The current higher education policies at international and national level aim at improving quality and relevance of higher education. To ensure successful implementation of new initiatives it is necessary to support and upgrade the significant role of teaching staff within higher education institutions (senior academics and junior academics). Academics and their aptitudes in teaching are an essential factor for fruitful application of reforms in higher education such as those focusing on the use of learning outcomes, recognition of prior learning, employability and curriculum design, introduction of new IT technologies... This project is focused on improving the quality of teaching and learning in Croatian higher education. Activities in the project are designed to have threefold impact: on academics, on higher education institutions and on the national policy in higher education.The project will provide opportunities to raise awareness about importance of quality teaching and learning in higher education and to exchange views and best practices at national and international level. The awareness raising activities will involve policy makers and academics, but also management of higher education institutions (there are crucial for institutional development) and experts. Teaching role of academics will be redefined and the national competence profile, as well as curriculum framework for teaching competences enhancement, will be produced. This will provide basis for further professional development of teaching staff in Croatian higher education.In order to create positive environment for academic to fulfill their teaching role policy documents will be produced with the aim to provide basis for informed decision making, improvement of legal framework and creation of sustainable framework for development of academic’s teaching role.