<< Objectives >>The Asteroid Foundation aims at working closely with various schools and educational institutions and organizations to connect their students to our network of astronauts and experts, inspiring the future generation of space leaders. Our program will widen access of children in schools to inspirational scientists and astronauts who are usually very hard to reach. will ensure inclusion and equal access to science experts and astronauts for those with fewer opportunities in the daily life.<< Implementation >>“Astro+Experts” - will be a series of educational opportunities with our astronauts and space experts and presented to primary and secondary schools. “Technical Briefing” – will be a session where we bring together teachers, students and the relevant science and space community to Luxembourg but also online through modern video-conferencing tools. “Space connects us“ virtual online sessions based on the experiences of astronauts in dealing with long periods of isolation and stress.<< Results >>Our mission is to inspire, engage and educate the public about asteroids and the opportunities. By enabling direct contact between students with astronauts and science experts, the former will embellish the excitement brought by those members of this special club which will hopefully lead to stimulating their interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and STEAM approach. Meeting such eminent people can ignite dreams and create excitement.

Soils are the basis for plant production and provide numerous ecosystem services like water storage, water purification and carbon sequestration. Interactions of soil and plant ecology with economy must consider wide bio-geographic differences and global challenges. At the same time, resource management decisions must be fitted to regional specifics and local needs. It is therefore important to transport the knowledge on these issues trans-nationally and -regionally to various fields of higher education and to establish links to potential users in agriculture, food processing, industries based on natural products but also to nature protection and environmental management. The teaching of soil and plant sciences is demanding and thus needs improving. It is hard for students and enterprises to get in touch and get essential information thus it needs a tool for knowledge transfer. Employability has to be facilitated and improved. The main aim of the project was to bring together the expertise of different partners to provide an interface between teaching, research and employability for students in the field of soil and plant sciences. Our aim was to improve students education, to open up employment opportunities for the graduates of the partner universities and to increase graduates’ employability. The goals of the project were reached by establishing the learning/teaching toolbox titled „Carbon in Terrestrial Ecosystems“ and organizing the Virtual Career Day. The IntASEK project brought together 5 partners from 4 counties across Europe. During the creation of the outputs, the strength of Estonian University of Life Sciences was in the area of soil management, as well as plant physiology. The University of South Bohemia strengths were wetland ecology and soil microbiology. Aix-Marseille University strength was soil organic matter turnover and CNRS strength plant ecophysiology (especially drought). University of Ulm expertise was in the area of wetlands, plants and soils under limited oxygen supply and in general plant ecophysiology. First intellectual output includes the toolbox and provides outputs regarding mainly teaching and didactic topics and is available https://intasek.thescholr.com/ Toolbox consists of database of existing materials, lecture materials, short manuals of practical exercises, tests and videos. The materials were tested during intensive summer schools and during regular teaching of Erasmus exchange students (not as a official part of the project). More than 500 students from partner and other countries were involved during the project period. Second intellectual output was to create a Virtual Career Day as the applied part of the project. This ensured the improvement in the students’ employability. Students got job and internship possibilities which were introduced via webinars and web-page https://www.uni-ulm.de/nawi/nawi-intasek/virtual-career-day/ It was created database of the companies willing to employ internationally. Virtual Career Day itself was hold as webinar with possibility to join from different parts of the World. On three career days more than 140 participants from different countries participated with improving number on each time. Projects aims and outcomes were introduced during several conferences, seminars and webinars reaching to the wide audience. 80% from the participants of multiplier event would use the toolbox in their work or studies in the future. Virtual seminars and teaching is the new reality now. Short feedback survey inside of project partners revealed that people (both teachers and students) who participated in the virtual career day, were more open and ready to teach and work via virtual platforms and didn't afraid these digital challenges.

