In response to the COVID-19 unprecedented crisis schools and universities closing down almost immediately and simultaneously, education all around the world needed to change its course of action and move the majority of the class interaction online. The project partners noticed that the cohort of students most affected by the consequences of the global health crisis was made up of the mobile students (both incoming and outgoing). Apart from the need to adjust to online teaching and learning, the mobile students also had to adapt to the new conditions of living in lock-down in a foreign country with little to no cultural background/information and sometimes isolated from other students with whom they could connect and share. The psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis on mobile students cannot be denied and nobody can predict the extent in which their academic and personal development track has been shaken. The main objective of the CONFIDENT project is to address the needs of mobile students signaled in times of crisis and equip them with proper instruments and tools in order to enhance their confidence, their readiness to take on the world and enrich their personality. The project will allow mobile students to consolidate and expand their soft skills which are most of the times neglected and tap into these competences whenever they will need them in their work and personal life. The newly acquired transferable skills will be of much use in the new world the students will live in and will help them better cope with future challenges.The project reunites 3 partner universities of a larger consortium, ENGAGED, who have already worked together for the submission of a project within the European Universities call, namely: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi (UAIC), Romania, Hochschule Bremen City University of Applied Sciences (HSB), Germany and Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK), Finland. Other three universities from the larger consortium will be Associated Partners (Hanze University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands, Polytechnic Institute of Braganza, Portugal and Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland). Five (5) Intellectual Outputs will be carried out throughout the project: 1 Online Self-Assessment Intercultural & Digital Competence Tool (IO1) which will assess the students’ competency level in the field of Intercultural Communication and Digital Learning and will be a starting point for the construction of the IO2 and IO3, 2 Learning Modules in Intercultural Communication (IO2) and Digital Learning (IO3) under video form which will be openly available on the partner universities’ websites, 1 Cyber Café (IO4) whose role will be to gather the mobile students around the two focal topics of the project (Intercultural Communication and Digital Learning) and at the same time provide a virtual space for social and personal interaction. The final IO5 will be comprised of the Satisfaction Survey and Analysis Report which will highlight how the mobile students evaluated their newly acquired skills. The IOs will be tested and implemented during the Intensive Fall Week for Mobile Students (C1) which will host mobile students from the partner universities.Three (3) Multiplier Events will be organized in each of the partner institutions with the aim to raise awareness regarding the development of mobile students’ soft skills which are much needed in today’s global, digital world. The Multiplier Events will be organized as follows: the 1st Multiplier Event will be hosted by University of Applied Sciences Bremen, Germany (dissemination of IO1 - Online Self-Assessment Intercultural & Digital Competence Tool). The 2nd Multiplier Event will be organized in Tampere by Tampere University of Applied Sciences (dissemination of IO2 - Online Open Module in Intercultural Communication and IO3 - Online Open Module in Digital Learning) while the 3rd Multiplier Event will take place in Iasi at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi (dissemination of IO4 - the Cyber Café for Mobile Students and IO5 -Satisfaction Survey and Analysis Report). Four (4) Transnational Meetings among partners will be held as part of the management and communication strategy to expose, develop and analyze the results of the IOs. The results of the project will enable the staff involved in the project (IROs and administrative offices, teaching staff) get acquainted with the expectations of mobile students so that they can cater better to their needs. It will be at the same time an opportunity to reflect on the added value of these competences and their practical use in the students’ daily life. The main desired impact of the project at local, regional, national and EU level is the development of shared awareness on the usefulness of intercultural and digital skills before, during and after an international mobility, spreading from the partners of the project to other partner institutions and stakeholders.

