Nowadays, cities are struggling to deal with challenges posed by migration flows. Services and policies activated by cities in the field of migration and integration are often prompted by a sense of emergency and they are not the result of a careful analysis of the situation and the state of the art.The city workforce is heavily overburdened by new challenges posed by migration: lack of cultural sensitivity, language gaps, scarce knowledge of national and international regulations, are only some of the problems faced by civil servants.In this context, ECCIPA aims to get out of an emergency logic to upgrade quality of existing pro-migrants’ inclusion local strategies. In fact, the main aim is to contribute to implement more responsive services for the integration of third-country nationals in the cities, through the codesign and delivery of an innovative and comprehensive VET programme empowering civil servants involved in the delivery of services for migrant people in three European territories: County of Offenbach (Germany), City of Ravenna (Italy), City of Cartagena (Spain).The VET programme will be focused on improving the intercultural sensitivity and awareness of staff, meaning that ideally, trainees will be able to detect, and respond to, the presence of cultural differences, and modulate their approach accordingly, rather than seeking to impose one mode of behaviour upon all situations. But also, the training will deal with more technical aspects, related to local, national and international regulations and practices having a concrete impact on the daily life of migrants, in fields like housing, labour market, social services, health.Primary target groups of the training programme will be up to 60 civil servants (20 per partner country) who are involved with the planning and delivery of welcome and support services to third country nationals.ECCIPA project lasts 30 months and it foresees a comprehensive analysis and review of needs and skills of civil servants involved in the integration of migrants and refugees at different levels. On the basis of the Reviews’ results, partners will co-design the training programme, with the support of local stakeholders, including representatives of migrants’ communities. Then, the programme will be currently delivered to the selected civil servants who will be involved in about 120 hours of training (face-to-face and webinar). A selection of them will participate to two transnational learning events where they will exchange their experience and they will deepen specific topics.Finally, the last months will be dedicated to the development of local integration strategies focused on the upskilling of civil servants, including European policy recommendations for those local authorities interested to develop a similar learning path for their employees.As main result of the project, partner cities will be better equipped to deal with challenges posed by weak integration and uncontrolled migration flows, thanks to the upgrading of skills of their staff in welcoming and integrating third-country nationals in their communities.Specific results of the project include:-3 Reviews in three involved European territories-1 Training Toolkit targeting local authorities’ staff-Recruitment of up to 60 trainees working in the local authorities engaged by the project-120 hours of training at local and international level-10 days of transnational learning events-3 Local Integration Strategies and EU policy recommendations for cities and local authorities-Involvement of up to 100 local public and private stakeholders in the elaboration of the different project activitiesThrough the actions implemented by the project, local public workforce is expected to enhance their understanding of actors from different backgrounds, institutions, policy areas and contexts on the links between migration and sectoral policies, and to promote an understanding of the mechanisms, opportunities and challenges related to the engagement of migrants in city policy and planning.Furthermore, public organizations will rely on a more equipped staff in order to better implement local integration strategies for their cities.At a wider scale, the project will strengthen the network between EU private and public entities working for the integration of migrant people, improving their collaboration so that each party can benefit from the expertise and competence of the other. The desired impact of the project is that this model can be upscaled at European level. It will achieve this impact through the sharing of the ECCIPA Manifesto, a practical guide for European cities to upgrade the competences of their staff in order to advocate respect for diversity and ensuring equal opportunities for all by adapting their governance structures, institutions and services to the needs of a diverse population, without compromising the principles of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

n the struggle with decrease the environmental impact and slowing down the speed of climate change, there are today directives and policies at European and global level which invite countries, organisations and individuals to reduce the negative environmental impact by setting out common goal: the Europe 2020 strategy; the Power Perspective 2030; the Agenda 2030 with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations. All of them are pointing toward the visionary objective of a Roadmap 2050 for a low-carbon Europe.Public and private sectors (from now PPS) are on a global scale have started to work toward the decrease of the environmental impact of their organisations, by becoming environmentally certified. Standards like the European Commission EMAS and the Global ISO 14000 can be of sizeable help in keeping up a strategic and effective environmental quality management system (from now EMS) aimed at reducing the Environmental impact in organisations. However the environmental auditing processes are hindered by a lack of skills and practical experience in auditors and practitioners, which slows down the assessment of environmental impact in public and private organisations. There is a need to create more on-the-job training opportunities for professionals specifically targeting this issue, and enable them to improve their competences, in the light of the life-long learning principle.General objective: the general objective of Synergy Audit is to, in an effective way, improve the environmental sustainability actions carried out by public and private organisations in Europe by creating an environmental audit educational training programme strictly tied to the EU and Global directives. Specific objectives:1. To improve the on-the-job training opportunities in environmental auditing through a “train-the-trainers” methodology for people working in public and private organisations, which will spread further knowledge among civil servants and practitioners, and will equip them with all the necessary competences to perform audits for citizens and enterprises.2. To improve the competences of civil servants and practitioners on environmental auditing, and increase the self-esteem of people who already possess a certification but lack of practice for undertaking auditing visits.3. To foster the exchange of practices and cooperation among EU countries concerning environmental auditing as well as inside the countries with the possibility of building new public-private collaborations between local authorities and environmental organisations.The project will develop 2 intellectual outputs:INTELLECTUAL OUTPUT 1: New train-the-trainers methodology in environmental auditing containing:- Knowledge of the present and upcoming EU and Global (UN) Environmental Directives in relation to auditing.