The pandemic is far from over.The whole world is still struggling to adapt to the new reality, something which comes with a lot of challenges.One major challenge is to design public supports that alleviate the negative impacts in the short term and help identify new opportunities in the medium term for different public, private and non-profit actors engaged in cultural and creative production. The COVID-19 crisis has hit the cultural and creative sectors particularly hard. One of the impacts of this project is to build the capacity to equip young people and adults with the necessary tools and competences needed to come up with creative and innovative solutions to face unprecedented risks and societal challenges as well as to unveil opportunities that can be sought in a critical context. This project aims to enhance skills development and competences that reinforce creativity, as well as to boost quality, innovation and recognition of youth work. There is a need to build accesible tools and practice examples for needed facilitators to address the question: How can Culture and Creative Sectors (CCS) help people and places to better address the new challenges brought about by pandemia, climate change, globalisation, demographic change and technological breakthroughs?This project is about to inspire and to develop competence of existing and establishing new learning networks. The overall aim is to develop a resource platform for CCS facilitators which will provide them with tools for a continued creative development of the cultural and creative sectors - with a special emphasis on involving and including young people in this revitalization and innovation of the CCS.The project will realize this through three mutually interacting components/objectives:1: Develop and establish an open e-learning platform for online course modules and resources on cultural mapping and citizen involvement in community planning2: Develop a prototype eModel for cultural mapping which can serve as tool for local and regional analysis of the CCS3: Boost the knowledge and understanding of the importance of cultural mapping and planning to advance the CCS in the EU and the Member States.By these objectives, the project will offer a digital tool to European cities and regions that faces many challenges as it is being reshaped by the digital evolution and the post-Covid19 challenges. Part of the project will be to launch 5 local strategic creative actions with youth involved, min. 1 being with disadvantaged citizens. These local creative actions will ensure that the project is not top down, but bottom-up, too.The core results of the project are: 1 e-learning platform, 3 online course modules and resources on cultural mapping and citizen involvement in community planning (cultural planning, creative entrepreneurship, global impact and facilitation), 1 prototype eModel on cultural mapping, 3 cultural plannings - best practice for inspiration - from local and regional analysis of the CCS to strategy development: 5 local innovative participatory and intercultural dialogue approaches (concrete examples with young people taking part in the cultural and creative sectors, dissemination materials - newsletters, leaflets, standard PPT – project presentation, press releases, articles in professional publications/elaborated in correspondence with project milestones/schedule/multiplier events. A database of key project personnel/contacts, which can be updated as the project progresses .The COVID-19 crisis has hit the cultural and creative sectors particularly hard. One of the effects of this project is to build the capacity to equip young people and adults with the necessary tools and competences needed to come up with creative and innovative solutions to face unprecedented risks and societal challenges as well as to unveil opportunities that can be sought in a critical context. This project aims to enhance skills development and competences that reinforce creativity, as well as to boost quality, innovation and recognition of youth work that support the creative potential of youth, thus contributing to the recovery resilience of the cultural and creative sectors. Estimated 200 persons. Additionally, will be participants in the local CCS actions and multiplier events, appr. 250 persons.Other participants that will be targeted by the activities organised by the project will benefit from these activities by hands-on learning for advocating and creating strategic actions for developing the post Covid-19 CCS - estimated number of persons = 300.The corsortium is composed by organisations representing training, research, strategic community actions, public, civil society, private and includes partners from the North and the South of Europe DK, NOR, ROM, IT, GR). The partners have worked with developing CCS, LMS courses,/course development. Also, we have all worked with youth, inclusion and different kinds of disadvantaged groups.

The GuardIAS project is an ambitious initiative aimed at transforming aquatic environment governance and management in Europe. Its primary goal is to align with the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the IAS Regulation, focusing on mitigating the impacts of invasive alien species (IAS) on biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human health. GuardIAS plans to utilize advanced science, technology, and artificial intelligence to develop innovative tools and methodologies. These tools will be instrumental in preventing, detecting, eradicating, and managing IAS. The project is set to advance through interdisciplinary collaboration, integrating data from various sources to create comprehensive IAS impact profiles and management strategies. A significant aspect of GuardIAS is stakeholder engagement and societal involvement. This will be achieved through Citizen Science initiatives and innovative engagement strategies (such as serious games and BioArtBlitz events), aiming to involve the wider community in addressing IAS challenges. GuardIAS will also establish robust solutions for IAS management at multiple governance levels, from local to international. The project will include the development of beyond-the-state-of-the-art technologies and methodologies, such as nano-coatings for marine vessels to prevent IAS spread and eDNA approaches for efficient detection. Additionally, GuardIAS will conduct macroecological and biogeographic analyses to assess IAS risks under various future scenarios, including climate change. The project's comprehensive approach, encompassing science, technology, and community engagement, positions it as a key player in the EU's efforts to preserve biodiversity and protect ecosystems from the growing threat of invasive species. GuardIAS is not only a response to current environmental challenges but also a proactive step towards sustainable management and conservation of aquatic environments in Europe.