<< Background >>According to the recently published European Digital Education Action Plan (2021-20217), “digital transformation has transformed society and the economy with an ever-deepening impact on everyday life. However, until the COVID-19 pandemic, its impact on education and training was much more limited.” The cooperation partnership that the IGNITION project aspires to initiate, identifies equal urgency and needs as established by the European Digital Education Action Plan: fostering the development of a high-performing digital education ecosystem and enhancing digital skills and competences for the digital transformation (2021-2027). IGNITION partners experience that the accelerated digital transformation has a high impact on their teaching staff, students, and life-long learners, as well as on the external parties from the regional ecosystem of innovation they collaborate with. All these target audiences are challenged to keep up with digitalization and avoid exclusion from digital environments as well as the labor force and society. HEIs play a vital role in the development of people, facilitating their academic, professional, and personal growth with innovative pedagogies that aim to develop professional, future proof and digital skills. HEIs also play a vital role in regional development through joint research and innovation activities with regional companies and other public or social organisations. These external parties concur increasingly to HEIs in search of ways to tackle complex problems and to explore innovative solutions for challenges in domains like health, climate, mobility, energy, or digital transformation itself. The development of regional engaged HEIs nurtures, in turn, educational programs with real life challenges where students have the possibility to learn complex problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, leadership, digital literacy, and other relevant skills in direct interaction with external parties. In this context, collaboration stands out as the crucial human process which occupies, through innovative pedagogies like challenge-based learning (CB), an increasing part of the learning processes. because of the growing intertwining between higher education and practice orientated research following the Quintuple Helix innovation model. The abrupt shift to digital learning environments due to Covid19 contributed to a boost of educational technology with (re)new(ed) tools and platforms, many of them pursuing to enable collaborative learning that facilitates challenge-based innovation with multiple stakeholders. The large-scale delivery of online education made clear that many teachers had difficulties in adapting and felt ill-equipped regarding their digital skills, whilst others with more digital competences emerged as facilitating peers. Students and long-life learners in full and part time educational programs experienced difficulties too, not only regarding digital competences but also on how to engage with multiple stakeholders in collaborative learning settings going online. Collaboration with external stakeholders, particularly micro companies, and self-employed professionals, was also put on hold because of remote work, and barriers to access HEIs infrastructures and programs for them were experienced higher. The accelerated digital shift has shown the urge to enhance digital literacy and inclusion of HEIs and the innovation ecosystem they engage with for collaboration and innovation. The needs that IGNITION plan to address include the development of a shared vision and agenda for digital literacy and inclusion; the increase in awareness and competence development in digital literacy and innovative pedagogies, methods, and digital tools; the inclusion of digital less skilled people of target audiences; and the need to learn with and from each other and share experiences.<< Objectives >>The needs that IGNITION plan to address align with the priorities of earlier mentioned European Digital Education Action Plan and in the context of digital transformation taking place at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the innovation ecosystem they engage in. Therefore, IGNITION main goal is to strengthen project partners in their efforts to enhance the digital literacy of teaching staff, students, and the external parties they collaborate and engage with through innovative pedagogies like challenge-based learning (CBL). Partners aim to create an European Digital Literacy Coalition for Inclusion, Collaboration and Innovation enabling involved HEIs to focus on their challenges of digital transformation at the pace of the parallel processes of developing and offering innovative future proof education, with collaboration being a core process as a result of their regional engagement. Partners aim to do that by developing a shared vision and agenda for digital literacy and inclusion; increasing awareness of and competence development in digital literacy of the target audience - teachers and educators, students and life-long learners, and external micro companies and self-employed professionals -; co-create innovative pedagogies and develop and test methods, tools and platforms for digital collaborative learning; and learn from and with each other through a European Teachers’ Community of Practice, whilst strengthening their interconnected higher education systems and ignite change and digital transformation in their organisations and those of the regional ecosystem of innovation they are engaged with. Partners theory of change is that through IGNITION, partners can improve the abilities of the target audience to understand, deal with and deploy digital technologies; critically assess the digital environments, information, and media they use and create; continue to develop and engage with innovative teaching and collaborative learning practices; and become responsible, confident digital and global citizens.