Warsaw is a hub of innovation, led by its active and creative citizens. This year, the city adopted the slogan, "Warsaw - city that cares," emphasizing its commitment to creating a safe, free, and homely environment conducive to innovation. Despite geopolitical crises and economic challenges, Warsaw demonstrated resilience, ranking 6th in The Financial Times' "FDI Intelligence - European Cities and Regions of the Future". It also ranked 2nd for business friendliness and received high economic ratings in the Mazovian region. Quality of life is a significant factor in Warsaw. In the "Cities of Choice" ranking by Boston Consulting Group, Warsaw was placed 4th globally, commended for transportation, income equality, education, and overall city development. The city also prioritizes social capital, with robust nursery and kindergarten networks, support programs for women, and partnerships with over 10,000 NGOs. Civic activity is high in Warsaw, with over 90,000 residents participating in participatory budget voting. The city also shows its care for seniors, people with special needs, and those with disabilities by ensuring accessibility in various domains. For these efforts, Warsaw received the "Access City Award" from the European Commission in 2020. In 2022, Warsaw was named "European Best Destination," reflecting its cultural richness and positive changes. The city continues to develop, building green, sustainable, and cultural areas without neglecting its historical significance. As a part of these changes, the city is investing in open-source solutions, data sharing, digital services, and IoT infrastructure, all contributing to the city as a platform idea. Warsaw's innovative approach to change and development, along with its resilience and pursuit of balanced growth, makes it a truly innovative capital city.

Focusing on EU priorities:- improving the attainment of young people, particularly those at risk of early school leaving and with low basic skills - greater understanding and responsiveness to social, linguistic and cultural diversity- more active participation in society - improved competences, linked to their professional profiles (training for the teachers, who work in multicultural classesthis project with a unique focus of study for all participating authorities, aims to tackle challenges within our education systems. We have seen a huge increase in the number of ethnic minority groups in our regions with many of those families have little or no experience of education and the importance in education for their children. This is coupled with a growth in the number of disengaged family amongst our indigenous population. Despite work already being undertaken in our regions we recognise that more needs to be done as many families are still not engaged which is impacting on life chances for their children. This project pools our resources and ideas to tackle these difficult to reach families and their children and through collaborative working, teacher training and developing student voice we believe we can work together to improve aspiration and engagement amongst the target family groups our schools have identified.Our regions support numerous communities who live here, work and attend schools especially since the widening of the European Union and we face challenges within our education systems. We aim to work towards overcoming some of the following issues through this project:1. Families - inadequate contact with parents regardless of ethnic group2. Pupils - inadequate provision for ethnic minority pupils' and peer group isolation; cultural and ethnic discrimination; shortage of school programs focused on communities and support for indigenous families whose children are at risk of becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training)3. Teachers and schools - schools which are not ready to meet the challenges of integration of pupils from varying backgrounds and lack of support for schools, teaching and non-teaching staff working with ethnic minorities.. According to the „Common European Framework for competences and qualifications of teachers” document teachers should know how to promote mobility and cooperation in Europe as well as mutual respect and understanding of cultures, have an understanding of a balance between cultural differences and common features, and be competent to work in multicultural and socially differentiated classroom, we aim to prepare teachers to meet these requirements.Parents will not come into schools for a variety of reasons. Many parents have had little or no experience of education or an experience which has left them fearful. Educating parents and families is as important a role in education as education itself and we wish to evoke belief and enthusiasm for education amongst our pupils' families through this project plan. Where this project will add an exciting and innovative approach, different to programmes already in place in our countries, is that this project will involve expertise from professionals in 3 counties pulling together the best practices and innovative approaches from our regions. The 3 local authorities in each region are fully committed to addressing the themes of this project and have already gone some way towards introducing intervention and the nominated coordinators have extensive experience in managing international projects. The collective skills of local authority professionals will ensure the quality of project outcomes and goals and objectives are met.All other associated partners have been carefully selected to provide expertise that is not available through the services provided by the local authorities. In each case the 12 schools are experiencing challenges in engaging families and a broad variety of experience allows learning opportunities for all participating staff. Some