Digital technology is fast transforming the way we study, teach and communicate. At best, it is integrated into thematic courses, employing innovative teaching techniques and allowing the acquisition of transversal skills. Such training is quickly becoming a necessity, as students have grown to rely on digital resources, while ICT know-how is becoming quintessential for the job-market. However, there is a dearth of training opportunities to initiate advanced students into Information and Communication Technologies. Digital Editing of Medieval Manuscripts (DEMM) is a joint training programme between Charles Uni. in Prague, Queen Mary Uni. of London, the Centre National de la recherche scientifique (Lyon), the Uni. of Siena, the Klosterneuburg monastic library and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. It equipped advanced MA and PhD students in medieval studies with the necessary skills to work in a digital environment, through a year-long programme on editing medieval manuscripts and their online publication. A rigorous introduction to medieval manuscripts and their analysis was accompanied by formal training in ICT and introduction to project management. The end of each one-year programme (run thrice, on three consecutive years) saw the students initiated into practical work-experience alongside developers, as they worked on their own digital editions, leading to its online publication. This enhanced the students’ skill-set and the employability opportunities which ensue from it. At the core of the project was an initiation to advanced manuscript studies and ICT. The provision of formal training in this practical field was complemented by work on a year-long project - an edition of an unpublished medieval text which was edited critically, and then prepared for digital publication. In each university a team of several participants, supported by a Local Coordinator, worked together to prepare the editions. This took place over a highly structured year: at the beginning of the year all participants met for training in medieval manuscripts and their editing (palaeography, philology, book history, practical editing, etc.). This was followed by a term of work in each university, supported by cross-institutional collaboration using virtual collaboration spaces. During that time students prepared their own edition, identified problems and potential solutions. At the beginning of the second term the teams met again, this time for relevant training in ICT (HTML, XML, TEI, etc.). The following term was then devoted to subjecting the edition to scrutiny, tagging and preparing it for publication. At the end of the year, both terms came together to supply the basis for concerted work with developers. A week-long Hackathon enabled students to liaise with developers on the creation of their digital edition, based on their previous training and the work carried in the course of the terms. During that time, hands-on experience was supplemented by training in project management from inception to delivery, with specific sessions on time management, practical project management, funding and planning. The outputs of the projects are multifaceted. They include the teaching materials, which were consolidated, trialed and publicized, to support teachers in classes on medieval manuscripts or digitization. The outputs provide a practical guide for digitizing manuscript collections, guides for manuscript studies, for teaching TEI, or in time-management for PhD students and Early Career Researchers. Another key output is a digital library of innovative editions, which was built over the years from students' works. The training of students was one of the programme's key objectives. The programme was unique in combining ICT and practical work, alongside training in medieval studies. This skill-set is invaluable for working in projects both within and without academia, for scholars and entrepreneurs.The training programme ran thrice on three consecutive years. This enabled the consolidation of the programme and the training materials, as well as establishing substantial links between participating institutions. The programme was designed to outlive the length of the funding. A cadre of well-trained and cohesive students from across Europe was established, and given means for future communication, as well as future joint hackathons and hands-on work experience. Materials for all three training sessions were refined during the three years of the programme, to be made into self-standing, freely available web resources. The texts at the core of the programme are one of the more substantial outcomes of the programme. By carefully editing texts and preparing them for digital publication in a highly stable format, these tangible outcomes serve as an important outcome of the programme, not only boosting participants’ experience and CV, but also furthering scholarship.

The Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership for Higher Education iTHEPHY has involved universities and research institutes from Italy, Germany, and France, with long-lasting relations that have been reinforced thanks to the project. The Consortium included: Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna (UNIBO) Bologna, Italy; Unversite Clermont Auvergne (UCA), Clermont-Ferrand, Franch; Tecnische Univeristat Dortmund (TUD), Dortmund, Germany; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Italy; Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique and Institute National de physique nucleaire et de physique de particules (CNRS/IN2P3), France; Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron Laboratory (DESY), Hamburg, Germany. A crucial role in supporting the project Summer Schools organization and implementation has been played by the Associated Partner Institut d'Etudes Scientifiques De Cargese (IESC), located in Cargese, Corsica, France. The project aimed at building a strategic partnership to promote an innovative educational environment and exchange of good practices in the field of higher education. The project consists of developing e-learning and blended learning methodologies and tools for teaching particle physics to students attending the second year of the master's degree, making them work together in real research projects supervised by international teachers and researchers belonging to the iTHEPHY Consortium. The innovative educational approach applied promotes internationalization, team-work skills enhancement, and contributes to boosting mobility worldwide. The project outputs can be summarized as follows:IO1. Moodle platform for Physics, based on the open-source Moodle framework and its plugins. It has been designed and successfully implemented to support the DPA- and Project-Based teaching and learning methodologies. The web-based platform has also supported the team during the project integrating a video web-conference plug-in, a chat room, a shared storage area for files, a scheduler/agenda for planning meetings between teachers and students, and a project management tool for an efficient implementation of projects, able to assign sub-tasks and tracking their progress;IO2. A full set of guided exercises with full solutions also available on the e-learning platform; Physics disciplines taught in master courses need intensive practice with exercises and problems (EPs) in order to well internalize the advanced concepts, rather than passively reading, memorizing, or listening lectures. ITHEPHY successfully implemented dynamic guided problems and solutions for a Deep Learning in PhysicsIO3. A Methodology handbook describing the implementation methodology of the project for future replications.Educating-through-research is the core teaching, and learning feature of the iTHEPHY project usually, named by the Consortium the Tandem-Project (TP). This innovative educational methodology was implemented in three academic years, 2018/2019, 2019/2020, and 2020/2021. About 40 students, enrolled in the second year of the master’s degree in physics from the three partner universities were engaged to be part of TPs. They have been combined to form seven cross-national teams (made of two or three students and two or three international supervisors). International research projects based on HEP research have been assigned to each group. Students had the possibilities to present their results during the three editions of the Summer School, in 2018, 2019 held in Cargese, and in 2020 held online due to the COVID emergency. The project-based learning and teaching activities have been supported by the project's outputs, i.e. advanced collaborative tools, integrated into a customized Moodle platform built with open-source software and guided exercises made available on the platform. In conclusion, the iTHEPHY project has implemented and proposes an innovative and unconventional approach to learning and teaching based on educating-through-research activities supported by ICT tools. This approach is complementary to frontal lectures and promotes the internationalization of master's degrees in and outside Europe. It is worth to underline that at least two achievements exceeding the initial expectations were obtained by ITHEPHY. The first consists of the institutionalization of Summer School as an official activity, approved by the Physics Department Committee and by the ViceRector for Teaching and Education of the UNIBO, delivering 6 ECTS credits to all the attendants, for the activities of the tandem-project. Second UNIBO, UCA, and TUD signed an agreement to set up an International Master's degree in Particle Physics (IMAPP). IMAPP is a joint degree program implemented by the 3 HEIs, integrating the tandem-project and Summer School activities (and hence the iTHEPHY's outputs) in the degree program, with 6 compulsory ECTS. iTHEPHY's research institutions will host students for their internship in preparation for the final thesis.

