The H2START project aims to establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Stara Zagora to spearhead the advancement of innovative technologies for renewable hydrogen production and uptake. As an essential component of the transition towards a low-carbon and energy-secure economy, renewable hydrogen holds tremendous promise for Bulgaria, particularly in regions like Stara Zagora, historically developed as the energy production “heart” of the region, economically developed and well connected to infrastructure and trans-European roads. The CoE, situated in the heart of Stara Zagora, is strategically positioned to lead the change in replacing coal mining with renewable energy and green hydrogen production, deployments and export. Recognised as a Hydrogen Valley by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership (ZAHYR HV), the region's successful transformation hinges on excellence (R&I activities, attracting talents and gaining recognition and international collaboration). Led by TrU and supported by BGH2A, the CoE aims to drive R&I initiatives, which will bring institutional change to the higher education sector in the whole system opening up to reforms linked to creating highly skilled employment opportunities, and positioning Bulgaria as an attractive hub for scientific and technological advancement. Collaboration with esteemed partners such as POLITO and CNR alongside the guidance of international recognized leaders, will ensure robust governance, management, and administration systems. The CoE will revolutionize Bulgaria's research ecosystem, offering modern infrastructure and services to attract, nurture, and retain research talent while fostering collaboration with industry for enhanced innovation and technology transfer. As Bulgaria's research infrastructure outside of the capital Sofia, the CoE in Stara Zagora will serve as a beacon for bringing R&I in regions, positioning the nation at the forefront of clean energy transition technologies based on renewable hydrogen production.

A strong demand for sustainability in the textile and fashion industry and its global market imposes a continuous implementation of the guiding principle Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in education and in the industry as well as the investment in education and the adaptation of new skills. This is the reason for the need of enhancing the quality and relevance of the learning offer in education towards the latest developments in textile research and innovation. The Fashion DIET project envisages the development of new tools for improving key competences of lecturers, trainers, teachers, students and young textile specialists who will be professionals in the textile and fashion industry.The project's objectives are to enhance the quality and relevance of the learning offer in training by developing an innovative further education module in the context of ESD and an information & e-learning portal supporting the dissemination of the project’s outcomes such as teaching and learning material, which will be elaborated, tested and evaluated. The project's resources are well balanced between the partners, include all costs of the project and will be monitored through a management plan, financial templates, and financial reports. The project partners have planned these main outputs and activities:1. Further Education Module2. Information & E-Learning Portal3. Teaching and Learning Material4. Learning, Teaching and Training Activities (lectures, seminars, workshops, discussions etc.)5. Multiplier Events6. Scientific Papers, Journal Articles, Scientific Events, etc.The didactic content and methodology will be made relevant for the target group through the expertise of the partners: 1 university of education, 1 university of applied sciences and 2 technical universities with textile technology departments from 3 countries - Germany (University of Education Freiburg, Reutlingen University), Bulgaria (Trakia University), and Romania (TUIASI). The university partners will develop, test and evaluate training material, based on state-of-the-art research knowledge in textiles, fashion and sustainability and a long-lasting tradition and experience in textile education.The further education module and the teaching and learning material will be supported and disseminated by the information & e-learning portal, which will be configured and adapted with the adequate tools for learning and implementing ESD as a guiding principle. The project impact on the target group will lead to:- better understanding of ESD in the context of textile and fashion,- better textile and fashion related knowledge in the context of production, market and sustainability,- better quality of education,- better skills for project management and digital competence,- better skills in performing European partnerships,- improved competences linked to professional work,- increased capacity to work at an international level,- increased competence in foreign languages,- greater understanding of cultural diversity,- increased opportunities for professional development.The partnership brings together eastern and western pedagogical experience and points of view and researches on ESD in the textile and fashion sector. The partners are showing large diversity in experiences that can be explored and also identify similarities, moving towards ESD practices and policies that can cross the borders and become ‘European’. With this project we will learn from each other how the managing of ESD education and the use of an information & e-learning portal will be accomplished. In addition, we will have the opportunity to study and know our partners’ universities and educational systems in the occupational field of textiles and clothing and share educational problems of each partner within an intercultural exchange. The collaborative work will create strong friendships, enhance motivation and produce quality work that can be set as examples of good practice in the European community, for others to follow. Inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation and networking are to be initiated with the aim of developing ESD competence, creating fundamental changes and continuing after the end of the project.

