Higher Education–Enterprise platform for fostering, modernisation and sustainable growth in natural stone industry in Western Balkans

Visoko obrazovna  - poduzetnička platforma za razvoj, modernizaciju i održivi rast u industriji prirodnog kamena u Zapadnom Balkanu

Project Description

This project addresses the needs of Balkan countries in terms or education related to the use of a natural resource as the stone, which is quite important for the development of the economy in the Mediterranean countries.
In the quarrying of the stone, the lack of prepared hands-on engineers in this area makes that the local companies face a lot of problems to compete in the international markets: high extraction prices because  of old machinery and techniques,  lack of quality in the products (excessive use of explosives that finally produce the braking in the molecules, what makes the stone to easily split when placed in the final destination, or when workers are placing it, what brings not only quality problems, but also security problems for the workers themselves), high number of accidents in the quarry due to the high use of ht explosives, instead of modern machinery based in the diamond wire; important environment impact in the quarry (dust, mud, etc.).
In a third dimension, the manufacturing of the stone, also required specialized knowledge to be able of producing materials with the quality level required by the national and international markets. Same when we talk about the placing of the stone. We can see in these countries as in some public places the stone floor is broken, giving in this way a bad image of this material, when the only problem is a placement work performed without consideration the European standards and the commonly use codes of practice.
To this we must add the importance of the education related to the restoration of the historical buildings, many of them built using stone. This makes that some of the few works being carried out even if externally seems to have fixed some problems, because of using old techniques the intervention in the building give rise to future important problems, as has happed in most developed countries with the interventions carried out in the middle of last century. This happens meanly due to the use of unsuitable materials or techniques.
The lack of qualified staff in the higher education has even a worst impact when we combine it with the lack of qualified staff in the vocational levels, particularly for manufacturing or carving of the stone and for its placement in the final destination.
The global problem of lack of skilled staff in all levels is even bigger because of the lack of relation between the universities and the domestic companies, which makes that there is not a real transfer of knowledge between then.
Based on the knowledge of the programme countries partners involved in this project regarding the reality and needs of stone industry in the international countries and in the Balkans, some researchers have been performed in the Balkans, and the results are that Balkan countries, which the most of the area is covered by mountain ranges running from north-west to south-east, have important marble resources along the whole cost, but also, mainly inland, granite, limestone and sandstone.
It is important to state here that the development of the stone industry in the Balkans require also that the development goes hand by hand with the industry, developing and sharing knowledge between academic and economic agents, and having also in mind the currently important requirement of being environmentally friendly and based in circular economy principles. This requires still more specialized knowledge, currently totally unavailable in the Balkan countries, but being quickly developing in the EU countries, being Italy, Spain and Greece leading countries in this area.

Objectives

BKSTONE project has the main objective of fostering the modernization and development of the stone sector in Western Balkans partner countries through strengthening the relationship between the higher education institutions and the industry, and internationalizing curriculum and methods.
To meet the requirements of current international demand of natural stone products according to EU standards, the partner countries industry has to perform important changes in quarrying methods, processing methods, quality controls following European and international standards (p.e. CE marking, ASTM, etc.), marketing strategies, international trade, e-commerce etc. These changes require the participation of all local agents, including the Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and Vocational Education and Training (VET) organizations, which should develop their training strategies to meet the challenges explained in the rationale of our project in terms of quality, delivery and especially relevance, in response to the industry needs.

Specific Objectives

• To contribute through the outputs of the project to develop National/Regional innovation strategies for specialization in the natural stone sector.
• To put in value each country/region’s strengths, competitive advantages and potential for excellence in the stone sector through benchmarking existing training initiatives and incorporating elements into the educational materials to be developed in the project.
• To support technological, as well as practice-based innovative training based on the approach and format of the courses to be developed.
• To contribute to get stakeholders in the stone industry fully involved, encouraging their participation in the conception and testing phases of the development of materials.
• To promote among students active and constructive learning as a necessary means to work in the stone sector, testing new possibilities in partner countries like Tertiary VET levels.
• To create a network platform involving Stone Sector representatives, High Education Institutions (HEI) and VET organizations of EU programme and Partner Countries based on the full implementation of the project

Web stranica projekta:
www.bkstoneproject.com

Meeting minutes

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Sarajevo
University of Sarajevo
Office no. 101

The meeting began at 9:00 with a meeting of representatives of the National Erasmus Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter NEO BiH) with the dean and the BKSTONE project team of the Mechanical Engineering Faculty Sarajevo, University of Sarajevo.

