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.

Mental health disorders pose a massive economic and societal burden. Emerging early in development and resulting in long-term disability, neurodevelopmental dysfunctions (NDD) compromise the quality of life of millions of Europeans. The purpose of the Neo-PRISM-C ETN is (1) to train Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) in applying the Research Domain Criteria, a novel framework for understanding psychopathology, to the study of the mechanisms and treatments of NDD. It aims (2) to train ESRs from multiple disciplines (psychology, neuroscience, data science) in state-of-the-art and transferable skills for innovating the study of brain-behavior relationships in NDD, in the context of a systems-based, trans-diagnostic theoretical frame. This ETN will also (3) support training in designing evidence-based, individualized treatments of learning, behavioral, and social maladjustment, bridging across diagnostic categories. Towards these goals, we have assembled a trans-sectoral European network with expertise in cognitive, social, educational, clinical, and emotion research and in training ESRs. Six research, training and management work packages (WPs) pursue these goals. WP1 comprises innovative projects, investigating risk and protective factors that span across NDD diagnostic categories (autism, learning, emotional difficulties) and linking to healthcare industry and education. WP2 examines systems-level brain development to identify biological substrates of specific dysfunctions. WP3 applies this knowledge to develop new multi-modal interventions to address domains of impairment. The academic, industrial and clinical partners collaborate across themes, offering ESRs project-specific secondments, supervision, workshops, summer school and courses on research, transferable and entrepreneurial skills. Neo-PRISM-C is expected to further understanding of NDD and improve the competitiveness of EU health professions, providing the market with highly-skilled researchers and clinicians.

<< Background >>EU has recently introduced circular economy as a high-level global emerging strategy to move societies beyond the boundaries of existing development and towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) set by the UN 2030 agenda for sustainability. Thus, the concept of a circular economy emerges as a global strategy and as an overriding priority in the EU, to stimulate the transition from today's model of linear production and consumption economy to resource efficient use. Circular agriculture, as a new paradigm, penetrates every aspect of the agri-food sector, and furthermore, of the agricultural local communities, the rural landscapes, and semi-natural environment. The transition process towards circular agriculture, requires the implementation of a new management model which includes all the main stages of the agri-food system, such as the primary production, the food consumption, and the by-products and food waste. This new sustainable framework, viewed as a closed circle, sets the goal for a more efficient food supply chain, but also un update of the HE curricula at the Faculties of agriculture. The main concept of circular agriculture is the reuse into the agri-food system of the agricultural biomass and food processing residuals, as renewable resources with high added-value. Resource circulation, which is the core goal of circular economy, is the new proposed model for the future sustainable agriculture. This model should provide the flexibility to various company styles and earning types, without restrictions, to adapt to the required socio-economical and ecological transformation, by introducing a wide range of activities varying from intensive to extensive, small to large, and low-tech to hi-tech. But the transition to circular agriculture depends not only on technology and significant restructuring of production but it has a lot to do with the change in the attitudes and perspectives.SKILLS idea is grounded at the necessity to promote environmental sustainability, economic prosperity, and social equity as valid objectives of Circular Economy Model and to approach them accordingly in academic and practice.<< Objectives >>The main objective of the project is to contribute towards up-to-date skills development of the target beneficiaries ( students, potential students, ag producers) by introducing and promoting the concepts of Circular agriculture and Green Growth, as well as to boost the modernization of the curricula and introduce digital courses at the Faculties of agriculture by making them more attractive for the future students. It is very important that changes and upgrades of the agricultural HE curricula are made, because Faculties f agriculture are facing a decrease in the number of enrolled students per students due to the level of (non) attractiveness of the field of agriculture. On the side, this can be efficiently changed by raising awareness for the needs and potential of agriculture exp. during the pandemic time, the agricultural sector was among the rarest which survived because the production of food (including raw food-agriculture products has to continues regardless of everything). This opens perspectives for increased potential for employment after graduation, even more, professional occupations which are not just traditional agriculture, but new agricultural concepts like the circular agriculture and the green jobs. Additionally, SKILLS puts to opening employment opportunities and widening the perspectives of jobs in the green skills and CA by boosting the skills of the target group. Eventually, SKILLS project promotes the concept of Circular Agriculture as a sustainable, resilient branch. SKILLS consortium aims at enhancing and speeding up the awareness for Circular Agriculture through elaborating a Baseline study in typology and training material composed of practical know-how and a well structured set of tools, modules and digital courses that agricultural practitioners can go through and change their mindset and rethink their activities.<< Implementation >>In order to contribute to modernization at the programs and courses offered at the Faculties of Agriculture, as well as the promotion of the Circular Agriculture, SKILLS project planned a set of project activities as: project meetings, project results, dissemination, national webinars, E1 media event.All pProject activities are aimed at and tailored according to the needs of the target group such as students, ag producers, potential future students, policy makers, researchers, development practitioners, as well skilled as unskilled other members of vulnerable groups. For successful implementation of SKILLS project, the following concrete project activities are foreseen: 1) Organization of five transnational meetings for the project partners during which the project results will be elaborated, discussed, coordinated, and implemented. 2) 5 project results: PR1. Baseline study in typology of agricultural profilesPR2. Module in green skillsPR3. Agri-Lingua Practicum PR4. Tool-kit in agro-food productionPR5. Digital course in Circular Agriculture3) 10 national webinars (digital training) based on the project results outcomes 4) E1 media event which is planed as a large scale media event to promote the SKILLS project activities, Erasmus+ program and to provide for networking among stakeholders in circular agriculture, sustainability, , but also HE and representatives in the ministries of education who are in charge with the monitoring and upgrade of the courses curricula.<< Results >>Expected results are :1. Created Baseline study in agricultural typology (PR1);2. Developed digital course in green skills (PR2);3. Created Agri-Lingua practicum (PR3)4. Creating a network and strengthening the synergy among agriculture stakeholders by widening their perspectives on application of green skills and soft skills in agriculture made possible with the developed training materials for green skills (PR2) and linguistic skills (PR3);5. Organizing national webinasr based on project results outcomes;6. Developed tourism based agro-production tool-kit (PR4);7. Created digital course in circular agriculture (PR5);8. Attracting higher number of fresh-comers at the Faculties of Agriculture;9. Increasing the skills of min. 1200 ag producers and CA stakeholders will be strengthened in the field of sustainable-green agriculture;9. Skills gap of ag producers hampering their income will be filled;10. Establishment of a strategic partnership between the participants of the consortium for sustainable exchange and development of good practices in HE and applying them in further developing the LLL programs in agriculture;11. Networking of and best practice sharing among students, agricultural stakeholders, academic staff and ag producers will be initiated through their participation in the webinars and the E1 media event as well as the dissemination activities;12. Strengthened cooperation between the ag producers and educators will be improved (business and academic axes);13. improved sustainable agriculture at the project consortium countries and beyond;14.Modernized higher education in the field of agriculture.Having been exposed to a range of research environments, different areas of food development and life in different countries, the academic staff and representatives for curricula development will be in a much better position to make informed decisions on their HE programs.

