Strengthening Curriculum Foundations: NSIS DSWG Meeting in Dresden

The NSIS project reached another key milestone with the second Didactic and Scientific Working Group (DSWG) meeting, held in Dresden, Germany, from 16 to 19 September 2025. Hosted by TU Dresden, the event brought together academic and curriculum development teams from all partner countries to collaborate on the shaping of the NSIS modular curriculum and to refine the structure, quality, and delivery plans of the upcoming training programme.

At the heart of the meeting were the module presentations from each country team—India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Each national team was tasked with developing specific modules within the NSIS Curriculum. During the Dresden meeting, they presented the outline of their assigned module, highlighting the proposed topics, skills targeted, and methodological approach. Alongside this, teams shared early drafts of their ECTS Module Descriptions, which are being developed in alignment with the Tuning methodology, and presented proposed lesson plans, including assessment methods and learning outcomes. These sessions fostered constructive feedback and peer discussion, allowing the consortium to identify areas for harmonisation, avoid content overlap, and ensure a balanced coverage of key skills.

The meeting also included a strategic workshop dedicated to the planning of the NSIS Curriculum Training event, scheduled to take place in Limerick, Ireland in July 2026. This training will follow a "Train-the-Trainer" model, aiming to empower selected staff from each partner institution to deliver the curriculum in their own context. Discussions in Dresden focused on structuring this training, aligning it with the pilot phase of the project, and ensuring the learning process reflects the needs of both academic and non-academic staff. This session also laid the groundwork for preparing internal teams for piloting the curriculum within their own institutions and externally with peer HEIs.

In addition to curriculum discussions, the meeting offered a comprehensive update on dissemination and exploitation activities, led by MBTT, the partner responsible for WP7. The dissemination team shared updates on the progress of the official NSIS project website. The meeting also reviewed partner compliance with website-related obligations, such as publishing links to the NSIS project page on institutional websites and contributing institutional content for the online platform. MBTT also provided updates on the upcoming National Awareness Days, scheduled for March 2026 in India and Sri Lanka, and August 2026 in Nepal, and offered a strategic reminder of the importance of visibility, branding compliance, and timely partner contributions. The Dresden meeting confirmed the participation of both the Project Coordinator and WP7 leader in the upcoming events.

A key session during the meeting was dedicated to Monitoring and Quality Assurance, facilitated by delegates of UOC, who presented the draft structure of the NSIS Monitoring, Quality Control and Evaluation Plan, a key internal tool that defines how the quality of curriculum content, training activities, and overall implementation will be assessed.

Overall, the DSWG meeting in Dresden was a vital and productive opportunity for all partners to come together in person, share progress, strengthen the coherence of the curriculum, and ensure that the project is on track to deliver a high-quality, regionally adapted training programme for Information Specialists. The spirit of collaboration and mutual support was evident throughout the four days, and the consortium left the meeting aligned, motivated, and better prepared to enter the next phase of implementation.