The PoliUniBus project builds upon the the expertise already established in UniBUS project, PoliUniBus proposes the conception of a collaborative cloud based platform that implements a new challenge-led methodology to support higher education institutions to link with businesses across the Europe. The PoliUniBUS platform will support use 'challenges' led by policy makers to set conditions for AGILE innovation. Engagement across Universities and Industry will allow companies to manage and implement the complex innovation processes by taking advantage of universities' research and technological knowledge and expertise in a systematic way, by enabling an open multi-agent focused innovation (i.e. university/business focused innovation). Where PoliUniBus seeks to develop additional value is to engage Universities & Businesses with emergent and active agendas in policy, for example Grand Challenges/Catapults. The current (fragmented scenario), means that a Turkish technology developer cannot easily identify and access Finnish Research Expertise to address a UK societal need. This can be segmented into four key areas:• Accelerate Markets• Stimulate Innovation• Increase Understanding• Improve accessibilityThere is an imperative to identify knowledge, skills, research& development gaps in support of current and emerging agendas across the EU. This is a programme to identify and to set the conditions under which identified agendas can be stimulated across key areas of activity. As university research spins out SMEs it remains difficult for those SMEs to develop and access research & develop collaborations at other institutions. Further distance remains between national challenges and SMEs. In this regard, PoliUniBus seeks to develop a cloud-based platform to enable SMEs to initiate wider research collaboration in support of challenge-led initiatives across Europe. Building on the capability of UniBUS to address the University-Business identified need, PoliUniBus seeks to develop a cloud-based platform to enable SMEs to initiate wider research collaboration in support of challenge-led initiatives across Europe. PoliUniBUS seeks to build a coherent platform with a mobile application that is accessible to Europe-wide Universities, and Industry to align with challenges to support Europe-wide innovation.

The lack of resources and efficiency generated by the recent financial and economic crisis hit among others students, higher education institutions (HEIs) and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Both HEIs and SMEs are encouraged by policies to jointly generate new knowledge and innovations. HEIs in Europe are operating in an increasingly competitive environment, where they need to cater to diverse stakeholders. In addition, research evaluation considers the impact of university research outside academia. Thus, the HEIs are expected to develop more cooperative links with the business community. At the same time, SMEs need to improve their skills and knowledge, considering their limited resources, so that they can develop their innovation capabilities and improve their competitiveness against bigger players. HEIs tend to seek for links with rather large businesses for reasons of prestige and to access additional funding for their research and teaching activities. Hence, the links between university departments/research centres and SMEs may have been side-lined although they can be beneficial to both sides. To fill this gap, the proposed programme pursues the objective of conceiving a collaborative cloud based platform that implements a new agile methodology to support higher education institutions to collaborate in innovation processes with businesses across Europe in a systematic and organised way. The cloud based platform will support companies to manage and implement the complex innovation processes by taking advantage of universities' research and technological knowledge and expertise in a systematic way, by enabling an open multi-agent focused innovation (i.e. HEI/business focused innovation). The term university here means the universities and their associated/local colleges and schools. In any case, vocational colleges are key actors in this proposed project. Many universities have established their own colleges and work closely with vocational providers to support the industry, for instance, the apprentice scheme, especially higher apprentices, has provided a golden opportunity to link the two worlds of academia and work together. The UniBus project aims to create an effective framework to support business-academia collaboration with several tools and services, which will allow companies to launch innovation challenges to the HEIs, so the students can utilize their talents, train their skills while contributing with their ideas and proposing novel solutions as a part of their studies (assignment for certain course or thesis work). By bringing businesses (especially SMEs) and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) together, European companies can benefit by accessing cutting-edge research, high-tech infrastructure and highly skilled people, while universities will get an opportunity to conduct applied research, demonstrate the impact of their work and get a direct access to the real business needs to further translate them into business-oriented curriculum. While student-to-industry collaboration already exists through capstone projects or code camp/hackathon events, the UniBus framework will make the collaboration easier and more systematic. The project has a strong industrial and academic basis; putting together the combined efforts of consortium of 7 industrial and academic partners from 3 member states, in the way to strengthen the bond between businesses and HEIs. This big effort will result in a methodology and collaborative platform that will be validated and assessed in predefined business scenarios at these organisations. The consortium will organise 4 dissemination workshops in partner countries. The aims of the workshops will be dissemination & promotion of the project. The idea is to commit businesses, higher education institutions, students and other relevant actors for adopting the project outcomes by providing them opportunities to participate and contribute to the outcomes in a form of interactive communication in the project events.

