<< Objectives >>The GIRLS project has been defined as a game about the SDGs, innovation, resilience, leadership and sustainability, which is divided into 4 parts: the board, the rules of the game, the game and Game over!The game begins by drawing the roadmap, defining the setting and the instruction manual, going through 17 boxes, one for each SDG, and looking for new sources of inspiration. The prize for the winner will be to share the experience and spread the results.<< Implementation >>Draw a roadmap,Define the pieces,Build materials and version beta,Design control center and expansion strategy,Establish the conductive thread,Define settings,Sustainability report,Write instruction manual,Carry out surveys,Follow the narrative,Start with starting box,Progress in the game,Find sources of inspiration,Establish intergenerational communication,Evaluate results,Provide feedback,Award the winner,Logbook.<< Results >>Work sessions,Elevator pitch videos,Manuals about active methodologies,GIRLS game App,Learning platform,Dissemination plan,The rules of the game,Video: “16 SDGs on women”,Quality manual,Sustainability report,Game manual,Coimbra workshop,1 digital resource for each day,Local projects,Mobility to Mexico,Experiential videos about the SDGs,Daddy's handbook,Project's book,Surveys and analysis,Bucharest Conference,Logbook.

<< Background >>Several national and international studies have shown that higher education institutions (HEIs) need support to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic consequences such as decrease of students' competence level (Aristovnik et al., 2020, Kinnari Korpela, 2021). During pandemic, universities have had to lower the competence requirements of the courses and to lighten their evaluations. In order to be minimized by the effects of pandemic, teaching staff of universities should be trained to use pedagogical and digital methods for active students and instruments that support the development of the student's personal knowledge.The primary context of the DigiSTEM project is STEM education. The objective is to promote innovative utilization of educational technology, learning analytics and use of open educational resources (OERs) in online, classroom and blended learning, especially in HEIs STEM subjects. The project aims to support professional development of HEI educators by increasing their technological and pedagogical skills and competence. The objective is to build HEI educators' competence of such instructional design that improves students’ active learning, self-regulated learning and learning engagement with the help of educational technology and learning analytics to provide more effective and personalized support of learners. In Europe, there doesn't exist a framework or model for learning digital skills and pedagogy in HEI STEM education. When teaching/learning STEM subjects, there are also special needs of digital tools/environments for example in presenting mathematical language, equations etc.The needs analysis of the project is based on literature review and educational research conducted in partner universities. Different educational research studies (e.g. Fernandez-Cruz & Fernandez-Diaz, 2016; Huang, Han & Wang, 2017) have highlighted that educators have an inadequate competence regarding effective use of digital tools and resources in education from both pedagogical and technological perspectives. The most common reasons for not to use digital technology in teaching/learning are a lack of confidence, a lack of competence and a lack of access to resources (e.g. Joy et al., 2014; Kinchin, 2012). The research has shown, that students would like to use digital learning possibilities and methods more widely in STEM courses (i.e. Rinneheimo et al., 2018; Kinnari-Korpela & Suhonen, 2017). However, utilizing educational technology in STEM subjects is very limited and it lags behind the expectations (e.g. Clark-Wilson, Oldknow, & Sutherland, 2011; De Witte & Rogge, 2014), even though using instructional design that utilizes educational technologies has a great and recognized potential to increase students’ motivation, attractiveness of subject, promote active learning and improve learning outcomes (e.g. Dunn et al., 2015; Loch et al., 2014; Kinnari-Korpela, 2019; Kinnari-Korpela & Suhonen, 2017). The needs analysis shows that there is a clear need for instructional design that increase pedagogical meaningful use of digital learning possibilities among STEM education and academics must be trained to utilize such instructional design. These are also needed to ensure that universities can better recover from the students’ passivation and decreased learning outcomes caused by Covid-19 pandemic (Aristovnik et al., 2020, Kinnari-Korpela, 2021).<< Objectives >>The objective of the project is to increase digital and pedagogical competence of HEI educators and availability of digital resources in STEM subjects on a large scale to achieve long-lasting effects in everyday activity on the project partners and other European HEIs. By increasing such competences of educators, it gives them tools and knowledge to redesign their teaching and implement digital resources and activities (e.g. learning analytics, digital languaging, screencasts, visualizations and intelligent assessment) for different personalized learning scenarios. The agenda for the modernization of Europe's higher education systems supports the project idea as it suggests the need to exploit new technologies and ICT to enrich teaching/learning experience and providing ubiquitous and personalized digital learning possibilities for students. Also, the Digital Education Action Plan set by the Commission has a priority to make better use of digital technology for teaching and