Today, digital technology penetrates almost every field of daily life in private or public sphere. Thus, education and training institutions in Europe, from kindergartens to universities, are encouraged to use digital technologies in creative, collaborative and efficient ways. These efforts are reinforced by the European Commission’s recently adopted Digital Education Action Plan (DEAP, EC, 2018) supporting technology-use and digital competence development in education, as well as by the European Framework for Digitally Competent Educational Organisation (DigCompOrg, EC, 2015).The TASK 21 project aims to help modernise the design of formal educational curricula and pedagogical material that respond to 21st century needs. To achieve this, the project will design, pilot and implement an interdisciplinary, blended university course “EdTech and Ai for essential Skills of the 21st century” for:-future educators and curriculum designers: students of Educational Science, Educational Psychology, Pedagogy, and similar programmes;-future e-learning developers: students of IT profiles (Information Technology, Computer Science, and similar)Through field-specific and interdisciplinary modules, the students should learn to design (and deliver) curricula and pedagogical material which should:-be digital or digitally enhanced and reap the potential of AI and emerging technologies through adaptive learning-be transparent and modular (available across educational systems, offering mutually recognisable qualifications)-equip learners with transversal skills necessary to thrive in a fast-changing world:oDigital Literacy (for learning and working in innovative learning environments)oCommunication, collaboration (supporting learning and working with others)oCreativity, innovation (encouraging creative learning)oAutonomous learning (fostering independent learning)oInformation literacy (supporting effective ways of thinking)To set the example, the course itself will be digitally reinforced, adaptive, modular, focused on developing learners’ transversal skills, and will offer mutually recognisable qualifications as it will be piloted by HEI in 4 European countries: France (Pôle universitaire Léonard de Vinci), Italy (University of Catania), Portugal (Universidade Lusófona) and Norway (Oslo Metropolitan University) in cooperation with two EdTech partners: NetPort Science Park from Sweden and Claned from Finland, and 8 associated partners. The course will be embedded into the Claned adaptive learning platform, which allows the creation of personalised learning paths for each student. The platform’s recommendation engine provides opportunities for enhancing the learning experience. Based on semantic analysis of content, learning data, collaboration and sharing, the platform identifies individual learning characteristics and matches them with the most suitable content for the learner. Students can also upload material or create content themselves. The platform also returns the real-time data back to teachers through analytics that gives them insights into the factors influencing learning. It also gives them the power to modify these factors - intervene before failure or drop-outs occur - as well as give assistance to students needing support or lacking challenge. To encourage continuous professional development of educators, the course will also be available in a MOOC format as a self-paced, self-learning e-learning tool for teachers at SE and HE level, as well as for IT developers specialised in e-learning.After designing the methodology and the pedagogical material in 2019/2020, the consortium will test the course with the first generation of students, optimise it and adjust it for the MOOC format, then test the optimised version with another generation of students. The piloting of the course should entail between 900 and 1000 students in total across four countries in academic years 2020/21 and 2021/22. After the piloting period, “EdTech and Ai for essential Skills of the 21st century” should be introduced into the course catalogues of the HEI involved as a 5-credit elective course. To multiply the course benefits across Europe, the consortium will put in place a range of online and on-the-spot dissemination activities, including 3 conferences for HEI (to encourage course replication) and 2 workshops for educators. By 2027, the course “EdTech and Ai for essential Skills of the 21st century” is expected to reach and improve the competences for creating 21st curricula of:-3000 HEI students via the university course;-600 – 1000 educators via the MOOC.

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