<< Objectives >>The current project aims to provide students with a course covering the drug discovery and development process as it occurs in the pharmaceutical industry. The theoretical part will cover most aspects of this process, while the practical exercises will focus on selected topics related to the expertise and laboratory equipment of the participating universities/UAS. Upon completion of the course, students will have a sound understanding of how new drugs are researched, developed, and tested.<< Implementation >>The theoretical part will consist of online lectures aimed at all participating students in the module and will include digital state-of-the-art tools to support the course content. Here, 3D visualization tools for biomolecules, in-silico approaches for target discovery, in-silico pharmacology, etc. will be used. For the practical part, laboratory exercises will be developed to match as closely as possible with corresponding research activities in the research-based pharmaceutical industry.<< Results >>The project will develop a module that maps the drug discovery research chain. In addition to the acquired expert knowledge, the students will gain insights into the different university cultures and the associated different research approaches. The international networking of the students will have a positive impact on their future career. Likewise, the networking of the lecturers will result in improved teaching skills and possible joint research activities.

"As of March 2020 – the starting point of COVID-19 in Europe and national restrictions to set bounds to its spread – all workshops and courses including wine tasting classes had to be cancelled or suspended. The missing of wine tasting classes in wine education can be compared with sports studies and the missing possibility of training; or art studies like sculpturing and painting and the sudden abolition of possibilities to train exactly this.It is therefore the GOAL OF THIS PROJECT TO DESIGN AND CARRY OUT ""REMOTE"" ONLINE WINE TASTING COURSES. This involves:-a comprehensive framework for online wine tasting classes. Hence, an overall scheme - from beginner to advanced level - will be developed; course contents defined and learning materials created. In accordance a tasting agenda and online training material fitting to online-class needs will be created;-online tests, quizzes and final exams including tasting tasks and grading schemes will be designed;-furthermore, the physical act of filling small bottles and logistics will be tackled. To this end, filling technology will have to be adapted to the projects’ needs and consequently utilized. Three higher education institutions participate in this project; the University of Applied Sciences Krems (Austria), Geisenheim University (Germany) and the University of Camerino (Italy). They are in charge of designing course material and delivering online wine (tasting) classes. The start-up company MT Digital Wine Services will be in charge of procurement, filling and logistics.Results and envisaged impacts consist for and most importantly of the possibility to continue education in wine (business) programs without further cancellations and delays due to Corona and its' consequences. In addition results mean a big leap in innovation towards a much easier and more sustainable way to organize wine tastings despite of distances, time differences and other obstacles. Potential longer term benefits include an ONLINE EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE in a field which (so far) required physical presence by all means. On the long run this project develops technical possibilities which will bring major improvements in both, the short term solution for constrained teaching possibilities as well as a serious and professional alternative to all live-tasting sessions. Literally hundred thousands of live tastings take place each year for business, education or mere horizon-broadening reasons. The European wine sector that provides employment to millions (Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins https://www.ceev.eu/about-the-eu-wine-sector/) requires this important step towards a digital possibility TO PROVIDE AND ENSURE EDUCATION as well as presenting its' products in a future of limited ways to do so."

<< Background >>Digitalisation in the business as well as the education world are continously evolving and higher education institutions are struggling to adapt to these changes. Additionally, the COVID-19 crisis imposed a rapid changeover to digital teaching, which confronted educational institutions with unexpected challenges, not only at a technological level but also at pedagogical and didactics level. Educators are individually facing challenges, which should be tackled on an organisational level. Educators are willing to adapt and enhance their physical courses with online learning to form blended learning arrangements but lack the expertise, the technological skills and already available and accessible content to start their efforts with. Online collaborative learning is one very promising path to engage in blended learning, as it is a core element to teach as well as assess Twenty-First Century Skills, formulated by the OECD and its Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). This situation involves numerous obstacles for higher education educators. The educators, who gained expertise during intensive research in the field of online and blended learning are having difficulties conveying their expertise to other interested parties. There is a lack of international cross-institutional initiative to implement online and blended learning in a systematic and widely accessible manner. by developing OER online course modules for online collaborative learning and teaching, structured along the DigCompEdu framework. These courses will give educators the expertise to engage in blended learning activities at their institutions. Furthermore, the online course modules aim to generate OER content with the participants. This ensures that educators do not only gain expertise in the courses but also have the possibility to apply their gain knowledge and develop OER content themselves. This OER content is published with the online course modules and represents a self-sustaining OER pool for online collaborative learning and teaching methods.<< Objectives >>The main objective of OER-CODEX is to develop OER course modules, conveying digital teaching and learning methods of online collaborative learning in a blended learning context for educators in higher education (HE), aiming to increase the capacity and readiness of HE institutions to manage an effective shift towards digital education. This means the digital teaching and learning methods are not seen as a standalone implementation but a modern and much needed addition to the physical learning scenarios. Furthermore, the digital teaching and learning methods are seen in the context of online collaborative learning, as this type of learning is an effective as well as specific learning content independent method to convey Twenty-First Century Skills, as formulated by the OECD and is therefore applicable in all kinds of learning scenarios where collaborative problem solving is imaginable. These course modules aim to convey digital pedagogy competencies and expertise in the use of digital tools for educators, including accessible and assistive technologies and the creation and innovative use of digital education content. In detail, the course modules are structured along the areas of the DigCompEdu framework and therefore support the strategic effort to develop digital education competencies in HE institutions. These course modules shall stimulate innovative learning and teaching practices by giving educators OER course modules in which they gain expertise and experience in implementing online collaborative learning but also generate OER content suitable of online collaborative learning with which they can start from and adapt for their courses. Furthermore, a methodology will be developed, which describes how to design OER course modules so that OER content can be generated within these courses, thereby building self-sustaining OER resource pool as more experienced educators can add their course modules to this OER collection.