The AGROMIX project aims to deliver participatory research to drive the transition to a resilient and efficient land use in Europe. It focuses on practical agroecological solutions for farm and land management and related value chains. AGROMIX makes use of a network of 83 sites with Mixed Farming (MF), AgroForestry (AF) or value chain stakeholder networks, which are used to measure, design, model, test and improve these systems. A nested approach will be used to conduct 12 co-design pilots across Europe. In addition, 6 replicated long-term trial sites are used for detailed analysis (crops and livestock). AGROMIX has six specific objectives: 1) Unlock the full potential of synergies in MF/AF systems. 2) Develop and promote value chains and infrastructure for MF/AF produce. 3) Develop the MIX-A toolkit to co-design and manage MF/AF systems in practice. 4) Identify and model transition scenarios. 5) Develop policy recommendations and action plans for a successful transition. 6) Maximise the impact and legacy of the project for building low-carbon climate-resilient farming systems. AGROMIX uses a transdisciplinary multi-actor research approach with 10 universities, 7 research institutes and 11 multi-actor partners. It will use Reflexive Interactive Design methodology to include stakeholders in participatory co-design and implementation of MF/AF systems. The research starts with a work package (WP1) on context, co-creating a resilience framework. WP2 on systems design and synergies is at the heart of project. WP3 on indicators and scenarios will refine the greenhouse gas inventories for MF/AF systems and model transition scenarios. WP4 develops and tests the MIX-application/serious game. Further WPs are on economics and value chains, and on policy co-development, action plans and dissemination delivering impact and exploitation through practical innovations on farms, in value chains, at different policy levels and through communication and knowledge hubs across Europe.

"<< Background >>""Education begins with language""Following the new European Commission report “Education begins with language” (June 2020) which seeks to support the implementation of the Recommendation of the Council of the European Union (EU) on a comprehensive approach to the teaching and learning of languages, the main focus of BABO project will be the teaching of a second language in preschool age in an innovative way offering ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) educators and families new educational methodologies and digital resources.The consortium decided to apply for this project for three reasons:1.LACK OF QUALITY DIGITAL EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES IN (ECEC)The global COVID-19 pandemic has affected many aspects of today’s society, bringing to the fore the weaknesses of what were thought to be the strong points of institutions, such as education. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected educational systems in Europe, leading to the near-total closures of schools, universities and colleges. Kindergartens where not an exception, specially because at this age (0-3 and 3-6 years) is not posible to keep the security distance or wear a mask.Kindergartens were not ready for online education and when they were trying to look for online resources adapted to the age of their children they did not find enough quality educational resources with pedagogical objectives (not only songs or cartoons for entertaiment). Our five preschool partners from Austria, Ireland, Belgium and Spain and their networks suffered this situation during the lockdown and they had to develop their own amateur resources and videos adapted to online education.2.LACK OF INNOVATION IN ECECWhile primary, secondary and higher education have moved forward in digital education and educational innovation, preschool education have been offering the same education for decades and, indded, many ECEC educators refuse digital education or new methodologies in their classrooms. Our consortium want to improve and better adapt the education of our preschool children combining online educational materials and new place-based classroom methods while teaching an additional language.Th ECEC system have been traditionally considered “care” instead of “education” in many european countries. May be that is the reason why this project and the innovation in ECEC is more important.3.NEED OF A HIGH QUALITY AND ADAPTED MULTILINGUAL EDUCAITON IN THE EUROPEAN ECEC SYSTEMAlthought all European citizens should learn at least two languages in addition to their mother tongues in the most european countries this is not possible. Even when the European Commission and the governments of the countries are doing great efforts in training their teachers and in investing on bilingual edcation the results are not as expected.Our consortium knows that preschool age is the best age for learning a second language and our four multilingual preschools can prove it. So we think this project is crucial for motivating other kindergartens in Europe to offer multilingual education in preschool age.