The importance of the agricultural sector is crucial for the economy and society of the EU. Its contribution in terms of employment globally accounts for 32% and can provide great potential in creating new jobs, fighting unemployment and strengthening cuntries` economies. The significance of involving young people in agriculture, improving their skills and entrepreneurial competencies in reversing the trend of ever aging population of farmers in the EU is plain to see. This importance is also clearly presented at EU level: Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) 2014-2020 and the EU 2020 strategy for innovation, growth and jobs but also the new EU Research and innovation strategy 2020-2024 that will play a key role in responding to the challenges brought about by the global COVID-19 pandemic. It will help deliver Europe's recovery plan, paving the way out of the current crisis based on economic growth that respects the planet. These strategies call to adopt recommendations in order to support different national high-quality education programmes that will focus on youth agriculture entrepreneurship by offering innovative educational training. Programmes such as Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+ nurture research and training in the field of agriculture and entrepreneurship and stress their growing importance. AGRIENT Project: “Enhancing Youth Entrepreneurship Skills, Career Guidance and Competences in Agriculture Through a Game Based Virtual Reality Platform“, aimed at designing a training curriculum in agriculture and entrepreneurship with innovative courses and creation of Open Educational Resources, complemented by up-to-date and technology-enhanced 3D virtual world training platform to meet the needs of training in these fields and indirectly to promote and support young people in formulating, starting, running and improving their own agribusinesses. The project implementation period had initially been scheduled for 24 months but due to the pandemic situation this period was extended by 5 months, with the end in June 2021.AGRIENT project adapted the curriculum and materials to specific regional and national needs, developed 5 distinctive courses or modules with exercises on complex issues, gathered examples of good practice from participating countries and provided interactive and innovative open educational resource. The learning materials of the courses, 3D learning scenarios following gamification ideas were all hosted in the 3D virtual world educational platform freely available online with the total of 21 interactive learning scenarios. The main target groups young people interested in agriculture and entrepreneurship, graduates of agriculture educational institutes, young NEETS, teachers/trainers/tutors from HE institutions, VET institutions, elementary and secondary schools, youth training centers, young people from isolated rural areas, adult education and training institutions and other related groups: career counselors and agencies, policy makers, youth educational networks, development agencies, youth agriculture and entrepreneurship networks.The main aims of the AGRIENT project were to :• Create an innovative curriculum based on agriculture and entrepreneurship, create an innovative 3D educational virtual world platform;• Promote entrepreneurship education for developing active citizenship, employability and creating new businesses, support future learning and career pathways for individuals,in accordance with their personal and professional development;• Update and improve instructors’ knowledge and support related professional groups, educational and youth institutions and training centres • Create a network of stakeholders at local and regional level to raise awareness of relevant institutions in the field;• Provide young people in isolated and remote rural areas with freely available and innovative learning environments to overcome geographic and economic obstaclesThe results of the project were materialized in the following Intellectual outputs:• O1: Design of Agro-Entrepreneurship Curriculum, Formulation of Innovative Courses and Creation of Open Educational Resources • O2: Game-based 3D Virtual Reality Educational Platform for Agro-Entrepreneurship EducationIn the final stage of outputs development, these were validated by selected participants during pilot testing, and the final results were improved according to their feedback andrecommendations. The project has developed user-driven and interactive training tools, which are unique in Europe; it had a major impact not only in terms of target beneficiaries, but also through relevance, usefulness and transferability of the project results.AGRIENT is a sustainable project and it developed innovative practices which are fully transferable to other areas. Both project outputs can be used as a model for educational processes, as a guideline how to proceed with the educational and methodological aspects of trainings not only in the subjects of agriculture and entrepreneurship, but they can also be adapted into other fields and sectors in education.

