors and within these sectors they need to be able to show leadership initiative, offer clever solutions to problems, while also wielding positive influence outwards. Leadership skills are imperative to make this happen and secure successful diplomacy for a small state.

This consortium builds on a long-standing partnership between the participating institutions in developing small state studies as an academic discipline. The project is led by the Centre for Small State Studies at the University of Iceland in close collaboration with the University of Copenhagen, Tallinn University of Technology, Vilnius University, the University of Ljubljana and Århus University. The partnership has already run several projects together focusing on small state studies and achieved a cross-sectoral reach into for example political science, international relations, foreign and security policy and public administration. The central objective of this application is to use the vast pool of resources within the consortium to create a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) focusing on the importance of leadership in small states.

This project builds on a previous Strategic Partnership project from 2018 (LIST) which was only partly funded. Instead of a three year project culminating in the creation of a MOOC, the partnership received funding for a two year project, creating manuscripts for a MOOC. This application seeks funding to finalise the MOOC, which was always intended to be the final and main outcome of this partnership.

In this previous LIST project, the consortium hosted five leadership schools that each serve as the basis for a module in the MOOC delivered by this project. These modules are:
An Introduction to Small States and Leadership
Small State Leadership in Public Administration and Governance
Small State Leadership in Security and Defence Policy
Small State Leadership in Gender Policy
Small State Foreign Policy: Taking Leadership in International Diplomacy

Thus the key output of this proposed project is the development of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Leadership in Small States” to be hosted on the highly acclaimed edX platform.

The development of this output will be supported by the following activities:

a. Two Intensive Study Programmes
b. Transnational meetings. Three transnational meetings will be hosted during the project.
c. Multiplier event. The consortium will host a multiplier event during the course of the project.

The methodology applied in the project will be based on elaborative consultation and communication between the partners during the preparation and implementation of the planned activities as well as during the dissemination phase of the project. Partners have jointly developed the concept of this project and its intended outputs based on the importance of leadership training in small states, not least because of the high-level of personalism in small states.

The project is expected to impact its participants on various levels as well as to have sustained impact beyond the lifetime of the project. The project’s main initial target group are students that want to expand on their studies and current knowledge by adding a small state angle to their academic insight. In addition the project will also impact participating institutions on different levels by creating a new dynamic dimension in leadership and small state studies that all partners aim to foster and grow even further. EdX is not only a highly acclaimed platform for online courses but also open access, thus securing wide access for the final output of this project. This innovative platform will allow the partnership to create new teaching material that will be made available beyond the walls of the six participating institutions, offering other students, young professionals, activists, politicians and other interested individuals access to high-quality academic education.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 187012 Eur

Project Coordinator

HASKOLI ISLANDS & Country: IS

Project Partners

• UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI
• KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
• AARHUS UNIVERSITET
• TALLINNA TEHNIKAULIKOOL
• VILNIAUS UNIVERSITETAS