The project aims to enhance SMEs’ competitiveness and innovation processes management and to improve the regional innovation environment, increasing the efficiency and the effectiveness of investments in research, development and innovation. The project partners will operate in the regions under the EEN BRIDGeconomies consortium: Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia and Sicilia. The overall objective of the project is helping SMEs to adopt, implement and deploy an innovation management system. The project has two main specific objectives, structured in 2 Work Packages: WP1) SMEs beneficiaries of the SME Instrument (Key Account Manager) ; WP2) SMEs with innovation potential (EEN Innovation Expert) EIMC. To reach such specific objectives, during the period covered by the action, the project partnership intends to deliver seven days service packages to a number of 283 SMEs, benefiting from SME Instrument grants and services for enhancing their innovation management capacities. Project partners intend to implement these actions since SMEs play a crucial role in reaching the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy and notably the Innovation Union. SMEs are key drivers of innovation serving as an important conduit for knowledge spill-overs. Tapping the full innovation potential of SMEs requires efficient support mechanisms. The focus needs to be oriented to impact on SMEs, looking at their internationalisation, their knowledge and R&D capabilities, competitiveness and growth.

The project aims to enhance SMEs’ competitiveness and innovation processes management and to improve the regional innovation environment, increasing the efficiency and the effectiveness of investments in research, development and innovation. The project partners will operate in the regions under the EEN BRIDGeconomies consortium: Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia and Sicilia. The overall objective of the project is helping SMEs to adopt, implement and deploy an innovation management system. The project has two main specific objectives, structured in 2 Work Packages: WP1) SMEs beneficiaries of the SME Instrument, Fast Track to Innovation, Future and Emerging Technologies Open (Key Account Manager) ; WP2) SMEs with innovation potential (EEN Innovation Expert) EIMC. To reach such specific objectives, during the period covered by the action, the project partnership intends to deliver seven / ten days service packages to a number of 123 SMEs, benefiting from SME Instrument grants and services for enhancing their innovation management capacities. Project partners intend to implement these actions since SMEs play a crucial role in reaching the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy and notably the Innovation Union. SMEs are key drivers of innovation serving as an important conduit for knowledge spill-overs. Tapping the full innovation potential of SMEs requires efficient support mechanisms. The focus needs to be oriented to impact on SMEs, looking at their internationalisation, their knowledge and R&D capabilities, competitiveness and growth.

THE PROJECT PROVIDES FOR THE PARTICIPATION OF 7 PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS FROM THE FOLLOWING 5 COUNTRIES ITALY, GERMANY, POLAND, GREECE AND FINLAND.THE PARTNERS HAVE BEEN CHOSEN ON THE BASIS OF ITS ABILITY TO BRING ADVANTAGES TO THE WORK TO BE PERFORMED IN THE PROJECT.The circular economy is a key idea, a paradigm, capable of inspiring and guiding the choices of enterprise, organization, and citizens. Today it is possible a new convergence between ecology,economy, new digital technologies, expectations, and social and cultural needs. Green economy and sharing economy, smart cities, and resilient cities. Until now the ways and consequences of energy substances derived from oil and from the irreversible production of material and energy waste are prevalent, the circular economy is proposed as a resilient economic system, designed and managed in order to improve the reproducibility and availability of natural resources. In 2019, the European Commission adopted a report on its action plan for the circular economy, to stimulate the transition to the circular economy. Nevertheless, much still needs