Mountains cover 30% of the land area and are home to 17% of the EU´s population, meaning that every 6th EU citizen lives in mountainous areas. While we often associate mountains with breathtaking landscapes that offer perfect sites for relaxation, in truth, mountains are much more than that. In fact, mountains play a crucial role in our daily lives by providing vital resources and key community systems to the global population. Mountains like other areas face unprecedented challenges in terms of climate change (CC), however mountain ecosystems are more sensitive to CC. The harmful conditions provoked by CC are exacerbated by the significant deficits in adaptation responses mountainous areas have, stemming from several existing gaps, including shortcomings in CCA options, deficits in the uptake and the lack of coherence. MountResilience has been formulated to increase the adaptation capacity of mountainous regions and communities so as to strengthen climate resilience within the European mountainous biogeographical region (Alpine biogeographical region). The project aims to accelerate the climate resilient transformation of 10 of the most relevant communities and regions located in the mountains in 9 European countries. 6 of the regions will develop and test transformative CCA solutions (technological and social innovations with nature-based solutions at their core). These solutions will address policy, governance, societal needs and behaviours, technological requirements, public and financing targets, and CC risks typical of mountainous areas. Regional quadruple-helix partnerships will use open innovation, participatory decision-making, stakeholder engagement approaches, and effective communication to mobilise, engage, and reach out to key communities. The remaining 4 regions will serve as "replicator" regions, repurposing CCA solutions and lessons learned from the demo regions in their regions through special initiatives to improve their adaptive capacity.

Twenty partners in Bulgaria come together for European Researchers Night ‘20 to present FRESHER (Find Research Everywhere, SHare and expERience) - a 12-month project led by the Centre for Research & Analysis, in a Consortium, now in its 5th year, with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, universities, research institutes, the only Bulgarian tech park, a chamber of industry and commerce, the local office of a pan-European organisation, education entrepreneurship, and associate partners. FRESHER offers a series of specially curated, coordinated, multi-day participatory events at over 50 venues and 30+ schools in 25 cities/towns/villages. The talks, shows, hands-on experiments, lab visits, citizen research, competitions will reach 3.6 mln, and engage directly with 30,000 in face-to-face events at schools, libraries, museums, academic and outdoor venues, public transport and online. Building on well researched, popular formats for researchers’ engagement with the public, FRESHER provides multidisciplinary content around the International Year of Plant Health. The topic will feature in the programmes of all partners to assert the relevance of research to everyday life. Building on the Consortium’s existing understanding developed through previous local initiatives including Researchers Night, and addressing findings of research (MASIS report, Education & Training Monitor 2019 for Bulgaria, Women in Digital Scoreboard 2019, Science, Research & Innovation Performance in EU 2018), FRESHER focuses on enhancing public engagement with research and shortening the gap in the decision of young people and girls in particular to choose STEAM careers. The activities will step on previous evaluation and generate fresh, aligned data. The project will strengthen the capacity of all partners to organise accessible events for the general public, and to tailor messages for underserved audiences, including girls, young people at risk of school drop-out, as well as people with special needs.

This project is an initiative of 7 partners from Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. The partnership includes 2 universities, 1 private company, and 4 directorates of education (one local and 3 regional). TARGET GROUPSThe project addresses the needs of the following target groups:-secondary school teachers (especially in STEM fields)-secondary school students-regional and local educational authorities-school managers and administratorsCONTEXTSTEM knowledge and skills are regarded as key to Europe’s competiveness and its ability to address societal challenges. Currently, there are not enough STEM graduates to meet the demand for STEM professionals. It is therefore necessary to increase the proportion of students interested in, and well prepared for, STEM studies and career. STEM needs to respond to the latest changes in technology and industry demands. At the same time, it needs to become more inclusive, engaging and attractive to students.3D technology, especially when combined with Programming, can greatly enrich current STEM initiatives. It develops students’ creativity, innovation and problem-solving skills. It sensitizes students to the link between STEM and the production process. It also fares very well in terms of student engagement. 3D leads to results that students can literally touch and see, which is satisfying and can make STEM activities more agreeable to otherwise reluctant learners. Finally, it is one of the best technologies for seamlessly integrating STEM into Arts & Design.OBJECTIVESThe project’s overall objective is to enable the application of 3D design and printing in STEM education in secondary schools.The specific objectives are to:-Provide teachers and students with learning/teaching resources on 3D design and printing-Provide teachers and students with learning/teaching resources on the application of the Python programming language in 3D design and creative explorations of 3D models-Equip teachers with methodological and didactic guidance for the design and delivery of STEM education in the 3D technology area.MAIN ACTIVITIES AND RESULTSThe partnership will produce the following intellectual outputs:1. Extracurricular Training Program “Introduction to 3D design and 3D printing”2. Extracurricular Training Program “Python for 3D printing and creative explorations of 3D models”3. Classroom Guide for Applying 3D Design, Printing and Programming in Learning ActivitiesThe following events will be organized during the project:-A Stakeholder Buy-In Workshop-Creativity workshops-Dissemination Conferences-A joint staff training-Trainings of Maker School Trainers-Demonstrations of the process of 3D design and printing to students-other dissemination events. EXPECTED IMPACTSLike many other new technologies, 3D technology is becoming cheaper, adapted to a greater variety of uses and users, and thus increasingly affordable. With this project, we seek to provide schools and their teachers with the tools, confidence and support to do the best with this technology in both curricular and extracurricular activities once it arrives in their school.At local level, the project will target local schools, teachers, students, local authorities and local educational directorates. It will aim at raising awareness that 3D technology creates many opportunities for improving the quality of curricular teaching and for delivering engaging and effective extracurricular STEM and STEAM (STEM and Arts) activities that are suitable also to reluctant STEM learners. It will also raise awareness among teachers and students that 3D technology can be integrated in learning in the areas of Informatics and Computer Science to build competitive skills and knowledge. In the long run, the project will seek to contribute to improved extracurricular STEM and STEAM education in schools, stronger involvement of students in such education, and new professional development opportunities for teachers in STEM and all other disciplines.At regional level the project will target public bodies responsible for education and in the long run will aim to contribute to better strategies for enhancing student results in the area of STEM learning at secondary school level. At national and international levels, the project expects to contribute to raising awareness of the full potential of 3D technology to improve STEM and STEAM learning, to advance students results in computer science and programming, to build design thinking skills and to prepare learners for Industry 4.0.

