The major aim of the IPB Double Diploma International Platform, together with the Erasmus International Credit Mobility (ICM) project, is the consolidation of the ongoing cooperation between the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB) and the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) outside EU, particularly to promote student mobility for double diploma and staff development on the European HE best-practices, and to improve the management and operation of partner HEIs in international relations capacities.

IPB is recognized as one of the Portuguese HEIs with best performance in international cooperation and multiculturalism in HE. The project enhances this experience and shares these best-practices outside EU, reinforcing the role of IPB and Portugal in the Erasmus+ Programme, and contributing to a sustainable development of partner countries in the field of HE.

The ICM project foresees incoming and outgoing flows of both students and staff. Emphasis is placed on the incoming flows, with the following purposes:

1. Incoming student mobility: apart of the expected international mobility with credit recognition at the partner HEI, priority is given to mobility for double diploma projects;
2. Incoming staff mobility: IPB organizes intensive programmes (IP) joining the staff of the partner HEIs. The IP introduces the EU and the Portuguese HE systems, the ECTS, the mobility tools and the recognition procedures, and supports the ongoing double diploma projects, including meetings with students and teachers, seminars and co-supervision activities;
3. Outgoing staff mobility: the mobility of the IPB staff is used to spread the project at the partner HEIs and to support the application of the best-practices for the selection of participants, the correct use of the mobility tools, and the recognition of their mobility periods;
4. Outgoing student mobility: priority is given to the international mobility of IPB’s master students, for a 5-month period, including co-supervised research activities as the first attempt for reciprocal double diploma programmes.