to be done to enhance action at the national and global level, finding the missing link and achieving the competitive advantage that the economy circulates to EU businesses. It is, therefore, necessary to move to an overview of the supply chains that allow the reprogramming of the current methods of product design and development, management of raw materials and energy resources and end-of-life products.The principles behind the economy are first of all a cultural achievement. For example, while Germany recycles 60% of the waste, the Czech Republic does it only for 30%. A huge obstacle to thedevelopment of the circular economy future in Europe is, therefore, a cultural approach. Therefore the present project proposal arises from the need to implement an international collaboration on the circular economy sector, through the composition of a European partnership, composed by subjects with different experiences in the field of training, awareness, and scientific dissemination. The project intends to promote the exchange of good practices addressed to stakeholders as institutions for investments, companies, public bodies, and citizens interested in the topic. THROUGH THE ORGANIZATION OF TRAINING, SEMINAR AND CYCLES OF MEETINGS DESIGNED FOR EACH OF THE TARGETS IDENTIFIED AND TO DO AT INTERNATIONAL LEVEL.From this process, the project intends to implement- a scientific research report- a summary ebook as a result of the exchange of the good practices at European level- a training course (JSTE) based on the creation of a didactic methodology shared by the partnership.- dissemination meetingsTHE MAIN RESULTS EUCYCLE INTENDS TO OBTAIN ARE THE FOLLOWING:1. TO EXCHANGE GOOD PRACTICES ON THE THEME OF THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY2. TOACTIVATE AN INTERNATIONAL MOBILITY PROGRAM WITHIN THE PARTNERSHIP3. TO IMPLEMENT NEW TRAINING METHODOLOGIESTHE IMPACT WILL BE OBTAINED THROUGH:-THE FREE SHARING OF ALL DEVELOPED MATERIALS-ORGANIZATION OF TRAINING EVENTS OPEN TO STAKEHOLDERS AND CITIZENS IN GENERAL-Development of press conferences with the media- SENDING PRESS RELEASES-ORGANIZATION OF DISSEMINATION MEETINGS- DEVELOPMENT OF MEETINGS WITH POLITICAL DECISION MAKERS-MASSIVE USE OF WEB AND SOCIAL MEDIA-PUBLICATION AND PRINTING OF PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS-INVOLVEMENT OF MANY ASSOCIATED PARTNERS WHO WILL FAVOR EXPLOITATION, WORKING AS LOCAL MULTIPLIERS-PROMOTION OF THE PROJECT ON EUROPEAN NETWORKS AND CHATS- INVOLVEMENT OF EXPERTS IN THE SECTOR-REALIZATION OF RADIO TRANSMISSIONS WITH SERVICES ON THE AIR ON A NATIONAL SCALE (ON THE LAVORADIO NETWORK)- INVOLVEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC AND TELEVISION HEADS (FOR EXAMPLE RAI 3)-PROMOTION ON VARIOUS EUROPEAN PLATFORMS

<< Objectives >>This project aims to improve the employability of unemployed young people, increasing the number of professionals in the video game sector in Europe. Proposing the keys to promote the serious video game sector committed to aspects of social awareness, such as raising awareness of green issues. Encourage women to join the video game sector as professionals. Attend to inclusion, promote digital transformation and improve the necessary soft skills.<< Implementation >>The consortium formed by 6 multidisciplinary partners from 5 countries and experts in VET training will hold four transnational meetings and short-term training to develop the project. All the partners will hold seminars at the end of the project to reach 1,000 registered users on the SPOOC platform, video games developed and the complementary digital PLE created to continue learning once the proposed course has finished. 20 serious mini-video games will create green awareness in general public.<< Results >>Games4Green will offer holistic training for game development. For this, 10 modules will be created that cover the main professional profiles that collaborate in the creation of a video game. An e-learning platform will be created in SPOOC (Self-Paced Open Online Course) format, which will be complemented by a PLE (Personal Learning Environment) creating a Learning Path for each professional profile. 20 Green Mini-Video Games will raise awareness and be templates for future developments.

