KAM2CentralPoland-4 project will be implemented by EEN-CP consortium in central regions of Poland. The overall objective of the project is to increase efficiency and effectiveness of research and innovation investments that will contribute to smart growth in EU countries. There are two main objectives the Consortium aim to achieve by delivering services under the present H2020 call: (1) the first objective is to ensure that key SME beneficiaries of the H2020 European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot are helped efficiently so that their full innovation potential can be exploited. They shall receive dedicated Key Account Management (KAM) services by the Network, which should be complemented by coaching services (not delivered by the Network). (2) The second objective is to ensure that the innovation management capacity of the SME clients is increased via a consulting services enhancing innovation management. Both services (Key account management and Enhancing innovation management capacity) are compatible with the general offers of the Consortium partners, which allow the latter to deliver services targeted at different stages of company development. Also, the services will be addressed to the most dynamic and innovative entities which have the potential to target international markets. That, in turn will help to build the brand of consortium members as providers of valuable services to the demand of modern companies.

Enabling sustainability and energy efficient operations (EEO) is a target priority for policy-makers as 23% of CO2 emissions globally is attributed to business operations. However, SMEs and their employees lack the knowledge to implement such practices and achieve EEO due to lack of proper market oriented curricula offered by higher education institutions (HEI) that will enable the emergence of graduates suitable to tackle EEO concepts. Still, scientific/academic knowledge by HEI can provide solutions for this matter. Alternatively, the industry provides the realistic setting where scientific knowledge can be applied. However, to be effective, Industry-Academia collaborations should be based on mutual trust, commitment and knowledge exchange/sharing. One way of achieving this ‘open communication’ between academics and the industry, is through co-creation which is the cornerstone of open innovation practices in today’s industry. For example, through co-creation, academia can gain useful input from industry, that will eventually lead to more market oriented curriculum and better prepared graduates capable to implement EEO. Hence, open innovation and co-creation between academia and industry/SMEs will highly increase HEI's capacity of producing graduates capable of being next generation leaders in EEO.To this end, the proposed project: Training for Energy Efficient Operations (TrainERGY) responded to the identified need by aiming to develop an innovative, evidence-based transnational teaching framework that would markedly improve the knowledge and skills of HEIs to produce more marked oriented EEO curricula, reducing the barriers in this field. The specific objectives of TrainERGY were to: 1.Establish transnational open collaboration between HEIs and SMEs across EU in order to address existing training needs in EEO.2.Co-create EEO curricula with input from the industry/SMEs.3.Develop, implement and validate an innovative, evidence-based virtual learning environment (VLE) based on an already developed energy efficiency training tool where feedback from multiple stakeholders (academics, students, industry) will be evaluated and incorporated into the EEO curriculum in an open innovation and co-creation manner.4.Define an open-innovation and co-creation framework that will enable a proper development of EEO curricula. The project started within a consortium of 8 partners, however after withdrawal of one of the organisations, it comprised 7 partners (3 universities, 1 academic research centre, 2 SMEs and 1 SME association) from different sectors and countries (Poland, UK, Greece and Italy).There were 4 intellectual outputs realised within the project:1.IO1 “Energy Efficient Operations Training Needs Specialization”2.IO2 “Energy Efficient Operations Curriculum Development”3.IO3 “Energy Efficient Operations Virtual Learning Environment through Open Innovation and Co-creation”4.IO4 “Transnational Knowledge Transfer Partnerships for Energy Efficient Operations Curriculum Co-Creation and Peer-Training”The results and impact of the project on the participants and participating organisations included:1.Development of questionnaire and conducting a survey among enterprises, resulting in the training needs analysis and its specialization.2.Preparation of Skill matrix development methodology. 