- Knowledge in the sustainability and resilience perspectives connected to environmental auditing.- Contemporary historical knowledge in the environmental movement work toward creation of laws and regulations.- All the “basic parts” involved in the environmental audits education.- Knowledge about the certifications of EMAS and ISO INTELLECTUAL OUTPUT 2: Creation of an Educational Programme online for open-access usage on a European and Global Scale, where auditors can gain skills by simulating environmental audits and receiving a score on the basis of their answers.WORK PLAN/ACTIVITIES- Coordination meetings to steer, monitor and evaluate the project activities participated by the project’s coordinators (1 or 2 persons every partner organisation).- 2 Training seminar for “trainers” to test the methodology developed in Intellectual Output 1 participated by the staff of all partners.- Workshops for training environmental auditors at local level, in the home countries held by the participants in the train-the-trainer seminars.- Multiplier events in each participating country, their organisations and invited organisations in for sharing of information about the educational programme created and started up in the project.EXPECTED RESULTSAn improved possibility for both public and private organizations in the EU in getting environmentally certified due to the EMAS and ISO14000 Standards, and for organisations already certified, an increased boost of up to date knowledge about environmental audits due to the EU and global directives.Also, a bridge to cooperation between the countries of the EU in environmental auditing and sustainability, as well as increased cooperation between the public-and private sector within this field, in the EU. Starting up of a long-lasting EU network for environmental auditors around the EU.

In spite of gender equality be a topic of national and European political agendas, there is a need for action on the way to an effective gender equality. This is because currently, we continue to face a wide range of discrimination in our daily lives that must be combated and eliminated.Considering gender equality a philosophy that brings together a set of egalitarian, just and non-discriminatory values, beliefs and attitudes, we believe that it must be learned and seized from an early age, in order to promote effective behaviour changes with concrete consequences in societies of tomorrow. Therefore, we intend to work on the gender equality thematic at pre-school education level (project goal).Accomplishing this purpose, we defined as objectives of the project Colourful Children:- Build and test a learning methodology for gender equality aimed at pre-school- Train educators and school leaders in the thematic area of gender equality- Encourage critical thinking for gender equality in pre-school children- Disseminate the results/products of the project- Enhance transnational cooperation between partners.We defined as direct target groups of the project the educational communities of each of the 8 kindergartens participating in the project (2 preschools in each municipality):- 834 children between the ages of 3 and 6 years- 80 childhood educators and other preschool staff- 1668 parents and caregivers.The total number of individuals indirectly participating in the project activities is 19860, i.e. they are the elements of the educational communities of all kindergartens in the 4 municipalities.Regarding the context, the identified needs, the goal and objectives and the target groups involved, the following activities will be developed over the 3 years of the project.A partnership agreement will be signed at the beginning of the project, which will establish the management, evaluation and communication procedures between the partners. The project will have 3 transnational project meetings where the issues related to project management and evaluation will be worked out: one at the beginning, one in the middle and the other at the end of the project. The evaluation of the project will be streamlined by an internal entity to the partnership.The learning methodology for gender equality is intended to be an innovative product, built by the kindergarten teachers and tested with the children, which will address the issues of gender and equality in a gender mainstreaming strategy, that is, apart from dealing concretely and specifically gender equality issues, the theme of gender equality will also be worked on in the classroom from any other subject of curriculum guidelines.A collection of 8 mini-books (intellectual product) will be created, each addressing a specific topic of gender equality. Each kindergarten will develop a mini-book, being the history and illustrations created by the children under the guidance of the kindergarten teachers.The educational games available in mobile/web app is another intellectual product that is intended to be developed with the aim, like the mini books, of sensitising the children to the issues of gender and equality. Four computer games will be developed, each under the responsibility of a country of the partnership.On the 3 transnational workshops will be the moment for the kindergarten teachers training, in addition to being the place of the learning methodology development.As dissemination activities of the project, we have, with greater emphasis, the multiplier events and the local workshops. The project will also include a website, presence on Erasmus+ platforms, presence on social networks, communication through posters, leaflets, newsletters and press releases.Then, it is intended, in addition to an initial project disclosure event, to promote in each municipality 3 multipliers events - one at the end of each school year – in order to disseminate the results achieved in each period. The local workshops, which take place after the transnational workshops, are moments of training and development of the learning methodology for gender equality, promoted by the kindergarten teachers who participated in the transnational workshops and addressed to their colleagues of all the kindergartens of the municipalities. As a result, we hope that intellectual products will be integrated into the daily life of all kindergarten classrooms in the municipalities members of the partnership. We aim to go further and, through the International Association of Educating Cities, to disseminate innovative products to more municipalities and countries so that they intend to adopt them for their kindergartens.