<< Background >>The partners as a whole have a noted interest in issues related to narratives and storytelling. Partners will be able to acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and key competencies, and use the tools produced to train relevant stakeholders in teaching the ethical use of stories and critical media skills to people working as social, cultural, and community workers. Since the late 1990s social science research has seen a resurgence of interest in stories (Jackson, 2013). This project seeks to build on this emerging field for the benefit of VET trainers. The need for this project has been recognized by partners that have a long term experience of working in education fields, specifically in terms of digital storytelling. Nussbaum (2011) argues that moral truths are best expressed in the form of a story - they allow us to understand each person’s life as a “complex narrative of human effort in a world full of obstacles.” In this sense, stories should also be the basis for developing cultural, social and educational projects. As Jackson (2013) states, social sciences turned towards narratives and narrative accountability as a term emerged to put experiential knowledge into the arena of evaluation and accountability of social, cultural and educational policies. It is therefore pertinent to investigate the ways in which stories are told, used and shared across Europe.The needs of each partner are aligned with the needs of our target groups. Indeed, NACCS member partners act for the good and improvement of learning conditions for vocational professionals as well as for people from groups generally excluded from civic participation. Thus, the needs of the partners are as follows: E-SCHOOL is an organization that cares for and assists its adult and professional learners in developing skills that will ensure a smooth and successful transition to the labor market. To achieve this, E-SCHOOL needs to improve its training tools and methods to better meet the needs of its learners. They want to promote the use of the Narrative Accountability Toolkit, work with other organizations from different EU countries and achieve goals that cannot be reached when organizations act alone and at a local level, and finally, E-SCHOOL needs to improve its position at the local/European level.Melting Pro definitely wants to target the cultural sector and possibly the use of stories in museums or other cultural organizations. Stando LTD needs sufficient materials and tools, as well as appropriate training to become competent in teaching the ethical use of stories and critical media skills to people working in the social, cultural and community sector. The target audience must be trained to understand the value of ethics and how to use stories responsibly so as not to harm or expose individuals in the media. Dealing effectively with ethical issues in the media promotes and defends values such as universal respect for life and the rule of law and legality. Stichting Le Porte-Voix, aims to contribute to dialogue and exchange, as well as to raise awareness about respectful sharing of voices. However, in today's digital world, this requires a new awareness of professionals in the social and cultural sector. The organization would like to contribute to arts-based professional training and research interventions, as well as design research. Its needs would be to develop training programs with professionals of the cultural and social sector, so that they are able to carry out new projects. The Chamber will involve VET practitioners and experts in the project, especially educators from cultural and community learning contexts and academics, policy makers, politicians, veterinary teachers, etc.<< Objectives >>Narrative Accountability in Cultural and Community Settings (NACCS), is a 36-month Strategic Partnership in the Field of VET (Innovation) project. There are 7 partner organizations from Germany, Italy, Greece, The Netherlands and Cyprus that covers varied cultural and political landscapes. This will result in comprehensive and versatile intellectual outcomes and impact across Europe. Our vision is to devise a pan-European responsible practice through which digital storytelling can be conducted. NACCS aims to use narrative accountability - an umbrella term to account for the power dynamics, ownership, responsibility, control and democratisation involved in storytelling - to support organisations working in cultural and civic fields to use stories in more inclusive ways. To do this we will research existing practices and produce a set of governing principles of narrative accountability (PR1), create tools for VET practitioners to aid their own learning and enhance their educational delivery (PR2), deliver trainings to develop partners expertise in this field (C1, 2 & 3) and delivery multiplier events to share this learning with VET providers, researchers and policymakers (E1&2).During the NACCS project, all partners will research existing uses of narrative accountability in cultural and community contexts at the local, national and pan-European levels.We will train trainers and educators working in cultural and community settings to think critically about narrative accountability and how to apply it in practice.The goal over the 36 months will be to raise awareness of the role and practical application of narrative accountability in cultural and community contexts.Finally, the partners will develop and create peer learning opportunities (online and offline) for practitioners working with narrative in cultural and community contexts.As for the partners, they were chosen according to their skills and expertise in the field of vocational training, so that each one would be complementary and that the objectives established at the beginning of the project would be achieved at the end of the 36 months. Each partner has its own expertise in its targets, its fields and its territories.Also, the multitude of partners, allows us to obtain a wider panel of target, and more particularly more complete databases to realize all the events