learning. The project aims to enhance educators’ technological and pedagogical competences by organizing different kind of pilot events and providing OERs and learning environment for competence development. By increasing such competencies of HEI educators (main target group), it gives them tools and knowledge to produce and implement digital resources for different personalized learning scenarios and resources that supports students’ activation. Hence, the project aims to promote digital and pedagogical competence and skills of HEI educators nationally and transnationally in Europe. Simultaneously based on literature, this is expected to affect positively on HEI students’ engagement and learning outcomes (secondary target group) but also support to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic consequences such as decrease of students' competence level.<< Implementation >>The main activities/results of the project are: - developing DigiSTEM methodology that encapsulates innovative pedagogies, best practices and concrete examples for implementing digital learning/teaching of STEM and other similar subjects (PR1)- building, maintaining and developing a digital platform for STEM subjects’ digital teaching and learning to support educators’ continuous professional development with high-quality resources (PR2) - developing guidelines for European STEM educators to increase digital and pedagogical competence and implementing good practices and new methods smoothly into daily teaching activities and curricula (PR3) -enhancing HEI educators' competence of such instructional design that improves students’ active learning, self-regulated learning and learning engagement with the help of educational technology and learning analytics to provide more effective and personalized support of learners (PR1-PR3) -to organize/participate 3 LTT (C1-C3) events and participate dissmination events (E1-E6) aimed at providing technological and pedagogical training/knowledge to STEM educators in the context of the project. Participants of training activities will be awarded with digital competence certificate.-developing MOOC as a form of OER that will combine all the tangible results of the project to be able to promote and integrate developed good practices and innovative methods into daily activities of European HEIs. The MOOC is based on piloted PRs, which have been developed on the basis of feedback received during piloting. The project's pedagogical innovations and technological choices will be made as sustainable solutions that can be utilized after the project, for example 10 years after the end of the project.<< Results >>The objective is to build HEI educators' competence of such instructional design that improves students’ active learning, self-regulated learning and learning engagement with the help of educational technology and learning analytics to provide more effective and personalised support of learners. In this way, it is possible to achieve the effectiveness of the project from the curriculum level to practice. The project is divided in three main Project Results (PR1-PR3). One of the partners is appointed as the coordinator of each output even though each output will be developed in close cooperation with all partners. The Project Results are described in previous section.As a consequence of the exploitation of Project's Results (PRs), it is expected to improve HEI students’ motivation and to decrease dropouts (Kinnari-Korpela, 2019). Although the project focuses on HEI STEM subjects, the PRs can be applied to other disciplines with some adaptations. Hence, the project can contribute to improve educators’ skills to apply modern methodologies, novel pedagogy and digital teaching/learning solutions on a large scale.

DivAirCity “recognizes, accepts and celebratesDivAirCity is an ambitious project that aims at shifting the urban paradigm by valuing human diversity (with a focus on gender and multiculturalism) as a resource to define new urban services and models towards cultural-driven green cities. The project focuses on the Urban nexus that combines people, places, peace, economic growth, climate robustness and its impact on Air quality and decarbonization. DivAirCity, through citizen science and creativity will co-design solutions and trace their impact in a transparent and safe way. The project involves 5 EU cities representing replicable case studies: Orvieto (IT), Castellon (SP), Potsdam (D), Aarhus (DK) and Bucharest (RO). DivAirCity aims at creating different solutions: 5 Permanent Living Labs (PLL), 1 Diversity and Inclusion green city index (DIGCI), 5 Smart Cities Climate contracts (SCCo), 1 Community of Practice (CoP), 5 air pollution mitigation services, and 1 EU protocol for decarbonization diagnosis. The PLLs will implement NBS by leveraging over 55 mio budget already allocated by the cities; the DIGCI aims at assessing diversity and decarbonisation strategies; the SCCos will be delivered by co-designing new business models supported by blockchain technologies; the CoP will include the full urban ecosystem; and the air pollution new services have the ambition to enter in the market. DivAirCity presents a project beyond EU borders with an ambitious international dissemination strategy beyond Europe by the involvement of Belmont Forum CRAs, key international networks and H2020 funded projects. The consortium represents a mix of stakeholders selected out of the usual only research-focused organizations, to provide a real route-to-market, with the ambition to bring the project outcomes on the market by the end of the project. DivAirCity visibility will be enhanced by the participation of the Belgian National TV (RTBF) and its associated European and Global channels.

