Early school leaving is a growing severe problem in Europe which has long-term effects both on the economic growth, the societal developments and on the individuals. Since early school leaving is a very complex problem in the society it, can´t be solved by education providers only. There is a need for functional and permanent networks with effective cross-sectoral cooperation between different stakeholders e.g. enterprises, career counselor, social actors, healthcare providers, youth organisations, family and parental organisations and education providers to combat dropout. It demands a deep insight of the whole cause and effect process, which is also essential to develop comprehensive policies focusing on the entire chain i.e. prevention, intervention and compensation in order to achieve sustainable results. The aim of the project has been threefold: a) to develop a toolbox of successful methodologies and practices to combat dropouts; b) to develop permanent network of actors and stakeholders as well as their working methods in each region to cope with dropout; c) to contribute to future policy developments in the regions through shared knowledge and experiences of the partners. The aim is also to increase knowledge of the target groups to handle dropouts and create long-term effects.The partnership has contained regional authorities and VET partners on local level with various level of expertise in ESL from Sweden, Spain, Norway, Romania and the United Kingdom and in addition, it has a political network organization partner, the Assembly of European Regions which main role is dissemination and exploitation of the results especially within decision-makers in Europe. In order to find long-lasting and comprehensive solutions to counter dropouts, also extended educational concepts have played important role. Outside school actors have added valuable contribution by promoting creativity, new way of thinking, intercultural dialogue and social cohesion. The regional partner organisations in the project have got either existing operation in these different contexts, or have close cooperation with these operative local actors in the region.The partnership together with their regional networks of stakeholders has shared and further developed best practices, tools, methods, strategies which will improve knowledge in this area. The project intellectual outputs are:-Study report on dropout in regional context and about the result of the inventory work regarding best practices for prevention, intervention and compensation measures.- Joint methodology to prevent drop out by cross sectoral cooperation- Joint methodology to detect early school leavers and to identify their needs for re-motivate and re-engage them- Joint methods and solutions for compensation measures to re-enter early school leavers the education- Toolbox of the developed joint methodologies for prevention, intervention and compensation measures from the participating regions- Policy recommendation for combat school dropoutThe intellectual outputs contribute to the improvement of the capacity of the schools to detect the students in the risk zone, assess their needs and prevent their dropout by cross-sectoral collaboration. They also provide guidance, tools and methods to reengage the early school leavers and to re-enter education. The developed methodologies have been compiled in a joint toolbox.The policy recommendation document has analyzed the dropout situation in the five participating regions and based on the project results and intellectual outputs recommends a course of actions in order to influence future policy decisions for support and capacity building for schools to combat early school leaving.The result has also contributed to build functional and sustainable networks for collaboration between educational providers and other stakeholders and actors in a wider range in the society in each partner region. In order to achieve these results each participating regions has made the inventory of best practices and build the network for cross-sectoral cooperation, arranged international dissemination seminars and workshops for peer learning to utilize each other as resources for support, reflection, critical thinking and feedback in order to develop expertise within and outside the organisation through collaboration. After each multiplier event the partners shared the new learnings and experiences with their regional network to promote the development of their regional joint methodology tailored to the own national and regional conditions but based on the shared best practices and on the results of peer learning activities with the international partnership.

SEED is designed to ensure the successful launching of a highly visible and sustainable European-level award scheme rewarding innovative solutions that demonstrate a significant impact on the quality of life of the ageing population. The new award scheme will rely upon a carefully prepared conceptual and operational approach. A positive narrative will be developed suitable to effectively mobilise a wide range of stake holders across Europe. An appropriate organisational and technical infrastructure will be developed and set up, right from the beginning with a view to enabling a smooth hand-over by the SEED consortium to the party supposed to sustain the award scheme after the ending of the EU-funded project duration. It is envisaged that the award scheme will be maintained under the auspice of the recently launched European Covenant on Demographic Change. Sustainability and long-term visibility will also be ensured by the development of a viable sponsoring concept and business model. With the EU Covenant as a host and through the involvement of a great diversity of key networks and fora, this action will thrive towards a sustainable and multi-stakeholder driven movement at a European scale. The operational outreach into such a wide geographic area will not only be guaranteed by a carefully tailored communication and innovation strategy, but also by the active involvement of key players such as AGE, CORAL, AAL JP, all EIP AHA Action Groups, ECHAlliance, ASHOKA, ERRIN, DigitalEurope, EuroCarers, the Assembly of European Regions and highly committed regional/local governments. Through this unique partnership, the proposed action will have direct outreach to thousands of multiplier entities which together again reach out to millions of individuals across the EU. Towards the end of SEED, a high level award ceremony will be organised awarding winners of the 1st edition of the new award scheme.

Cultural administration and sustainable development constitute one of the priorities in EU 2020 Agenda, in the European Commission’s Technical Co-operation and Consultancy Program for the promotion of cultural heritage and its sustainable development, in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with the recognition of culture and its administration in the majority of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in the UNESCOs Conventions.The project CUBES- ‘CUltural administration Boosting with the Engagement of Sustainability for local communities’- includes 9 partners (Homo Eminens-HE, MINDSHIFT, Sarajevo Meeting of Culture-SMOC, Xenios Polis, Culture, Science & Action-XPCSA, Center for Social Innovation-CSI, GRIPEN, NGOSC, University of Peloponnese, Department of History, Archaeology and Cultural Resources Management-UOP, Assembly of European Regions-AER) from 7 countries (Lithuania, Portugal, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, and France). CUBES derives from the need to create and disseminate know-how regarding the sustainable administration of tangible and intangible cultural resources in order to really empower all sectors of society to own and administer their cultural resources in sustainable ways, aiming at both cultural democracy and cultural sustainability. The empowerment and actual involvement of different sectors in the governance of culture is still largely undeveloped; one reason for this is the lack of know-how that would enable the more active and knowledgeable involvement of local communities members in the sustainable administration of their heritage and cultural resources. This kind of empowerment of various sectors of society could further foster grassroots ownership of cultural assets, gradually enabling the administration of cultural heritage within a sustainability framework. In this context, CUBES targets the local communities members, local authorities leaders & representatives, public staff, NGOs & CSOs, private & public key-players in the cultural sector; its objectives are: a) to empower local communities in the participating countries with knowledge and awareness on significant aspects of cultural administration and sustainable developmentb) to provide target groups with all the necessary knowledge so that they can act as access point-role mentors in the local communities, taking up the responsibility of informing, guiding, mentoring (as Boosters, now) the other members of the communities in a series of cultural management & sustainability frameworkc) to give the chance to youth & women of these local communities to be in the leading and take the opportunity to be also these ‘boosters’ in their communities c) to take advantage of the opportunities offered by ICT and digitize the quality of learning content as a driver for systematic change in cultural administration & sustainability and for an increase in the quality of trainingd) to create and deliver innovative products and training digital tools- as tailored needs learning resources – based on differentiation methodologies and adult education approachesThe activities include respective intellectual outputs and multipliers events (National Seminars/Workshops, Final Conference); the CUBES IOs comprise of Review Paper on Parameters Mapping-IO1, Cultural Administration & Sustainability Boosters Curriculum-IO2, Digital Toolbox & Resources-IO3, Methodological Approaches Guide for Educators-IO4, Policy Paper-IO5.