CONNEKT is a research and action project involving 14 partners from the EU, MENA and Balkans and targeting 8 countries in the MENA and Balkans region (Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Bulgaria) that will run for 3.5 years. Its purpose is to establish a multi-dimensional map of drivers of violent extremism (VE) among youth aged 12-30 in MENA and Balkans and to identify the interplay between them. The multi-disciplinary research and the multi-stakeholder approach will allow the enrichment of empirical and academic research in order to draw a comprehensive picture of VE drivers among youth in target countries. Using a building-blocks methodology the project will be staged to allow the findings from one phase to inform research and data analysis for the following phases at key milestones. A final stage will be devoted to research on prevention of VE from a community perspective and will converge in a set of actions and recommendations on prevention measures implemented at a local and community level. Objective 1: Mapping past and current country strategies and approaches towards radicalisation and VE in Europe, MENA and Balkans. Objective 2: Drawing a comprehensive picture of radicalisation drivers among youth in Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Bulgaria. Objective 3: Establishing a cartography of conducive collective contexts of radicalisation and VE in MENA and Balkans involving diverse stakeholders Objective 4: Identifying measures, strategies and policies at state, community, local and society level to prevent radicalisation and VE in target countries Objective 5: Implementing pilot experiences of context intervention in target countries in liaison with local authorities and civil society actors Objective 6: Transferring results and recommendations to multi-level policy-makers in target countries and to the EU.

The main goal of the project ENCRICLE is to organize an ERA Career and Mobility Days event in the Republic of Macedonia, with the vision to better inform the generation of young researchers in the country about their career prospects in Europe. The focus will be on the jobs provided by the EURAXESS jobs portal, but other groups are targeted as well. The project contains three major objectives: 1. To provide targeted mobility information on jobs, funding and research positions to 30-50 students in each of the following tracks: Engineering Sciences, Medicine and Life Sciences, Social Sciences, Innovation and Enterpreneurship and Natural Sciences; 2.To provide targeted career development and mobility information on jobs, funding and research positions to 5-15 R2 researchers in each of the following tracks: Engineering Sciences, Medicine and Life Sciences, Social Sciences, Innovation and Enterpreneurship and Natural Sciences 3. To engage at least 30 companies from the industrial sector in using the capabilities of the EURAXESS jobs portal. The event will contain 7 different activities including plenary sessions, science tracks, student opportunity lab, an open source lab, a career fair, a community fair and a poster session.