<< Implementation >>The project consortium will first collaboratively develop a methodology for developing OER online course modules with the integrated element of OER content generation with the participants. This methodology will be presented and communicated in a first multiplier event. The primary target group for this event will be educators already experienced in digital education from associated partners, willing to convey their expertise to other educators. This methodology will give these educators guidance on how to develop their own OER online course modules, which adds to the envisioned OER pool for online and blended learning methods and techniques. The piloting of the developed course modules will give this project the possibility to reach a broader audience and will generate a first set of OER content, as proposed in the methodology. Furthermore, the piloting is an important part for quality assurance of the developed online course modules. Lastly, the online course modules as well as the OER content will be published on an OER platform, for all interested educators to access, adapt and extend.<< Results >>The project will have three main project result types. First, the methodology to develop OER online course modules. Second, 4 cluster of OER online course modules conveying competencies in online collaborative learning, structured along the DigCompEdu framework and lastly a ready-to-use OER collection of online course modules and its respective OER content.

"Therapeutic services increasingly gain in importance. This can be attributed, among other things, to the progressive ageing of the population in Europe. But also the latest scientific knowledge shows the high effectiveness of non-drug procedures, which as therapeutic approaches offer real alternatives to conventional pharmacological treatments. With the continuously growing demand for therapeutic services, the need for qualified therapists is also constantly increasing. Thus, it should be the goal to convince young people to start a training to become occupational therapists.In addition to a high quality of theoretical training, the practical imparting of professional competences and the possibility of finding professional employment opportunities in all countries of the European Union play an important role in the attractiveness of the profession.Under the title ""EUPRAC - Europractice for Occupational Therapists"", a European project partnership therefore concentrated primarily on the part of the practical training of occupational therapists, for which there are still no uniform regulations in the country comparison, but which is a decisive component of the training.In the period from 01. October 2018 to 31. March 2021, educational institutions from four European countries cooperated:•IBKM gemeinnützige Schulträger GmbH as the project executing organization (DE),•„Angel Kanchev“ University of Ruse (BG), •Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego we Wroclawiu (PL),•ICM Fachhochschule Krems GmbH as well as•IBKM Praxismanagement GmbH as an important practice partner.The target groups of the project included:•trainees (apprentices) and students (in the project: DE, BG, AT, PL) with an interest in occupational therapists as well as interest in Europe-wide professional employment opportunities and perspectives,•trainers, VET teachers in occupational therapy, who broaden their professional expertise by providing practical teaching skills as well as intercultural communication, including language skills and mobility,•educational institutions focusing on practical training for occupational therapists in Europe, who benefit from Europe-wide comparability of educational content and qualifications,•providers of occupational therapeutic services in Europe with a need for theoretically and practically competent staff.In the first step, an EUPRAC comparative study was developed, which focused on the training programmes, the framework conditions of the training and the recognition practices of the regional and national authorities, as well as on the financing of therapeutic services and the position of occupational therapists in the social security system in the participating countries.Based on this study, a common training basis for the practical training of occupational therapists was developed in a second step. The qualification framework of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT), the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) and the National Qualifications Frameworks (NQF) also formed important bases for the creation of the EUPRAC curriculum.Components of the curriculum are:•Competence-based learning objectives and contents for the practical training of occupational therapists in the context of internships in other European countries,•Recommendations for a preparatory procedure within the sending educational institutions for completing occupational therapy placements in other European countries,•a questionnaire to ensure the recognition of occupational therapy internship institutions in other European countries,•Guidelines for students in preparation for an occupational therapy internship in another European country,•Profile of expectations and offers of occupational therapy internship institutions to students/trainees from other European countries.The initial testing was carried out within the framework of tandem internships with students/trainees from the participating European educational institutions in occupational therapy practices in Germany. The results and experiences were also implemented in the EUPRAC curriculum. A job shadowing programme provided further essential insights from the perspective of the teachers.With the EUPRAC curriculum that has been developed, the European project team aims to provide guidelines for the barrier-free completion of internships that are both relevant to practice and serve as a model for other actors, in order to open up new perspectives and opportunities for young people on the European labour market. At the same time, this aims to promote the attractiveness of the occupational therapy profession. The EUPRAC curriculum promotes a practice-oriented vocational qualification that contributes to ensuring the demand-oriented supply of occupational therapists in the EU and at the same time increases the quality of education in this profession throughout Europe."

