The European population is ageing and more people live into old age. This also means that there is an increase of age-related diseases such as dementia, placing higher levels of demand on caring services. People that suffer from dementia are excluded from social productivity, are at high risk of social exclusion and have a high demand for care. At the same time, there is an increasing lack of professionals in elderly care [2016, Eurostat]. Governmental authorities across Europe recognize this trend and promised more investments in the domain of elderly care. However, students do not consider the elderly sector as a fulfilling career option, leaving a gap between supply and demand for the care of the elderly. The iConnect project aimed to motivate students to make elderly care a potential and viable option for their study and future career, in parallel to the social inclusion of older people with dementia, by bringing them together in an intergenerational creative approach. We aimed to improve the knowledge and skills of students, the future care professionals, with our innovative creative learning program combining elements like music, art, play and drama. This way students, but also other stakeholders involved, will be equipped to contribute to the goals of dementia friendly environments. Through our project students gained new knowledge and skills related to communication, empathy and creativity, into practice while they make contact with people with dementia. People with dementia felt recognized and reinforced in their identity which enhanced the quality of life.The project selected a number of stakeholders as participants for activities and the output, being students and educators from Higher Education Institutes (HEI), care organisations and care professionals, specialised in dementia care, older people with dementia and their family and/or care givers and policy makers.Throughout the project we delivered 4 intellectual outputs; the Needs Specification Report (a research on current practices related to the use of creative elements and the needs of all involved stakeholders for the implementation of a inclusive dementia care), an innovative Module with learning and teaching material for educators and students, a Blended Learning Platform (based on Moodle structure) and the Transnational Implementation Guidelines, which helps HEI’s and educators across Europe to implement the training, the platform and the teaching material, supporting the impact, replicability and sustainability of iConnect. The guidelines takes up all the findings from the pilot and is complete package, including a teacher and student module, assessment methods, PowerPoints, manuals, index, video instructions and the online blended platform.The iConnect module adapted a co-design and partnership approach amongst students, educators, care providers and older people with dementia in developing all material and the online learning platform. Therefore creation of these 4 end products was supported by activities organised within the context of the project. We organized focus sessions, held interviews and organised an international Learning, Teaching and Training Activity (LTTA), which was a peer-to-peer training in which the participants shared skills and competences. Through the LTTA we trained the teachers and staff who would work with students in the pilot later in this project. The module was tested during this pilot of this project with students participating from four different HEI’s; Hogeschool Utrecht (HU, Netherlands), LAB University of Applied Sciences (LAB, Finland), University of Ioannina (UoI, formerly named TEI, Greece) and Udine University (UNIUD, Italy). Throughout the project each partner organised activities such as presentations, workshops and webinars in which the output was disseminated, tested or discussed. From all these activities given feedback was used to optimise the final outputs.At least 1000 stakeholders were reached through dissemination activities with an overall positive response. For the participating stakeholders the direct impact was enriching the awareness, knowledge, skills and attitudes. Especially in presentations, workshops and webinars participants vocalised their interest and accomplished awareness on the subject, which resulted in an increased willingness among educators to include the module within curricula. The module was used in HEI partners during the pilot and is now integrated in the curriculum of all partner HEI’s for the year(s) to come, sometimes even with a elaboration of the module. Participating students developed a compassionate and empathetic attitude to improve caring towards older people with dementia. Teachers felt empowered and equipped they can now transfer this new knowledge and skills on to the students. With older adults with dementia who participated in the pilot a decrease in the aggressive behaviour of the older adults was seen.

INNOVATEDIGNITY is a trans-national network that aims to deliver a shared, world-leading research and training programme to educate the next generation of thought leaders with the necessary research experience and transferable skills to deliver innovations in dignified, sustainable care systems for older people, including new care models and digital applications. INNOVATEDIGNITY’s research examines older peoples' perspectives of care systems with a specific focus on dignity, investigates the potential for digital applications, and analyses gender issues to provide crucial, urgently needed knowledge for sustainable and fit for purpose care that supports older people to live well. The network's programme of investigation: 1) Critically evaluates existing care systems and provide analyses that make use of older persons’ insights. 2) Examines and offers a range of conceptual, empirical and methodological conditions to develop new innovations, including digital technology that offer dignity in care. 3) Provides an analysis of impacts of new care models on the wellbeing of older people. 4) Critically examines impacts of gender on care delivery, on the leadership of caring and science careers, and the care workforce with insights for sustainability. INNOVATEDIGNITY addresses the European problem of how ageing people can live well in caring systems with a concentration on cross-disciplinary scholarship, producing an evidence base through fifteen PhD projects, interlinked with a series of integrated assignments, and supported by a coherent interdisciplinary training. INNOVATEDIGNITY will produce leaders well versed in innovating care from standpoints within and beyond ‘healthcare’, sectors that engage technology, the public, policy makers for the benefit of older people in Europe beyond the consortium nations.

Tendon Therapy Train is a research, training and innovation programme for human and equine tendon repair and regeneration that will exploit recent advancements in tissue engineering by self-assembly (TESA) technologies which have led to the clinical translation and commercialisation of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs). Although TESA therapies have the potential to revolutionise healthcare for numerous clinical targets, a lack of researchers with the necessary interdisciplinary skillset to advance the field is limiting clinical translation. Tendon therapy train, a network of 8 beneficiaries and 8 partners (7 universities, 7 companies and 2 hospitals) from six countries across Europe, will train a cohort of 15 researchers to doctoral level in the interdisciplinary area of ATMPs. The innovative credentials of the research and training programme involve engineering suitable ex vivo culture environments that, by mimicking the native tendon tissue milieu (human and equine), will maintain the tenogenic phenotype of tendon derived cells and differentiate non-tendon derived cells (stem cells and dermal fibroblasts) towards the tenogenic lineage, subsequently enabling development of three-dimensional cell-assembled tissue equivalents, the clinical potential of which will be assessed in suitable preclinical models. The comprehensive Tendon Therapy Train programme will equip researchers with transferable inter- and multidisciplinary skills that will further European-based knowledge, innovation, competitiveness and leadership in the field of TESA / ATMP and ultimately enable clinical translation and commercialisation of the developed technologies.