The Erasmus Mundus Design Measure project “Preparing Joint Masters on Water Governance and Water Diplomacy for Shifting the Paradigm for Sustainable Water Action” gathers experts of seven universities in Budapest.
The rise in weather and climate extremes is pushing natural and human systems beyond their ability to adapt. Climate change overwhelmingly affects countries and regions through the water sector. Insufficient budgets, institutional and regulatory weaknesses and stumbling blocks to regional water cooperation hinder adaptation to climate change. A paradigm shift in water governance and water diplomacy is needed to turn water into an instrument of political change, bringing about fundamental improvements in policy making, institutional and regulatory reforms and strengthened regional and global cooperation. Universities should become drivers of this change through human capacity building and research.
The three EU universities participating in the EMDM consortium endeavour to modernize their curricula through close cooperation with partners from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Climate change is hitting Central Asia particularly hard: temperatures have risen twice as fast as the global average. Successes and lessons learned from the region can be used for the development of innovative curricula that are informed by EU policies on climate change, green development and cooperative approaches to water governance. Thanks to this partnership of cross-fertilization and complementarity, members of the consortium will jointly develop innovative, highly integrated master programmes on water governance and water diplomacy. The Joint Masters will attract students from countries facing similar challenges and become a catalyst for the modernization of water related teaching programs worldwide. Graduates will inspire and drive change in governments, public companies, the private sector, civil society, academia and regional organizations. The Joint Masters will contribute to the emergence of Areas of Water Related Higher Education in other geographical regions.
The consortium led by Eötvös Loránd University that won the Euro 60 000 Erasmus Mundus Design Measure grant in August 2025 includes Uppsala University of Sweden, Karelia University of Finland, the “Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers” National Research University (TIIAME-NRU) (the best university in Uzbekistan according to the QS ranking), the Al Farabi Kazakh National University (the best university in Kazakhstan according to the QS ranking), the Kazakh National University of Water Management and Irrigation (a new and highly dynamic university that already offers a comprehensive program on water governance and water diplomacy) and Nordic University of Uzbekistan, supported by leading universities of Scandinavian countries.
In October 2025 leading experts of the seven universities of the consortium launched a 15 month effort to develop an integrated Joint Masters program on water governance and water diplomacy. Members of the consortium wish to offer students of water governance and water diplomacy new, carefully selected social sciences subjects in addition to engineering, natural sciences and international water law which are being taught at several institutions of higher education. The curriculum will include inter alia institutional economics and political economy of water, public management, critical assessment of modern theories and policy frameworks for water cooperation on the background of international political economy, water diplomacy based on international cooperation theory and conflict analysis based on the comprehensive concept of security.
The fully developed project will be submitted to the European Commission by the end of 2026. If selected, implementation of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master project with a budget of Euro 5 Million and a duration of 6 years could start as early as September 2027.