"The ESCUTA Project focuses on finding new pedagogical forms that support the acquisition and development of essential skills by university students. The Project adopts as its transversal methodology the proposal of the American organization CASEL, which demonstrated that the development of emotional and social skills (SEL) should be done in a supportive environment (collaborative networks) for students. The project is framed by the fact that academic learning is generally fostered in an educational logic without space for students to dialogue and build with teachers the curriculum themes that can be developed through collaborative and experiential approaches in social contexts of proximity; this, among other factors, does not help to reverse either the low participation and political activism of the students, or their diminished spirit of social entrepreneurship and voluntary working time in NGO’s. It was important to ensure that the project was conceived in a logic of transnational partnership between public university entities and NGO’s, supported by a synergistic articulation between formal spaces of university education (integrating contexts of young adults, and potential testing of non-directive methodologies) and structures that function as platforms for social support, among others, to vulnerable communities (therefore, interested in developing local social innovation projects): Kairós (candidate organization) and University of the Azores (UAc) and Universidad Extremadura (UEX) and CLAS Sol Violette (France) and EBR (Spain). ESCUTA sets 7 objectives, which are interrelated with its direct participants (40 university students from different universities in 2 EU countries, and 5 staff members from participating organizations) and indirect participants (4 university professors and 6 NGO technicians). As central Objectives we have: ‘to increase civic literacy and the capacity and spirit of social entrepreneurship of university students throughout their training cycle’; ‘to develop a wide range of skills, not only focused on the dominant basic skills, but also on essential skills for those students’; ‘promote the socio-institutional and citizen awareness conditions capable of supporting the structuring and dynamization of the “Transnational Network of Young Volunteers and Social Entrepreneurs”’. And the following Activities: Training Workshop on the mentoring function -""Volunteering and Young Social Entrepreneurship"", aimed at university students; Educational-scientific monitoring of the design of Social Currency Projects to be conceived and implemented by the university students in vulnerable communities; ""Mobility"" visits between UAc and UEX university students; Information Sessions for students of 2nd and 3rd Cycles of Public Schools, conducted by (volunteers) university students; Training Workshop - ""Methodology of Local Social Innovation Projects"" and ""Impact Assessment on Local Social Innovation Projects"", for university teachers and NGO technicians; Tutorial Workshop ""Volunteering and Young Social Entrepreneurship"", for NGO technicians. With regard to the central Results of ESCUTA: 2 Social Currency Projects implemented, with subsequent realization of ""Transnational Social Currency Fair""; Created Transnational Network of NGO’s for Volunteering and Youth Social Entrepreneurship available on Website, with public access to APP for circulation and sale on a network of goods/services resulting from Social Currency and Scholarship Projects for Young University Students in the mentoring role and NGO’s as tutors; Information Sessions for students aged 10/15, covering themes like: ""Volunteering, Active Citizenship, ODS, Social Entrepreneurship and Local Coins""; 4 Intellectual outputs validated by direct participants (students, teachers and technicians) for benchmarking and public access through Websites of participating organizations. ESCUTA is expected to have a positive impact, in particular, in terms of civic participation by university students, their social initiative and entrepreneurial capacity, and the improvement of key competences for their present and future lives; but also, that NGO’s become more technically and organizationally qualified and better prepared to host young volunteers and innovative social projects; and also, universities better prepared to face the educational challenges ahead and with a better curriculum proposal and pedagogical approach to offer to their students. Finally, as possible long-term benefits, the possibility of testing common solutions resulting from the sharing of educational, social and cultural knowledge and experiences produced in different European countries should be stressed, and united in a cross-cutting purpose of affirming European citizenship."

TRANS-lighthouses aims to gather evidence on material and immaterial results of NBS in order to rethink and reframe the main elements that compose the complexity of creating social and ecologically just NBS. More than a driving process, the collaborative work on planning and making NBS functional might stimulate a more concerted response towards environmental and climate crises, increasing the commitment of different stakeholders and upscaling their own spheres of action. TRANS-lighthouses adopts a non-linear perspective and opens up space for the adoption of a fluid and organic position that is able to integrate the diversity of subjects, institutions, knowledge(s), practices and values. TRANS-lighthouses’ ambition is to become a European reference on socio-political challenges for supporting NBS projects and solutions. The socio-politics dimension will be part of the public agenda for NBS towards SYSTEMIC CHANGE. This ambition will be achieved by assessing the benefits and limitations of NBS co-creation that have already been implemented and designed, tested and disseminated economically and socially fairer guidelines for NBS implementation. For this purpose, the project will conduct a thorough assessment, grounded on a transdisciplinary approach and critical analysis. Constituting a well-oiled network of citizens, local governments, scientific institutions and civil society-based partners which acts across borders, disciplines and sectors, TRANS-lighthouses will lead research on activities aiming to implement socioeconomic and political changes capable of enabling pathways for a socially and ecologically just implementation of NBS. TRANS-lighthouses integrates a network of NBS lighthouses for urban, rural, coastal and forested areas in 10 EU countries and 6 non-EU.