Historical Background of the Mediterranean School

1. Informal meeting of the Ministries of Advanced Education of Mediterranean Area Countries, undertaken in Catanai November 7th and 8th, 2003, which laid the foundations for the creation of the “Euro-Mediterranean Space of Advanced Education”.
2. In the second half of 2003, the “Mediterranean Innovation Leadership Network” (MEDIL.NET) program was launched by the Scuola Superiore ISUFI – Università del Salento with the goal of creating a new Mediterranean network of competence centers. These centers were conceived as levers to facilitate digital and organizational innovation for the modernization of productive systems of southern Mediterranean countries (Agrifood, Tourism-Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, SMEs). Morocco was identified as the first partner of a cooperation program in the creation of a School of Advanced Studies in e-Business Management.
3. In the same period, a group of young people coming from Mediterranean countries was recruited to do research and advanced education activities planned in Mediterranean projects.
4. Two workshops of bilateral cooperation were done in June and December of 2004 in Italy at the e-Business Management Section of the Scuola Superiore ISUFI and in Casablanca (Morocco), Rabat and Ifrane. These workshops initiated the strategic partnership between the Scuola Superiore ISUFI and the Al Akhawayn University to launch and develop the Mediterranean School of Advanced Studies in Morocco.
5. Catania, January 18th, 2005 – a partnership agreement was made between the Scuola Superiore ISUFI and the Al Akhawayn University to promote a joint research and advandced education program on e-Solutions and innovation in Mediterranean countries.
6. This agreement resulted in the formation of a Competence Center in Casablanca, open to Maghreb countries, specialized in the scientific and advanced education issues related to the Digital Divide. The strategic lever for the development of the Competence Center was the Mediterranean School of Advanced Studies in e-Business Mangement, in which advanced education programs were integrated with research activities supported by a specific-purpose research laboratory specialized in e-Business Solutions.