<< Background >>In order to fight against discrimination and inequality, the European commission has always been committed to promotingdiversity and inclusion. This commitment was materialised by the creation in 2004 of the European Diversity Charters.Nowadays, 26 Diversity Charters (DC) are established in Europe including the German DC, the Spanish DC, the FinnishDC, the Romanian DC, and the Lithuanian DC launched in 2006, 2009, 2012, March 2018, and October 2018 respectively. The main issue addressed in the DCs is discrimination based on gender, race, nationality, ethnic origin, religion, physical ability, age, sexual orientation and identity. All of the above-mentioned DCs aim at supporting and promoting best practices in diversity management and global citizenship in public and private organisations, including educational institutions. In 2019, 1.3 million international students were enrolled in tertiary education across the EU-27 including 44% from within Europe, 25% from Asia, and 15% from Africa. Additionally, programmes like Mobility for individuals of the Erasmus+ and other similar European programmes have contributed to creating diverse learning environments. The above has also largely contributed to immigration as a constantly growing phenomenon in Europe which has led to demographic changes. Whereas, Europe has recently witnessed a rise of nationalist organisations such as Finns Party, Alternative for Germany, or the Alliance for the Union of Romanians. There is an urgent need for tolerance, development of global mindsets, and skills in inclusion and diversity management. The current project is aimed particularly at students as primary target group but also at teachers of HEIs as secondary target group. Concerning the consortium, the needs have been identified at many levels. Firstly, for Lithuania and KK, there is no existing course on global citizenship, diversity management, or both. KK attracts every year nearly 400 international students from 20 different nationalities across the globe. Secondly, for Finland and LAB, there are no courses available where both topics are combined and especially global citizenship as a concept is not taught at Finnish HEIs. In Finland, there are some courses of Diversity Management but those are for Master programmes or they are trainings that are offered for companies. Further, LAB currently has a very diverse learning environment with more than 1350 foreign students from 83 different nationalities and from every single corner of the globe. This number represents almost 16% of their student population. Thirdly, for Germany and htw saar, there is only one University that offers a Bachelor degree in Diversity Education; At htw saar, nearly 17% of their students are full-time foreign students from 70 nationalities. Fourthly, for Romania and UAIC, here are just two university courses, for graduate students, which address some of these topics, such as “Management of cultural diversity” or “Education for cultural diversity”. 16% of their student population are foreign full-time students from 14 different nationalities. Fifthly, for UVIGO and Spain, there are no courses in Spain that combine Global Citizenship & Diversity Management. UVIGO currently has 1272 full-time students from 34 nationalities. The need for consortium partners to promote and teach GC & DM is evident. Prior to the development of GLOBDIVES partner HEIs surveyed almost all teachers from their faculties of business. The needs' analysis clearly indicates that teachers lack understanding and/or misunderstand the concepts of GC & DM. It also results that teachers do not raise awareness or promote GC & DM during their teaching. Consequently, students do not become aware of GC & DM nor do they develop their global mindsets. Overall, the vast majorities of teachers find a course on GC & DM necessary for their respective institutions. It's worth emphasising that all the teachers surveyed are exposed to multicultural classrooms<< Objectives >>GLOBDIVES focuses on addressing diversity issues related to ethnicity, race, nationality, identity, gender and sexual orientation in academic environments. The overall aim of GLOBDIVES is to raise awareness about the growing importance of inclusion and diversity management in higher education institutions in particular and in the European societies in general. More precisely, the project focuses on creating inclusive teaching/learning environments. GLOBDIVES seeks to achieve the following specific objectives:-promote global citizenship, inclusion and diversity management in higher education institutions involved and their respective countries both within academia and outside academia through associated partners; -Develop higher education teachers’ ability to raise awareness about diversity and inclusion in their teaching practices but also their ability to teach effectively in a diverse environment; -enhance the capacity of European higher education institutions at large to develop and implement courses on Global Citizenship and Diversity Management (GC & DM); -Design a European course on Global Citizenship and Diversity Management (GC & DM).<< Implementation >>The implementation of the following activities will enable to achieve the objectives of the project:- Intensive programme for students. Although the main goal of the programme is to test the course and educate students, the event will also be an opportunity for promoting GLOBDIVES and its results to students;- Train-the-teachers workshop and local training seminars/webinars: aimed at 525 teachers, the events will also be an opportunity for promoting GLOBDIVES and its results to targeted teachers;- Local dissemination seminars (physical and webinars). The three in-person dissemination seminars planned in Germany, Finland, and Romania (countries where the intellectual outputs will be produced) will allow to promote GLOBDIVES and its results within academia;- Promotion of GLOBDIVES and dissemination of its results outside academic through associated partners. The use of partners and their networks will enable the promotion GLOBDIVES and dissemination of its results outside academic communities of partners' countries;- Local researches in academic environments and labour markets. GLOBDIVES seeks to develop an inclusive European approach to GC & DM promotion and education. Thus, local researches will enable to incorporate different European perspectives in the design of the toolkit for raising awareness about diversity and inclusion in teaching practices and for teaching in a diverse academic environment will be produced and documented, in the design of a Common European Pedagogical Toolkit and Framework for course design on GC & DM, and in the design of an European course on GC & DM;- Testing the toolkits, framework and the course.