The transition toward sustainability has increasingly become a crucial necessity in all sectors. The effort to foster a sustainability culture in educational training curriculum began as a step towards fulfilling the global sustainable development goals (SDGs). Because of its potential relevance, this project primarily focuses on fostering a culture of sustainability in the disciplines of sustainable design and production. Especially considering the rising need to develop a culture of sustainable production. Therefore, the project Consortium comprises the College of Applied Professions and Irbid National University, that provide vocational education and training programs and services in collaboration with European partners ARCES and LCE Foundation in order to transfer leading European expertise in the fields of sustainability. To accomplish this goal, the project includes six integrated packages that will be implemented in a twenty-four-month period under the administration and guidance of the European partner ARCES, with the intention of promoting areas of expertise and laboratories, as well as preparing VET staff and learners to ensure the project's success. Work will be done on sustaining the project's impact through the incorporation of sustainability into the educational curriculum, as a basic first step in strengthening this mindset in the rest of the disciplines in order to change from traditional VET to greener VET.

<< Objectives >>UPSKILL+ fosters the increase of skills of EU adults, especially from a disadvantaged context, through the creation of an upskilling path and curriculum in agrotourism in a broad sense as an opportunity for adult education take-up, increasing intergenerational learning and social inclusion. We want to offer employment opportunity to non experts in the tourist sector, coming from the rural and agricultural sector or from areas linked to the local development in innovative and sustainable tourism.<< Implementation >>UPSKILL + creates 6 Skill Groups in SP, CY, FR. IT, IE and FI that will help in the creation of a Skill Map, Matrix and interactive tool gathering needs, gaps and solutions. Then, a Gameboard as a self-assessment to guide the training path, a new CV composed by 9 modules, tested with mentors, all integrated in an innovative platform. Then, local testing with final beneficiaries, simultaneously with online and face to face actions, recognition of skills and festivals and networks for transfer.<< Results >>The main result in UPSKILL+ will be the increase of skills among adults in rural areas in Europe with a user centred methodology. With UPSKILL+ 30 mentors and 210 final beneficiaries will benefit from the upskilling with potential for other EU final beneficiaries with the training and tools. During the project implementation more actors will be benefiting from the project activities and the sustainability will be fostered thanks to the alliances and replication in EU territories.

The research agenda on the participation of rural youth in democratic life and their active engagement in society is vast. Based on the latest EU reports on youth political participation, almost 3 to 10 declared that they are motivated or interested in participating in commons. Those data also indicate that there is the need of the engagement of youth organisations and relevant stakeholders coming from with different levels of rural transformation, thus informing new interventions with highly contextualized measures. The changes lying ahead in rural areas, in particular in Mediterranean countries, will have a fundamental impact on the opportunities available to young people continuing to live in the countryside. Society must provide the resources necessary to enable young people in rural areas to take responsibility for their own future and actively participate in democratic life.The RYTA partnership consists of organizations with know-how and extensive experience to successfully implement the project. The consortium forms a network for “encouraging the participation of rural young people in democratic life in Europe” through the design and implementation of non-formal training and mobility activities. All partners come from the wider Mediterranean region (Greece, Italy, Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon) and will cooperate to produce high quality results.During the lifetime of the project, all partners will jointly develop: -Extensive Research about the rural youth inclusion and participation through needs and challenges identification-An Online platform for policy advocacy and youth networking-the RYTA Training course toolkit and Train the Trainers’ toolkit RYTA project will fulfil the following results: -Capacity-Building Opportunities of youth organizations and their staff and promotion of youth engagement and inclusion in democratic life-Bring together rural youth and decision makers to encourage youth to participate in the political cycle of rural areas-Raise awareness on environmental policies and sustainability, encouraging rural youth to actively participate in democratic life and policy development and advocacy-Rural youth will develop or increase their skills and enhance their employability-Increase inclusiveness, solidarity, and transnational cooperation-Rural youth will get to know better the EU, develop & increase their skills & knowledge, by participating in National Trainings & transnational mobility -Ensure that rural youth will stay connected under all circumstances, through the development of a digital platform -Promote distance learning and digitalization of educational processes

PaLib address two problems. 1) the scarce resources to the Palestinian academic institutions due to limited resources within one UNIV and the physical access to it due to the geographical disconnected areas in PS. 2)the lack of a unified portal of research and researchers that includes all the research produced by the Palestinians which poses different issues toward enhancing the research infrastructure. Hence, local UNIV needs are: 1)Widening the availability of literatures for both students and academics. 2)Building research networks. 3)Allowing international databases to consider the developed research portal. 4)Building Palestinian research identity. 5)enhancing student workspace in PS libraries. The following main outcomes are expected: 1)Unified e-library portal. 2)Research repository for the staff. 3)Staff training as assets. 4)National electronic research publishing consortium. Since PaLib has been targeting the infrastructure of higher education, PaLib will impact six main categories: 1)Students: the project will expand the academic and research resources for all students. PaLib eliminates the problem of disconnect areas in PS. 2)Librarians: the project will deliver a high training level for librarian on Palestinian universities. 3)Local researchers: local researchers will be able to connect through the platform to access other research items that they couldn’t before deploying the platform. 4)International researchers: the project will help Palestinian and European partners to exchange research outputs through the platform and it will be one step towards globalizing the Palestinian research activities. 5)The Ministry of Higher education MOE: will have a good vision on the future of research and development on PS and help plan the future strategies of higher education in PS. 6) The Ministry of Culture: to install rules and regulations that support electronic research publishing in PS.

Design is at the forefront to achieve climate-neutral cities in Europe, a green and resilient transition of cities—as living places and as main stages for change—is on the agenda. Circular economy offers pathways to innovate creative design sectors that are active in this transition and are crucial for the cultural change and social inclusion needed. In a multidisciplinary approach the Innovation Alliance Circular Design (CiD) addresses the gap in skills and knowledge, in the sectors of architecture, urban design, product/service design, offering a radically new model on how to link design to circularity and urban transformation. It contributes to the New European Bauhaus’ aim for merging creativity, arts, and technology for the Green Deal. CiD rethinks design for a circular economy, orients multidisciplinary collaboration towards carbon-neutral cities, and focuses on bio-based innovation for the built environment—using bio-materials from other sectors, creating regional circular systems in renewable materials, and installing buildings as bio-machines. Green, digital, resilience and entrepreneurial skills in Circular Design are developed through an Innovation Ecosystem that brings together relevant actors from HEIs and VET with the broader socio-economic environment (RTO, municipalities, civil society and businesses). The targeted evolution of the Alliance’s results, their dissemination and sustainability beyond the project is supported through the involvement of Europe-wide organisations in architectural practice, society, and culture. The Alliance develops innovation in Circular Design education by fostering entrepreneurship in academia, with an accelerator and continuing education programmes to upskill in emerging labour market profiles and enabling the creation of green start-ups. This Circular Design Innovation Ecosystem will boost the turn towards a circular construction and design economy.