Schools in several European countries frequently fail to provide both excellence and equity in mathematics teaching: more than 20% of European students do not reach a minimum level of basic skills in mathematics; only 2%-3% of them reach the highest level of proficiency; and large variations in achievement exist among students within schools, indicating that schools fail to create equitable learning environments for their students (OECD, 2016). Supporting teachers to combat this challenge requires that teachers be afforded curriculum materials that provide specific support and solid guidelines to teach for excellence and equity, as well as professional development (PD) on how to do so.Responding to this dual need, the main goal of the EDUCATE project was to develop, implement, validate, and refine materials for teachers and teacher educators (TEs) that address issues of cognitive activation (CA) and differentiation (DI) in an integrated manner –which was missing from past work attending to either excellence or equity. More crucially, the project aimed at educating teachers to use these materials by engaging them in guided reflection around their practice and to scaffold TEs to offer solid guidance to teachers in doing so.Working in four EU countries (Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, and Portugal) to minimize context dependencies and ensure the transferability of the materials produced, the project unfolded in four phases. In the first, EU/(inter)national policy documents on excellence and equity were reviewed, as well as prior studies on teachers’ needs and challenges when having to teach for both goals. This top-down approach was complemented by a bottom-up approach involving 66 lesson observations of a maximum variation sample of 33 prospective and practising primary or secondary teachers and 66 pre- and post-lesson interviews with them to identify their actual and perceived needs and challenges when having to engage all their students in challenging tasks. In the second phase, building on this needs-assessment analysis, we developed five modules for teachers and five associated modules for TEs, which aimed at helping them effectively deal with the most crucial challenges identified. After being content-validated and pilot-tested, these modules were implemented with 76 primary and secondary teachers (20 prospective and 56 practicing) working in different school settings (including underserved areas). During this third phase, recruited teachers worked in video-club settings through iterative cycles of experimentation with the EDUCATE materials and reflection upon their practice, facilitated by 16 TEs. TE logs (N=96) and teacher reflection cards (N=401), providing feedback on the implementation of the EDUCATE packages, were completed at the end of each video-club session and were used formatively to inform and refine the PD approach offered. In the fourth phase, we examined the effectiveness of the EDUCATE materials and PD approach. Specifically, the videotaped lessons were coded using an observation rubric developed in the third phase, which comprised a set of 35 phase-level and 10 lesson-level codes related to CA, DI and their interplay. By using linear growth models, we explored changes in the instructional quality in the 201 teachers’ videotaped lessons. Written memos of the videotaped video-club meetings (N=107) and end-of-project teacher/focus group interviews (N=76) were analysed following a phenomenological approach and constant comparative method to investigate participants’ experiences, (re)conceptualisations of CA and DI, and enduring challenges. The project culminated by revising the EDUCATE materials based on the lessons learned from this examination and by producing an e-learning course for teachers and TEs, which is hosted on the EDUCATE platform.The key EDUCATE results pertained to (a) producing a validated, effective, and transferable series of self-contained modules for teachers and their accompanying modules for TEs that concurrently attend to CA and DI; (b) identifying what is feasible to expect from teachers at different educational levels (primary vs. secondary) and career stages (prospective vs. practising)—as suggested by the statistically significant changes identified in aspects of teachers’ practice; (c) surfacing ways in which the modules produced and the adopted PD approach scaffolded teachers’ thinking and work around CA and DI; and (d) identifying challenges that teachers encounter as they currently work at both fronts.The project also raised awareness among different policy makers, stakeholders and researchers about the importance of attending to both CA and DI. Because the EDUCATE outputs are open-access and disseminated through several venues, such as the EDUCATE platform (educate-platform.com/) and website (www.ucy.ac.cy/educate/en/), the impact of the project on TEs, teachers, and foremost students—the ultimate recipients of high-quality instruction—is expected to be long term.

"It is widely accepted and documented through studies and references that school students lack Competences and skills at the completion of the cycle of their school studies. As one of the key factors that can develop competences and skills in school students is the known project based learning activity. In the last 15 years we have seen the development from STEM to STEAM and now to STEAME (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics and Entrepreneruship) becoming the subject set that is considered through interplay the kinetic energy for producing the creators and innovators of the future under the digital age. The catalyst in making this a reality are the subject teachers in service and the future student teachers through their initial training at the university level. The project ""STEAME Teacher Facilitators Academies"", will support the change to the future schools with main actors the teacher facilitators as the future professionals and experts of learning change.The STEAME Teacher Facilitators Academies will support the professional development and build a community of service and student teachers. Working together as co-creators for the sustainable development between teacher education providers with impact on the evolution and quality of education in Europe and the continuous professional development of teachers, the project aims to set the groundfor future schools.The main innovations by this project include:1. STEAME Teacher Facilitators Competence Framework for student and serving teachers2. STEAME Teacher Facilitators Learning Modules/Workshops/Webinars3. International Sharing Observatory for STEAME Learning Facilitators4. Development of the STEAME Facilitators Community of Practice/Mentoring and Certification Programme5. Policy Recommendations – European Federation of STEAME Teacher Facilitators AcademiesThe basis for the above is the experiences and innovations from projects that the project partners bring and join forces."

