The mission of the CEITEC Postdoctoral EXperts (CEIPEX) program is to provide an attractive environment for postdoctoral fellow mobility by focusing on a scientifically excellent and thematically compact academic research institution embedded in a dynamically developing regional innovation ecosystem: the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) consortium in Brno. CEITEC is an undisputed success story of EU Cohesion Policy in the Czech Republic and a role model of research excellence in Central and Eastern Europe. State-of-the-art research infrastructures combined with the excellence of 55 research groups operating at the interface of life and materials science created a high-technology hub that cannot be found anywhere else in Europe. CEITEC is an integral part of the innovation ecosystem of the South Moravian Region (SMR), represented in CEIPEX by 26 associated partner companies. Postdoctoral fellows will have the opportunity to perform cutting-edge research and connect to application partners in fields such as electron microscopy, where SMR is a world leader, in nanotechnology, sustainable agriculture, biomedicine, IT, and more. CEIPEX will be coordinated by the South Moravian Centre for International Mobility (JCMM) which will leverage its extensive experience gained in previous COFUND programs to support researchers in SMR, spanning over a decade. CEIPEX offers postdoctoral fellows excellent up to 3-year research training and career development program in the disruptively interdisciplinary environment of CEITEC. The incoming CEIPEX fellows will propose projects that build bridges across disciplines covered by the CEITEC consortium, span across academic and industrial sectors, and will receive training to propel their careers in both worlds. In Brno, the high-end science can be transformed into world-changing products offering the fellows access to a complete value chain to address outstanding European challenges.

Productivity, competitiveness, and economic growth stem from innovation and are vital in collaborative research projects. However, given the heterogeneity of economic and industrial frameworks between North/Western Europe and South/Eastern Europe, open calls for European funded research projects often exacerbate the knowledge gap between more and less developed regions. This in turn, limits the economic impact of this funding on areas that often need it the most. Czechia and Slovakia have been growing their gross domestic expenditure on R&D, almost doubling it since 2005. However, this growth does not directly equal innovation, with patent applications per million of the population not reaching 15% of the EU benchmark. The GlaCerHub project will strive to support the virtuous innovation and economic cycle by capitalizing on the present-day competitive advantage of the advanced glass and ceramics industry to create a place-based innovation ecosystem in the border region between South Moravia (Czechia), and Trenčín (Slovakia), a region with long tradition in these areas. The GlaCerHub consortium will create a dynamic, specialist innovation ecosystem for the advanced glass and ceramics sector by stimulating new synergies between industry, academia, government, society and other European innovation Ecosystems. In the long term GlaCerHub will become a self-sustaining entity, supporting the creation, development, piloting and protection of strategic technologies, training of all stakeholders from the quadruple helix, and creating and supporting technology transfer. The long term impact will be to increase: - investment in glass and ceramics R&D - IP protection and patent applications - spin-off creation - intersectoral PhDs (and international PhDs) - licensing transactions - national, regional and European recognition of GlaCerHub as a centre of excellence

The ORION project focuses on triggering evidence-based institutional, cultural and behavioural changes in Research Funding and Performing Organizations (RFPOs), targeting researchers, management staff and high-level leadership. Our long term vision is to “embed” Open Science and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) principles in RPFOs’ policies, practices and processes to organise and do research. Since science is about creativity and collaboration, we will extend further collaboration in research by engaging in co-creation experiments with multiple stakeholders. We will try out different “open-experiments” in three key challenge areas: 1) Opening up the research engine – making RFPOs more permeable to receiving input from numerous, distinct stakeholders; 2) Identifying risks and opportunities presented by disruptive technologies; 3) Running multi-stakeholder projects based on citizen science. After an initial assessment and benchmarking exercise, we will use our three challenges as case studies to explore different co-creation methods with multiple stakeholders, and spark dialogue between unusual combinations of actors (e.g. funders and the public, or researchers, industry and the public). We will apply the RRI principles on the scientific process and governance, identify drivers and barriers, interests and values, and eventually produce “prototypes” for current and future societal challenges. Toward raising knowledge on RRI in practice and enriching the current training, we will generate innovative training programmes and modules based on the peer-to-peer learning approach, targeting young researchers and professionals at funding agencies. The consortium, which involves RPFOs from different countries, representatives of RRI stakeholders and experts in social sciences, will move forward to achieve and embed Open Science.

