The WELCOME project aims at strengthening the relations between European, Egyptian and Lebanese HEIs, promoting the achievement of academic excellence; furthermore, one of its related goal is the alignment of third country Higher Education Systems to the European system, giving a boost to the Egyptian and Lebanese education reforms in a framework always respectful of the cultural specificities. Through the WELCOME project there will be the possibility to train and educate 198 beneficiaries in all fields addressed by the call covering all academic levels; as result these people will be better prepared to work in favour of improved EU-Egypt-Lebanon relations. The Partnership is composed of 10 European Universities representing 9 European countries, 6 Egyptian Universities and 4 Lebanese Universities distributed over the respective national territories. The Partnership has been carefully selected in order to ensure both a fair geographical balance and Academic excellence proved by the position covered in national and international ranking by the represented Universities. The main objective of WELCOME project (Widening Egyptian and Lebanese Cooperation and Mobility with Europe) is to promote higher education cooperation between EU, Egypt and Lebanon within the EU’s general goal of improving the quality of the education. The specific activities aiming at the objective will be: • mobility from Egypt and Lebanon to the European Union and vice versa at all levels, from Undergraduates to Master Students, from Doctorate students to academic and administrative staff with the purpose of studying, researching, teaching and training in order to develop their qualifications and their international experience; • promoting transparency, mutual recognition of qualifications and periods of study, research and training, and, for the student mobilities, portability of credits; • promoting mobility paying a special attention to an equal and fair treatment to all students and staff, selecting those coming in particular from disadvantaged groups (for gender, handicap, economical reasons) always taking into account the academic excellence. • supporting the mobility of professionals (academic and administrative staff) in order to promote the mutual understanding, the expertise and the relations between the European Union, Egypt and Lebanon.