<< Background >>The AISkills4CircularTransition will explore the opportunities and challenges that come with this monumental new taskforce that is defining the new standards of business, through the implementation of a training programme on the opportunities Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Circular economy (CE) can offer to agri-food businesses. The whole training programme aims at supporting the transition of European SMEs of the agri-food sector from a traditional development model to a circular one that will enhance the regeneration of skills and competences at workplace and favours circular businesses and organisation models. AISkills4CircularTransition will thus rethink and redesign the jobs already performed to exploit the skills already available at workplace, avoid their underutilisation and enhance the career path of the (older and recently hired) employees that miss the right competences. Skills formation at workplace has been proven to alleviate this phenomenon and is one of the main pillars of the EU 2020 strategy for economic growth.The AISkills4CircularTransition project is based on a genuine and adequate analysis of the needs of these target groups: In first place, the needs to be trained and upskilled about the innovative solutions and practices that could support them to initiate a circular and digital transformation of their activities and practices, have been expressed by them-selves. As reported by ANIA, FIAB and SEVT, the agri-food professionals require to advance their knowledge and increase their competences and capacity to lead the transformation process, both digital and circular, and accommodate the need for new skills in interdisciplinary courses. In second place, a specific training approach and methodology are needed to design and elaborate the different modules and contents in order to meet the expectations of the target groups. The learners are the agri-food professionals, in activity, with various backgrounds and professional experiences. The training program, approach and schedule will be specially adapted to them, taking into account their availability. As mentioned, the trainees who will participate in the project, are professionals in activity and their professional commitment and everyday activities could be an obstacle to follow a course if the conditions are not adapted in terms of schedule, duration, frequency, online availability. Aware of the importance of this element, the project members will design the training program to overcome this potential boundary to the effective participation.<< Objectives >>AISkills4CircularTransition project aims at providing agri-food professionals with fit-for-purpose knowledge and skills on AI technologies to nurture the development of fairer circular food chain models, combining the environmental, social, economic, and digital dimensions.The project main goal is to sensibilize and train professionals from the agri-food sectors to the use of AI along the supply chains allowing a fair digital transition of their industries, with a specific focus on how AI could facilitate and help the implementation of circular economy principles.The project main objectives are:-Raise awareness, improve knowledge and skills of agri-food professionals about AI and CE, and the opportunity of transformation and sustainable development they can offer-Empower the agri-food professionals to engage transformation and innovation activities that will have a positive impact on the development of their businesses and local communities, and to the green and climate-neutral transition-Support and strengthen capacity-building and capacity-adaptation of the professionals and improve their resilience to manage and address complex challenges and issues-Build new cross-sector networks and stimulate multidisciplinary way of thinking-Promote innovative pedagogical approaches in VET.<< Implementation >>To achieve the project objectives, the partners agreed on a 36-month work plan structured in six work packages, including three categories of actions: 1) related to project activities, 2) sharing and promotion actions, and 3) project management.WP1 to WP4 are dedicated to set up all the defined activities which will lead to the expected project results. The main activities that will be deployed will consist in a logical sequence of tasks in order to release the defined outputs. -The PR1: Pedagogical scenarios and methodological framework design, will be handled in WP1 concerning the specifications of the learning contents and pedagogical methodology. -WP2 will lead to the PR2: Tailored multi-media modules on AI and CE integrated into the e-platform. Once the specifications and methodology defined in WP1 and consolidated in PR1, raw contents for the training programmes will be developed, including assessment tools. -The activities in WP3 will be dedicated to the project platform development. (PR3: Project platform development).-Within WP4, the project consortium will assess the of pedagogical methodology, and contents. Based on the project overall analysis and will formalise a set of relevant recommendations for the key actors and stakeholders in the form of a Guidance and recommendations report. The activities defined in WP5 will carry out all the tasks linked with the sharing and promotion strategy of the consortium, and WP6 has been structured in order to ensure a good administrative and financial management. WP6 on management will ensure the quality of the process and best practices for daily administrative and financial management and reporting.<< Results >>During and after the completion of the AISkills4CircularTransition project, both direct tangible and intangible results will be produced and released as a final version.These tangible results will be considered as the main transferable assets:1) Tailored training content designed to be integrated on on diverse learning management systems, including specifications for training and learning methodology based on the analysis of the needs of targeted audiences.2) OER (Open Education Resources) – e-learning multimedia modules content for implementation and testing adapted to the targeted audience. This result will be consolidated into a public deliverable and will remain at open access for dissemination and future use.3) Assessment methodology, criteria and results of the training outputs of the project. A set of qualitative and quantitative indicators will be defined to objectively measure the efficiency and the learning impacts of the project activities. The feedback and the subjective perceptions of the involved audiences, both trainees and trainers, will also be taken in account to complete the analysis of the project activities and underline the possible margin of improvement.4) Finally, guidelines for transferability and reapplication will be elaborated to share and promote the project outcomes, findings and best practices at large scale, complemented by a living directory of AI technology providers and CE experts towards agri-food professionals.On the side of intangible results, the project will produce several outcomes:1) Contribute to fostering the digital transformation and 4.0 transition of agri-food businesses through the use and benefits of AI technologies to enhance their production and human resources management in a circular way.2) Contribute to improve key knowledge and competences of the agri-food professionals with an advanced skill set for the labour market, thus maintaining or enhanced their employability.