The recent migration waves have been posing increasing challenges to the national education systems and to the quality of education and learning at large. In particular, the presence of an increasing number of pupils with a foreign background in pre-schools, primary schools and lower secondary schools has opened up questions about how to adapt the learning context to a situation characterised by the presence of pupils in the classes not only with different cultural background but different levels of language knowledge. The partnership has decided to address more effectively the organizational settings of schools in relation to the continuity between levels (pre-school and primary and primary and lower secondary). In this light the learning spaces (both virtual and real) and methods facilitating inclusion while offering opportunities for development and achievements to all students are an important element to consider. Last but not least the training of the teachers and other staff to deal more effectively with a multicultural situation in the class.The project has aimed to contributing to a reflection on the creation of a learning context at local level and at school level which is able to meet the challenges posed by the recent migration waves.The specific objectives have been:1. To exchange good practices on the organizational settings facilitating transition across the different educational levels especially for those with a foreign background2. To reflect upon and adapt solutions which can lead to learning spaces producing a faster integration without jeopardize achievements of the whole class3. To identify training needs of teachers in relation to learning spaces and the specificities of multicultural classes and define a training path.The partnership is trilateral and it is led by a bilateral network of local and regional authorities (SERN), four municipalities (Ravenna, Collecchio, Linkoping and Norrkoping) , one association of schools (CECE), two schools (IC Guatelli and IC Da Vinci) and a university (University of Parma). The participants in the project have been: teachers at pre-school, primary and lower secondary level, Headmasters and school leaders, educators policy makers.The activities foreseen by the project consisted of four transnational meetings for coordination and management (TPM) ; four transnational seminars (LTTA) targeting transition between school cycles, learning environments and skills of the teachers, a pilot training course based on the exchange of practices targeting teachers. The project partnership organised also four local dissemination meetings.The main results achieved by the project have been: an increased awareness about the importance of organizational settings in schools leading to a smoother transition across levels, an improved knowledge about strategies facilitating transition among headmasters, policy makers and civil servants in the three countries; improved skills of the teachers pertaining learning environment fostering school results and integration, and Improved knowledge about practices on management of multicultural classes; new practices tested and transferred in particular from Sweden to Italy.

URBANE brings together a multidisciplinary group of 41 partners from 12 different EU Member States, including 12 cities, industry leaders in logistics services, novel solution providers for shared, connected and automated operations and research experts to co-develop novel last mile delivery solutions combining green automated vehicles and shared space utilisation models. The project will support the transition path towards effective, resilient, safe and sustainable last mile transport, through four Lighthouse Living Labs (Helsinki, Bologna, Valladolid and Thessaloniki, that will demonstrate TRL7/8 efficient, replicable and socially acceptable innovative last mile delivery solutions (Wave 1 LLs), building on existing TRL>5 assets. Hands-on lesson learning at European level will be primarily facilitated by an Innovation Transferability Platform comprising Digital Twinning Tools, open models, smart contracts governed by blockchain technology and a data-driven Impact Assessment Radar that will enable the adaptation and replication of Wave 1 solutions in two Twinning LLs in Barcelona and Karlsruhe (Wave 2 LLs), demonstrating their own solutions within the course of the project. URBANE’s commitment to upscaling is further strengthened by the engagement of six early adopters (Follower Cities) in innovations’ adoption feasibility studies, thus stimulating the formulation of new LL communities across Europe. The approach employs social simulation tools to experiment with possible strategies. URBANE will provide evidence of the real introduction of the Physical Internet in urban deliveries for the first time.