3.Development of Skill matrix, including initial version of national skill matrixes; feedback on piloted skill matrixes and updated national skill matrixes.4.Elaboration of energy efficient operations curriculum development framework5.Development of 3 master level EEO curriculum (including course descriptions following the ECTS requirements) with additional materials, such as:a.3 sets of lecture and exercises materials, self-study references, test questions and answers, b.14 case studies, c.19 good practices,d.templates to be used during the courses.6.Elaboration of energy efficient operations curriculum development framework7.Development of 3 master level EEO curriculum (including course descriptions following the ECTS requirements) with additional materials, such as:a.3 sets of lecture and exercises materials, self-study references, test questions and answers, b.14 case studies, c.19 good practices,d.templates to be used during the courses.8.Development of the VLE comprising the analysis tool and didactical material developed within IO2 and making it accessible for the users under: https://www.trainergy-project.eu/language/en/virtual-learning-environment9.Development of open innovation & co-creation framework.10.Development of the training scheme – an exemplification of the open innovation & co-creation framework implementation

<< Background >>Thriving in the new EU economy poses imminent challenges for entrepreneurs worldwide. Dealing with exponentially growing stocks of digital start-ups (and not only) that fast-pace innovation at unimaginable speeds, entrepreneurs are not faced anymore just with a financial consideration dilemma when receiving or asking for investment. Fast paced innovations are good and needed worldwide indeed and the global start-up ecosystems are exceeding all expectations to this end. But this is not enough. As the entire world is moving towards a more sustainable & fairer business & social ecosystem, so should entrepreneurs (EU Commission, 2021, GIIN, 2020) otherwise they risk not being able to reach investment. To this end, the concept of impact investment appeared (investment in startups that produce environmental and social benefits) and it is gaining a big momentum un the startup scene (IRIS, 2020). As startups are the becoming the backbone of the EU economy in terms of employment and innovation (EUROSTAT, 2020), a massive attention should be set on developing impact investment capabilities into the next generation entrepreneurs. Furthermore, as university spin-offs and graduate-led startups are the hold the biggest propotion of share in the EU market (67.8% - EUROSTART, 2020), entrepreneurship education at the higher education level should therefore include impact investment as key competence for their students. Nevertheless, according to an initial entrepreneurship programme benchmark in countries involved in ARIEES (and specifically for Eastern Europe), less than 5% (out of 134) of the entrepreneurship courses (benchmarked by the consortium in the preparation phase) at the undergraduate and post-graduate level offer impact investment strategies. On top of this, the wider discussion governing the educational sector worldwide for the past year resides in the rapid digital transformation in online education gap induced by COVID-19 (OECD, 2021, EPALE, 2020). Lecturers (i.e. higher education) or trainers (i.e. adult education) should possess the full range of digital competences facilitated by the DigCompEdu framework. In this context, ARIEES will meet the following needs of the main target groups (primary: university lecturers in entrepreneurship, secondary: adult trainers on entrepreneurship): Target group skill gap related to impact investment (SG-Impact): startup business model transformation to enable environmental and social impacts, motivating students/prospective entrepreneurs to shape their startups towards impact investment, inability to devise impact measurement indicators for different stages (early stage, pre-seed, post-seed, exit), impact investor engagement strategies, impact investment pitching strategies, bridging public and private impact investors, sources of private investment, networking (online and offline) with impact investors. Target group skill gap related to digital education delivery (SG-Digital): limited expertise with delivering digital education that would enabling a supportive virtual class environment; limited digital skills to support the curriculum transformation process; inability to incorporate forward-looking digital solutions to support teaching; lack of skills for co-sharing resources and jointly developing high quality universal Open Educational Resource with other lecturers internationally; inability to reach social groups at risk and gender-balance by delivering personalized online education; inability to properly embed creative thinking (especially for entrepreneurship education) in a digital setting.<< Objectives >>The objective of ARIEES are to help universities (and potentially adult training centres) to improve 1) their entrepreneurship courses by infusing impact investment know-how and 2) to upgrade the digital competences of lecturers/trainers to ensure that the impact investment knowledge can be properly infused into the learners while 3) certifying competences and boosting the quality of entrepreneurship trainers. This will be done by developing: •Result 1 – Acquiring responsible & impactful investment cours•Result 2 – Webinars as pilots for the course (for students, startups and investors)•Result 3 – Train the trainers webinars with digital education pedagogical innovations •Result 4 – Digital micro-credential system development (based on EntreComp/DigComp) •Result 5 – Networking platform: Impact investment HubThis will help ARIEES achieve the