Capacity building in Higher Education – nEUROcare Project – 4th Workshop

The nEUROcare project is a European initiative for capacity building to meet the challenges of caring for people with neurodegenerative disorders in Sri Lanka. This project is funded by the Erasmus⁺ grant (618596-EPP-1-2020-1-SE-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP). The main aim of this project is to develop a master’s degree programme in neurodegenerative disorders, which will be delivered by four Sri Lankan partner universities in collaboration with European universities in 2025. This will expand new horizons for the health care professionals in Sri Lanka to pursue their higher education.

General Sir John Kotelawela Defence University (KDU), the University of Colombo, the University of Peradeniya, and the University of Ruhuna are the four Sri Lankan universities that were selected for this nEUROcare project, and they are working collaboratively on this project with Kristianstad University, Sweden, which is the leading partner university. Moreover, delegates from other partner European universities, including the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, Neapolis University Pafos in Cyprus, the University of Tartu in Estonia, and Triskelion Institute in Norway, are collaboratively working on this project. Prof. Martin Jens Persson, the international coordinator of the nEUROcare project chaired the event.

The fourth international workshop and meeting of the nEUROcare project were held on 13^th and 14^th February 2023, at the Hotel Grand Kandyan, which was hosted by the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka with the participation of project members from the eight partner universities and institutes. Major General Milinda Peiris, the Vice Chancellor of KDU, Dr. Prasanna Herath (Project Manager – KDU), and team members Dr. Kalpani Abhayasinghe, Dr. Maliga Wijesiri and Mr. Chandima Kumara from the Department of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences- KDU have participated in this workshop. Prof. Håkan Pihl, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Kristianstad, Prof. M.D. Lamawansa, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya, and Prof. SSP Warnakulasuriya, the Dean of the Faculty of Nursing, University of Colombo (as well as the country manager of the nEUROcare project) have also participated in this programme.

The fifth meeting and the workshop of the project will be held at the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka in November 2023.