Devising and implementing GEPs in higher education institutions or research centers is a formal requirement to enhance actions that favor real and effective equality between women and men. While this is a reality, its effectiveness is bound to a series of factors, like the suitability of the agents involved in its setting-up, the strategic alliances built, and the awareness raised on the potential resistances –both tangible and intangible- that are to be faced in its implementation and prevent real structural changes in these organisations. Every GEP should be understood as a process that is born out of the will to grow and become stronger so that equality between women and men can be promoted and legitimised. One way to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of a GEP is to collect and incorporate the expertise, knowledge and experience of previous projects. For this reason, our project aims to implement 6 equality plans in 6 organizations (5 Universities and 1 Research Funding Organization) applying the criteria established and tested by GEAR-tools. The goal is to advance in the application and evaluation of equality measures in universities with the support of non-university entities that favor their promotion, impulse, evaluation and development. The GEPs will pursue the recognition and promotion of the research career of women, the incorporation of women in decision-making positions, and the promotion of a culture of equality in organizations. To this end, the focus will be on the deconstruction of sexual roles in order to unveil often unconscious gender biases that operate in processes of decision-making, selection and promotion of people and in the attribution of value and recognition.

Most human activity in the Arctic takes place along permafrost coasts, making them a key interface. They have become one of the most dynamic ecosystems on Earth because permafrost thaw is now exposing these coasts to rapid change: change that threatens the rich biodiversity, puts pressure on communities that live there and contributes to the vulnerability of the global climate system. NUNATARYUK will determine the impacts of thawing coastal and subsea permafrost on the global climate, and will develop targeted and co-designed adaptation and mitigation strategies for the Arctic coastal population. NUNATARYUK brings together world-leading specialists in natural science and socio-economics to: (1) develop quantitative understanding of the fluxes and fates of organic matter released from thawing coastal and subsea permafrost; (2) assess what risks are posed by thawing coastal permafrost, to infrastructure, indigenous and local communities and people’s health, and from pollution; (3) use this understanding to estimate the long-term impacts of permafrost thaw on global climate and the economy. NUNATARYUK will be guided by a Stakeholders’ Forum of representatives from Arctic coastal communities and indigenous societies, creating a legacy of collaborative community involvement and a mechanism for developing and applying innovative evidence-based interventions to enable the sustainable development of the Arctic.

As the world is becoming more urbanized and cities of the future need to be people-centred, robust evidence-based knowledge on the underlying biological and psychological processes, by which Urban Planning & Design influence brain circuits and human behaviour, will be critical for policy making on urban health. Emotions are key drivers of our decisions; similarly, our choices are the conduit for our well-being and health. Thus, research focusing on the signals triggered in our neurobiological architecture, responsible for emotions and decisions, while humans interact with the urban environment will shed light on how to improve population health, physical and/or mental. The eMOTIONAL Cities project was designed to fully characterise the intensity and complexity of urban health challenges and inequalities. By exploring the mechanisms and their dynamic, it complements conventional descriptive perspectives focused on exposure-outcome associations. It adopts a systems approach, based on natural experiments and actual problems of case-study cities (Copenhagen, Lisbon, London; and Lansing/Detroit in the USA). Building on theoretical foundations, novel eMOTIONAL city mapping will be generated by combining spatial analysis on social/health data with neuroscience experiments. Our research relies on mixed (qualitative/quantitative) methods and uses multidisciplinary instruments from Urban Planning & Design (GIS for land use, transport, climate and health), Neuroscience (fMRI, EEG) and Data Science & Technology (AI, Big Data and VR/AR reality). The analysis also addresses gender aspects and contemplates a clinical study to show that urban design can impact a vulnerable elderly population at risk of developing dementia. Finally, a novel machine-learning scenario discovery framework will allow testing and impact assessment (for cost-effectiveness, barriers and facilitators) of urban policy strategies to turn EU cities into smart, sustainable and inclusive environments. The eMOTIONAL Cities is a part of the European Cluster on Urban Health.

European Quality Assurance (QA) in Higher Education has been at the core of the project. Learning outcomes (LO) have been described as a fundamental building block of the Bologna process reforms, and LO now feature in the quality assessment and accreditation procedures for HE programmes in several countries. Nonetheless, the degree of implementation and embedding of LO varies widely among and within countries.Building on evidence from a selection of HE programmes, the MEHR project has intended to investigate the formalisation and assessment of LO on human rights (HR). The aim was to enable quality assurance agencies (QAAs) to undertake a self-assessment of their performance regarding the assessment of LO on HR in their accreditation practices, and to obtain a more faithful estimation of their activities in relation to LO assessment, in a comparative European perspective. The project consortium gathered three QAAs and three HEIs from three European countries (Sweden, Portugal, Croatia) of different size, educational traditions and structures of higher education systems as well as different levels of development on LO assessment tools and procedures, and one international student organisation located in Belgium (ESU, former ESIB). This variety allowed gaining new knowledge from comparative analysis. The core of the partnership consisted of a selection of accreditation and quality assurance agencies, with the Swedish Higher Education Authority (Universitetskanslersämbetet, UKÄ) acting as project coordinator. The partnership joins different kinds of institutions and stakeholders with a common feature: all of them have former experiences in the topic – LO assessment – and have been involved in the development of theoretical research or/and implementation tools, as users or target groups. Previous projects focused on, and were targeted to, higher education institutions exclusively. In contrast, the MEHR project adds value and innovation by targeting both QAAs, and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs); particularly through the insight the project has given into how these employ LO in their everyday practices.Through its focus on LO assessment on HR within specific areas of education leading to a profession (medicine, health sciences, social services, teacher education, geography and law) the project is relevant both from a broader employability perspective strengthening recognition and stimulating mobility, and from the perspective of singular HEIs who might use the project results to benchmark and further develop their educational activities on HR.From 2016 to 2019, the MEHR partnership carried out country specific surveys related to LO assessment of human rights in the above higher educational areas, resulting in three country reports. Each report was produced as a joint venture involving a quality assurance agency, a higher education institution, and the European Students’ Union. Questionnaires were sent to all higher education institutions in a country with the right to award degrees for the selected programmes. In addition, a number of programmes were self-selected as examples of good practice and focus interviews were carried out. In relation to the publication of each report, a workshop and a conference were held, where the results were disseminated and discussed with representatives of higher education institutions, students, and other stakeholders. Finally, the project results, together with a final comparative report and a selection of student vox pop videos, were presented at a dissemination conference in Brussels.The MEHR project has strengthened the skills of the participating organisations in the field of LO assessment on HR. Thus, for the research and teaching institutions, the project has contributed to an advance in the state of the art in the field of LO; for the QAAs the insights gained and made available for member agencies and others represent a significant step forward in the development of their mission. The project has also promoted the dialogue between national agencies and HEIs, enabling the exchange of best practices across cultural contexts, as well as developing suitable methods for comparing practices of LO assessment across Europe, building a better understanding of how QAAs and HEIs can improve LO assessment methodologies. The project results have also reached a wider audience through presentations at external conferences and events. Through mutual learning between different educational programmes, between HEIs, QAAs and student organisations, and between the different countries in the consortium, the MEHR project has thus had the benefit of spreading knowledge and strengthening HR across Europe.