The Study and Modeling of Management Capacity and System Strengthening Project (SMCS) is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Research Triangle International (RTI) and the Faculty of Economics and Business Management (FEB) of the National University of Laos (NUOL) with an aim to provide a wide range of capacity development support to higher education institutes in Lao PDR such as the National University of Laos, Souphanouvong University, Savannakhet University, and Champasack University, as well as groups of teachers, students, researchers, and other local organizations through the knowledge transfer and service delivery of these universities. As a result, the overarching objective of the project is to contribute to the National Socio-Economic Development Plan of Lao PDR. 

The project is also designed to support the development goals of the education sector by developing and delivering management capacity services based on identified gaps and priority needs of the aforementioned academic institutes (NUOL, Souphanouvong University, Savannakhet University, and Champasack University), university professors, and students. The implementing partnership of RTI and FEB/NUOL will provide a range of training and capacity development support to the aforementioned academic institutes (NUOL, Souphanouvong University, Savannakhet University, and Champasack University), university professors, and students through in-person training and online training. In addition, these organizations will also receive support in the form of seeding financial support/or grants to allow them to pilot or implement their development initiatives and apply the knowledge and skills acquired from the project.

The main activities of the SMCS project include:

1. Design and develop management training courses and provide comprehensive training plans based on their needs for the academic institutes (National University of Laos, Souphanouvong University, Savannakhet University, and Champasack University), university professors, and students.     
2. Enhance the capacity of operational and managerial skills through training, technical consultations, mentorship, applied learning and implementation of       the academic institutes (National University of Laos, Souphanouvong University, Savannakhet University, and Champasack University), university professors, and students.     
3. Monitoring, evaluation learning and modeling via sharing of lessons learned from the academic institutes (National University of Laos, Souphanouvong University, Savannakhet University, and Champasack University), university professors, and students.