schools have nominated Family Engagements officers and their expertise will be shared and similar opportunities in participating schools will be identified.The planned activities include the production of training materials for teachers and parents. Parents and their children will be engaged in a variety of activities specifically designed to attract and engage other parents within the individual school contexts. Professionals from all organisations will take part in transnational meeting to ensure objectives are being met. Teachers will participate in job shadowing opportunities in partner countries following which they will receive Europass certificates providing staff with valuable additions to CVs in line with EU guidelines. The final output will be good practice guidelines bringing together all aspects of the project in a comprehensive guide for other professionals wishing to engage in similar activities and ensuring sustainability

This innovative research project is an in-depth study on recruitment and retention in the teaching profession across three different countries. This project cannot be completed in any single European country, teacher retention is an issue across Europe. In 2013 the European Commission reported on a Europe-wide shortage of qualified teachers and in 2018, the European Commission reported that almost half of the countries in Europe are faced with an ageing teacher population. The European Commission has attributed the shortage of teachers to a number of different things:•lack of quality candidates•declining status of the profession•workload and stress•poor working conditions•low pay compared with equivalent professions•onerous marking policies•demanding parents•ageing teachers, many approaching retirementSince 2013 the situation has not improved, if anything it has worsened. Over the years unsustainable solutions have been adopted which have added to the problem rather than eased it. Most teachers have no intention of leaving the profession and shortages have often meant longer working hours, larger classes, and in some countries, a raise in the retirement age meaning practising teachers are in the profession longer. We recognise that if teacher trainers/educators (Initial Teacher Education ITE) and school leaders fully understood the problems faced by students/newly qualified teachers (NQTs), the solution would be easily found. Bit this has not been the case, ITE and NQT support have not changed. If this continues, we will get the same levels of drop out. Something needs to change. This project aims to get to the heart of the problem.This study is innovative as it researches specific target groups across the field of teacher education/education from creating interest from future students entering ITE courses, during ITE particularly teaching practice placements and during the NQT first year. We will also conduct our research with pupils taught by NQTs/ITE students to establish their views on this specific group of teaching staff and their opinions/attitudes towards them. Our focus for ITE students and NQTs will be on their Health/well-being (mental health) and support/guidance they receive during their ITE course and transition into the first year of teaching as NQTs. Through this work we aim to develop more sustainable, innovative solutions to:•retaining student teachers whilst still studying and •ensuring more teachers do not leave the profession shortly after qualifyingWith partners in Wales, Poland and Turkey, we will engage universities, ITE organisations and schools to work with student teachers, NQTs, practising teachers and young learners. We will research into the reasons why so many student teachers leave the profession before qualifying and why so many younger, NQTs leave the profession early. The research will be broad and flexible as the research develops. Our investigation will include:•whether student teacher expectations are different to the experiences they have•-what happens during teaching practice?•-are schools supporting students appropriately during teaching placements•is support for newly qualified teachers appropriate in their new places of work? If not, why not?•what do young learners think about being taught by student and/or newly qualified teachers?•is the modern classroom meeting the needs of 21st century teachers?Our applied research methodology will include qualitative and quantitative data gathering through robust field research including questionnaires, focus groups and individual interviews, and observations. Our results will be analysed using appropriate methodology and will results in a set of research papers covering the following:•Teacher training/education ITE programmes•Expectations (of ITE students)•The new job (NQT first year of teaching)We will review and research how ITE/NQT year prepares our target groups for 21st century teaching – curricular and conditions – and how we can STRENGTHEN the PROFILE of the TEACHING PROFESSION, impact on PEDAGOGY and DIDACTICS. We will also develop a robust process for INNOVATION and RESEARCH into this growing problem across Europe and wider of teacher drop out in early year of professional development.Our expected impact is to meet priorities in Erasmus+ Programme 2020 by developing:- a more modern, dynamic, committed and professional environment- strategic planning of professional development for staff in line with individual needs and organisational objectives- teachers ready to integrate good practices and new methods into daily activities- strategic planning of professional development for staff in line with individual needs and organisational objectivesFinally we anticipate this research will develop ITE/NQT programmes that meet the needs of individuals to IMPROVE THE RECRUITMENT & RETENTION with the teaching profession and reduce TEACHER DROP OUT.

