Humanity is presently at the brink of a new era in space development likely to irreversibly bind our daily lives to assets in orbit and beyond. Starting from the paradigm of 6G wireless networks that in the next decade will release cellular services from spaceborne base stations, a diverse range of sectors including energy, materials, nano, bio and pharma will extend activities into LEO orbit. Space is thus evolving into an ever-greater strategic priority for the European society, economy, security and sovereignty. Despite World-class capacities that Europe enjoys, present trends present substantial threats for the future. Current practice poses unviable burden on the terrestrial and orbital environments. Competition from established and emerging players threatens the European position, whilst ease of access is turning space into an increasingly contested domain. The vision of SPARE is to underpin Responsible Growth for space along three interconnected innovation objectives: - Sustainability: ensure space uses natural resources responsibly across terrestrial & orbital environments - Resilience: embed in space systems security, safety & robustness against technical failures and malicious acts - Competitiveness: create value proposition amid fast evolving industry, market & regulatory landscapes Adopting a broad perspective where engineering and technological innovation are intimately linked with the environment, regulation and the economy, SPARE delivers a World-class training programme addressing critical bottlenecks along the pathways to sustainable and resilient growth of the European space sector.

SPARKUP proposal is motivated by the pressing need to address the increasing risks posed by CBRNE threats, particularly in the Southern CEE region. This region faces unique challenges due to its proximity to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and other geopolitical instabilities. The urgency to strengthen the region's preparedness and response capabilities is paramount, necessitating a robust approach to research and innovation in the field. SPARKUP seeks to bridge gaps in the European Research Area (ERA) by enhancing the interoperability of careers across academic and non-academic sectors, thereby improving the employability of R&I talents. By fostering greater collaboration and knowledge exchange SPARKUP aims to create a more dynamic and integrated research ecosystem. By enhancing career prospects SPARKUP not only contributes to the retention of top talents within Europe but also ensures that researchers are better equipped to address the complex challenges posed by CBRNE threats. The project aims to deliver a strategy that includes a targeted upskilling programme designed to equip researchers and innovators with the necessary skills to excel in their careers. This approach not only boosts employability but also ensures that the next generation of CBRNE experts is capable of responding effectively to the specific risks faced by the Southern CEE region. The project is structured around three main pillars: (1) Comprehensive talent development and circulation activities will be launched to swiftly force collaborations of academic and non-academic sector. (2) The project will establish the groundwork for sustainable talent management and R&I capabilities within the region's leading CBRNE academies through organized knowledge transfers and shared infrastructure. (3) A Center of Excellence will be established at UCPS, positioning it as a flagship institution in the Southern CEE region for talent development, R&I support, and cross-sectoral knowledge exchange.

Current geopolitical situation creates a challenge for national and international security systems. A constant growing number of armed conflicts, as well as an escalation of political disputes justify an increased role of defense education.In the ensuing situation, in order to meet the current security demands and challenges, the EU member states put a particular emphasis on a modification of military education systems.The key activity is focused on a standardization of curricula and their implementation during the international semester as part of the 1st cycle military studies. Unification of the didactic process would allow students to choose and follow study programmes in an international environment, which further prepare them to efficiently cooperate within a framework of European military units built to strengthen safe and secure EU.A significant support is required in order to sustain development and provide equal opportunities for military education. Currently, military students constitute a specific group that is “discriminated” as concerns mobility opportunities of Erasmus+ programme. It is not the case, however, of an intentional or institutional discrimination, but a result of internal legal regulations of military academies, which, according to the national laws, are obliged to fulfil requirements of both ministries of defense and higher education. One of the effects of such situation is the 20% increase of mandatory number of hours prescribed to satisfy the accreditation demands. Furthermore, as part of their basic military education, cadets must complete their vocational training interwoven with academic instructions, which takes place in training centers and military units. These requirements exhaust time that could be used for student mobility, and create problems with recognition of qualifications earned abroad.The need of standardization of the officer preparation programs that gives an opportunity to conduct part of the education within the framework of the international semesters, demands from the partner institutions a systemic approach in modification of their study programs in order to fill the gap in cadets’ education by activation of so-called “mobility windows”, that not collide with their required military training.The innovative character of the proposed project was based on the situation that, despite of growing importance of defense and security affairs within the EU’s policy, there is still lack of initiatives that support and promote common education and international exchange of military students. Moreover, the project consists of a pioneered product – the education program of international military semester.The partner academies reached the assumed goal by executing the following tasks:1. Defining common programs content and its implementation to the international semester. Nine courses/modules were defined and the course cards were prepared and presented to the international group of evaluators in order to receive accreditation. This was achieved after completing a process of securing Common Module recognition for all nine courses confirmed by the EU Implementation Group and European Defense and Security College. 2. Developing comprehensive education program for the 1st level studies, conducted during the so-called “mobility windows” (30 ECTS).3. Developing material and tools supporting the international semester’s education program. All of them constitute the package enabling any institution responsible for education of future officers in EU and NATO, to implement and start the international semester. All developed material (programs, course cards, e-books, e-learning content, and support material) was peer-reviewed, tested and updated where applicable, and made available to interested parties.4. Implementing international semester program –a pilot phase throughout the project in the form of blended mobility. In the summer semester of 2017, cadets from five partner academies and universities, as well as additional cadets from Italy and the US, took part in activities designed to test the contents and structure of the international semester.Additionally, in accordance with the overall idea, the proposed project included organization of side activities aimed at promotion and proliferation of an intellectual work effects and the overall ideas of the project.The credibility of the strategic partnership based on their long-lasting cooperation within multilateral programs such as the Erasmus+ Program, common international education projects, and constant mutual research and didactic events.The implementation of the project has positively affected the development of cooperation between military education institutions of the EU countries, especially in the area of common initiatives aimed at consolidation of higher education systems, which would help to satisfy popular demands for more secure EU.