<< Background >>ENDORSE addresses universities in locations affected by brain drain and aims at providing a concept to boost entrepreneurial activities of students. It offers guidance on how to optimize the university-firms-municipality link that is essential for the creation of regional innovation networks. In other words, university locations that are affected by brain need to ensure the cooperation between university and local stakeholders in order to create a business-friendly environment for student entrepreneurs and graduates that can compensate for the lack of other opportunities at these locations. Universities prepare students for different careers that are related to the requirements of the labor market and the opportunities it offers. The high degree of labor mobility in Europe and around the world has increased the competition for skill between countries and regions. Locations lacking economic and industrial diversity often experience brain drain that adds to the structural problems of regions. However, many of them contribute significantly to human capital formation due to their local universities but fail to link the human capital to local productivity and growth. Also, universities and policy makers often miss the opportunity to use the universities’ potential for generating local growth by concentrating solely on the increased local demand generated by incoming students and the universities’ role as a local employer and losing focus from graduates, that could also contribute to local development if staying in the region. Since many European university locations are not able to compete with the variety of available jobs in metropolitan areas, they need to find alternative ways of increasing attractiveness of their location and to avoid brain drain. Universities and policy makers therefore need to engage in joint efforts to help their locations carry out the shift towards innovation-driven activities and modern business-oriented services by setting place-based priorities instead of promoting generic activities and creating opportunities and incentives for young entrepreneurs. While universities have to act as incubators of innovative ideas and contribute to improving entrepreneurial skills of students, local policymakers need to provide incentives for students to start their business venture. Furthermore, universities should act as a link between students, local policymakers and local firms. While the mutual exchange between universities and policymakers ensures that regional development strategies are in line with the local characteristics and resources, the cooperation with local firms ensures that young entrepreneurs have access to local suppliers and consumers. This enhances location-related entrepreneurial activities that use local resources and comparative advantages by offering a customized entrepreneurial education and access to innovation network that lowers the risk for entrepreneurs and increases their sense of belonging to the local community. The ENDORSE team addresses the needs mentioned above by suggesting a modularized teaching concept that includes multiple stakeholders (students, teaching staff, policymakers, local firms, incubators) and provides teaching material, guidelines and policy suggestions for customizing entrepreneurial activities and business incentives to the needs and resources of the university locations affected by brain drain. The ENDORSE team brings together the expertise in multiple disciplines such as business, economics, regional science and geography. It was build-up to capture the economic and geographic diversity of locations affected by brain drain in Europe. The team has an innovative approach to knowledge creation and transfer and capacity building. All partners are members of international networks and can ensure an effective dissemination, as well as cross-border cooperation between higher education institutions in the area of entrepreneurship.<< Objectives >>The ENDORSE concept is an innovative approach that links student entrepreneurs with the universities’ locations by a) facilitating customized entrepreneurial education and founder support during studies, by b) enhancing access to local resources and by c) building up a local community of entrepreneurs and constantly integrating potential founders.ENDORSE aims at enhancing the participation of universities located in municipalities affected by brain drain, in activities that shape the local business environment to become more attractive for student entrepreneurs. By implementing the ENDORSE concept consisting of teaching, consulting and networking activities universities should be able to improve their role as a strategic partner for the local business community and for regional policymakers and efficiently contribute to the local innovation potential. By acquiring a strategic role in the local business and political environment these universities will be able to design entrepreneurship programs for students that consider local characteristics and business opportunities in order to a) decrease information cost and the risk of starting up a business by offering informed guidance to students and to b) increase the incentives for student entrepreneurs and graduates to start up their business in the region. Universities implementing the ENDORSE approach will be able to improve knowledge transfer in the area of entrepreneurship and build up a reputation that will help to attract more students with entrepreneurial endeavors allowing to build up a community of entrepreneurs that could shape the local labor market in the medium run. In addition, universities will be able to participate in R&D projects initiated by alumni that started up a business and improve their research output. As a consequence, these universities will act as growth poles for their regions and contribute to a sustainable local development while at the same time improving their international reputation.ENODROSE follows an integrated approach with respect to inclusivity, academic disciplines, and participation of stakeholders: Youth from peripheric areas close to the university locations with limited access to higher education, but with good knowledge of local resources, traditions and needs will be invited to participate in the project activities in order to enhance (business) partnerships with students and use synergies beneficial in the founding process. Furthermore, the concept is applicable for participants (students) with different academic backgrounds so that the founding activities can reflect the universities’ diversity of academic disciplines. As for the participation of stakeholder, all relevant agents shaping the local business environment (such as policymaker, incubators, venture capitalists, firms) play an active role in determining challenges, opportunities, requirements and strategies for an attractive business location as well as in supporting young entrepreneurs on their business venture.