The Partnership is submitting a proposal for a project named ARCADE (Academic Relationship for Central Asia with Destination Europe) the main objective of which is to promote higher education cooperation between EU and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) in coherence with the EU general goal of improving the bilateral cooperation in the field of education. The specific activities aiming at the objective will be: -Unidirectional mobility from Central Asia to EU of undergraduate, master, doctorate students, post-doc researchers and academic/administrative staff for 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, where appropriate, 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) with the view of improving mutual understanding and expertise on those issues which are relevant to relations between Central Asia and EU. The proposal is fully in line with the needs of the Central Asian countries underlined in the European Community Strategy Paper of Assistance to Central Asia (2007-2013). In particular the proposal concentrate on: - enhance the international cooperation capacity of the third-country HEIs; - help Central Asian insitutions to develop a strategy for their internationalization, academic excellence and visibility; - favour the promotion of institutional cooperation and on the enhancing of a mutual recognition and enrichment between European and Central Asian Universities; - favour the development of Central Asia regional cooperation and good neighbourly relations; The European partners have been selected in order to offer a consolidated experience in academic studies and exchange, bringing an open-minded vision of the new Global Knowledge Society. 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. 7 European Universities from 7 countries and 13 Central Asian Universities represented all the 5 Central Asian countries joined the Partnership. For what concerns the total number of mobility flows, the proposed scheme not only satisfies the minimum established by the EM Call, but in fact allows to distribute the project funding to a large number of individuals in a balanced proportion among the Target Groups and the Study Levels. This scheme therefore will facilitate the creation of a greater number of cooperation channels among the partners and with the potential of reaching a wider range of common interests in different thematic fields. The scheme is designed in order to optimally approach the general goal of the Erasmus Mundus programme of promoting mutual understanding, innovation and quality of education, by multiplying the opportunities for mutual understanding among the partners and the development of the expertise of professionals.