The new Erasmus Mundus Action 2 Project "gSmart - Spatial ICT Infrastructures for Smart Places", coordinated by the Department of Geoinformatics - Z_GIS, University of Salzburg, will start in Central Asia. Such a large scale international project is the result of long-term and successful academic and research cooperation between Central Asian and European universities and research institutions established and led by Z_GIS in the field of Geoinformation Science. The gSmart initiative will focus on facilitating academic mobility between European partners and universities in all five Central Asian countries.