DICTAPLOMACY investigates an understudied dimension of authoritarianism – the use autocrats make of diplomacy as a tool of regime-survival. The project analyses and compares the foreign policy strategies and “dictaplomatic” tactics of four ideal-typical authoritarian regimes in post-Soviet Eurasia, with the aim of modelling the mechanisms whereby diplomacy serves them for external regime-legitimation and authoritarian consolidation. DICTAPLOMACY is a multidisciplinary project that combines insights and methods from comparative politics, international relations (IR) theories and foreign policy-making analysis. It elaborates an innovative framework for analysing rogue behaviour in contemporary IR. It departs from the idea that the EU’s democracy-promotion efforts in Eastern Europe require a better understanding of the foreign policy manoeuvres of post-Soviet authoritarian regimes. In identifying the international components of authoritarian resilience, DICTAPLOMACY also highlights which incentives and coercive means could limit the resilience and contain the diffusion of authoritarian governance. This is a timely endeavour, given the growing assertiveness of Russia in world affairs, and the emerging “nuisance” capacity of many of its undemocratic neighbours (Belarus, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan notably) in regional affairs. Building on the researcher’s expertise in post-Soviet transition and the geopolitics of Eurasia, as well as on the leading academic experience of the host institution in diplomatic studies, the Individual Fellowship will provide the experienced researcher with a chance to acquire new skills, thus reinforcing her maturity as an IR scholar, as well as the host institution’s own visibility in the European Research Area. DICTAPLOMACY is a policy-relevant project with a strong potential to entail cross-disciplinary fertilisation between scientific research and policy-advocacy work as well, thanks to the researcher’s planned secondment in a think tank.

ADVICE project is a joint effort of higher education institutions from four countries - Italy, Greece, the United Kingdom, and Poland as coordinator - utilizing synergy between a variety of experiences.It is aimed at supporting higher education teachers in tackling their digital competence gaps and mismatches, by creating a Digital Competence Learning Hub – an open platform integrating a competence assessment tool and a complementary database of tools and resources available online. The project also aims at preparing a set of recommendations for stakeholders and decision-makers, which should help build the capacity of higher education systems for more inclusive online education. The global pandemic has faced higher education systems with unprecedented challenges and teachers with a need for a paradigmatic shift. Digital learning has become not a subsidiary form of education, but the only alternative that the educational system had at the time. From 2020 on, higher education teachers need more than digital literacy. They need a comprehensive set of competencies in a range of areas, making digital education of students equal and effective.Now, there are either self-assessment or skills upgrading tools available. Both are not integrated in a way to support efficient up-skilling, and contributing to a better quality of online, and blended higher education teaching. Thus, we want to increase the accessibility of the already existing tools in a structured way, so that the educators aiming at developing their competences are not forced to do exhausting and time-consuming research throughout the internet to identify their needs. We also want to raise knowledge of stakeholders and decision-makers to strengthen the mechanisms of competence development support.The overarching methodological principle is a collaborative work of participants, fostering synergy of various fields of knowledge and competence. The partners will be involved in a participatory modelling processes, held online and face to face. The experts and academic teachers will review and update the DigCompEdu framework to identify the most recent and necessary set of digital competences for higher education teachers. In teams, they will develop the self-assessment tool and prepare the database of tools and resources, amplified with the artificial intelligence enhanced crawler. At each step, participants will validate and test the tools with other experts and higher education teachers from their institutions. Three local testing phases (in each partner country) will lead to evaluation and improvement of the main hard result (Digital Competence Learning Hub) before its release.These activities will be the most fruitful for the academic teachers from the partnering institutions. ADVICE expects that at least 240 higher education teachers and education experts from the partnership will take part in the project's activities to design and validate the tools. Participation in testing will help them define their competence gaps instantly and show the path for the advancement of their skills.Apart from standard information transferred via partners’ websites and social media, ADVICE project proposes multiplier events disseminating project outputs: Digital Competence Learning Hub and recommendations. We will involve concrete target groups and create an international network of academic teachers and experts from HE sector through one face to face transnational conference, one online conference for decision-makers and other stakeholders, and four online conferences held in national languages of the participating institutions, targeted especially at the local academic teachers.We expect at least a 20% growth of knowledge among at least 240 higher education teachers about their personal digital competences, as well as about resources and tools available online. We also expect at least a 10% growth of knowledge among stakeholders and decision-makers from various fields of educational systems about the forms of support of the development of digital competences at the higher education level. Moreover, we aim at establishing a network of higher education teachers, stakeholders, and decision-makers focused on the development of digital competences in the HE system. In the long term, the project will help increase knowledge on the level of competences of HE teachers across Europe. Moreover, although the project is focused on higher education teachers, it may play a significant role in the development of competences in other fields of the education system, including, e.g. formal and informal teaching, and primary and secondary levels of education. The self-assessment tool may be used by teachers and other educators, regardless of the type of educational institutions. The database of tools and resources could serve as a reference point for all educators.