Cluster Management is a highly demanding work which requires a set of good skills, ranging from strategy preparation skills to human resource management and internationalisation skills. Today, there is no clear definition of the work role Cluster Manager, and therefore no defined education for this work category. There are a few commissioned educations, but nothing in northern Europe nor in the BSR. In the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) Policy Area Innovation highlights clusters as one of three strategic policy instruments. In a pre-study performed within the Baltic Leadership Programme for Cluster Managers, the main conclusion emphasize the need for a systemic and multilevel take on leadership and cooperation. The main objective of this project is to define the work role of Cluster Managers and thereby improve cluster management in BSR cluster organisations, by developing and piloting a 1-year cross-border Cluster Manager training with ECVET validation. The strategic partnership consists of seven partners, both educational organisations and cluster organisations, from four countries (Sweden, Finland, Lithuania and Germany).- NetPort Science Park (Lead Partner, Sweden) with extensive experience from project management, manages NetPort Energy Cluster and Edtech Southeast Sweden.- The Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau (Germany) - Technische Hochschule Wildau (TH Wildau) - teaching and research in technical subject such as Photonics, Telematics, Biosciences, engineering as well as economics. - Lithuanian food exporters association (LitMEA, Lithuania) is managing the SMART food cluster, who with its 20 members from agrofood, food processing and manufacturing sectors, help cluster members to enhance competitiveness in foreign markets, bringing together the capabilities of the companies, competencies and contacts. - Kaunas University of Technology (KTU, Lithuania) a technological university in Lithuania with interdisciplinarity, internationality, innovation and technology transfer as well as integration of sustainability as key objectives. - Technology Centre Oy Merinova Ab (Finland) coordinates and manages the EnergyVaasa cluster in Vaasa, promoting the growth, competitiveness and success of the cluster companies by offering facilitation of cooperation between cluster members, joint marketing and visibility activities, staff recruitment campaigns, internationalisation activities and access to public support and funding. - The University of Vaasa (UVA, Finland) is a business-oriented, multidisciplinary, and highly international university with the main disciplinary areas in technology, business economics, public management and communication.- Hyper Island (Sweden) is a education company specialized in digital and interactive media with full-time programs and master’s degrees, online and on-site courses. Hyper Island designs transformative learning experiences to enable growth for individuals and for businesses and to help them adapt to rapidly changing times. The project is divided in 4 different work packagesWP1. Project ManagementWP2. Intellectual Output, 'Develop and pilot a 1-year cross-border Cluster Manager training with ECVET validation'. a. Preparation, development and validation of the curriculum b. Implementation and evaluation of a cross-border four module long training program for 20 Cluster Managers c. Validation from Experts and Cluster Manager reference group WP3. Follow-up and quality assuranceWP4. DisseminationIn this project we will use the methodology to address both the very practical aspects as well as theoretical areas. We will address the stakeholder in different levels, both vertical capacity building as dealing with complex environments and different levels of learning (on-site and e-learning for example). Project results - A new and well-prepared curriculum for training of cluster managers- 20 cluster managers trained with the new curriculum- At least 100 European clusters made aware of the new cluster management curriculum and training.Project impact and long-term effects- Clusters with a professionalising management will be more effective, efficient and successful and contribute to a more dynamic economic development of the cluster and beyond.- Improved availability of tailor made training for cluster managers is assumed to result in a long-term increased interest in cluster management and cluster management training.- Improved cluster management practices of the clusters in the Baltic Sea Region.- Better cluster services to SMEs - leading to improved competitiveness of the companies and improved regional development and growth.- A higher number and proportion of clusters in Europe achieving the Gold and Silver Labels in cluster management