<< Implementation >>For improving universities’ role as a strategic partner for local development and enhancing student entrepreneurship ENODRSE will carry out a mix of research, teaching and networking activities. Research activities will concentrate on identifying push and pull factors for student entrepreneurs and will identify and design business models that are meant to consider local resources, innovation potential and benefit from local synergies. These research activities will allow to customize the capacity building and knowledge transfer activities based on local characteristics instead of offering “one-size-fits-all” approaches to entrepreneurial education. Teaching activities refer to the creation of a modularized integrated teaching concept that aims at transferring knowledge, building skill and connecting student entrepreneurs. The ENDORSE concept creates a framework that helps accompany students on their entrepreneurial venture. The teaching material will be accompanied by teaching guidelines that ensure that the project results can be accessed beyond the project. Networking activities aim at improving the access of universities and implicitly of young student entrepreneurs to local decision-makers, venture capitalists, other entrepreneurs and including them in the business community in order to reduce information cost, to create a local support system and reduce risks but also to build trust and improve the sense of belonging at the university location. All planned activities are designed to be replicable by many universities in locations affected by brain drain while at the same time allowing the flexibility necessary for adapting to local requirements. In addition, the suggested ENDORSE concept can be adapted to changes that occur over time, ensuring that the suggested activities can be carried out after the funding period ends.<< Results >>ENDORSE is an integrated modularized teaching concept that involves multiple stakeholders and assigns universities an active and strategic role in regional development activities. The project will deliver five main results. The first result consists of a classification of locations and of business model prototypes for each type of location. The classification of university locations considers socio-economic and cultural characteristics that will contribute to recognizing and designing location-related innovation-driven local strategies and incentives for young entrepreneurs. The set of business models prototypes will be based on the suggested classification of locations. Business model archetypes are “entrepreneurial recipes” meant to show what kind of business ventures can succeed in each of the identified location types. Very often, entrepreneurial activities fail due to generic strategies (such as “becoming a technology hub”) that don’t consider many locations’ (such as for example agricultural locations) inability to provide the required resources. The suggested business model prototypes offer guidance for using the business model that fits the characteristics of the location best while also enhancing innovative business ideas (for example by acknowledging that agriculture is the dominant sector in a region, identifying trends and requirements related with this sector but also with other local characteristics such as low population density, a certain way of life, a stronger focus on traditions etc. as well as understanding the existing markets will help guide student entrepreneurs towards business activities that provide innovations in the area of fertilizer, organic food production, supply chain, machinery, etc.). These results will serve as main input for all following results and will allow the design of customized approaches to enhancing the students’ entrepreneurial skill. The second main result refers to the modularized blended learning teaching material consisting of a combination of courses that enhance the entrepreneurial potential of students, improve their entrepreneurial literacy and skill, teach the handling of business models prototypes, reveal the location related potential and offer guidance throughout the start-up process. The teaching material will be designed to offer the necessary flexibility to enhancing creativity and to allow business ideas from different disciplines. (Linking to the example mentioned above, the suggested learning activities at the agricultural location could include students majoring in physics, chemistry, IT, mechanical engineering, nutrition, business, tourism, etc.) The third result refers to teaching guidelines to instruct how to use and add to the ENDORSE concept as well as to suggest options of integrating ENDORSE in curricular or extra-curricular activities and to include participants with different academic backgrounds. The guidelines will support academic staff in choosing the appropriate business models prototype but also in creating hybrids (mixing prototypes for locations without dominant features of a certain location type). In addition, the guidelines will address to create or join existing regional innovation networks that facilitate exchange between stakeholders. A fourth result will consist of a set of policy recommendations for policy maker that will contribute to reducing brain drain, enhancing entrepreneurship and improving the cooperation of universities with different local stakeholder such as the municipalities, local/regional development agencies, etc. These policy recommendations will address strategies to increase universities participation and strategic role in shaping the local business environment. The fifth result is a transnational network including all relevant stakeholder enhancing international collaboration, information exchange, promoting best practice cases as well as the ENDORSE concept.