The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 emphasizes that “we need nature in our lives”. Yet, the world is currently facing its 6th biodiversity crisis partly due to land mismanagement. Habitat restoration and reintroduction of threatened species are considered an operational strategy for limiting biodiversity erosion. The European pond turtle Emys orbicularis (hereafter ‘Emys’) is of particular interest in this context: in Europe where wetlands declined by 90% since the 18th century, it has suffered the most dramatic decline of all reptiles. The fact that conservation measures in favor of Emys benefit to biodiversity and the positive public perception it enjoys, explain why Emys has received much attention from scientists and stakeholders. Over the last 3 decades, the EU has funded numerous projects for wetland restoration in favor of Emys. Yet the results of these measures need to be more intensely promoted. A key question remains unanswered: what are the most effective wetland restoration methods suitable for sustainable maintenance of the European pond turtle and associated wildlife throughout Europe? EMYS-R consolidates an existing international network of researchers and stakeholders to share complementary knowledge on past, present and future wetlands, biodiversity and their management. It is a 3-year participatory action-oriented research project based on seminal theories in humanities, social and natural sciences. It aims at testing the hypothesis that higher degrees of wetland restoration can compensate for limited capabilities of captive-bred Emys to settle in the wild, and how specifically such conservation actions benefit society by bringing together people and nature. EMYS-R aims at 1) investigate the ecological processes improving wetland restoration and Emys reintroduction based on a) a focus on habitat recovery after restoration using biocenotic indices; b) a focus on Emys by monitoring reintroduced populations and their impact on other species using state-of-the-art biologging and eDNA. 2) assess tradeoffs and synergies between targets, benefits and policies, with a) an ecological focus on nontarget species (threatened amphibians and invasive crayfish); b) a socio-economic focus on value benefits of restoration, people’s perception of restored nature, citizen science and deliberative processes involved in multi-stakeholder decision settings related to nature conservation. 3) ultimately produce guidelines for optimal wetland restoration protocols in favor of Emys reintroduction and people engagement in nature conservation based on a) our integrative approach, b) a review of past and current results, and c) a new model forecasting near future distribution and abundance of Emys at the European scale. This very first integrated analysis of socio-ecological processes in degraded wetlands will lead to socially supported, effective wetland restoration in favor of emblematic Emys and associated local biodiversity throughout Europe.

DARE aims to significantly increase understanding of why and how young people become radicalised and our capacity to effectively counter radicalisation. It does this through integrating research, policy and practice objectives in a three stage process of: 1) critical review of existing knowledge, policy and interventions in radicalisation and counter-radicalisation; 2) generation of new empirical research on young people’s encounters with, and responses to, messages and agents of radicalisation; and 3) integration of research findings to develop, pilot and evaluate two educational toolkits and a de-radicalisation programme evaluation tool to enhance the effectiveness of counter-radicalisation interventions. Through its focus on Islamist and anti-Islam(ist) radicalisation DARE addresses both ‘religious fundamentalism’ and ‘violence and hate crime’ dimensions of the topic call and explores how radicalisation processes interact to produce cumulative effects. It takes as its focus young people as a group that is targeted by recruiters and conventionally understood to be receptive to radicalism. It also places emphasis on gender dimensions of radicalisation. DARE recognises that improving knowledge on radicalisation has urgent implications for societal security but contributes to the wider objectives of the ‘Reversing inequalities and promoting fairness’ call through recognising that social inequality and discrimination give rise to perceived injustice which may motivate engagement with radical ideologies and actions. DARE’s primary concern is to address the long term social roots and effects of radicalisation and to engage young people themselves in countering radicalisation through its, innovative, attention to non-radicalisation alongside radicalisation trajectories. The DARE Consortium brings together academic and civil society organisations to ensure integration of its academic, policy and practice elements and includes members from 9 EU and 4 non-EU countries.