The overarching aim of the project is to contribute to equipping all citizens with the skills and competences for the green transition. The specific objectives of the AELIA project are to: •Promote sustainability in all education sectors through designing and putting to the test guidelines for sustainability plans •Support educational institutions’ management and leaders to apply sustainability plans including monitoring and evaluating their sustainability levels through capacity building on the guidelines for sustainability plans•Increase the provision of quality educational resources by developing an educational framework based on a widened participation of all relevant stakeholders, based on excellence, expertise and a multitude of insights and perspectives•Build the capacity of educators and equip them will knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to integrate sustainable development and green transition in their work and become change multiplier agents•Strengthen the acquisition of knowledge and skills and empower all citizens to take action on climate, sustainable development and green transition •Enhance policy learning and mainstreaming by strengthening transnational cooperation and multi-actor dialogueThe project is partnership of organisations in Greece, Cyprus, Serbia, Romania and Austria and will have a duration of 36 months.During this period, the project's main results will be:- A guide for sustainability plans for educational institutions available in all partner languages and in English. - An co-designed educational framework with educational resources and online open course addressed to educational leaders, teachers and educators at all levels- Crowdsourcing platform and webinars for citizens- A white paper on integrating education for sustainability at all educational levels The proposed educational intervention has the potential to have a significant impact at local, national and European levels

Being one of the main actions of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, the European Biodiversity Partnership (Biodiversa+) will coordinate research programmes between EU and its Member States and Associated Countries, mobilising environmental authorities as key partners for implementing biodiversity research and innovation, along with ministries of research, funding organisations, and environmental protection agencies (75 organisations from 37 countries). Biodiversa+ has five overarching objectives: (1) improve monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem services across Europe (status and trends); (2) generate actionable knowledge to tackle the direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity loss; (3) expand and improve the evidence base, and accelerate the development and wide deployment of NbS to meet societal challenges across Europe; (4) make the business case for the conservation and restoration of biodiversity; and (5) ensure efficient science-based support for biodiversity policy making in Europe. Biodiversa+ will meet these objectives by (i) setting up a pan-European network of harmonized monitoring schemes, building on existing national/regional monitoring schemes, creating capacity for setting up new schemes, and feeding into the EC Knowledge Center for Biodiversity; (ii) coordinating research programmes between the EU and its Member States and associated countries, thereby ensuring the long-term pan-European research agenda is co-created and implemented; (iii) contributing science-based methodologies to account for and possibly value ecosystem services and the natural capital, and to assess the dependency and impact of businesses on biodiversity and (iv) better linking of R&I programmes to the policy arena, providing greater input to policy making and improving the assessment of policy efficiency. Doing so, Biodiversa+ will help ensure that, by 2030, nature in Europe is back on a path of recovery, and by 2050 people are living in harmony with Nature.

Background The proposal draws on the principles of Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to explore children’s quality of life and well being. In short form, Article 31 posits that children and young people have the right to play, rest and participate in cultural and recreational activities. These conditions are acknowledged as essential to children’s health and well being; they contribute to the development of ‘creativity, imagination, self-confidence, self-efficacy, as well as physical, social, cognitive and emotional strength and skills [and] all aspects of learning’ (Committee on the Rights of the Child 2013). These dimensions comprise what the WHO (2018) defines as ‘quality of life’, including diverse health, material, social as well as subjective well being indicators (Wallander and Koot 2016, White 2008). These bring to the fore multiple factors that impact children’s livesfor example, gender, disability, family composition and income, location, access to services and education, and so on. Project goalsThe project aims to map children’s and young people’s life quality from their own subjective perspective and that of their families, building on this, CICADA will develop a training package for teachers and education professionals on how to address children’s quality of life challenges and facilitate their participation in decision making related to their life status.The innovative pedagogical method of children’s active engagement, will be deployed as its affordances are full alignment with training needs education professionals The CICADA and its training accredited partners will secure the recognition of skills and qualifications of CICADA participants based on the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), EQAVET and the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET).Additionally, CICADA satisfies a number of Erasmus Plus objectives such as:•Combine higher levels of excellence and attractiveness of training and education with increased opportunities for all• Support the development of the EU as a knowledge-based society•Open and innovative education, training and youth work, embedded in the digital era•Transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications to facilitate learning, employability and labor mobility•Strengthening key competences in VET curricula and providing more effective opportunities to acquire or develop those skills through I-VET and C-VET.A short description of the results and impact envisaged The interdisciplinary and cross-cultural/cross-national set up of the study will help to shed light into a series of factors ⎯e.g. social, cultural, geographical, economic, family—that impact their life organization and trajectories, their decision making, and that of their families, on everyday activities and subjective understanding of their well being. The research is therefore expected to produce valuable data that will inform policy making, relevant services and support agencies in designing appropriate, inspiring and creative environments and frameworks for meaningful to the children and young people activities. Potential longer term benefitsThe inter-institutional engagement of consortium partners in research, education and policy, and the inputs of local participants and stakeholders—children and their families and various leisure and recreation stakeholders— will help to build toward incremental knowledge exchange and sharing of good practice and future partnerships with a shared focus on developing inclusive environments and services for children’s and young people’s well being and life quality.