Traditional learning methodologies based on passive transmission of information, fail to develop a set of competences that students require for their professional life and their relation with the surrounding Society. Therefore, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are required to modernize their pedagogical methodologies, moving into active learning processes whereby students engage in activities that promote higher order learning skills like analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Project and Problem-based learning (PBL) are active and learner-centred methodologies in which students develop their knowledge and competences by following a problem solving process, usually based on real-life situations. The identified benefits for engineering and technology students are considerable improvements in critical, lateral and creative thinking, problem solving strategies, intrinsic motivation, group collaboration, communication skills, entrepreneurship and integration with the society. Supporting active learning through ICT tools (virtual social communities, games and VR/AR simulations) creates Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) where the new technologically-savvy generation of students feels comfortable. The objective of the ALIEN (Active Learning In ENgineering education) project is thus to design, implement and validate an active learning methodology based on PBL (Project/Problem) environments addressing real-life issues related to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) concepts. The methodology will be supported by a VLE including a set of digital tools that will allow students to experiment, collaborate and communicate in an extended and multinational learning community that will also include other stakeholders like teachers and researchers.ALIEN’s expected impact includes the institutional strategical adoption of active learning as the primary pedagogical approach to education.

The current project addresses the problems of manufacturing SMEs’ managers, people employed in SMEs (technicians, administrative staff) as well as vocational students and trainers/consultants in terms of robotics and lack of training means to facilitated innovation technology introduction in SMEs belonging to the manufacturing sector. The main objective of the current project is to provide an interactive training in the field of robotics and to assist robotics introduction in manufacturing SMEs. Thus project realization would increase level of innovativeness of SMEs and finally result for them in a significantly higher competitiveness on the market. RoboMatic will be developed in close cooperation of 5 partners from 4 countries. The project partnership includes organisations with significant background in the field of Robotics. The applicant organisation CONSULTORES DE AUTOMATIZACION Y ROBOTICA S.A. (CARSA) is the Spain’s oldest existing innovation management consultancy firm, possessing over 25 years of tradition and experience in three main areas: innovation, technology and internationalization. PRZEMYSLOWY INSTYTUT AUTOMATYKI I POMIAROW (PIAP) is a research centre dealing with practical aspects of automation and robotisation as well as vocational training for enterprises in this area. Technical University of Gabrovo (TUGAB) is a public university providing degree courses for Bachelor, Master and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering, electronics, automation, computer science, mechanical engineering, management and social sciences. It coordinates and participates in various educational and scientific projects at national and European level. Tallinn Technical University (TUT) is a co-ordinator between different educational, training and professional establishments, has a good experience in the industry automation, robotics and electrical drives, which match the content of the current project. European Center for Quality Ltd. (ECQ) is a private organisation with good experience in the work with projects under different EU programmes and expertise in quality standards introduction in SMEs. All partners have the necessary experience not only in the respective professional area they occupy but also in transnational cooperation in different EU projects and programmes. This will contribute to the creation of a working and successful partnership within and after the project realization. Expected outputs: Report on manufacturing SMEs requirements and constraints with respect to introduction and training of innovation robotic solutions, RoboMatic Curricula, RoboMatic Methodology, RoboMatic Course and RoboMatic Handbook. All intellectual outputs will be hosted on an interactive web-based platform, including e-learning approach. The project will have a great impact on how innovation is managed in European manufacturing SMEs. The project’s impact on them will be in form of robotics training of their managers and employees. Increased innovativeness of their workers will be further impacts. In addition, increased competitiveness of their operations will increase the competitiveness level of European SMEs.