XTREMOLIFE will accelerate the bioprospection & biodiscovery of novel extremophile microorganisms. XTREMOLIFE uniqueness is advancing next-generation sampling technologies tailored for extreme conditions: [1] Enhanced Ferrybox for boats (self-operating), [2] novel XTREMOsensor for hand-held use, and [3] automated microscopic imagery identification. In addition, we explore (a large) biodiversity from 3 extremophilic ecosystems by bioprospecting across 5 regions (Route 1), and 5 untapped culture collections (Route 2). We will join those two routes by identifying promising extremophilic microorganisms, produced metabolites, elucidating their bioactivity and structure, optimizing their cultivation, and guaranteeing a baseline pathway towards full exploitation. We will focus on microalgae, cyanobacteria, and their associated microbiome, with a particular interest in bacteria and fungi. The culture collections NORCCA (Norway), ACUF (Italy), BEA (Spain), LEGE-CC (Portugal), TII (Abu Dhabi/UAE) will be prospected. In parallel, we will assess the microbiome and plan sampling from 5 locations: [1] Antarctic, [2] Volcanic aquatic environments in Canary Island, [3]Azores, [4]Mexico, and [5] Abu Dhabi: focusing on hypersaline and extremely hot springs. We will assess the complexity of extremophilic ecology resorting to physical, chemical and biological data gathered. The chemical prospection will cover bioassays in the human, fish and plant health fields. Bioactive compounds will be isolated, and their structure fully characterized. Together, the consortium will select up to 7 different microbial compounds of interest-producing strains to be cultivated at lab scale, followed by a scale up to TRL 5 (feeding an Exploitation Roadmap). Finally, XTREMOLIFE will cover the legal framework of sampling, preserving and exploiting genetic material. The pathway towards full industrial exploitation (5-10 years after the project) in the various markets of applications will be characterized.

Early childhood teacher education in Scandinavia is strictly governed by national goals and directions. It is therefore challenging to meet the increasingly growing demand for student mobility and exchange. The project Reflective Practice through Lived Diversity in Cultural Environments (ReLiveD) will explore pedagogical practices for how students, teachers, and researchers can collaborate within the conditions of the Scandinavian ECEC-teacher training and develop structures for how student mobility can be carried out in this context. It involves ECEC-training programs in four different universities: Södertörn University in Sweden, Nord University in Norway, The Sámi University of Applied Sciences in Norway, and Helsinki university in Finland.Furthermore, Scandinavian early childhood education and care (ECEC) is characterised by cultural diversity where minority groups, indigenous people, and majority cultures meet. There are also various environmental conditions, both within and in-between nations, places, and institutions, strongly connected to different foundational values. Thus, both values and pedagogical practices in relation to diversity will come to vary from one place to another. The ReLiveD-project will approach diversity, as a way to develop reflective practices concerning fundamental values in pedagogical work in cultural environments. ECEC-students are preparing to work within a context of diversity, where specific cultural environments and values exists, and they are expected to work in such a manner that allow all children to be seen, heard and treated with respect. The ReLiveD-project will help ECEC-students (along with our teachers and institutions) develop the means, tools, and strategies to do this. By having them experience and explore different ‘lived experiences’ in different, specific cultural environments and physical places, they can develop reflective pedagogical practices concerning diversity. The main aim of this three-year Erasmus+ project is thus to develop practices and structures for student mobility and to develop practices for how to cultivate reflective pedagogical practices concerning diversity (both on an individual level and on an institutional level). This makes ECEC-students, ECEC-teachers, and ECEC-teacher educations, the main target groups. The project will follow a three-phase methodology, organized after each academic year. There will be a constant monitoring and evaluation of the different phases to ensure that the project objectives are achieved: Phase 1: a) Needs assessment, to produce an overview the courses and course modules in the different ECEC-programs and identify how they can be adjusted in order to create opportunities and activities for teacher and student mobility; b) Create new courses and course modules with space for teacher and student mobility in-between the participating universities, online as well as physical, and piloting these courses and modules. Phase 2: Evaluating the experiences from the pilots in phase 1 and making adjustments in accordance with them. Phase 3: a) Developing institutional structures for minor praxis exchanges where students can develop their professional skills by working with ECEC-centers (Pre-schools and kindergartens) at other (participating) universities; b) Conducting evaluations and analysis where the students work closely with teachers/researchers at the different universities to develop their final thesis; c) Conducting analysis of the outcomes of the ReLiveD-project where the participating teachers and researchers consider the impacts and possible further development of the project. Teaching activities and several intellectual outputs are ongoing throughout these different phases.

<< Objectives >>This project will explore and develop professional knowledges and practices enhancing inclusion, participation and democratic engagement developed post Covid-19 in the area of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The project is designed around peer-to-peer exchange where researchers and professionals meet to exchange experiences with post Covid-19 pedagogy in ECEC centres in three participating countries: Ireland, Norway and Denmark. Practice will be documented through video material.<< Implementation >>The project will consist of four main activities, two virtual engagements over a period of time and two mobility meetings in two of the participating countries with substantial preparation work. The main activities consist of professional dialogues on inclusive, democratic ECEC practices during and post-Covid-19. These will be recorded and transcribed. Relevant practices as identified by ECEC professionals will be recorded in ECEC centres and form the basis for the professional dialogues.<< Results >>3 central results of the project are:- Exchanges and systematisations of knowledge about professional practice and knowledges developed during Covid-19 that enhance pedagogical quality and values of equality, inclusion, democratic and civic engagement- Development of educational materials addressing the above mentioned theme- The production of a white paper addressing how to politically support and develop high quality ECEC practice providing equality, inclusion and democracy