<< Implementation >>Partners will start IGNITION by gathering experiences and information that will help to establish a shared vision on digital literacy and inclusion at HEIs. The resulting Digital Literacy Framework and Agenda will support them in developing and prioritizing the activities for the Teachers Community of Practice and the Digital Challenge and Innovation Learning Lab. Furthermore, partners will co-design an Online Self-assessment Tool that will rely heavily on the European Framework for the Digital Competences of Educators, DigCompEdu, aimed at raising awareness and knowledge about the digital literacy needs of people in all target audiences and will be employed in the two learning, teaching and training activities (C1 and C2) that IGNITION plans to implement at IGNITION Teachers Community of Practice (IO3) and the Digital Challenge and Innovation Learning Lab (IO4). The activities of the Teachers Community of Practice include the co-design of teaching and learning activities to train teachers in providing their lessons with digital environments and tools, as well as teaching activities for educators who teach their students and life-long learners in digital literacy for inclusion. Teachers of participating HEIs will meet virtually throughout the project duration on a regular and flexible basis for training sessions in digital literacy; showcasing best practices and sharing innovative teaching and learning experiences; Q&S sessions on specific topics or tools that are demanded by teachers; communication of activities and results of IGNITION and the Teachers Community of Practice to mobilize and engage other teachers and educators. Next to that, partners will design and implement a Digital Challenge and Innovation Learning Lab (IO4) where international and multidisciplinary student teams will work on external stakeholders’ challenges, using and experimenting with collaborative digital tools, innovative methods, and virtual platforms. Here partners will co-design and implement a CBL program and test tools and methods for collaboration and innovation, including digital literacy development based on the self-assessment tool (OI2) and trainings in digital tools. This will be done in collaboration with external micro companies and self-employed professionals who are included in the training sessions (C2). The Digital Challenge and Innovation Learning Lab will be supported by the project’s website and a virtual campus that offers virtual space for disseminating and communicating calls for action and project results; space to host virtual multidisciplinary and international work sessions and events; and stimulate open innovation. The Digital Challenge and Innovation Learning Lab will, in this way, enhance virtual mobility to involved persons from all target audiences in its activities. During the activities of the Digital Challenge and Innovation Learning Lab, partners will furthermore explore and develop a toolkit with strategies, digital media and new methods that facilitate the inclusion of micro companies and self-employed professionals in HEIs infrastructures and programs (IO5), since they experience barriers to access HEIs infrastructures and programs, and having them participating as external stakeholders of the challenges, will facilitate a joint development of mentioned toolkit (IO5). Finally, partners will conduct several evaluations through surveys and focus group sessions with all target audiences to learn from all activities and share the outcomes of the activities and learned lessons with a broader public.<< Results >>As a result of above-mentioned activities, the cooperation partnership will produce the following expected outcomes: •IGNITION Digital Literacy Framework and Agenda (IO1) •Website of the project with access to all the developed tools and resources (IO1) •IGNITION Online Self-assessment tool for digital literacy, based on DigCompEdu methodology (IO2) •Teacher Community of Practice in Digital Literacy for Inclusion, Collaboration, and Innovation (IO3) •IGNITION Digital Challenge and Innovation Learning Lab concept, structure and processes for international student teams working on innovation challenges with external stakeholders through digital tools and platforms for innovation (IO4). This includes new methods and tools for collaboration and innovation, a toolbar for digital challenge-based learning, and a virtual campus for collaborative learning and events •IGNITION Toolkit with new methods, digital media, and strategies for engaging external stakeholders, with a special focus on self-employed professionals, active workers, and micro companies (IO5) •Evaluation Activities and Final Report (IO6)

"Employment is not only a paramount factor in acquiring the necessary resources to live, but also a basic mechanism for the socialization of young people and their inclusion in cases of young people with learning difficulties (early school leaving), or even those with special needs.However, getting a first job to gain experience, generate friendship networks, and start the process to create your own family is not easy. European youth currently faces great difficulties when finding a first job, the alarming situation of unemployment among young people (averaging 22.8% in Europe) and its wide disparity between member countries (there’s a huge gap between counties like Germany -7.8%- and Greece -56.8%-) led the European Commission to approve a Youth Guarantee Plan on April 22nd 2013.Among all work lines that are being undertaken to overcome this situation, we believe that music is a path scarcely used. There are 529 companies in the Valencian Community (occupying 97% of the municipalities) with more than 138.753 members and 39.015 federated musicians. This structure generates wealth since its production amounted to 60.236.360€ in 2013 and created more than 2.500 full-time jobs according to data from the Federation of Musical Societies of Spain.This is why we, five musical entities from different European countries with experience in creating projects that promote the inclusion of young people with disabilities, believe that we should go a step further and help promote youth employability, especially among people with obstacles, using the results of the different youth mobility projects carried out in the past.The project ""THE MUSIC IS THE KEY: IMPROVING YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY"" has created a strategic network between five musical entities across Europe (The Musical Instruction Center of Benimaclet - Spain, Banda Musicale Città di Staffolo - Italy, Sociedade Musical e Recreativa Obidense - Portugal , Hochschule Bremen – IntoNation- Germany, and APSAM -Belgium) and several collaborating entities (many of them working in the field of disabilities), to develop high-quality adapted materials aimed at enhancing youth employability through music, especially of young people with greater difficulty when accessing the