The AquaNES project will catalyse innovations in water and wastewater treatment processes and management through improved combinations of natural and engineered components. Among the demonstrated solutions are natural treatment processes such as bank filtration (BF), managed aquifer recharge (MAR) and constructed wetlands (CW) plus engineered pre- and post-treatment options. The project focuses on 13 demonstration sites in Europe, India and Israel covering a repre-sentative range of regional, climatic, and hydrogeological conditions in which different combined natural-engineered treatment systems (cNES) will be demonstrated through active collaboration of knowledge and technology providers, water utilities and end-users. Our specific objectives are • to demonstrate the benefits of post-treatment options such as membranes, activated carbon and ozonation after bank filtration for the production of safe drinking water • to validate the treatment and storage capacity of soil-aquifer systems in combination with oxidative pre-treatments • to demonstrate the combination of constructed wetlands with different technical post- or pre-treatment options (ozone or bioreactor systems) as a wastewater treatment option • to evidence reductions in operating costs and energy consumption • to test a robust risk assessment framework for cNES • to deliver design guidance for cNES informed by industrial or near-industrial scale expe-riences • to identify and profile new market opportunities in Europe and overseas for cNES The AquaNES project will demonstrate combined natural-engineered treatment systems as sus-tainable adaptations to issues such as water scarcity, excess water in cities and micro-pollutants in the water cycle. It will thus have impact across the EIP Water’s thematic priorities and cross-cutting issues, particularly on ‘Water reuse & recycling’, ‘Water and wastewater treatment’, ‘Water-energy nexus’, ‘Ecosystem services’, ‘Water governance’, and ‘DSS & monitoring’.

"The Cyber Aware Students for Public Administration (CASPA) project aims to develop and maintain innovative courses in the field of cybersecurity, specially designed for university students who will work in public administrations as end users or as user having special role in cybersecurity. Recognizing the needs of the public sector, our aim is dual. First, we aim to educate our non-technical students, who will serve in the public service in their home countries, on the basics of cybersecurity, their roles and responsibilities, including the legislative, policy and technical aspects. Second, we aim to develop cybersecurity competences of those in public service, who will represent their countries abroad, engage in cyber diplomacy and everyone who needs to work in the field of international relations and must understand this new phenomenon. The CASPA project has four members: National University of Public Service, Hungary (NUPS); Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia (TalTech); Kosciuszko Institute, Poland (KI); and Cyex OÜ, Estonia. These four organizations have prior cooperation and deep expertise in the field of cybersecurity as follows:1.NUPS and TalTech have master programs on cybersecurity and have a mutual agreement since 2018 to coordinate their activities in cybersecurity-related education and research. They are also key partners of their public service in cybersecurity-related education and research.2.KI is a leading non-governmental think tank and the biggest cybersecurity research institute in Poland on cybersecurity. It is originator and organizer of the European Cybersecurity Forum - CYBERSEC, an annual conference dedicated to the strategic aspects of cybersecurity with its editions held in Krakow, Katowice, Brussels and Washington DC. KI creates reports, policy briefs and articles about the most current cybersecurity challenges. It runs the European Cybersecurity Journal.3.Cyex OÜ is a cybersecurity startup with an innovative education platform for awareness raising. Cyex develops a B2B software-as-a-service dedicated to the training of non-technical employees. Cyex’s mission is to help people become cyber wise with the implementation of personalized learning-by-doing techniques in realistic situations. With the applied techniques and methodologies cyber skills can be transformed 55% more effectively than traditional solutions. One of its origin is NUPS and the startup successfully participated in the first cybersecurity, AI and defense focused accelerator program of Estonia in 2019. 4.KI and Cyex have active roles in students’ engagement in cybersecurity. KI is running programmes: “Girls Go Cyber"", CYBERSEC WOMEN, etc. Cyex OÜ is organizing the National Cybersecurity Competition for university students in Hungary.All of these activities are mainly focusing on future and current employees of public service. In CASPA, we will align our knowledge, resources and activities and will reshape and adjust our courses and build up a strategic partnership to develop innovative outputs of our existing activities in cybersecurity awareness and produce new activities in cyber diplomacy, focusing on the specialties of Visegrad 4 countries and Baltic region. Our objectives are the followings:•To map and classify the cybersecurity competence requirements in non-technical fields in public administrations•To adjust existing cybersecurity awareness courses •To create a new module on cyber diplomacy •To provide both courses on the innovative platform of cyex.io•To test and validate project results on all participants’ activities•To disseminate project results in both scientific and non-scientific publications and eventsCASPA is planned for 3 years. In the first year we review the literature for best practices, conduct interviews through our professional channels, evaluate our current courses with the representatives of public administration. On that basis, we refine our current materials and start developing the missing ones. In the second year, we finalize the contents and incorporate them both into our existing learning systems and the innovative system of cyex.io. That will be evaluated with focus groups in our events and tested with selected student groups. In the third year, we refine and disseminate the results in scientific papers, professional journals and already selected events.As impacts, the two universities will be able to provide the latest knowledge for their own students in innovative ways. KI can enrich their research, advisory and publishing work with the topics and results of CASPA project. Cyex can further develop its platform and reach future customers, even outside Europe with the newly generated contents. We’ll also teach the content in special courses for the current employees of the public service. We are confident, that both cybersecurity awareness and cyber diplomacy will become an integral knowledge part of the public servants in relevant roles."