EduMakers aims to disrupt the adult and community learning (ACL) sector by radically increasing the adoption of digital technologies within teaching and learning. Led by Tinder Foundation, this project will test the feasibility of and co-design an open collaborative content-creation, sharing and learning platform. It will be defined by enabling tutors, volunteers and learners in the ACL sector to create, share, remix, organise and manage interactive online learning content, linked to a learner management system. The project aims to work with the ACL sector to test the following: i) feasibility of the concept, through research with leaders and managers ii) desirability and usability, through user needs analysis iii) technical feasibility, through design and user testing iv) commercial viability, through market analysis and business modelling. Longer-term, the hypothesis is that EduMakers will lead to more relevant, collaborative and personalised learning, improving the impact of teaching and learning within ACL.

TIDAL Mapping (WS1). Guided by our consultations with partners we will carry out a series of short focused projects. The first two will focus on the regulatory landscape for AT post-Brexit and will review successful translation of EPSRC-funded research into AT products and services. Three further short projects, focused on key barriers and enablers will be developed by the Network. TIDAL community development (WS2) will establish the Network and maintain inclusive engagement. A major activity will be running the Annual Symposia and Doctoral Colloquium, with the first focussed on Responsible Engineering. TIDAL Research (WS3). We fund up to eight research projects of up to £65k (aiming for 2 per theme) to interdisciplinary teams who have an excellent research hypothesis for solving a clear unmet need. There will be three steps of development: 1) an agenda setting workshop 2) targeted calls and a team building workshop (i.e. mini sandpit); 3) review and select proposals for funding. All research projects will have a business mentor and we will also support industry placements (2 months maximum) for academics, and encourage industry-funded placements into academia. Guided by initial consultations with partners we will begin the Network+ with three themes. 1) Responsible Engineering 2) Sensors and Data Science for Communication Aids 3) Design & Digital Manufacturing Systems (DMS) & Physical Devices. An additional theme will be added as TIDAL N+ grows. WS4: Network Education & Dissemination (WS4) : The TIDAL project is led by Holloway, who co-leads the £19.8million AT2030 Programme (www.at2030.org) and the Global Disability Innovation Hub (GDI Hub) Academic Research Centre. These initiatives already have excellent networks for communication and dissemination and TIDAL will take advantage of these. Specific activities will include the development of policy notes based on the work in WS1-3, engagement with local innovators, colleges and schools through hackathons and GDI Hub Live events themed to TIDAL N+.

Over the past decade, we have witnessed major transformations in access to digital media platforms in Europe. However, navigating this digitally mediated world can be challenging as it requires operational, social, content creation, and consumption skills that many citizens lack or insufficiently possess (EC, 2010; European Training Foundation, 2018). To date, researchers and practitioners are unable to make evidence-based claims about the impact of media literacy and digital skills (ML&DS) interventions and their positive outcomes: a rapid evidence assessment by Edwards et al. (2021) of the effectiveness of intervention strategies in the field of tackling misinformation illustrates that robust evaluation of ML interventions remains uncommon. The development of a responsive, forward-looking ML&DS policy in Europe lacks up-to-date knowledge and a deeper understanding of the ML&DS needs of citizens (young and older, specific social target groups). What should a media-savvy citizen be able to do and know? How can we determine what media and digitally literate individuals are like? If we do not have adequate answers to these questions, we will not know which interventions can be used to foster ML&DS or how successful these interventions are. REMEDIS's concept is to develop evidence-based approaches to further develop and evaluate initiatives that foster ML&DS to understand what the impacts of ML&DS interventions in different life domains are in terms of positive outcomes. In accordance with this concept, REMEDIS adopts an innovative research strategy that first aims to identify and quantify the most salient driving factors for ML&DS from a lifelong perspective, and to synthesise the existing evidence concerning the perceived effectiveness of current interventions fostering ML&DS.