Participants of the meeting:
assoc. prof. dr. Hadis Bajrić, MEF BK STONE project team leader
prof. dr. Izet Bijelonja, Dean of Mechanical Engineering Faculty Sarajevo University of Sarajevo and project team member
prof. dr. Mugdim Pašić, Head of Department of Industrial Engineering and Management and project team member
prof. dr. Branko Vučijak, project team member
assoc. prof. dr. Edin Kadrić, project team member
assis. prof. dr. Mirza Pašić, project team member
senior assistant Ajdin Vatreš, MSc, project team member
Suad Muhibic, head of office NEO BiH
Mahira Zonic, project officer NEO BiH
Masa Vinsbah, Assistant NEO BiH 
Alma Afezolli – BK STONE project coordinator, Polytechnic University of Tirana (online)
Maja Prskola, Dean and BK STONE project team member University of Mostar (online)
Tatjana Džeba, BK STONE project team member from the University of Mostar (online) 
Adela Nurković Kulenović, project secretary, University of Sarajevo (online)

The meeting started with welcome words of the Dean prof. dr. Izet Bijelonja, Head of Department of Industrial Engineering and Management prof. dr. Mugdim Pasic and the MEF BK STONE project team leader prof. dr. Hadis Bajric. Prof. dr. Hadis Bajric introduced MEF BK STONE Project team to the representatives of NEO BiH. Also, mr. Suad Muhibic presented NEO BiH representatives.

Mr. Suad Muhibić emphasized long and successful cooperation between NEO BiH and Mechanical Engineering Faculty Sarajevo. Also, he emphasized success of the last and the implementation of the current Erasmus+ project by the Mechanical Engineering Faculty Sarajevo, especially emphasizing REBUS project for which Mechanical Engineering Faculty Sarajevo was project coordinator. Suad Muhibić praised and congratulated MEF on the project, and emphasized that the goal of the NEO BiH is to help as much as possible in order to remove all possible obstacles in the realization of the BK STONE project.

Prof. Hadis Bajrić informed about the importance of the project for Bosnia and Herzegovina and that not enough attention is paid to the stone industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina so far and that there is a lot of space for improvements. Prof. Bajrić emphasized that stone industry 

can contribute a lot to the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina if properly managed. Same introductory words were said by prof. Bijelonja and prof. Pašić who added that, although Bosnia and Herzegovina is very reach in different types of stones, it is noticed considerable import of the stone. 
Prof. Bajrić informed that planned project activities were prolonged due to the current situation especially in March and April 2020 due to the pandemic crisis and summer season. But, later on new solutions are being sought for their implementation and the dynamics of implementation of the project was on the right track.
 

Prof. Bajrić delivered detailed presentation regarding project objectives, results and impacts.  

The main project objective is to foster the modernization and development of the stone sector in Western Balkans partner countries through strengthening the relationship between the higher education institutions and the industry and internationalizing curriculum and methods.

The specific project objectives are:

• To contribute through the outputs of the project to develop National/Regional innovation strategies for specialization in the natural stone sector.
• To put in value each country/region’s strengths, competitive advantages and potential for excellence in the stone sector through benchmarking existing training initiatives and incorporating elements into the educational materials to be developed in the project.
• To support technological, as well as practice-based innovative training based on the approach and format of the courses to be developed.
• To contribute to get stakeholders in the stone industry fully involved, encouraging their participation in the conception and testing phases of the development of materials.
• To promote among students active and constructive learning as a necessary means to work in the stone sector, testing new possibilities in partner countries like Tertiary VET levels.
• To create a network platform involving Stone Sector representatives, High Education Institutions (HEI) and VET organizations of EU programme and Partner Countries based on the full implementation of the project.

Taking into account the specific objectives, the results of the project will be the following:

• To contribute to National/regional innovation strategies for specialization in the natural stone sector with project outputs.
• To benchmark existing training initiatives & incorporate elements into project training outputs
• To support technological & practice-based innovative training based on courses approach and format.
• To encourage participation of industry stakeholders in outputs conception and testing phases.
• To create a Stone Sector network platform involving stakeholders in programme & partner countries.

Discussions were held about impacts of the BK STONE project.

Regarding impact on institutional level participants discussed following:

• To what extent will the project results have an impact at institutional level: for instance new courses /strategies (policies, regulations) /services (units, centres);
• Potential of planned project measures to contribute to new national cooperation activities in the Partner countries HEI-s as a result of the project (Memorandum of Understanding /research projects/joint publications/participation in networks or associations;
• Potential of project to contribute to new international cooperation activities in the Partner countries HEI-s as a result of the project (International agreements/Memorandum of Understanding/Research projects/Joint publications/participation in networks or Associations.

Regarding impact on Higher Education sector participants discussed following:

• Potential of project to contribute to new (/updated) national or regional policies /laws/regulations in HE:
• Potential of project to contribute to the establishment (/ further development) of external bodies (/associations /agencies);
• Potential of project to contribute to improve the excellence/ competitiveness/attractiveness of the Higher Education institutions;
• Innovative character of the planned results (i.e. the courses developed; the new tools, services, procedures delivered; the strategies implemented for reaching the target groups.

Regrading impact on the society as a whole participants discussed following:

• Potential of the project to pay particular attention to least developed countries;
• Potential of the project to engage Partner Countries HEIs in new means of cooperation with employers and other stakeholders (e.g. NGOs, associations);
• To what extent the project is planning measures to contribute to improving lifelong learning approaches in the Partner Country HEIs.