labor market. All of this will be done through a participative, self-learning, and non-formal metodology.This partnership has worked for 18 months through three transnational meetings held in Valencia (Spain) on October 27th to 29th 2016; Staffolo (Italy) on April 13th to 17th 2017; Óbidos (Portugal) on August 24th to 28th August 2017.An exchange of experiences was carried out in these meetings, and its results have been developed; these have served to coordinate the work of the musical societies and young European musicians (both associated and non-associated), and of the collaborating entities in the field of disabilities.Each meeting was coupled with a concert that served as a diffusion event for the project, and the last one also as a multiplier event to display the results.The material results of this project have been:- MUSICJOB: A very innovative mobile application that generates annual itineraries aimed towards hiring young European musicians, along with adapted materials, audiovisuals, and guides that show these young people with obstacles how to be trained to opt for these temporary jobs with the help of the ""Music inclusion specialist"" (created in the project ""Youth leaders by integration through music"" of the Erasmus Plus Program KA1 line). The application creates a user-friendly and accessible environment to exchange experiences and to check the schedule of places and festivities of the participating countries and entities that have offered employment on previous occasions, so that young musicians, especially those with slight disabilities, know these offers adapted to their special needs.- GUIDE ""The music is the key: improving youth employability"". This guide compiles a series of tips on how to get a first job collaborating with a local band. It includes useful tips on legal aspects related to contracting methods and musical learning. This guide also includes a series of proposals to promote temporary employment among young people with learning difficulties and encourages their inclusion in formal school education or in specific entities.The impact of this project has been high, thanks to the three concerts performed in the three participating countries and the high quality results created. This is why the desired impact level has been achieved both for the young people with obstacles and their families, for the musical entities, and the European society itself, that is becoming aware of the difficulties of its youth, especially of those who have to overcome the greatest barriers."

Nature provides an almost inexhaustible source of inspiration for innovative designs that may help to tackle many of the world’s current social, economic and environmental challenges. In accordance, the potential of bioinspiration (including biomimetics and biomimicry) has become widely recognized in academia and industry. The main hurdle preventing the field of bioinspiration from delivering its promises, however, stems from differences in tools, practices and viewpoints of its practitioners, often obstructing further development towards successful products. Nature4Nature, a unique joint effort of biologists, engineers, designers and manufacturers, will immerse early stage researchers (ESRs) in a learning environment that fully spans the inspiration, integration and implementation aspects of bioinspired design to tackle the conceptual, methodological and practical challenges. It will provide ESRs (a) with a mindset and know-how to harness biodiversity into design; (b) with the theoretical background and practical skills for transferring biological model systems into engineering designs and applications; and (c) with an attitude and competence to implement bioinspired ideas in an explicit sustainable way. Nature4Nature will focus its research activities onto one model system: how to efficiently separate solid particles from liquids. Biological filtration systems have evolved repeatedly over the earth’s living history. Nature4Nature will teach ESRs to make the most of this rich heritage, using it as an inspiratory source for designing and manufacturing high-throughput, clog-resisting filtering systems that can help conserving and restoring the world’s aquatic habitats. By fostering a new generation of researchers operating at the interface between scientific disciplines, sectors and societal actors, Nature4Nature sets out to spur innovative practices and will aid in overcoming the barriers to implementation of bioinspiration in the design process.

The overall goal of AIRCOAT is to make European waterborne transport more energy efficient and less polluting by developing a disruptive hull coating that reduces the frictional resistance of ships. The AIRCOAT project will enhance a passive air lubrication technology that utilises the biomimetic Salvinia effect. This effect enables trapping air through combination of a hydrophobic micro-structured surface with hydrophilic pins. The project will technologically implement this effect on a self-adhesive foil system. Applying a ship with such an AIRCOAT foil will produce a thin permanent air layer, which reduces the overall frictional resistance while acting as a physical barrier between water and hull surface. Besides substantially reducing main engine fuel oil consumption and hence exhaust gas emission, the air barrier further inhibits the attachment of fouling, the release of biocide substances (of underlying coatings) to the water and mitigates the radiation of ship noise. As a refit technology, it is immediately applicable to the whole fleet, is independent of the fuel type and can be combined with other efficiency improving technologies. Consequently, the technology creates both an economical and an environmental benefit. The interdisciplinary AIRCOAT consortium will develop small-scale prototypes to optimise the surface characteristics of this new technology supported by experimental and numerical methods. AIRCOAT will further produce large-scale pilots to demonstrate the efficiency and industrial feasibility in operational environments (laboratory, research ships and container ship). Finally, the project will perform a full-scale validation process to boost the technology towards market readiness. The AIRCOAT project will demonstrate the high potential of this game-changing technology to revolutionise the maritime coating sector and to become a ground-breaking future energy efficiency and emission reduction technology.