- Implementing the course at HEIs involved as elective online and in presence;<< Results >>The project is expected to produce the following results and outcomes during and after its completion: 1. Three (03) specific researches are carried out by all partners, linked to the three intellectual outputs expected to be produced. Data collected for each research will be consolidated, their findings will be reported in a written form and saved for educational or further research purposes during and beyond the project period; 2. One (01) Train-The-Teachers toolkit for raising awareness about diversity and inclusion in teaching practices and for teaching in a diverse academic environment will be produced and documented; At the end of the project, this will serve as readily available and easy-to-implement materials for developing teachers' competences in the area of GC & DM.3. One (01) Common European Pedagogical Toolkit and Framework for course design on GC & DM will be created and documented; At the end of the project this resource will be made publicly available to European institutions willing to embark in the design of their own GC & DM courses;4. a 5-ECT Course on Global Citizenship and Diversity Management will be designed and documented; the course and its full description and syllabus will equally be made available in open access sources as a ready-to-implement course for European education institutions;5. The 5-ECT course will be implemented as elective subject at HEIs involved during the second year of the project period. At least two hundred and eighty (280) will then benefit from the course that year, including 80 students in LAB, 80 students in htw saar, 40 students in UAIC, 40 students in UVIGO, and 40 students in KK; the total number of students benefiting can be bigger if CampusOnline (nationwide platform of online courses produced by Finnish UAS’) is opened to European students;6. During the implementation of the project, five hundred and twenty-five (525) teachers from partners' countries will be trained based on the outcome Nr.2 and 2 twenty-five teachers from partner universities will be trained directly during the train-the-teachers workshop. In return, trained teachers will also train one hundred (100) teachers at home institution; the local training will be done in-person via workshops/seminars for KK, LAB, and UAIC; however, due to internal regulations the local training of teachers will be done via webinars in htw saar and UVIGO. 7. During the implementation of the project, fifty (50) students are directly given the course on GC & DM. This will occur during the implementation of the intensive programme for students;8. GLOBDIVES and its results will be promoted directly to at least 50 students participating to the intensive programme, to 525 teachers taking part in the train the teachers seminars, but also to 180 teachers in Germany, Finland, and Romania thanks to the planned dissemination seminars.

The COVID-19 outbreak has had a significant impact on higher education all over the world. Universities had to rapidly transform their study programmes to be delivered online to keep student retention and maintain access to learning. The adjustment however comes with significant challenges not only in relation to the technical aspects of handling several hundred online lectures simultaneously but also to the methodology of the teaching process and the teacher-student interaction. The technological development and wide availability of basic ICT tools make the shift to online education relatively easy. The real challenge of today however is to consciously choose available collaboration tools and engagement methods to arouse student interest and provoke a response for a more efficient and effective communication and learning experience while away from a traditional classroom. To face that challenge, the universities involved in the project – Lodz University of technology (Poland), University of Applied Sciences in Saarbrücken (Germany), University of Alcalá (Spain) and University of Aveiro (Portugal) – decided to join forces for the development, implementation and dissemination of innovative and comprehensive teaching and learning solutions, supported by advanced IT technologies and tools, to increase the level of student-teacher interaction during online education: 1. Methodology of Interactive Asynchronous and Synchronous Online STEM Education 2. Distance Teaching Toolbox for Educators 3. Teacher Training Courses 4. Smart Gamification Based On Multiple Intelligence Theory 5. Online Badges For Sustainable Education (21st Century Skills ) 6. Guidelines and Recommendations To further benefit the project participants, the consortium will offer a series of training opportunities for academic teachers tailored to their individual needs to increase their competences for effective online teaching arousing student interest and responsiveness. The students will get a chance to meet in several of the partner countries to conduct a gamification learning experience in the blended formula and to develop the 21st century skills sought by the labour market. The project is directed towards students and academics of the consortium universities and beyond ready to bring the ICT technology to the forefront when facing the challenges of online education.