The overall aim of CE-IoT is to develop an innovative framework of interplay between Circular Economy and IoT, to explore novel ways in which this interaction can drastically change the nature of products, services, business models and ecosystems. The CE-IoT framework will be bi-dimensional and bi-directional in terms of circularity, aiming to develop (i) novel circular economy business models and service supply chains to unlock CE-IoT synergies in order to generate direct value for customers/end-users and augmenting resource productivity across economies by forming new ecosystems that eliminate both negative externalities and the need for considerable resources altogether, and (ii) open, circular-by-design IoT architecture, where “smart” IoT objects (e.g., sensors, devices, systems and components) are integrated in the IoT ecosystem through patterns with proven key circularity-enabling properties (scalable connectivity, end-to-end security/privacy, dependability and interoperability) to maximize IoT resource and data harvesting in a new breed of circular-by-design IoT ecosystems. To achieve its overall aim, CE-IoT will undertake research and innovation activities to (i) establish a comprehensive framework with IoT as a key enabling and facilitating technology of the circular economy from a business perspective based on circular economy design patterns, (ii) to develop an open modular, circular-by-design IoT architecture based on IoT architectural design patterns and (iii) to integrate an overarching pattern-driven CE-IoT framework covering both business and technical aspects. CE-IoT will carry out comprehensive evaluation of the CE-IoT framework covering business, technical and legal aspects through two demonstrators in the domains of telecommunication and cloud services and will create conditions for effectuating circular economy principles through seamless integration with IoT technology and to broaden the use of the CE-IoT framework.

The Circular Economy paradigm, accelerated within the context of Industry 4.0, has been increasingly applied both inside and outside the manufacturing domain. The set of new capabilities, skills and competencies developed through I4.0 need to be augmented and enhanced in order to conform to the Triple Bottom Line perspective (profit, people, planet).These enhancements initially affect supply chains management and then expand towards entrepreneurship, business model development, innovation management and societal development. Research shows that there is a significant potential to address the complex challenges towards a more sustainable and resilient society by cross-fertilizing these disciplines through the CE perspective, via provisioning new courses and practical cases. For this reason, the joint CE-I4.0 evolution needs to be grounded on a new set of knowledge and best practices to be provided through both high education (HE) and vocational education and training, demanding systemic ways for sustainable development.CERES recognizes the need to shift the restricted focus of CE from firms to a more extended and system-level view that considers skills, competences and knowledge needs (provided from various business sectors such as e-waste, textiles, renewable energy, etc) to be supplied to HE and VET. This would catalyse the embracement of CE under a social development perspective from the preliminary stage of training and education. In this context, CERES’ new innovation ecosystem, the Circular Economy Digital Innovation Hub (CE-DIH), is aimed to promote connectedness among the stakeholders and to generate a systematised set of services, skills, competences and knowledge able to support the multi-faceted CE domain. The CE-DIH can be strategic not only to raise awareness but also to provide the most suitable and complete set of services able to support the circular enrichment and transition of both companies on the market and individuals in society.

The Social sciences & Humanities for Achieving a Responsible, Equitable and Desirable GREEN DEAL (SHARED GREEN DEAL) project brings together 22 leading organisations from across the EU including 8 universities, 3 research institutions, 8 network organisations and 3 SMEs. Our network partners cover core elements of the European Green Deal cross cutting priorities such as civil society, democracy, gender, energy, environment, circular economy and innovation. Our objectives directly address the call challenge with an aim to share actions, understandings, evidence, insights, responsibilities and benefits across stakeholders including policymakers and civil society. Issues of inclusivity and diversity are at the heart of the project to particularly account for disadvantaged and vulnerable social groups. SHARED GREEN DEAL will meet its objectives through a set of 11 workpackages. It is structured around lessons from a set of 6 social experiments around 6 priority Green Deal topics. Each social experiment will be delivered across 4 member states. Importantly we take a transdisciplinary approach, covering 19 social science and humanities disciplines, with multi-stakeholder, practice-based and policy-science expertise, including gender studies as a key component throughout. The output includes the development of tools (e.g. an online Green Deal policy tracker), as well as translating project findings into stakeholder-specific policy briefs and roundtable events. The partners are committed to continuing to host the transnational network set up post-project to ensure longevity and impact beyond the life of the project. SHARED GREEN DEAL is expected to deliver changes in societal practices and in the behaviour of individuals, communities, and public and private organisations. Through the development of effective new strategies, we will address behavioural change and long-term commitment, trust, social acceptance and buy-in from people, communities and organisations.