<< Objectives >>The consortium of BABO project have highlighted three main objectives wich are connected with the educational objectives of the European Institutions.PROMOTE HIGH QUALITY EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE SYSTEM THROUGH INNOVATIONBased on a Commission proposal, the Council adopted in May 2019 a Recommendation on high quality early childhood education and care systems which aims to support Member States in their efforts to improve access to and quality of their early childhood education and care systems.As mentioned before, Innovation in ECEC systems is very low because the governments and the society have considered this educational stage traditionally as “care”. In the other hand, the low qualification of the ECEC educators in researching methods and the low or non-existent budget for innovanion did not allow the innovation in this educational stage. Things seems to be changing in ECEC and we want to develop new educational methodologies connected with the Multiple Intelligences theory and the learning of languages for improving the ECEC systems in Europe. We think our project can motivate other kindergartens to investigate and enhance the quality of ECEC in many different ways.PROMOTE DIGITAL EDUCATION IN ECEC (BLENDED LEARNING)This objective connect with the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027). This plan outlines the European Commission’s vision for high-quality, inclusive and accessible digital education in Europe. It is a call to action for stronger cooperation at European level to:•learn from the COVID-19 crisis, during which technology is being used at an unprecedented scale in education and training•make education and training systems fit for the digital ageOur consortium want to develop online resources for ECEC educators and families in order to facilitate the preschool children the learning of a second language in a way they like while having fun. For this purpose we will work together Multilingual kindergartens, educational experts, universities and technological companies in order to develop educational games, educational cartoons and an educational app (game) for learning languages.PROMOTE THE LEARNING OF LANGUAGES IN PRESCHOOL AGEThis objective is connected with he European Council’s 2019 Recommendation on a comprehensive approach to the teaching and learning of languages that sets the ambitious goal of ensuring that, by the time young people leave upper secondary education, they can speak at least three languages. In addition to this, by introducing the concepts of ‘literacy’ and ‘language awareness’, the Recommendation aims to change the mindset of policymakers and teachers, inspiring them to adopt comprehensive language education policies, as well as ""innovative and inclusive language teaching methods"". Language competences are at the heart of the ambitious vision to create a European Education Area.BABO project wants to introduce in the european kindergartens and innovative methodology for teaching languages adapted to the age and capacities of the children and involving ECEC educators and families.<< Implementation >>The main activities carried out during the project will be:MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATIONThe management will guarantee the achievement of all project objectives and will keep the partners active and cotinuosly thinking in the project. Transnational meetings, online meetings, Working groups meetings (WG), Learning, Training and Teaching Activity (LTTA), piloting of the first version of the Project Results (PR)… All this activities will ensure the collaboration of the partners and will keep them active and updated about the situation of the project and the following steps. Like that all partners will know during the whole project where we are, where we go and how to get there.The coordinator of the project (UEX) will agree with the partners in the first transnational meeting in Spain a “Work Plan” with the main activities and a detialed calendar in order to offer a better planification to the partners and ensure all the activities will be done on time.RESEARCHING / PROJECT RESULTS (PR)As mentioned before, the motivation and the interest of the partners for working in this project and the high expertise level of the partners in different fields related with the project (Multiple Intelligences, Multilingual education, ECEC, Gamification, Audiovisual animation or App development) will guarantee high quality PR. All partners will work directly with all PR in some meetings (transnational meetings and online meetings) and indirectly in the working groups where the partner Baby Erasmus will be the link/connection between the four different “Working Groups”. PILOTING Once the first version of the project results is finished we will start with the piloting of the PR in the partners educational settings (Smart Makings, Kindevilla, Mother tongues, Superlexi and Baby Erasmus) and other European kindergartens working with multilingual education that could be interested in the project. We are sure there will be more interested kindergartens in partner´s networks after starting with the dissemination activities.This piloting will help the partners to get a first feedback about the project results from different european ECEC systems and improve and adapt the PR for all the european kindergartens interested in Multilingual education and blended learning. This piloting period and the feedback (face to face and questionnaires Q1 and Q2) will guarantee the high quality of the project results.DISSEMINATION Fort he ECEC sector and for the European Commission this project and its results are a need. Babo project will be able to provide preschool educators with more resources for promoting ""Blended Learning"" and and the second language acquisition using new adapted methodologies like “Multiple Intelligences” and new resources adpated to the age of the children. We are sure our project will be useful in a lot of preschool settings and the European educators and families have to know about it. So all partners will disseminate the project results during the project and after it is finished because we want it to be used by all children and kindergartens in Europe interested in Multilingual education. The website of the project and project results will be still available after finishing the project.