EU-CONEXUS Plus is mainstreaming, deepening and expanding the European University for Smart Urban Coastal Sustainability EU-CONEXUS. Building on established strategic cooperation structures, joint activities and procedures EU-CONEXUS Plus introduces three former associated partners as full members, creates a legal entity for the implementation of joint actions, continues the set-up of a joint infrastructures and stabilises the scope of cooperation chosen around the thematic focus “Smart Urban Coastal Sustainability” (SmUCS) while covering all missions of a university: education, research, innovation and service to society. A special focus is laid on the empowerment of students’ self-governance and their initiatives. Regarding education, joint course programmes on SmUCS on all levels, micro-credentials to broaden flexibility, personalisation and LLL aspects and special modules aiming at attracting BSc students to research are planned. Training on pedagogical methodologies and tools is intensified. Support for the development of study programmes proposed by the teaching community will be centralised. For research, the Joint Research Area is further supported by enlarged mobility programmes, networking events and the introduction of scientific management staff promoting the linkage of research activities on SmUCS. Regarding innovation, a support service is established around knowledge and technology transfer promoting entrepreneurial mindsets and creativity among staff and students. The already established Career network widens its scope of action by offering trainings on job readiness and facilitating work-based experiences. The EU-CONEXUS Stakeholder Academy further enhances the close connection with partners’ ecosystems, with a special focus on regions, cities and ports. Outreach to local communities is achieved by continuing the successful international school contest and the organisation of cultural festivals in a local setting.

Mathematical skills are prerequisites in the field of technology. Mathematical skills and knowledge lay the basis for understanding different engineering disciplines, for example. Unfortunately, various studies have shown that a lack of mathematical proficiency already causes problems in mathematics and engineering courses in European HEIs (high drop-out rates, lower graduation rates, lack of basic knowledge etc.). As mathematics plays an important role in building engineering knowledge, mathematical proficiency of engineering students needs urgently to be increased on a large scale. The Future Mathematics project aimed to enhance the mathematical proficiency of European engineering students by providing freely available and innovative resources for mathematics teaching and learning.The objective of the FutureMath-project was to enhance and improve the quality of engineering mathematics teaching and learning in HEIs by bringing the modern learning and teaching methods, pedagogical approaches and technological innovations into same place. Hence, the focus of the project working has been on developing pedagogical methods and resources to teach and learn mathematics more effectively. The project had three main outcomes/objectives: Mathematics Learning Platform (MLP), Mathematics Online Pedagogy, and Mathematics Learning Resources (MLRs). To sum up the outcomes, project provides a collection of pedagogically planned learning resources (MLRs) delivered via MLP and a collection of best practices and guidelines for teaching engineering mathematics in the digitalised world. The research results have shown, thatthe using such learning resources may have a potential i.e. to increase motivation of students. The produced MLRs provide personalized learning possibilities for students. By personalising the learning possibilities, it is supposed to improve the efficiency, accessibility and quality of engineering mathematics teaching and learning in European level. With these actions it is possible not only to increase completion rates and support the graduation process of students but also to improve the quality and relevance of engineering education, which in fact are the key issues of European Commission's agenda for the modernization of Europe's higher education system. By hosting the learning resources on the MLP, it enables access to learning resources at any time from everywhere with any mobile device. This promotes the digitalisation of European HEIs on a large-scale.The project consortium consisted of four university partner. Each project partner had a central role in the project. The project consortium consisted of two teams: team mathematics and team technology. In a nutshell, team mathematics was mostly responsible about the developments related to the mathematics (assessment, pedagogy, production of learning resources etc.), whereas team technology was responsible about the technical innovation and implementations. Also, the coordination of tangible results of the project was handled by the most experienced university partner. The project’s highest target of dissemination was to increase European large-scale awareness about the possibilities that technology offers in the field of teaching and learning of engineering mathematics. The main impact of the project was to increase the quality and accessibility of engineering mathematics learning and teaching in European level, while the focus was on exploiting the ICT in engineering mathematics teaching and learning and to support the implementation of the 2013 Communication of Opening Up Education.As the partners will continue the promotion of the project outcomes in the future, it will likely to have effects at long-term.