"The European Union is currently facing multiple social and political challenges: nationalism, populism, euro-scepticism are rising in nearly every European country. There is an urgent need to better educate European citizens and sensitise students about European values and politics. In this context, the University of the Greater Region - UniGR (composed of Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, University of Liège, Université de Lorraine, University of Luxembourg, Saarland University, Trier University) and their associated partner Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft des Saarlandes (htw saar) decided to implement a strategic partnership dedicated to the transmission of European values and fundamental knowledge on Europe. The project consortium’s aim is to provide students of the Greater Region, regardless of their academic discipline, with a fundamental knowledge about Europe and intercultural competences. The latter comprise competences that the eight consortium partners consider to be essential for students in order to understand and tackle future challenges the world will be facing, especially in a cross-border region at the heart of Europe. The acquired competences will also prepare the students for their future careers in Europe.The project EurIdentity Certificate will focus on the creation of a common certificate composed of two levels, combining theoretical learning, international mobility and innovative teaching formats:Level 1 of the certificate will be optional at first, but the ultimate goal is to implement it as a mandatory element of all study programmes within the seven partner universities, after the project period. It will offer a combination of new pedagogical formats (virtual mobility, peer-to-peer courses and common project work) and a joint face-to-face seminar. A diverse sample of students coming from the seven universities and from diverse fields of study will be selected to participate in and evaluate the ""test run"" that will take place in the third year of the project.Level 2 of the certificate addresses students who wish to acquire a deeper knowledge about the European Union and European cultures. Students will select courses from a common catalogue, regularly updated by the seven universities. They will have to attend at least one course at one of the partner institutions.The faculty members and administrative staff of the seven universities will closely work together to implement the certificate simultaneously at each university. As such, the project will foster cooperation within UniGR and the Greater Region. It will also provide inspiration to other university alliances in Europe and around the globe."

The possibility of providing connected, cooperative and autonomous mobility (CCAM) services along different countries when vehicles traverse various national borders has a huge innovative business potential. However, the seamless provision of connectivity and the uninterrupted delivery of services along borders also poses interesting technical challenges. The situation is particularly challenging given the multi-country, multi-operator, multi-telco-vendor, and multi-vehicle-OEM scenario of any cross-border layout. Motivated by this, 5GCroCo brings together a strong consortium from both, European automotive and mobile communications industries, with the explicit support or road traffic authorities and the respective national governments (through letters of support), to develop innovation at the intersection of these two industrial sectors. The aim is to define a successful path towards the provision of CCAM services along cross-border scenarios and reduce the uncertainties of a real 5G cross-border deployment. 5GCroCo aims at trialling 5G technologies in the cross-border corridor connecting the cities of Metz-Merzig-Luxembourg, traversing the borders between France, Germany and Luxembourg. The objective is to validate advanced 5G features, such as New Radio, MEC-enabled distributed computing, Predictive QoS, Network Slicing, and improved positioning systems, all combined together, to enable innovative use cases for CCAM. 5GCroCo aims at defining new business models that can be built on top of this unprecedented connectivity and service provisioning capacity, also ensuring that relevant standardization bodies from the two involved industries are impacted. 5GCroCo validation will focus on three use cases: 1) tele-operated driving, 2) high definition maps for autonomous vehicles, and 3) Anticipated Cooperative Collision Avoidance (ACCA) and will also provide general recommendations for any other use cases.

The C-MobILE (Accelerating C-ITS Mobility Innovation and depLoyment in Europe) vision is a fully safe & efficient road transport without casualties and serious injuries on European roads, in particular in complex urban areas and for Vulnerable Road Users. We envision a congestion-free, sustainable and economically viable mobility, minimizing the environmental impact of road transport. C-MobILE will set the basis for large scale deployment in Europe, elevating research pilot sites to deployment locations of sustainable services that are supported by local authorities, using a common approach that ensures interoperability and seamless availability of services towards acceptable end user cost and positive business case for parties in the supply chain. The C-MobILE project will produce 7 key results: - C-ITS framework defined in partnerships with major stakeholders for proposing key deployment enabling solutions on existing pilot sites, including business cases - Strategic Research Agenda defined for key researching and innovation areas that promote sustainable C-ITS deployments and will lead towards automated transport in Europe - Assessment including CBA of the cumulative real-life benefits of clustering C-ITS applications and integrating multiple transport modes in the C-ITS ecosystem - Open secure large-scale C-ITS deployment of new and existing applications demonstrated in complex urban environments interoperable across countries involving large groups of end users - Provide an open platform towards C-ITS sources to support deployment of service concepts on commodity devices, validated by developer communities - Validated operational procedures for large-scale deployment of sustainable C-ITS services in Europe - Released testing methodologies to evaluate the proven impact of C-ITS architectures and services