<< Background >>Currently, worldwide women make up only 28% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and men outnumber women in most STEM fields in higher education and occupations. The gender STEM pay gap is especially large in the fields of Engineering (21%), Computer Science (19%) and ICT. This is a relevant issue for women in the EU as those occupations are one of the fastest-growing, the highest-paid and with greater opportunities for career development and success. One of the reasons is that the educational environment is not inclusive and diverse enough for women and does not address gender-based bias towards them (women are often viewed as more inferior and underperforming than men in STEM fields). This decreases the motivation of women and girls to seek higher education in those areas and pursue such occupations. Some of the key factors in this context are: facing gender stereotypes and prejudice, underestimation of women's skills in STEM fields; exclusionary, non-supportive and inflexible male-dominating environments in STEM education and work; less focus on women role models in these areas- female engineers, computer scientists, and other factors. By applying for this project, we aim to address these needs and issues and meet the needs of the partnership, namely, the needs of experts to find ways to effectively promote and encourage the greater participation of women in STEM higher education and occupations, to motivate them to pursue such fields; to eliminate gender-based stereotypes and prejudices linked to their performance and concrete abilities as well doubts about their success, performance and future career development; to build a more supportive, tolerant and diverse STEM education environment for women. The needs of the target groups- women pursuing STEM higher education and career and those who hesitate and are discouraged to do so because of the constant underestimation of their abilities and skills, as well as experts (such as psychologists, trainers, youth workers, career counselors, etc.) working directly with them to increase their participation in STEM, will also benefit from the project.<< Objectives >>By implementing the project, we wish to achieve the following project objectives: making STEM higher education more supportive, diverse and socially inclusive for women in order promote and support their active participation in such fields; to improve their future career prospects, professional and personal development and opportunities on the modern labor market; to increase the motivation of women to pursue and participate in education and career in STEM; to increase their self-confidence in their abilities, skills and performance in these areas; to improve the knowledge and skills of experts (psychologists, trainers, youth workers, career counselors and advisers and other experts working directly with women) on how to eliminate gender-based stereotypes, bias and prejudices towards women in STEM; to create products that will aid the inclusion of women in STEM and to create a friendly learning environment in STEM higher education; to enhance the competencies of experts on how to develop and implement innovative STEM gender-sensitive educational programs and training acknowledging women's specific challenges and enhance their inclusion; improved career guidance for women; to promote gender equality and equity in STEM fields. The objectives are linked to making STEM education more innovative, diverse and with a greater focus on effectively decreasing stereotypes and prejudices (incl. gender-based bias) towards women in STEM as they are often viewed as inferior to men in those areas. Another objective is to learn more about best European practices, innovative methods, instruments, tools and programs for effectively tackling stereotypes based on gender in STEM environments, making them more friendly to women and more welcoming, and also promoting good examples of women experts in STEM fields who can serve as a motivation for other women wishing to pursue STEM education or career, increasing their self-confidence in their own abilities, skills and knowledge, thus enhancing their performance in such fields.<< Implementation >>We plan to implement the following activities: 1) Production of project results:-Development and testing of programs aimed at motivating women for pursuing and participating in STEM higher education-Development of a methodology for overcoming/eliminating / gender-based stereotypes towards women in STEM-Research and analysis of good practices and examples of successful women experts in STEM fields-Survey of the attitudes of future students - women in STEM or ICT fields of study and occupations (assessing the attitudes of schoolboys towards women in STEM (if there are any prejudices, gender-based stereotypes, etc.), and the attitudes of school girls towards STEM fields and their motivation to pursue education in STEM and ICT fields);2) Multiplier events connected with the effective dissemination of the project results and products;3) Mobility (Learning, Teaching, Training Activities) for experts such as psychologists, youth workers, trainers, career counselors aimed at learning, sharing and exchanging best European practices with innovative elements in the sphere of integrating and including women in STEM into the recycling industry and environmental protection and care (with the help of the long-standing experience in these areas of our partner in Greece- EOS Developmental SA).4) Management and implementationAll these steps will ensure that the needs of the partnership (Bulgaria, The Republic of North Macedonia, Greece and Cyprus) and also the target groups- women and experts working directly with women to increase their participation in STEM higher education and occupations, have been successfully met.