By fostering university cooperation, DIRE-MED seeks to establish a long-lasting relationship of mutual trust, understanding and intercultural awareness among Mediterranean countries promoting the mobility and exchange of people and in longer term, a major economic and cultural integration of the region. DIRE-MED aims at:- Creating a framework of cooperation to facilitate the exchange of students, academic and non-academic staff of HEIs in the Mediterranean Basin. The actions planned by the project will increase the competitiveness of the universities and help to strengthen cooperation between them (South-South) and between them and Europe.- Articulating the university-enterprise cooperation through the promotion of the intercultural dialogue and by strengthening the international and the entrepreneurial spirit in the region that will boost the labor market.- Providing capacity building for the staff of the International Relation Offices of the HEIs from the partner countries in order to set them up as "International Opportunities Offices". The International Opportunities Offices will act as internationalisation hubs within their institution and their region, leading the promotion of international opportunities and mobility for education and training purposes in their area and promoting the internationalisation of their universities. - Influencing institutional and political policies in order to consolidate, improve and develop new programs and initiatives.