A2M2TECH (Doctoral Programme in Advanced Materials&Advanced Manufacturing Technologies) is an excellence doctoral training programme presented by Gazi University (GU) in Turkey as beneficiary and main hosting organisation through the Additive Manufacturing Technology Application and Research Center (EKTAM), the National Center of Excellence for AM. The programme is completed with the participation of other 3 entities as Partner Organisations recruiting fellows: Middle East Technical University, İstanbul Technical University and İzmir Institute of Technology. During the 60 months of duration of A2M2TECH, one single Open Call will be launched for the recruitment of 22 early-stage researchers (ESRs). Excellence in research&education Will be achieved through a complete research&training programme combining cutting-edge multidisciplinary topics in the AM field with a wide range of research&non-research oriented skills, thus impacting on the future career perspectives of the fellows and aligning the programme objectives and results with EU strategies and objectives regarding human resources, research&innovation. A2M2TECH will establish an open, transparent and merit-based procedure for the recruitment with the aim of providing the next-generation of skilled scientists in the bourgeoning fields of Advanced Manufacturing, Advanced Materials&Additive Manufacturing. All the participating organisations in the programme have an outstanding track-record in terms of recruitment and training of doctoral researchers and they all support the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers, thus ensuring the best possible conditions to enhance the potential and future career perspectives for the recruited researchers. In addition, recruited fellows will be provided with the opportunity to carry out secondments in several national&international host institutions with a particular focus on the intersectoral University-Industry collaboration.

Workers with data skills are needed across the breadth of employment sectors and development is one such sector which has become increasingly data driven, e.g. the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are explicitly measurable and include a target to improve statistical capacity in and of itself. Higher education students studying a range of social science subject areas often aspire to a career in development: a fiercely competitive and rapidly changing sector, with the need for both ‘soft’ (e.g. cross-cultural collaboration) and ‘hard’ skills now emphasised, of which data analysis is an increasingly valued ‘hard’ skill. However, there is often resistance amongst social science students to develop data skills. Students’ resistance has been linked to a lack of confidence, particularly amongst students with a limited mathematical background and/or who have had bad experiences of mathematics teaching earlier in their education. However above and beyond concerns about ability, an additional key barrier to students’ engagement in data education is a simple lack of interest. The aim of this project is to tackle these challenges and resultant graduate skills deficit by creating a team of partner universities to collaboratively develop learning and teaching materials which meet the current and anticipated future data skill requirements of development sector employers and enable lecturers to share expertise. The team is composed of four universities representing geographically and culturally diverse countries: University of Gloucestershire (UK), Gazi University (Turkey), University of Malta (Malta) and UNED (Spain). The learning and teaching resources developed through the project will closely align with the reality of working in the development sector, by exposing students to international collaboration and to working on real and pressing development issues, thus providing a clear link between the lecture hall and students’ desired careers. The specific objectives are:(1) Understand the nature of the current and anticipated future data skills deficit in the international development sector through expert interviews with key employers across partner countries. (2) Develop innovative social science instructor and student learning resources on data skills for international development informed by the findings from objective (1), based on real life scenarios which foster international collaboration between students, and benefiting from the varied expertise of project partners. (3) Pilot and evaluate the resources during a collaborative summer programme for students from across partner countries culminating in a visit to Luxembourg encompassing a tour of EUROSTAT, the European Union’s statistical agency, and an opportunity for students to share project findings and gain experience of international meetings. The pilot programme will include 5 undergraduate social science students from each partner country (20 in total). (4) Refine the materials based on student evaluations and tutor reflections and integrate the materials and collaborative student project work into the degree curriculum of partner universities, as well as making the resources freely available online for the benefit of the wider social science higher education community. The results of the project will be instructor and student handbooks on a new data skills for international development programme. These materials will have been piloted during the project and will be integrated into the curriculum at partner universities and available online for other universities to adopt. The project will also produce an academic peer reviewed paper and a blog on the nature of the data skills deficit in the international development sector. In addition, there will be a website, twitter account, webinar when the materials are launched online and partners will give presentations on the project at conferences so as to ensure the programme reaches a wide range of universities. The impacts of the project included enhanced employability amongst student participants in the summer pilot programme, as well as future students at partner universities who will benefit from this addition to their curriculum and students at other universities which adopt the programme. The project will also have an impact on partner university academics and other academics who adopt the programme by assisting them to broaden their curriculum and to provide specific career guidance to their students. In addition, the project will have an impact on employers in the international development, and more broadly social development, sector by growing the pool of graduates with data skills required for the current and future demands of the sector. Ultimately, this will also be beneficial to the clients of development organisations as the organisations will be better equipped to harness the power of data to further their cause.