that we will organize during the 36 months from November 2021.Having partners from different countries will allow us to more easily organize events and workshops in the different partner countries. Each partner will have a better knowledge of its territory, and will bring to the target groups an already recognized expertise.The exchange of knowledge across geographical borders will foster the development of ideas, bring the target groups out of their cultural bubble and support innovation.With this trans-European vision, we will be able to establish a comprehensive and coherent community of peers with different competences. This community allows practitioners to learn from each other and experiment with different practices/methods throughout the project.Finally, NACCS will be able to create common pan-European principles. The different values that will be shared will lay the foundation for a stronger and sustainable collaboration.<< Implementation >>The project NACCS aims to support those working with narratives (i.e. digital stories, lived experiences, oral histories etc.) in cultural and community settings (i.e. museums/galleries, community centres, galleries, informal education providers etc.) to work with such content in more equitable and socially inclusive manners.In order to achieve the project objectives and delivery of the planned results, the partnership has structured the project activities based on key milestones, work packages, intellectual outputs, staff trainings and transnational partnership meetings. The concrete results will be reached by implementing the Work Packages (WPs)Each work package will have a designated lead partner who will coordinate the activities in that workflow but ALL PARTNERS will actively contribute to each WP. The milestones consist of 5 work packages presented below: WP1: Project Management, Quality Assurance and Evaluation (CRN):WP2: Dissemination (MPIRMPAKOS and Chamber of commerce)WP3: Research and Stakeholder Engagement (CRN and Stichting Le Porte-Voix)WP4: Pedagogy and Training Delivery (Melting Pro and MPIRMPAKOS)WP5: Narrative Accountability Digital Resources (STANDO LTD and Melting Pro)There will be 7 transnational project meetings taking place at key intervals throughout the project’s duration. The meetings will provide an opportunity for internal communications and exchanges between project partners, in additional to the online meetings. They will last at least 2 days. Partners will send 2 staff to each. The final meeting, as it is focused on reporting, will just involve 1 member by organisation.Each meeting will cover the following standard topics:1. Project management (including risk and financial management)2. Input from the field of expertise of each partner3. Dissemination updates and planning4. Stakeholder engagement updates and planning.To summarize, there will be- 5 Work Package;- 6 online meetings;- 7 transnational project meetings; - 2 multipliers events;- 3 trainings activities<< Results >>In order to support the overall aim, the implementation of the project will lead to the following results:Project Result 1: Narrative Accountability Report (see PR1)Project Result 2: Narrative Accountability Toolkit (see PR2)Outcome 1: Organising 3 x short term joint staff training events on methods pertinent to narrative accountability; Outcome 2: Organising a co-design lab as part of the 5th Transnational Partnership Meeting; Outcome 3: Policy recommendations for narrative accountability in cultural and community settings; Outcome 4: Create a pan-European network of organisations and practitioners working with narrative accountability; IMPACT ON THE PARTICIPANTSOur participants will:- gain knowledge of narrative accountability - develop and improve digital and media literacy competencies- enhance their awareness and tools to support social inclusion- connect and engage with a peer support network for fellow VET practitioners in the field- raise their cultural awareness and expression competenciesIMPACT ON PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONSThe participating organisations will:- Gain new knowledge in the scope of narrative accountability in cultural and community settings (PR1)- Learn about different approaches and methods for narrative accountability (C1, C2, C3)- Strengthen and develop European partnerships- Develop competencies in project management and research and development (i.e. innovation) processes- Will gain a toolkit and resources (PR2) that will enrich their educational practices;IMPACT ON THE TARGET GROUPS1) Primary target groups: educators working in the VET fields.They will:- gain new knowledge about the concept of narrative accountability (PR1).- learn how narrative accountability can be applied in their field (PR1 and via multiplier events)- strengthen and develop European and local partnerships;- have access and training to a toolkit and resources on narrative accountability (PR2) that will support them to enact the project's learning in their setting2: Secondary target groups: people from groups who face additional barriers to education and training in cultural and community settings due to language differences, health and socio-economic status. The impact on these groups will be in the longer term. ​The impact on these secondary beneficiaries will be:- having their voices better heard and narratives handled in a more inclusive way- improving their own self-advocacy skills- enhancing their narrative presentation skills- developing digital and media literacies- strengthening their connections to cultural and community organisationsIMPACT ON RELEVANT STAKEHOLDERS (focus on VET sector)These stakeholders will:- gain innovative approaches and tools for teaching and learning (PR1 and PR2)- receive opportunities for, the initial and continued professional development (Multiplier Events)Educators in informal VET fields will use the project outputs to enhance their training programmes and civic activities and have the opportunity to use the digital, open and innovative education and pedagogies in this project in their own work context.