<< Results >>The expected outcomes are connected with the products: -Development and testing of programs aimed at motivating women for pursuing and participating in STEM higher education; Development of a methodology for overcoming/eliminating / gender-based stereotypes towards women in STEM; Research and analysis of good practices and examples of successful women-experts in STEM fields; Survey of the attitudes of future students - women in STEM or ICT fields of study and occupations, as well as the mobility (Learning, Teaching, Training Activities) for trainers, experts, career counselors and youth workers aimed at sharing and exchanging best European practices with innovative elements in the sphere of integrating and including women in STEM into the recycling industry and environmental protection and care (by applying the vast experience in these areas of our partner in Greece- EOS Developmental SA). The outcomes in the short-term (during the project) and long-term (after the completion of the project) include the following: increased motivation of women to pursue and participate in education and career in STEM; increased self-confidence in their abilities, skills and performance in these areas; improved knowledge and skills of experts (psychologists, trainers, youth workers, career counselors) on how to eliminate gender-based stereotypes, bias and prejudices towards women in STEM; creation of outputs which will aid the inclusion of women in STEM and the creation of an inclusive, diverse and friendly learning environment in STEM higher education; enhanced competencies of experts on how to develop and implement innovative STEM gender-sensitive educational programs and training acknowledging women's specific challenges and enhance their inclusion; improved career guidance for women; promoting gender equality. Specifically, for the mobility, the expected outcomes will include: learned best European practices with innovative elements in the sphere of integrating and including women in STEM into the recycling industry and environmental protection and care (with the help of the long-standing experience in these areas of our partner in Greece- EOS Developmental SA). As part of the project, it is planned that Multiplier events will be held focusing on each developed product to ensure effective dissemination of the results.

<< Background >>The Digital Education Action Plan is also a horizontal priority in the new 2021-2027 budget of the EU. The EU also announced a Transformation Agenda for higher education for the end of 2021, in which DELT is likely to feature prominently. Meanwhile, under the Bologna Process, a new working phase is about to start, which would have to consider the growing role of digital development with regard to several of its working areas. In addition, EUA is taking forward its vision for Universities 2030, with a publication being launched in February 2021. The report focusses on Digitally enhanced learning and teaching(DELT) at European higher education institutions. The DIGI-HE project of the European University Association explores different ways in which higher education institutions can increase their strategic approach to digitally enhanced learning and teaching and increase their capacity. The aim is to encourage and support a reflection on corporate strategy development and improvement and contribute to community building through sharing of good practice and peer learning among university leadership. The coincidence of the Covid-19 crisis has made these activities even more relevant and urgent.During the Covid-19 Pandemic period in 2020, all courses were held remotely in digital environments. This period once again proved that most students in education do not have the ability to access and to compile accurate information sources and that they lack digital information literacy.Education, as in every field, is rapidly becoming digital with each passing day. Students can not access correct and necessary information and can not use the existing possibilities of digital information literacy in their homework and thesis. Most of these students are not aware that they have all the information resources on their mobile phones in their hands. Therefore, most of the students to starting or graduating from university, graduate without learning how to use the internet and information literacy. Students who start using smartphones even in primary schools should be taught the digital information literacy lastly in university. We have to teach learning to students who have digital opportunities by gaining them the talents to use the right resources and the ability to compile and to present information.This project will naturally contribute more to complement the “lifelong learning” aspects of EU Erasmus support, which has already been invested millions of Euros. The epidemic, which we still suffered in 2019 and 2020, proved to us that students who do not know how to use the digital world correctly in distance education receive worse education than face-to-face education. Another goal of this project is to compensate for this loss.For higher education, students need to be able to choose the right information among all kinds of information on the internet, especially access the scientific resources of educational units, and gain the ability to select, use and compile information. Today, it will not be possible for any student who does not know how to use digital resources on the internet correctly to be successful in higher education and in business life.in this project, the key to student success in higher education and post-business life is digital literacy. In university education, it is a necessity to teach digital literacy in the first year and first semester of all faculties and all departments.In the project, it was aimed to develop the international digital education curriculum, digital education modules and distance education portal, and to popularize the digital literacy course as a compulsory course or elective course in higher education. In the second year of the project, the project will be implemented as an elective course in some of the partner universities as a sample application, and it will be made widespread.