The Europe 2020 strategy identifies actions to boost growth and jobs. The HEIBus project addresses the flagship of innovation union, youth on the move and agenda for new skills and jobs. The main HEIBus contributions have been the developed models designed to boost the cooperation actions between HEIs and companies. Using previous experience from other European project and new and fresh ideas, innovative models have been generated, tested and imported to new implementations. The project started with a comprehensive review of HEI-company cooperation models to identify and analyze implementations where students were directly involved in collaborative actions with HEI experts and companies. Models in which HEI experts and companies work together to the same end, were also studied. In addition, different levels of company involvement in education at HEIs were also searched and detailed. The purpose of this review was to serve as basis for the further HEIBus model implementations. Throughout the HEIBus, two rounds of project implementations took place. The feedback from the first round of projects was used to improve the implementations done in the second one. With the aim of providing smart and innovative cooperation methods between HEIs and companies, the following models were tested: - Multidisciplinary Real Life Problem Solving (RLPS)- Expert Level Real Life Problem Solving (EXPERT)- Flexible Mentoring of Students by Companies (Flex Mentoring)In RLPS, teams of students were given a real life problem by a company. The student teams compete against each other to solve the problem, in the most effective way and following the company requirements. The same method is planned on virtual implementation. This improves performance of education system, facilitating the entry of students to the labour market and developing students’ skills on real life cases. For companies, this promotes new research and innovations and helps the development of new products and services. The companies benefit by getting better match for their labour needs, including easier path to labour mobility. In addition, this cooperation model can be easily integrated in engineering courses that follows Project Based Learning methodologies.EXPERT is similar to RLPS but, on this occasion, the problem is solved by HEI experts. This enables companies to bring more complex problems to be solved. This promotes innovation and knowledge transfer throughout the union, and increases the skills of HEI experts and work life relevance of education. In this case, the links established between the companies and HEI experts involved in the different cases of study, continue after the HEIBus through the Expert Support Service web platform. Flex Mentoring is a set of methods to involve companies in education at HEIs. Each company has a student group, mentored throughout the studies of the group. These methods are divided on different levels depending on the amount of involvement needed from the company. Flex Mentoring improves the quality and work life relevance of the education, gives HEI students and staff new skills and work life contacts. For companies, Flex Mentoring gives better labour force, easy access to recruiting and to knowledge transfer from HEIs. The number and quality of the dissemination activities, done in the three year project, demonstrate the utility and significance of the HEIBus models.

PEMFC is the promising technology for automotive applications with a large deployment horizon by 2030. However, in view of extending their use to a broad range of customers, progress have to be done in terms of cost, performance and durability. The FURTHER-FC project aims at understanding performance limitations due to the coupling between electrochemical and transport issues in the Cathode Catalyst Layer (CCL) which is the main bottleneck for future PEMFC. The comprehensive and innovative approach is based on unique and intensive fundamental characterizations coupled with advanced modelling, from sub-micrometer to its full thickness. The analysis are performed on CCL customized with different and original materials, and will cover structural 3D analysis of the CCL, local operando diagnostics (temperature, liquid water) in the CCL, advanced characterization of ionomer films, innovative diagnostics on transport limitations, fundamental electrochemistry. Advanced one and two-phase models will be used as a support to the experiments and benefit from the experiments for more reliable inputs, physics and validation. The approach will also address the durability issues thanks to the better understanding of the correlation between CCL microstructure, local conditions and properties. FURTHER-FC will propose and validate the performance and durability new ionomer and electrode structures specifically designed to prevent the limitations observed on current MEA, contributing to reach the MAWP targets for horizon 2024-2030. FURTHER-FC will benefit from the active role of renowned partners gathering significant experience on MEA manufacturing and testing (Toyota Europe, CEA, DLR), state-of-the Art experimental techniques (CEA, DLR, PSI, CNRS-IEM, Univ. of Esslingen, Imperial College of London) and modelling tools (CEA, DLR, CNRS-INPT) supported by international entities (Chemours-US, University of Calgary).

The Europe 2020 flagship initiative for a resource efficient Europe stresses the need for an urgent and significant transition towards using our natural resources more efficiently. Natural resources are inextricably linked with health and wellbeing; promoting good health reduces healthcare costs and promotes healthy ageing and independence. Due to its relative large carbon dioxide emissions, use of toxic materials and production of excessive waste, healthcare is compromising public health and damaging the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Education in sustainable development (ESD) is stressed by initiatives under the U.N. However nurses and nurse educators are poorly prepared to understand the connections between resources, climate change, sustainability and health.The aim of this project is to enhance the relevance of the learning offer in nursing education and sustainability by developing and testing innovative teaching and learning approaches, disseminating good practice and promoting take-up of learning approaches through strategic use of information technologies. It will facilitate vocationally relevant Sustainability Literacy and Competency to enable nurses to work in a labour market that needs to adjust to and prepare for a changing climate. This project will be conducted by a partnership of four HEIs, currently working together through bilateral Erasmus agreements. Plymouth’s commitment to ESD is supported by the Centre for Sustainable Futures. Plymouth has reviewed and researched potential health impacts of climate change and how healthcare providers are addressing climate change and sustainability. Scenarios for practitioners dealing with supply interruptions have been piloted and embedded in the nursing curriculum. Sustainability education has been explored through innovative mechanisms using social media. For Esslingen University, sustainability is a central political issue, with expertise in implementing sustainability in leadership. Esslingen brings experience of behaviour change, and running European projects and dissemination strategies. Jaén University promotes social transformation through active and participatory learning and is committed to the development of a sustainable society model and embedding training for pro-environmental awareness and intentionality. Jaén brings expertise in ecology and global change, developmental health and immigration, public health policies, health guideline development, and environmental risk factors in disease outcomes. Maastricht University (UM) is well-known for the system of Problem-Based Learning (PBL). Sustainable development is being integrated as a curricula topic e.g. Masters in Sustainability Science and Policy and the new course-module Climate Change and Public health in the BA European Public Health. UM brings experience in designing sustainability curricula and adopting innovative didactical PBL approaches. UM has relevant (research) expertise on climate change (and its health impacts), as well as other sustainable development issues. Three of the four partners are engaged in teaching over 2000 nursing students and supporting continuing professional development. All partners have links with other nursing schools, providing opportunities for testing project outputs with stakeholders. The output of the project is an Open Access Sustainability Literacy and Competency (SLC) framework, evidence-based resources and teaching and learning course content. The main activities of the project are:1. A detailed review of evidence-based resources to provide sustainability, climate change and health resources2. A scoping exercise of partner and stakeholder curricula to identify examples of good practice and opportunities for integrating sustainability into the nursing curricula, and Delphi consensus development study of partner and other stakeholder organisations to identify and agree sustainability course content and key competencies.3. Development of a competency framework and learning materials, adapting learning materials for demographic relevance. Link learning materials to European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) 4. Evaluation of the teaching and learning materials with approximately 200 – 300 students5. Developing the NurSusTOOLKIT for the teaching and learning materials; test with partners and stakeholders, revise interface and add further materials.6. Dissemination: engage wider stakeholders; prepare and disseminate e-newsletter; write papers for publication and presentation; organise and run international teaching and learning event.The project will produce an online resource NurSusTOOLKIT, e-modules (linked to ECTS) focused on sustainability for nursing and healthcare linked to key competencies and including an evidence-based resource and innovative teaching and learning approaches. The project will also make recommendations for embedding sustainability in nursing curricula across Europe.