Recent research shows that underachievement is an immense problem in education. Some figures:-25% of all students in secondary education are regularly bored from teaching material they find too easy; from the top 20% of the class even 56% are often bored (Intomart Research 2014)-15–20% of students perform below level in primary education; 1/3 of (mildly) gifted are involved (Report Dutch National Council of Education (Onderwijsraad) 2011).-only 5% of the pupils in the Netherlands achieve the highest level in international comparison - the Czech Republic and Slovenia are 4%, in Belgium 10%, England 18% and Singapore 43% (TIMSS 2011)Causes for lagging of the talents are (Segers&Hoogeveen 2012):1. Talent is not sufficiently stimulated and rewarded. 2. Limited flexibility in curriculums and room for talent3. Teachers and school leadership are not enough equipped This gave rise to formulate the following problem definition:How can talented be encouraged to use their talents during their school career to prevent underachievement and early school leaving and what is needed in the context of cooperation between educational sectors and other stakeholders, the skills of teachers and teaching materials?General objective of the Talent Education programDevelopment of a sustainable and structural approach which supports top talent in further development of their talent and thus preventing underachievement or dropouts. As a result the partners chose the following objectives from the Erasmusplus program:1.Improving range of lessons2.Strengthening the skills of the teachers.3. Improving cooperation in and around education.Target groups of the project are talented preschooler, school pupils in primary and secondary education and their teachers. Schools and regional or local authorities are also part of the target group. The strategy of the project is 1)to focus on the role of teachers2)to choose some “strategic elements” in the chain of education in which a new approach could be effective and have impact on all education. The consortium chooses for:a. identification and adaptive approach at a very early stage (2 – 6 years); b. education metacognitive skills in primary education c. Design Thinking (DT)in primary and secondary education d. differentiation in the classroom based on a personalised approach in secondary education. In all “elements” basic expertise is already available and can be transferred, but is not yet adapted to each form of education nor widely spread. 3)to develop new education in practice: PLC’s of teachers in all subjects, coaching on the job, pilots in classrooms, exchange of students of all ages to apply the method of DT and to cooperate with their teachers in a living laboratory. 4)to gather all developed methods and tools in a Toolkit for Teachers which is available for all teachers and could be applied in practice immediately. The partnership consists in 18 partners: Kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, universities in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and the Netherlands. The coordinator is the Samenwerkingsverband Passend Onderwijs VO in Leiden, founding organisation of the Leiden Approach for Talent Development (Leidse Aanpak)Results and impactMany schools and organisations, teachers (141), students (292), schoolmasters, educators and scientists (35) participated in the project. Teachers say to be better equipped to challenge their students, students indicate to be challenged and motivated to deeper learning by using the new methods and are delighted to have more space for learning.In all four educational lines of the program (Practical Differentiation, Design Thinking, Metacognitive Skills and Challenging Young Children) manuals, tools for identification of talent and lesson-plans have been developed and good practices described. These are the results of the collaborative work of teachers in PLC’s and the exchange programs of students. All tools are available in the online Talent Education Toolkit for Teachers .A scientific study has been published on the implementation of metacognitive skills in 15 Czech, Slovenian and Dutch schools. It shows significant improvement in the skills of students. Reports on achievements in Czech educational competitions and in Dutch national tests support this conclusion. Another report presents the Impact and Self-evaluation Methodology of the Talent Education project, which contributes highly to sustainable learning effects. A scientific article about the chain oriented system approach of talent education in Leiden shows that the TE project functioned as a “flywheel” in the evolution of the Leiden Approach to a wider and more inclusive approach. The LA could serve as a prototype of chain-oriented talent education in Europe. All educational sectors cooperate in talent development which provokes many opportunities for transfer and sharing knowledge, for creating a very strong local learning environment.