<< Objectives >>Information literacy, shortly, is the ability to feel the need for information, to define that information, to reach that information and to evaluate, organize and use that information . In today's world, there are all kinds of resources and information in the internet environment and it is obligatory to have the skills of: • Knowing the types of sources, • Evaluating the means of access to information, •Analyzing the need for information, and • Reorganizing the information. Being information literate in the digital world forms the basis of the lifelong learning process. The university youth, who lack information literacy and who use the digital world only for chatting, social communication and listening to music, proved once again that they lack digital information literacy with their performances in homework preparation and exams during the pandemic process in 2019-2021. In recent years, it has been observed that students have not been able to adequately use the digital resources, which universities have subscribed to by spending thousands of euros. In addition, they lack knowledge about the possibility of free access to information, programs and resources known to be accurate. The pandemic process experienced all over the world has once again demonstrated the importance of digital literacy in order to be successful in higher education as well.In this project, it is to create a basic curriculum, digital education portals and materials to teach digital literacy to first-year students in all faculties, colleges and departments in higher education. It is aimed that each department will be able to name this course as DIGI-KEY + DEPARTMENT, use all departments, project infrastructure and outputs of this course and can be developed according to its own department content.Total four Production of Project Results(PPR) will be created in this project. PPR1: AN OPEN ONLINE EDUCATION SYSTEM FOR DIGI- KEY in Higher Education, PPR2: Creating education modules and course CURRICULA of digital literacy in order to Higher Education PPR3; Mobill DIGI- KEY APPLICATION for mobile phones, PPR4: a DIGITAL AND PRINTED DIGI-KEY BOOK for Higher Education.*This project objectives to prepare a course curriculum to implement in all faculties and departments for dijital information literacy courses under the cooperation and the experiences of universities in partner countries. The principal goal is to design an innovative, guiding and competitive curriculum corresponding to present day digital information literacy and to design an e-learning course for university students. The project targets to provide for partners the knowledge, the experience and the applications of the partners related with digital information literacy and this will contribute to the determination of the frames of the curriculum for university students. In summary, in this project, the key to student success in higher education and post-business life is digital literacy. In university education, it is a necessity to teach digital literacy in the first year and first semester of all faculties and all departments.In the project, it was aimed to develop the international digital education curriculum, digital education modules and distance education portal, and to popularize the digital literacy course as a compulsory course or elective course in higher education. In the second year of the project, the project will be implemented as an elective course in some of the partner universities as a sample application, and it will be made widespread.<< Implementation >>*It is aimed to create digital and printed training materials and digital training portals as project outputs=PPR;.1-PPR1: Project Website “AN OPEN ONLINE EDUCATION SYSTEM-DIGI-KEY to create a digital World”. This open / online / digital education - Massive Open On-line Course (MOOC) website will be open to all schools that will teach digital information literacy in internet use course in their schools. All digital education and training materials of the project will be uploaded and upgradeable.2-PPR2: Course / curriculum – Design and development –DIGI-KEY: Creating education modules and course curricula in order to teach students' information literacy in digital environment.3- PPR3: Mobile APPLICATION for mobile phones: DIGI-KEY- APPLICATION will be free to be downloaded on the mobile phones of students and of the other target groups so that they can reach all kinds of teaching and training programs through the web portals and follow the distant education programs for students and for other interested persons.4- PPR4: A general DIGI-KEY-BOOK for distance education will be prepared in print and digitally and this book will contain all the outputs that will be produced during the project lifetime. *Promotional posters, brochures (1000 copies), catalogs and handbooks of the project and its outputs will be prepared and distributed to participants in promotion, dissemination and press broadcasting events.*All outputs will be prepared in English, Bulgarian, Turkish, Italian and French. Thus, the use of the project results in Europe and in the world will be open. Every institution and teacher that is a member of the system will be able to benefit from the project outputs.