The ultimate goal of this project is to endorse strong networking and cooperation among national universities and decision-makers through the establishment of the Rectors Conference. The approach was chosen for implementation, however, includes a collaborative framework with respective stakeholders, mainly focusing on educational needs. Accordingly, the target groups in this project are higher education institutions (HEIs managers, students, faculty, and administration, and decision-makers) and decision-makers (government, ministries, Academy of Science The first group consists of, while the second group consists of government, Ministries, Academy of Science) This project focuses exactly on bridging all the parties together by creating internal network system. The main scope of the activities to be undertaken throughout the project cover capacity building initiatives for the higher education institutions sampled for the project. These are:

• Comparative analysis of the current situation in Azerbaijan about networking and communication strategies among Azerbaijani Universities will comprise necessary steps to shape the needs and requirements in order to identify the fit model for the Rectors conference. Conducted status quo analysis will focus on differentiating the perspectives of Universities, top-level managers, academics, representatives of MoE, public bodies, private entities, and students while focusing on the establishment of national networking and cooperation platform.
• Establishment of the Rectors conference and development of its organizational structure and functionality – which will aim to influence and promote higher education policy in AZ, will promote co-operation between universities and exerts influence on the international stage, will provide universities with prerequisites for high-quality, work-oriented higher education as well as research, development, and innovation.
• Preparation of Legislative documents and revision of Current Regulation of Council of Rectors approved in 1996 – After identifying the gaps, needs, and expectations of all parties a committee will be organized who will be in charge of preparing legislative documents by using EU experiences. Considering that the regulation was approved 24 years ago it will be reviewed by the expert team in order to prepare the recommendations for MoE by considering the needs of target groups.
• Forming working groups within the CAUR – Working groups will be an intensive dialogue with partners in academia, the federal and state governments, employers ’associations, trade unions, and many others to define the conditions for state support, criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of their implementation, program complexes in the field of improving educational activities, developing scientific and innovative activities and human resources, modernizing the material and technical base and socio-cultural infrastructure, and integrating into the global educational space. Periodic meetings, Round tables, discussions organized by and among working groups and group members will enhance joint academic and research activities, it will also eliminate the duplication of a number of functions in the same direction.
• Preparation of Strategic plan and Action plan for 2021-2026 – The Strategic plan and action plan will be prepared after the deep analysis of the current situation in Azerbaijan and learning the best experience of EU models. The strategic plan will cover the Higher Education Agenda of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
• Training of the respective management staff about the concept and understanding of conference activities in order to increase managerial support, Build the capacities of universities in the partner universities through chain training for successful and effective management of the Conference activities and working group missions.
• Establishment of the electronic Newsletter of CAUR for uniting all possible parties into a single information platform – As we mentioned above the there is no systematic way of cooperation and communication among HEIs stakeholders where all may share their experiences, achievements, knowledge, their problems, etc. Such a platform will enable universities to share their news occasionally.
• Signed cooperation agreements with Student Unions and labor market representatives will increase their involvement in the decision-making process.
• The organization to be established will be a voice of the universities towards the government, industry, civil society, etc. and all activities will be implemented regarding the needs of all target groups.