Prof. Bajrić informed about implementation of all work packages. Work Package 1 is completed, while Work Packages 2-5 are in progress.

All participants took place in discussion about the implementation of work packages activities.

Prof. Bajrić emphasized that although there is some delay in implementation of Work Packages activities Project Steering Board at the online meeting participants voted not to ask EACEA to prolong the duration of the project. Same was said by project coordinator Alma Afezolli.

Ms. Maja Prskola and Ms. Tatjana Džeba from the University of Mostar emphasized excellent cooperation with Mechanical Engineering Faculty Sarajevo as well as other project partners. Also, they said that they have smooth implementation of the project at the University of Mostar.

The meeting ended at 14:00.

Sarajevo, 19 April 2021

prepared by: 
assoc. prof. dr. Hadis Bajrić, MEF BK STONE project team leader
assis. prof. dr. Mirza Pašić, project team member
senior assistant Ajdin Vatreš, MSc, project team member

U okviru aktivnosti projekta BKSTONE na Mašinskom fakultetu UNSA održana radionica o daljnjoj implementaciji projekta

Mašinski fakultet Univerziteta u Sarajevu provodi još jedan Erasmus+ projekat. Riječ je o projektu pod nazivom BKSTONE - Visokoobrazovna-poduzetnička platforma za razvoj, modernizaciju i održivi rast u industriji prirodnog kamena u Zapadnom Balkanu (Higher Education–Enterprise platform for fostering, modernisation and sustainable growth in natural stone industry in Western Balkans). Cilj projekta je jačanje kapaciteta sektora proizvodnje prirodnog kamena Zapadnog Balkana, a kroz uspostavu i jačanje veza institucija visokog obrazovanja i industrije, kao i modernizacija i internacionalizacija kurikuluma visokoškolskih institucija. Da bi lokalna industrija postala konkurentan na evropskom tržištu, ona mora uspostaviti nove metode vađenja i obrade kamena, provoditi kontrolu kvaliteta prema EU standardima, te prihvatiti nove marketinške koncepte i uspostaviti opširniju upotrebu e-trgovine. 
Ovako opširan skup promjena nije moguće ostvariti bez saradnje svih aktera unutar lokalnih zajednica, što uključuje institucije srednjeg obrazovanja i visokoškolske ustanove i ustanove višeg i stručnog obrazovanja, a na kojima je da svoje kurikulume prilagode potrebama tržišta. 
Mašinski fakultet je kroz projekat nabavio vrijednu računarsku opremu, nove softverske pakete, te laboratorijsku i mjernu opremu. U sklopu projekta planirani su višednevni treninzi i obuke nastavnog osoblja i studenta na univerzitetima i institutima iz partnerskih zemlja koji su evropski lideri u sektoru kamena. Planirane aktivnosti će se realizirati u narednoj godini kod konzorcijskih partnera iz Španiji, Grčke i Italije.
U sklopu realizacije aktivnosti projekta, od 2. do 3. decembra je u prostorijama Mašinskog fakulteta Univerziteta u Sarajevu održana radionica, na kojoj su konzorcijski partneri pripremali i dogovorili daljnje korake u implementaciji projekta.
Iz BiH, pored Mašinskog fakulteta Univerziteta u Sarajevu, u projektu učestvuje i Sveučilište iz Mostara.

Na Mašinskom fakultetu UNSA održan BKSTONE trening program u okviru Erasmus+ projekta

Katedra za Industrijsko inžinjerstvo i menadžment Mašinskog fakulteta Univerziteta u Sarajevu nastavlja provoditi Erasmus+ projekat, sa ciljem jačanja kapaciteta visokog obrazovanja. Održan je trening pod nazivom BKSTONE (punog naziva: Higher Education–Enterprise platform for fostering, modernisation and sustainable growth in natural stone industry in Western Balkan).

Jedna od glavnih aktivnosti je edukacija i trening studenata, koja je provedena od 11. do 13. maja, u sklopu koje su studenti Univerziteta Mediteran iz Podgorice, Univerziteta u Sarajevu i Sveučilišta u Mostaru imali priliku sticanja znanja iz principa “lean” proizvodnje, te njihove primjene u raznim sferama. Edukaciju je vodio prof. dr. Hadis Bajrić. Pod njegovim vodstvom studenti su kroz niz praktičnih vježbi ovladali nizom novih alata.

Nakon treninga, studenti su ovladali baznim konceptima kontrole kvaliteta, postali su sposobni da postavljaju standarde za izvedeni rad, da mogu detektovati nepotrebne operacije i ubrzati procese. Ovi moćni alati, iako izvorno nastali u auto industriji imaju potpunu primjenjivost u drugim granama kao što je turizam, građevina, rudarstvo, te samim time i rad sa prirodnim kamenom. Ovakvo interdisciplinarno širenje znanja i iskustava osigurat će da sektor prirodnog kamena u Bosni i Hercegovini, ali i široj regiji Zapadnog Balkana postane kompetitivniji i u skorije vrijeme ispuni svoj ogromni potencijal.