following priorities:Priority 1 - HE: Supporting digital capabilities of the higher education sectorPriority 2 - HORIZONTAL: Environment and fight against climate changePriority 3 - HE: Rewarding excellence in learning, teaching and skills development<< Implementation >>The following activities will be implemented: A1-Management - Constant Management & Administration (A2 - Periodic formal reporting and A3 - Periodic informal reporting)Result 1 - Task 1.1 - Content development Result 1 - Task 1.2 - Training Materials Peer-reviewResult 1 - Task 1.3 - Partners to adjust training materialsResult 1 - Task 1.4 - Materials update after the webinars Result 1 - Task 1.5 - Content embedment in existing curricula Result 2 - Task 2.1 -Webinar content adaptation from Result 1 Result 2 - Task 2.2 - Webinar content testing Result 2 - Task 2.3 - Webinar deliveryResult 3 - Task 3.1 -Webinar content development Result 3 - Task 3.2 - Webinar content testing Result 3 - Task 3.3 - Webinar deliveryResult 4 - Task 4.1 - Certification framework & center development Result 4 - Task 4.2 - Certification assessment development Result 4 - Task 4.3 - Certification center launch Result 4 - Task 4.4 - Certification pilots Result 5 - Task 5.1 - Platform requirements analysis Result 5 - Task 5.2 - Platform development and techical testing Result 5 - Task 5.3 - Platform piloting Result 5 - Task 5.4 - Platform improvement and deployment Quality assurance: QA - Evaluation plan and QA - MonitoringDissemination activities: Dissemination plan, Dissemination outputs (website, social media, logos, templates), Dissemination activities (newsletters, press releases, communications), Dissemination - translation activities, Dissemination - exploitation & sustainability plan Multiplier events: E1, E2, E3Project meetings: Five meetings.<< Results >>The following results and outcomes are envisioned: Result 1 – Acquiring responsible & impactful investment course - led by UOL*Specialized CUs based on EntreCompResult 2 – Webinars as pilots for the course (for students, startups and investors)WEBINAR 1 - Impact investment in cleantech and sustainable startups WEBINAR 2 - Impact investment in deep tech ICT (artificial Intelligence) StartupsWEBINAR 3 - Impact investment in cultural and creative startups WEBINAR 4 - Impact investment & startup business model transformation WEBINAR 5 - Engaging private impact investors for your startup WEBINAR 6 - Engaging public impact investors for your startup Result 3 – Train the trainers webinars with digital education pedagogical innovations WEBINAR 1 - How to develop high quality OERs in entrepreneurship education ? WEBINAR 2 - Engagement and motivation of entrepreneurship learners via neuroscience approaches WEBINAR 3 - Fostering an inclusive and personalized digital entrepreneurship education Result 4 – Digital micro-credential system development (based on EntreComp/DigComp) -Micro-credential 1: EntreComp certification on teaching impact investment-infused entrepreneurship Micro-credential 2: DigCompEdu certification for digital education deliveryMicro-credential 3: EBAN certificate on impact investment (trainers)Micro-credential 4: EBAN certificate on impact investment (learners)Result 5 – Networking platform: Impact investment Hub * Requirements analysis * Development * Pilot testing * Deployment A quality assurance methodology that can be further utilised by university lecturers to better develop digital content for entrepreneurship courses and beyond Project dissemination activities outputs The ARIEES alumni network with early graduates during the lifecycle of the project 3 multiplier events that will serve as information and commitment exercises form external actors to further engage with the project outputs A Network of 4 ARIEES Certification Centres (see the Sustainability section)

The KAM2CentralPoland-3 project will be implemented by the EEN-CP consortium in central parts of Poland. The overall objective of the project is to increase the efficiency and the effectiveness of R&D and innovation investments that will contribute to smart growth in EU countries. There are two main objectives the Consortium aim to achieve by delivering services under the present Horizon 2020 call: (1) The first objective is to provide the beneficiaries of the following schemes: SME Instrument (SMEI), Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) and Future and Emerging Technologies Open (FET-Open) with a useful and value-added service which will enable them to innovate and compete on the international markets; (2) The second objective is to build its own brand of a reliable organization that provides valuable and comprehensive services, which help to increase the innovation management capacity to the business community, and in particular to innovative SMEs. Both the KAM and EIMC services are compatible with the general offers of the Consortium partners, which allows the latter to deliver services targeted at different stages of company development. Also, the above mentioned services will be addressed to the most dynamic and innovative entities which have the potential to target international markets. That, in turn, will help to build the brand of consortium members as providers of valuable services adjusted to the demand of modern companies.