*Partners will organize training and informative meetings for project promotion. Pilot practices and dissemination activities will be carried out in schools during the project process.*Four transnational meetings are planned for the duration of the project. *Workshops planned within the scope of events will be organized by each partner. Each partner will hold at least one events meeting.*At the beginning and at the end of the project, surveys for need analyses and for project results will be conducted with 100 students and 50 teachers for each partner, 600 students and 300 teachers in total. Since these surveys will be conducted in both periods, totally 1800 people will have been participated in survey events until the end of the project.- The trainings to be carried out in pilot faculty and department will be updated in line with the suggestions of educators and students, and the deficiencies observed in the web portals used will be offered to the service of education.- The deficiencies in the DIGI-KEY training book will be corrected with the contributions of partner countries and partners and will be published after finalization. The aim is to serve education not only at the provincial level but also at the national and international level with project outputs.- Each partner will carry out project dissemination activities in their own country through the use of project meetings, events, digital and printed news sources and social media, and via the e-mail and web pages of the universities.Each partner will use the press, publications and especially the internet social networks on the importance of the issue for in faculties and different departments students in order to promote the project and will make it popular through direct information meetings.At the end of the second year of the project, Trakia University(BG) will ensure that the project digital education portal and digital education materials are applied as an elective course at its own university, and will carry out the necessary studies to implement the same application in other universities. After the course applications, portals will be updated according to the technological developments of the day.<< Results >>• The target groups of the project are university students, academicians and the other related staff and owing to the DIGI-KEY platform developed for general use the practical course program will not only be used by the participating universities. We hope that not only Bulgarian universities but also universities of all European countries will be able to use the project outputs.Educators and students who use the course curriculum and educational materials of the DIGİ-KEY Project will increase their success in preparation for other courses, homework preparation, seminars and exams. The content of the course can be updated by the lecturer who teaches the course, and open-ended sources will be especially useful according to the departments.students and even teachers can use according to the courses will be offered in the digital environment and guiding information for these software links to be used by students in their assignments, seminars and exams in different course branches will be given.•The partners will go on offering developed courses for multipliers and for the project's target groups. The other activities to provide the sustainability of the project outcomes and results can be stated as follows:• All outcomes and products of the project will remain available online after the end of the project's eligibility period.• The partners will also continue to use the project outcomes by means of various dissemination vehicles, such as online publications, conference contributions, networks, the articles in journals, and so on.• The participant organizations will integrate the outcomes and deliverables of the DIGI-KEY project into their interaction with the target groups and into their own national and transnational projects.It is important for the universities to have a training portal which can be used continuously with the link to be given from the library web site.•The project web page and information will be updated by the coordinator three years after the project is completed.* As the coordinator institution, TRAKIA University will provide a certified course to one lecturer from each faculty in the last year of the project. These instructors will add an elective course named DIGI-KEY + DEPARTMENT NAME to the department elective courses. They will use the DIGI-KEY project curriculum and digital training platform and will be able to make the necessary additions for their departments.•At the end of the project partner universities will be added to the education program as an elective course in at least one department and faculty. It will propose it to the university education and training commission to make it compulsory. Four years after the completion of the project, a board of directors, consisting of the trainers who teach this course, will be authorized to update and improve the project outputs. DIGİ-KEY outputs will be updated within the framework of student educator views and changing digital technology and programs over time.The satisfaction of the students taking the course and the increase in student success will be very effective in the sustainability of the project.It is important that universities' digital infrastructures are developed and adapt to the era. However, these infrastructures, for which millions of dollars have been spent, must be used in order to contribute to education. Therefore, students should be taught how to use digital technology for their education and for the future.***It is our responsibility to educate university students who use digital world resources and solve real world problems, not young people who see the digital world as real.