Medical Schools in the Middle East are currently suffering from a critical shortage of scientists and academicians holding higher degrees in the various disciplines of basic medical sciences (BMS). For most of these Schools, the requirements for a Bachelor degree in Medicine include the successful completion of three years of intense coursework in BMS, prior to passing through three additional years of patient-oriented, bedside clinical coursework. Thus, iBMS-JO project responds to the needs to graduate students with deep background in BMS. This can be achieved by the establishment the first innovative intercalated BSc (iBSc) programs in BMS. Moreover, Telemedicine Labs (TL) will also be established to support the research activities of students and faculty, as well as providing services to the health care facilities. The establishment of an intercalated BSc (iBSc) programs in BMS is an opportunity for students to learn more about a particular topic, to develop transferable skills and/or participate in a more in-depth research project than previously available as part of a medical degree. This is can be offered after the 3rd or 4th year, which could also include an intercalated year into their standard medical programs, making them a 7-year degree, where an intercalation typically lasts one year. The expected outputs of this program include: n. 6 accredited iBSc programs in BMS, capacity building for the staff (at least 48): a) to design curricula in line with the Bologna process, b) to design and develop inter/multidisciplinary course curricula in clinical nutrition (at least 7 new modules, 120 students/year); and c) to apply innovative and flexible teaching and learning methods. Moreover, TL will provide research facilities for students and staff (n. >40 research project/year), which will support the iBSc programs and function as life-long learning resources and Centres of Excellence in medical education and research.

Chirality is a fundamental property of life, making chiral sensing and analysis crucial to numerous scientific subfields of biology, chemistry, and medicine, and to the pharmaceutical, chemical, cosmetic, and food industries, constituting a market of 10s of billion €, and growing. Despite the tremendous importance of chiral sensing, its application remains very limited, as chiroptical signals are typically very weak, preventing important biological and medical applications. Recently, the project-coordinating FORTH team has introduced a new form of Chiral-Cavity-based Polarimetry (CCP) for chiral sensing, which has three groundbreaking advantages compared to commercial instruments: (a) The chiroptical signals are enhanced by the number of cavity passes (typically ~1000); (b) otherwise limiting birefringent backgrounds are suppressed; (c) rapid signal reversals give absolute polarimetry measurements, not requiring sample removal for a null-sample measurement. Together, these advantages allow improvement in chiral detection sensitivity by 3-6 orders of magnitude (depending on instrument complexity and price). ULTRACHIRAL aims to revolutionize existing applications of chiral sensing, but also to instigate important new domains which require sensitivities beyond current limits, including: (1) measuring protein structure in-situ, in solution, at surfaces, and within cells and membranes, thus realizing the “holy-grail” of proteomics; (2) coupling to high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for chiral identification of the components of complex mixtures, creating new standards for the pharmaceutical and chemical analysis industries; (3) chiral analysis of human bodily fluids as a diagnostic tool in medicine; (4) measurement of single-molecule chirality, by adapting CCP to microresonators, which have already demonstrated single-molecule detection; and (5) real-time chiral monitoring of terpene emissions from individual trees and forests, as a probe of forest ecology.