Agriculture plays a crucial role in people's lives. It is vital to all humans no matter the nationality, race, gender, ethnicity, religion and so on. Even though people depend on agriculture to survive, they often forget that in order to provide sufficient crop and animal production, we need to make sure that our ways of farming are sustainable and enable us to farm in the long-term future. In the same spirit, people have to make sure to adapt to climate changes in order to keep the quality and number of production. The current research proves the climate changes which we currently experience, especially droughts. WWF states that in Europe, longer and more intense periods of droughts and periods without precipitation are more and more often every year causing prolonged shortages in the water supply. Such shortages then result in drying of crops, reduce soil quality, bring new pests, rodents and diseases and moreover, they create shortages of water for farm animals like cattle.The negative consequences are serious but one may ask: is that even possible to adapt to such drastic changes like lack of water? Yes, it is. However, the adaptation process needs preparations, one has to consider his or her possibilities, close environment, soil characteristics, legal options and context. To help farmers and landowners start, implement and sustainably maintain new water systems or other adaptation ways to droughts on one's farm, this project is proposed.The project AGRIWATER aims to educate farmers, landowners as well as other stakeholders in possible ways how to adapt on climate change and droughts innovatively and sustainably and how to establish, implement and take care of water systems on agricultural land as an effective way of reducing consequences of droughts. The idea of implementing new water systems supports the long-term sustainable solutions and continuous processes of adaptation on climate change. The main goal of the project is to help farmers maintain their agricultural lands by implementing innovative adaptation measures to droughts. Similarly, the project aims at landowners in order to raise awareness amongst them why it is necessary to take care of their lands and not just rent it recklessly. The project is, thus, divided into 5 main outputs which are The Current Situation Summary Report; The Collection of Best Practices Examples; The Innovative Educational Materials; The Awareness Raising Publication and finally, The Web-based Educational Platform. By delivering these outputs we aim to create a comprehensive educational system for a broad audience focusing on a topic which is, in an area of life-long education, still rather neglected. The project consortium consists of partners from the Czech Republic (leading partner the Association of Private Farming of the Czech Republic), Belgium (European Landowners), Cyprus (Agricultural Research Institute), Germany (Hof und Leben), Italy (University of Florence) and Spain (On Project Consulting), creating a broad mix of countries from Central, Southen and Eastern European countries. The main reason for implementing this project transnationally is because it could help achieve the goals of the EU 2050 long-term strategy and EU Adaptation Strategy prepared by the European Commission and following the objectives of the European Green Deal and the Paris Agreement. We aim to improve the quality of agricultural soil, its characteristics and possibilities to keep water (groundwater as well as aboveground water systems). Carrying out the project transnationally has a wide range of benefits for all participants and target groups as it contributes to the exchange of good practices among farmers, landowners and experts in the field in different countries. But above all, it could help real people with their farming.The deliverables of AGRIWATER project are expected to be actively used after the project ends thanks to the involvement of an umbrella organization for agricultural associations from the whole of Europe, active cooperation with other relevant associations, action groups, research institutes and educational institutions and direct reach to farmers in all partner countries.

GreeNet aims in improving and innovating inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities through fostering specific actions within the framework of Adult Education and Rehabilitation for people with Intellectual disability (PIDs). The state of affairs for people with intellectual disabilities is that their full social inclusion and active citizenship are not yet a reality, but future challenges. The policies to remove physical barriers have not been extended to the overcoming of mental barriers. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the employment and work based training provided to PIDs. Even though in the last few years there has, been a visible shift at the European level towards integrating PIDs into the labour market, still PIDs are often unable to complete adult education programmes, and are restricted to participating in courses, which do not grant the student any official certification of their gained qualification. Furthermore, the majority of programs, designed for PIDs need the constant participation of a guide or trainer, limiting their autonomy, are designed for use in a “protected environment” and mainly focus on maintaining life skills and not bridge the actual skill gap between PIDs and the general population. Even though, the main effort by such programs is guided toward work place “equality” for people with intellectual disabilities and their peers, the perceived need of supervision leads, to segregation. One of the 8 areas of action defined in the “European Disability Strategy 2010–2020” is to “Promote inclusive education and lifelong learning for pupils and students with disabilities”, furthermore, The Council Directive 2000/78/EC (Employment Framework Directive) aims to promote equal opportunities and combat discrimination on several grounds, including disability, in employment, self-employment and occupation (European Commission, 2000), but still the problem persists. GreeNet aims to create a complete training Course for Adult Educations in Horticulture (Assistant Gardener – PID). Special attention will be given to skills transparency through EQF and ECVET system as well as the certification of the course materials and the trainers and future supervisors themselves. GreenNet is also going to promote Work Based Learning (WBL) and co-training and will involve the