The overall purpose of this project is to promote cooperation between all stakeholders in different parts the battery and electromobility value chain, to analyse what is happening in the sector related to skills agenda, and to develop a sectoral skills strategy and blueprint for sectoral stakeholders, including education and training in and for the sector.The Steering board oversees the work, evaluates, supports and if needed directs its development within the framework of the contract. ALBATTS Steering board is led by the ALBATTS partner ACEA and have influential and centrally placed members as EIT Innoenergy, EIT Raw Materials, EUROBAT, the Stuttgart region and the BATTERY 2030+ Research Roadmap project umbrella.The ALBATTS project works with two core and interdependent development processes. Three WPs (3,4,5) are focusing on “Sectoral Intelligence”, to find out what is happening in the whole battery value chain; stakeholders, drivers of change, technologies, attractiveness of the sector, global context, emerging skills, and competence and new job roles needs and offer.One WP, WP6 Education and Training, is continuously taking part of the sectoral intelligence results for analysis and planning of their work. This is done to address these emerging job roles and skills needs, identify gaps in present education offerings, formulate curricular items as learning objectives, produce or in other way address missing learning material. Besides, and to the support of these lines of action from the project work, there is also an ambitious and modern dissemination activity (WP2). The dissemination has two main strands - the sharing and shouting of activities, initiatives and results from the partnership, and the scan of related projects, initiatives or designed strategies and policies at national and European levels. These allow the creation of news, publications, and posts on the project website and media channels, to raise awareness from the e-mobility ecosystem inside and outside the partnership and to all relevant stakeholders. Dissemination is a collective effort which facilitates the promotion of results, related campaigns and organisation of events. The project develops mainly along the contract and work plan, although some adjustment to meeting plans and similar has been made due to the raging pandemic that has affected the work since March 2020. The project has reached out well with dissemination and networking activities and is today well placed and known in the context of other European organisations, projects and initiatives (concerning batteries and electromobility). The ALBATTS project has shown to be the only project which has on its main agenda to develop Vocational Education and Training (VET) for the value chain, while other projects mostly work with education as a part of their projects, and focuses on higher levels of education. ALBATTS is also a vital part of the recently formed ecology within the Pact for Skills. The value chain we are working with is developing and changing fast, both globally and in Europe.

H2Excellence aims to establish a platform of centres of vocational excellence (CoVEs) in the field of fuel cells and green hydrogen technologies that will forge a collaborative educational, training and development program designed to close the existing industry skills gaps. The CoVEs will bring together all key stakeholders such as universities, VET schools, industrial partners, and governmental bodies, forming strong links at European, national, and regional level. It is envisaged that different local clusters will be set up across countries with strong potential in the industry (e.g., PT, ES, FR, FI, PL, and IT), with foreseen extension across Europe and a joint focus on different aspects of the hydrogen value chain, from production to applications and cross-cutting issues. H2Excellence will create world-class reference points for training in green hydrogen technologies for both initial training of young people, engineers as well as for up-skilling and res-killing of adults, through flexible and timely offer of training for the skills needs of companies in the green hydrogen sector. The VET clusters will undertake activities such as developing transnational, joint curricula, and lifelong trainings; interaction with universities to understand the current state-of-the-art technologies; exchange of VET teachers, students, and staff; partnerships between companies and professionals; regional ecosystems mapping and integration within the national/regional economic and innovation ecosystems. H2Excellence brings together 24 partners from 8 different Erasmus+ EU countries (+ 1 international partner). Fully in line with the EU Green Deal goals and energy transition targets, the project intends to create the infrastructure necessary to embed vocational excellence in the European hydrogen sector, as well as to contribute to transforming the sector towards quality employment and career-long opportunities.