CONNECT is a Knowledge Alliance that promotes innovative cooperation between universities and enterprises in the cultural sector across Europe. Over the course of 36 months (from January 2017 to December 2019) 3 universities from ES, PL, UK; 5 private organisations from IT, ES, DK and UK; 1 public body, the municipality of the City of Warsaw, and 1 major EU network from BE, have joint efforts to CONNECT students and practitioners to the real-world job market by developing entrepreneurship and leadership skills.During the project a new Twin-track programme (TTP) in audience development for students and practitioners working in arts management has been designed and launched by a transnational team of 46 researchers, teachers and trainers in 5 national hubs in Spain, UK, Italy, Denmark and Poland, each one composed by higher education institutions and private cultural organisations. In order to ensure the TTP was set up correctly, at the beginning of the project a detailed needs analysis of the selected target groups was conducted in ES, IT, DK, PL, UK. The research findings are available on the project’s website.The TTP is based on multidisciplinary training modules mixing formal and informal learning methodologies and digital resources. At the core of the programme is the concept that postgraduate students and senior practitioners from cultural organisations attend a course where they are paired and asked to work in couples on an audience challenge. In this sense, each couple defined and implemented together an action-research project in the cultural organization where the practitioner worked. Problem based learning inspired the entire learning experience. In order to make this happen, students became interns of the practitioners’ cultural organisations during the months of the action research project. Moreover, a mentoring programme was also setup to support both students and practitioners throughout this process.The seven modules that configure the backbone of the TTP are the following: (1) Introduction and key concepts; (2) How to understand your organization; (3) How to understand your audience; (4) How to develop strategies and ideas; (5) How to design your experiment and make the case; (6) How to lead change and (7) How to promote positive organisational change. The first 4 modules are the theoretical modules, whereas modules 5,6 and 7 are related to the action-research project design and implementation.According to the TTP evaluation, we can state that CONNECT has supported the development of new entrepreneurial attitudes that the participants actually reported in their feedback. The following elements contributed to the way entrepreneurial skills and attitude were actually enabled: the mentoring scheme, the teaching modules to develop soft skills, the facilitation tools and methods adopted in all modules, and the Action Research itself.CONNECT has achieved the following results:* A new training programme on audience development supported by a Mentoring Scheme for the development of transversal skills, reflective practice, entrepreneurial mind-set to adapt to continuous change in the labour market.* 2 Winter Schools in audience development (Turin 2019 & Bilbao 2019) and participation in 2 EU forums* Impact: 63 postgraduate students (junior profiles); 61 cultural practitioners (senior profiles); 41 mentors (senior profiles + experts in audience development) and 32 trainers, all of them in 5 different countries (Spain, UK, Italy, Denmark, and Poland)* An EU platform with new digital resources supporting audience development internationally, by drawing on academic sources and in-work practice.* A mutually supportive network and learning community of academics, practitioners and students in audience development.* An innovative model of cooperation between universities and cultural organisations

At present, energy conservation campaigns provide households with a general awareness but do not provoke large scale behavior changes. The main goal of the STEP_BY_STEP is to maximize the number of households in a given area that significantly change their behaviour at home. Desired behaviour change includes reduced electricity consumption and the investment in energy efficient products and/or high quality renewable energy products. Communication strategies involving direct contact are typically more effective on behavioural change than mass media campaigns. Thus, a system will be put into place to make individual door-to-door contact with 80% of the households in a given area. Contrary to traditional door-to-door canvassing, often seen as a one-shot deal, our project solicits targeted households regularly through email or by phone and accompanies them over a 20 month period towards the adoption of energy-saving practices. To reduce the attitude-behaviour gap, our system uses proven communication techniques that push towards action. Households are regularly encouraged to try new ecological gestures adapted to their level of motivation. Feedback is given and social norms are used. Community-based social marketing strategies will be used to encourage energy-related investment decisions. Households likely to take individual investment decisions will be motivated to take such decisions benefiting from economies of scale and facilitated by other households’ experience. Institutional partners will launch their energy saving interventions amongst 9000 households in 4 European areas that represent diverse populations and communities. French SME E3D will provide a behavioral strategy along with a web based system for behavioral change developed within a research project. Partnered laboratories will analyze household energy saving behavior patterns based on profiles and will define the environmental and economic impact of the project. Power Link will ensure the dissemination.