trainees working in the community. GreeNet will provide the opportunity to PIDs to obtain a certification for the learning units achieved or the entire curriculum. The course will address the latest’s technological advancements in the supported employment (Assistive Technology solution), in order to bridge this lack of skills, to increase autonomy and maximise social impact. An Assistive Technology toolkit will be prepared to control in real time garden conditions to improve services, to reduce time and resources required, and also reduce the possibilities of human error. The toolkit will include a weather station, soil moisture sensors, sunlight exposure, etc).The main Objectives of the project are:To promote inclusive education and lifelong learning for people with intellectual disabilities. To design and develop an Assistant Gardener curriculum for people with intellectual disabilities of EQF levels 1 and 2.To develop an Assistive Technology toolkit to assist in WBL, but also later on when the certified trainees will work in real jobs helping them to retain their skills and increase their autonomy. To offer easy to read training materials specifically designed from the start, to cover the beneficiaries’ vocational needs. To develop a certification system for the assessment of the training content and the trainees. Each training module will consist of learning outcomes that will correspond to training units.To train 2 trainers professionals working with PID in each country (Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Cyprus and Serbia) in the use of sensor technologies in horticulture and guide them or the successful organisation of the training's with main goal to ensure sustainability of the project resultsTo pilot train 10 PIDs as gardener in all partner countries in order to test the effect of the methodology and the tools. To offer the materials for free through an online platform and the corresponding manuals to be used worldwide.Considering the different institutional, academic and even cultural backgrounds, the partner organisations are aware of avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach and based on that conviction, they stress on the need to develop a very concise overview of the proposed solution and best practices. Meeting these differences and dealing with them is not only about demonstrating the competency for transnational cooperation and the organisation's overall capability, but it is also one pathway to achieve the project targets and a solid resource to improve existing efforts.

The objective of AGRICYGEN is to establish a world class Centre to conduct high-throughput Agricultural Genomic studies in order to support the advancement and sustainability of the livestock and feed production sectors in Cyprus. The project addresses the specific scope of the H2020 CSA-Teaming call by aiming to provide, currently lacking, broad-range technological and scientific foundations for a Centre of Excellence to support activities of huge economic value to Cyprus. AGRICYGEN also has multifaceted alignment with the Smart Specialisation Strategy of Cyprus. The Centre development shall increase Cyprus' international visibility and competitiveness in cutting edge agricultural research, by enhancing research capacity in the area of genetics and genomics and through its applications within the livestock and agricultural production industries. It will also strengthen collaborations and initiate new collaborative links for sharing expertise and knowledge in areas associated with Agricultural Genomics, and will create an ever-expanding, well-educated task-force of researchers in this area. The Centre establishment and consolidation will be achieved by capitalizing on existing local research capabilities of three Cypriot Institutions, and through effective collaboration with three advanced European institutions that are world leaders in animal, plant and microbial genetic and genomics research. This long-term partnership will create the conditions for innovative research, and for extensive service and training provisions to animal, plant and other production chains. The Centre’s excellence will be strengthened through collaboration with the advanced partners for the development of a Cyprus-based postgraduate programme in Agricultural Genetics and Genomics, affiliated to advanced partners. The long-term aspiration is for the Centre to become sustainable and to continuously expand its activities through investment in research, industrial engagement and education.

Gypsum soils occur worldwide and represent natural laboratories of evolution and ecology. The unusual mineral content of gypsum soils is a significant barrier to the growth of most plants, and yet these soils host highly diverse endemic floras that have evolved independently on five continents. Nevertheless, these ecosystems are poorly understood compared to those of other unusual substrates. Little is known about the conservation status of gypsum floras, the potential impact of climate change on them, and their responses to mitigation and restoration. We propose an integrated global study of the ecology and evolution of plant and lichen life on gypsum, including eight gypsum-rich regions from four continents that differ in geological origin, climate, and flora. We will 1) assess the plant and lichen diversity of gypsum; 2) investigate the evolutionary origins and assembly of these floras; 3) evaluate potential adaptive mechanisms on gypsum, the functional structure of gypsum plant and lichen communities, and the processes regulating gypsum ecosystem function; 4) analyse the responses of gypsum communities to global change drivers and explore how gypsum ecosystem restoration/conservation may help mitigate the effects of global change; 5) promote the study of gypsum ecosystems; and 6) communicate the ecological and conservation value of these ecosystems to the public. With the involvement of gypsum experts from 18 academic and non-academic organizations from 11 countries, this project provides an innovative, integrative, and interdisciplinary approach to address key questions in gypsum ecosystem ecology, evolution, and management. The project thus strengthens existing international collaborative networks and consolidates Europe’s leadership in gypsum ecosystem research, including management and conservation plans and the identification of traits for crop improvement on gypsum soils, enhancing its attractiveness as a leading destination for related R&D