"The future challenges and possible environmentally related competitive advantages are linked to the two generic technologies - Biotechnology and ICT. They are reducing and preventing the negative impacts of humans technology on environment and health, and ensure the potential of future sustainable development. In this context discussions about the environmental aspects of biotechnology and ICT and how they are shaped in interaction with HE trends is performed. This is also important as ICT technology is seriously embedded into many new biotechnological processes, products, etc. This outlined the project objectives to develop HE prospects for integrated environmental and innovation training in relation to interaction of biotechnology and digital technology areas. The objectives pursued and the innovative education offered will be focused on target groups in the following directions:- to define the applications of digital technologies in biotechnology- to create, using ICT, a virtual space and educational content, enriched with visual elements and simulations- to apply EQF/NQF/HE principles for qualification development ensuring technical competence and skills of target groups- to show the innovative character of digital technologies and their effect on green industryThe project partnership is created with understanding for the HEs needs to shift educational policy from “knowledge” to “competence” and for introduction of LOs and ECTS within the Biotechnology & ICT education for green technologies development. It unifies EU partners from BG, GR, DE, IT, FR and comprises three HEIs, two SMEs with core activity in fostering quality standards in educational and Biotech management, and two R&D Centers having core expertise in implementation of sustainable scientific, educational and social practices.The project methodology is based on System Development Life Cycle concept, which divides the project lifetime into four Phases and seven Tasks/Activities: Arrangement of project management & administration; Project start up; Methodological framework & work plan; Intellectual Outputs production; Approbation of project deliverables; Performance of Dissemination & Use; Assurance of durable effect of project.During the project life cycle the following results will be developed:I) A comprehensive digital educational platform comprising Intellectual Outputs in the frame of Biotechnology and ICT, designed as LOs:O1: The Drivers of Digital technology and ICT in HE: A Case Study, examining the contribution of contemporary learning technologies to the institutional modernization.O2: Open Content Platform, an innovative tool using blended learning approach for a self-paced, free source of online education in the field of ICT for green Biotechnology.O3: Learning Area & Reference Model which will be focused on the development of the training programme and formulation of LOs/BLPs.O4: Guide ""Teaching and learning in HE"" designed for academic professionals and offering both the essentials of effective HE teaching and guidelines how to use the project web platform.O5: Students Smart Kit elaborated for BSc/MSc students and describing strategies for effective learning and the opportunities in the project.O6: Science for Educational Resources comprising latest innovations in the field of ICT for green Biotechnology and encompassing case studies, presentations, videos, visualizations, 3D-educational images, etc.The programme will be realized through actions assigning the following results:II) Results for project management & administration: derived during project conceptual design; complementing the Intellectual Outputs; processing multiplier events; assisting training programme piloting; related to project D linked with Digit-BioTech sustainability provision.III) Results dedicated on the MEs performance and popularization of all project deliverables.IV) Results related with the organisation of TPMs.The expected impact of Digit-BioTech project is directly connected with the innovative achievements anticipated by it. The generic innovations that outline prospects for durable impact are focused on:- Development of innovative training materials and practical teaching and guidance tools oriented towards project targets- LO-based educational approach - offered in a blended mode and contributing to introduction of a training approach leading towards qualification- Amalgamation of a virtual space and educational content thus implementing digital strategies in HE trainingThe potential of long-term benefits from the Digit-BioTech project is grounded on the envisaged possibilities for:- Implementation of project outputs into national educational systems at formal institutions and in-company training departments- Capacity development of HEIs to support and build up employability- Mobilizing science and technology and foster capacity for innovation- Improving the social, economic, and environmental sustainability."