<< Results >>The consortium want to develop four connected Project Results (PR) that will work as an “Educational pack” for promoting the learning of languages in preschool age using the blended learning in order to involve not only ECEC educators but families in the multlingual education of the children. These Project Results are:PR1. Multiple Intelligences for Multilingual Education in Preschool AgeThe PR1 will be a pedagogical guide for connecting the main intelligences of the children in preschool age with the learning of a second language. The children in preschool age have a lot of capacities for learning a second language but not all the resources are suitable for all the children because not all of them are interested in the same ways of educating. This project result want to train the staff working in the ECEC in the Multiple Intelligences theory for better adapt the education to the main capacities of each child and to offer resources for a second language acquisition adapted to the different intelligences.PR2. GAMIFICATION: Multilingual Educational Games in Preschool Age‘Gamification’ in education is about increasing student engagement and learning by including game-like elements in learning. Effective games typically feature a series of goals or progressions, clear rules, elements of story, high interactivity and continual feedback including some kind of reward. They may also incorporate social elements of teamwork and communication. Games can enhance student focus and motivation, and can provide the freedom for children to try, fail, and explore.Consortium will develop online and offline educational games for teaching a second language in preschool age.PR3. BABO Multilingual Educational CartoonsBABO Educational cartoons will be a great resource adapted to the preschool age for teaching the children a second language. The main innovation is that this educational cartoons will follow the multiple intelligences theory in the episodes and will be completed and connected with the other resources developed in the project.PR4. BABO APP / Multilingual Educational gameThis APP educational game is part of the multilingual educational pack we want to develop for helping ECEC educators and parents with the multilingual education of children in preschool age. Again, there are not too many resources ""Blended learning"" or online resources adapted to preschool age and with BABO project we want to offer an innovative way of teaching a second language in the european ECEC system."

Agriculture and agri-food industry represent a very important sectors in all countries involved in the project. In the last years. In the last years, more and more knowledge is required in the disciplines necessary to support innovation in the sector: innovative technologies, innovative models, innovative designs etc. Everyone in the sector must have increasingly specialized skills: digital, more useful than ever for certifications, supply chain traceability, online transactions (blockchain, value chain). Even in the food sector many companies have to deal with the mismatch between real skills possessed by their workers and skills actually required.Blockchain adoption in agri-food industry has the potential to simplify and integrate agriculture supply chains but the level of its application is still very low in all EU countries. It has been demonstrated that Blockchain technology can positively influence two relevant aspects of the food supply chain:- Traceability: help to reduce food waste, provide reliable information regarding the origins of food- Optimization of Food Supply Chain: allow farmers to properly set their prices and optimize the quantities of products- Crop Insurance: provide more visibility across the supply chain- Transactions: help farmers to sell commodities, lowering transaction fees, prevent price coercion, provide lower costsThe objective of the project is to improve the knowledge and skills on blockchain technology of people working in agri-food sector by developing and testing a new training module and by providing the agri-food operators with an interactive learning platform to be used for training purposes.The project will be implemented by 6 organizations, having different experiences and knowledge but all working in or with agri-food sector: Rural Development Agency, University, VET provider, Industrial Research Laboratory and Innovation and Technology Transfer Center, SME, University and Organization representing the Agricultural Cooperatives.It is expected that the project will generate some very concrete results such as: - Improvement of specific skills and competences of farmers and agri-food operators required to adopt the Blochian technologies in their work- Development of 2 innovative outputs (Training Modules on Blockchain Technology and Learning platform) that will support the project partners and target groups to further improve their knowledge by organizing additional trainings and providing support to farmers and operators on application of Blockchain technology in agri-food sector. - Improvement of transnational connectivity among organizations working on development of skills in agri-food sector.