The key challenges identified within the Europe 2020 Strategy are related to overcoming the socio-economic crisis, boosting growth and addressing youth employment. The youth unemployment rate reached a new historic high of 23.5 % in February 2013, with about 5.7 million young people affected. Spain (54.6%) as well as Italy (41,7%) were among the Member States with the highest youth unemployment rate. High quality education systems, which are both efficient and equitable play a crucial role in enhancing employability, therefore, systemic reforms and a shared vision among authorities and stakeholders is necessary in order to make a real impact and transfer knowledge and know-how in an effective and clearly targeted way. Education is directly linked to reaching the right match of skills required in the labour market and EU policies have identified quality, efficiency and relevance of education and training as being among the strategic objectives.The project #empl-oi (European Mobility Placements for Open Innovation) proposes a scheme which aims to ensure favourable circumstances for students to earn competences, which are highly valued in the labour market and thus considerably increase the employability of prospective graduates. Involving labour market actors in the design and delivery of programmes, and including practical experience in courses will help to attune the curricula to current and emerging labour market needs and foster employability and entrepreneurial awareness. The ultimate vision of the project is to create structured, favourable and mutually beneficial ecosystem for transnational University-Business cooperation and study models that require students to act across traditional boundaries.The outcomes of the project - The online course on social entrepreneurship is aimed at fostering understanding about social entrepreneurship and therefore also about the entrepreneurial competences and attitudes. - The guidelines will showcase a comprehensive model of university-business cooperation and propose ways of efficiently gatheringcommunication and feedback from the labour market to beintegrated in the courses and curriculum.- An innovative collaboration structure will reinforce ongoing cooperation between employers and academic staff on a local and international level. - Policy recommendationswill summarise the conclusions and results of the project and provide practical, evidence-based suggestions for policy-makers. The internationalisation of higher education and mobility are among the core elements in the project and strengthening quality through mobility and cross-border cooperation is among the key drivers of the project and it will be promoted in three ways:- By promoting one year long mobility, instead of one semester mobility, therefore allowing for deeper immersion in the host county (culture-wise, language-wise);- By adding an extra dimension while studying aboard, namely, engaging in professional activities in addition to academic experience abroad(part-time placements in addition to academic studies);- By having student tandems and therefore promoting the concept of internalisation at home and providing an opportunity for non-mobile students to increase awareness about cultural differences (by doing professionally related tasks in close cooperation with an exchange student). The project partner universities have rich experience in cooperating with business partners and during the project lifetime they willexpand the cooperation structure with employers in order to ensure even more favourable circumstances for students, facilitate productive and targeted university-business cooperation, diversify the offer of entrepreneurial activities and part-time placements for students and make greater impact locally and internationally during and beyond the EU-funded project period. The project will be carried out by 11partners, 5 universities (University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, IAE, University of Naples Federico II, University of Lodz, University of Alcalá and Vytautas Magnus University) 2 Networks (European University Foundation – Campus Europae (EUF-CE) and Erasmus Student Network (ESN)) as well as 4 partner companies (AdvanticSistemas (Spain), UAB Festo (Lithuania), Lithuanian Business confederation (Lithuania) and Foundation for Promotion of Entrepreneurship (Poland)),The project will facilitate high quality student mobility and carry out an innovative part-time placement scheme. Strong emphasis will be placed on close cooperation between business representatives as well as cross-border academic cooperation in the field of entrepreneurial education and social entrepreneurship.The project is an example of a close transnational cooperation in order to pursue goals of internalisation strategies and put into practice innovative cooperation models.#empl-oi intends not only to have a direct impact on participants, but also trigger changes on the long-term among universities and c