Less than 20% of the German companies surveyed have inadequate action plans for important dangers and crises. As regards cyber risks, a survey conducted in Germany has shown that 48% of the participating companies were directly or indirectly affected by cyber interference in the last five years. A similar situation has been found in Austria, where 80% of the companies have already been confronted with IT incidents in the past, whereby a third of these being attributed to cyber-attacks. 24% of the cases, according to the SORA study, were due to negligent behavior on the part of employees or management. Many of these companies, regardless of size, are working in global supply chains and managing the latter has increased the data being exchanged among the companies. This increased data exchange bears several risks as illustrated above. As further risks, severe damage of data and/or IT infrastructure, the loss of proprietary knowledge and unintended revelation of crucial business insights to other supply chain actors can be named. Against the impact on SMEs in all European economies, the project will address risks small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) may be exposed to due to digital interactions in supply chains.The main objective of the project is to develop a VET training called “SMEs: Be prepared for supply chain risks” intended to better prepare SMEs for identifying and handling supply chain risks. The project targets SMEs, in particular, because they are important actors in value chains and a vital component of EU economies, but at the same time, they typically have limited resources to address and manage the supply chain risks properly. Additionally, the project addresses young professionals to prepare them for starting a position in an SME or even starting a new venture. The proposed project will be carried out transnationally as a supply chain - which is a connected chain involving several actors in the upstream and downstream flow of products, services, finance and information, extending from the point of origin to the point of consumption. Furthermore, it increasingly involves a dynamic transnational network to perform the activities. Thus, supply chain risks are also a transnational challenge and one can see different stages of maturity in different countries and industries. For example, in the automotive or pharmaceutical sectors supply chain integration is quite advanced while in the fashion or furniture industries this is not the case. For this reason, the project is based on a diverse set of industry sectors to which the “be prepared” VET training will be deployed.The methodology used in this project is based on a collaborative approach, thus our target groups, the SMEs, in particular, are involved from the beginning of the project, they thus function as sparring partners to increase the actual use of the be prepared training after the end of the project. The development of the training itself is supported by and takes advantage of recent eLearning techniques and learning labs. The outputs will be a best practice report and a motivational video to raise awareness regarding the project and its relevance. The “be prepared” training package and a practical guidance toolbox to support the successful implementation of the training package. As supply chain works across countries, firms can benefit from cross-national solutions. In this project, SMEs working in Austria, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Portugal will be involved. The partners have been chosen deliberately based on their in-depth experience regarding SMEs, supply chain management and knowledge management at the research, teaching and practical level as well as their long-term experience in adult education. Furthermore, different types of countries in terms of size, industry structure, cultural and legal contexts, and ICT policies are involved.As the world has become much riskier, a focus on supply chain risk management is of utmost relevance not only for (small) companies but for societies at large.

Locative Games are in the process of entering the mainstream, in cultural heritage they can improve access by offering alternative experiences and widening audiences, they can aid in preservation by managing footfall and focusing digital assets, and they can increase engagement and allow visitors to see their heritage in new ways. However, existing design approaches and infrastructures for locative heritage are bespoke and poorly integrated with existing visitor structures. There is also a lack of guidelines on what is ethically desirable in these digitally mediated spaces, and how designers might mitigate against unintended consequences or abuses. This is a barrier to the widespread adoption of locative heritage applications and means that more complex experiences are currently not sustainable in the wider sector. LoGaCulture will change this by bringing together the leaders in digital locative games, in collaboration with some of Europe’s most significant cultural institutions, to enable a new generation of locative cultural heritage games through proposals for design guidance, validated ethical frameworks, and an open, extensible, and reusable set of technologies. Through a set of five interlinked case studies across four countries the project will: gather evidence from the heritage design space for interactivity, narratives, and play; look at how augmented reality and soundscapes can affect visitors’ immersion; explore the place of locative heritage in the wider visitor journey through transmedia and social visiting; and explore how the barrier to authoring and deploying such systems might be lowered. The goal is to create a step change in knowledge in how to design, deploy, and maintain locative heritage games, and lay the groundwork for their mass adoption by cultural institutions by allowing them to treat locative experiences that offer new forms of access and engagement as an integrated part of their existing cultural heritage work.

Rapid developments in digitalization creates a pressure on firms to innovate & transform their businesses by implementing digital technologies & business models. Digital transformation is challenging for most firms that strive with understanding the opportunities & consequences of digitalization; many have difficulties in envision how they should transform the processes & business model. These difficulties are particularly demanding for small firms due to their general lack of resources, knowledge & skills.In order to accelerate the digital transformation of SMEs, higher education institutions need to adopt effective strategies to develop advanced digital skills in their students, future employees of these companies. For their part, companies & business associations need flexible tools to assist in reconverting the workers’ skills, in the context of work or in vocational training. Therefore, the target groups of this project are educators & students in Universities, young workers & entrepreneurs/managers of micro, small & medium enterprises – MSME.The project VOIL - Virtual Open Innovation Lab has two strategic objectives: (1) to raise awareness about the potential of emerging technologies for the digital transformation of micro, small & medium businesses, & (2) to design a pedagogical model for simulation-based learning of advanced digital competencies.To achieve these objectves the project will develop 5 Outputs. The O1 - Digital transformation toolkit provides the knowledge about the best practices that have come to affirm in the industry relative to the design of digital transformation strategies and co-creation of innovative solutions. This knowledge will then be used to produce O2 - Digital transformation curriculum, which will guide educators who want to develop training programs focusing on the development of advanced digital skills. The O3-Simulation Resource Pack will include teaching notes that will guide the learning of emerging technologies and / or digital transformation impacts through the use of simulators. The VOIL platform (O4) corresponds to the simulation-based learning environment that will allow for the development of the advanced digital skills. O5 - Implementation and validation report is an essential output as it contains the partner experience and the project memory. This information will support the use of the VOIL platform beyond the project as well as future developments including the creation of mixed reality learning environments. To develop the planned outputs, the project teams will carry out several project management & implementation activities, intellectual output development activities and evaluation & dissemination activities. All partners have actively participated in the initial design of the project, adopting a flexible system with clear tasks & responsibilities. All partners will contribute to each phase of the project. All partners will manage the project's publicity and information jointly with relevant inputs and support. The project has a joint management team, formed with participation of all partners during the kick off meeting, ensuring successful management and sustainable impact. Further each partner will select experts (trainers, researchers, facilitators) most appropriate for implementation of each project activity. The coordination team will have regular meetings, as whole team or in smaller teams, depending on the needs of the project and development phase. For a smooth and constructive cooperation constant communication is envisioned between the partners using meetings, email, phone calls, web conferencing etc. The project consists of a number of main outputs and activities, each focused on key activities and actions of the project that are necessary for the most qualitative and efficient materialization of the project and fulfillment of its objectives. For the project management we will use the proposed by the European Commission Methodology for the Project Management (PM2).The immediate impact of the VOIL project will be empowering universities to develop advanced digital transformation competencies in their students and educators.. We expect to involve about 300 participants in the pilot tests & multiplier events in the various partner countries. For the long-term impact, & taking into account the planned dissemination activities, we have estimated that in the countries of the partnership a high number of young workers will be informed through the outputs in their native languages. Another expected long-term impact is to provide educators in universities with a curriculum to guide the design of study programs & courses to develop advanced digital transformation skills. We envisage that the project results have the R&D potential of informing and engaging researchers from the fields of engineering, management and social sciences in discussions and studies focusing the use of simulators to experiment and learn about emerging technologies.