People give more importance to education with every passing year. Teachers play a critical role in reflecting the curriculum into the classroom environment, training successful and equipped individuals, meeting individuals' differentiating needs. Teachers' attitudes in classrooms and strategies they follow have a great importance on students' development. For this reason, teachers should have advanced skills to educate and take care of the pupils with special needs as well as typically developing pupils.The earlier intervention started to have a greater impact on pupils’ academic progress. It is indicated in the literature that talented and gifted pupils constitute a group, who has to get special education. The aim of this project was to raise the awareness of teachers who teach talented and gifted pupils in inclusive classrooms and build up innovative strategies for teachers to practice in classrooms and support them to improve their professional profiles. Because early intervention is important the target group was chosen as teachers, who teach in early years settings, preschools, and primary schools. Within the scope of this project a strategy guide book, a how-to instruction book, animations and a simulation were developed as intellectual outputs. Teachers were provided to learn how to practice the strategies, which they have to follow in classrooms through seminars. Moreover, they could access digital environments and implement the strategies with the help of simulation and animations.By means of this project interaction and cooperation among partner organizations from different countries were provided. Teachers from different countries came together and intercultural interaction was materialized as well as awareness on the topic was increased. Through this project, in which Gazi University (GU) from Turkey takes place as coordinator organization, Europole, LEB (till 31.05.2017), and EDUcentrum conducted a series of scientific studies at the local level, a standard scientific example, which may be a source of inspiration for further researches was set. Project partners are highly experienced organizations in teacher training and talented and gifted pupils' inclusive education. They contributed to project from different aspects. In this way, international sustainability of the project is expected to be provided in a long-term relationship.At the first stage, a baseline study revealing the state of art related to the project topic was performed. A comparative analysis followed the baseline study in order to compare the situation in partner countries. This led the project to a needs analysis to determine teachers' training needs on the topic. Data collection tools of needs analysis were based on the baseline study and the comparative analysis. These tools were applied to teachers, who work in early years settings, preschools and primary schools. GU prepared journal articles considering the conducted activities from the different point of views.An international academic conference was the following project activity. The results of the baseline study, comparative analysis, and needs analysis were presented in this conference, academicians from all over the world were invited and encouraged to present their researches on the topic as well. Later on, development and piloting phases of training materials were performed. A draft strategy guidebook was developed based on the needs analysis. In this book, strategies for teachers related to classroom and behavior management were featured. Synchronously a how-to instruction book explaining the usage of animations and a simulation was developed. At the stage of preparation of digital environments, which is one of the key points of the project, various animations were developed to show teachers how to use the strategies. In addition, a simulation was prepared. At the piloting stage, trainings were given to teacher trainers and teachers respectively and they were trained on how to use the mentioned strategies in classrooms by using training materials.Afterward, dissemination activities took place. Seminars for teacher trainers and teachers were given. A valorization conference was held in order to share the project results with stakeholders after the reporting stage is completed. All the outputs were published on the project website and so all stakeholders and interested people and organizations were reached. This project will contribute to;a- Recognize talented and gifted pupils earlier and support them with innovative teaching approaches.b- Increase the awareness of teachers about giftedness/talentedness.c- Support both the social adaptation and self-realization of gifted pupils.d- Use technology-supported materials in teacher training activities.e- Improve teachers’ professional profiles in terms of giftedness and talentedness