The Athena Project, University Goes Digital for a Sustainable Global Education, funded by the Erasmus+ Programme and coordinated by Iscte - University Institute of Lisbon, held its kick-off meeting on 15 March 2021.

Iscte is collaborating with Gustave Eiffel University (France), the University of Florence (Italy), Sigmund Freud University (Austria) and WebWise (Portugal) on this project. Microsoft, the Agence Universitaire Francophone (AUF), and three other universities - the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the University of Santiago, and the École Supérieure des Sciences Économiques et Commerciales de Tunis - are participating as associated partners in the Athena Project.

The project's objective is to enhance the digital competences of university lecturers, enabling them to better respond to the challenges that universities face today and in the future.

With the active involvement of lecturers and students from the outset of the project, ATHENA aims to create, test, and implement innovative digital practices to enhance pedagogical approaches and improve teaching and learning experiences.

The project aims to create cooperative learning environments that are inclusive and transformative by utilising new technologies such as e-learning, gaming platforms, and virtual and augmented reality. These technologies will be systematically modelled to activate key competences in digital learning. Teachers can use various pedagogical approaches to adopt and adapt models developed to activate key competencies in digital learning.