Successful transition into higher education is considered crucial both for the student as well as for the educational institution (Tinto, 2015). It is regarded more as a complete phase, rather than a single event (Coertjens et al., 2016). This transition may become a stressful period for many freshman students, while they have to deal with a number of serious challenges, such as the need for developing novel learning patterns and also the adaptation of the already existing learning strategies in the new academic environment (Vermunt, 2005). Students show difficulties in academic adjustment that mainly are due to ineffective learning strategies and unsatisfactory self-regulation (lack of ability to monitor learning progress, difficulty to adapt behavior to the demands of the new learning situations, Zimmerman & Schunk, 2008). Also, students have a difficulty to understand the difference between studying at University and studying at an upper secondary school or the demands of the university level teaching-learning environment (Haharala-Muhoven et al. 2016).Current research emphasizes the need for further investigation of the variables contributing to students’ well-being, learning and persistence in studies as for some students transition phase may be challenging and for others full of stress (Coertjens et al., 2016). Some of these factors are: motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2000), executive functioning (Gioia et al., 2000), individual characteristics (self-efficacy; Bandura, 1997), personality dimensions (resilience; Cassidy, 2015), sense of coherence (Antonovsky, 1993), anxiety (Spielberger, Gorush, & Lushene, 1970), other factors as academic emotions (Schutz & Pekrun, 2007), explicit and implicit emotion regulation (Gyurak, Gross, & Etkin, 2011) and mental-health factors. In line with the need for further exploration of the relations underlying the above variables to enhance students learning, this project aims to develop an on-line diagnostic tool/platform that comprises cognitive/learning and psychological constructs contributing to students’ psycho-educational profiles and academic success. According to their scores, students will be given feedback followed by guidance and coaching guidelines will be available to teachers on demand. The design of the platform will be based on modern web development tools following previous experience in Flanders (Vanthournout et al., 2012). It will be a new improved tool developed and tested in three different countries and languages ensuring the transferability of it. It will enhance students’ awareness of their pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses, increasing their resilience and self-development that will enable them to engage with learning and regulate their progress in order succeed. The ultimate goal at policy level in higher education is to develop a supportive learning environment for better quality of mental-life, well-being, learning and academic success in a highly complex society (Barnett, 2000).

<< Background >>Laboratory education is the cornerstone of chemical sciences. In laboratories, students develop their practical skills and gain deeper, hands-on understanding of the concepts discussed in lectures and textbooks. Laboratory skills are crucial for successful transition to working life as professionals in chemistry, chemical engineering, and many other fields of science. The ongoing transition towards renewable and sustainable energy solutions requires higher training capacity of skilled chemists with versatile laboratory experience. At the same time, traditional laboratory education faces severe threats in many universities in Europe and world-wide. Laboratory education is relatively expensive compared to for example lectures and whenever universities face budget cuts, the quality and extent of laboratory education may be in danger. Furthermore, during the COVID-19 crisis, educational programmes with laboratory training have been among the hardest-hit sectors because in many countries students have not been able to access labs due to university lockdowns.<< Objectives >>We want to promote high-quality laboratory education by providing digital solutions that increase the resilience, quality, and financial sustainability of laboratory education. We will develop open, accessible, and scalable virtual materials chemistry laboratories for training students in the field of sustainable energy solutions such as light-emitting diodes or Li-ion batteries. BSc and MSc level virtual laboratories will be integrated with state-of-the-art materials modelling platform, bridging experiment and theory in unforeseen ways. The developed virtual laboratories will be integrated in our curricula, either as completely new course offerings or integrated to existing laboratory courses. The project results make it possible for higher education institutions to offer students more versatile laboratory education around the Europe and globally.<< Implementation >>Our project involves four major Project Results related to the implementation of virtual materials chemistry laboratories and virtual materials modelling platform integrated into the laboratories. The work on the Project Results is supported by shared digital workspace, regular transnational project meetings, and training activities for teachers. Dissemination of the project results to wider teacher community beyond the partner universities is also a major activity in the project.<< Results >>The expected Project Results are: (1) laboratory virtualization guidelines, (2) virtual general chemistry laboratory, (3) virtual inorganic materials chemistry laboratory, and (4) virtual materials modelling platform integrated with the experimental laboratories. The developed results will be licensed with Open Access license and open to all interested educators. Overall, the project builds new capacities in European higher education by implementing and disseminating novel digital solutions for laboratory education. Working-life skills of students will be boosted, providing stronger innovative capacities for their professional life. Our work strongly supports high-quality chemical education in Europe and contributes to development of sustainable energy technologies of the future.

<< Objectives >>Sharing experiences and learning from and with local leaders how community organizing could foster political engagement in Europe.<< Implementation >>Local leaders will get togehter three times and new materials on community organizing will be produced. An European Organizing Committee will be formed to do the project management.<< Results >>Local leaders improve their abilities to engage politcally and soldarize with other leaders from all over Europe.

<< Background >>The Covid-19 pandemic sparked the uptake of digitally enhanced learning and teaching environments, providing an urgent reason for acceleration. According to the DigiHE report published in January 2021, most European institutions were able to respond rather rapidly by extending already existing strategies and policies for online and blended learning. Similarly, the E+ EVOLVE project reported that the Covid-19 pandemic made reinforcing the need for implementing Virtual Exchanges due mainly to the drastic drop in physical international mobility. The INVITE project aims to develop teaching and learning competencies for designing and implementing new virtual and blended modalities of international collaboration in European Higher Education Institutions, an objective aligned with several ambitions of the European Commission agenda for Higher Education, especially with the directions indicated by the recent Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027 aiming at enabling digital skills of educators to improve the quality of digital practices in education, the new Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programs priorities, the green agenda for internationalization among others. INVITE complements other Erasmus + program funded projects addressing virtual exchanges and digital competencies in higher education, with its innovative perspectives not covered by other projects so far:It builds bridges among digital ecosystems and international and cross-border collaborations to enhance the teaching and learning process. It creates a strong educational basis for organizing high-quality and meaningful international virtual and blended academic programs and modules. It considers the “student-centered” and active-learning approaches as the basis of teaching and learning to propose solutions to global challenges.It extends the participation of disciplines not usually concerned by intercultural exchanges such as engineering, agriculture, health, and others, increasing the possibilities for interdisciplinary collaboration. It gives teachers and students the needed skills to develop creative international blended and virtual programs, adding value to their careers. It will identify approaches to bridge bottom-up innovation with institutional strategies exploring ways to create opportunities for strategy development.It will have a considerable impact on cross-border teacher collaborations and the involvement of institutional staff to support such innovations.<< Objectives >>The INVITE project aims to develop teaching and learning competencies for designing and implementing virtual and blended modalities of international collaboration in European Higher Education Institutions. To this aim the project will pursue five specific objectives:Map the current institutional and educational approaches to the different cross-border and international collaboration in virtual and blended learning environments adopted by Higher Education Institutions in Europe underlying the practices that make a meaningful and sustainable contribution to teaching and learning processes. Develop an active-learning design framework applicable for different international virtual and blended modalities that enrich the teaching and learning process with proposed pedagogies, didactics, and toolkits. Design and implement an action-training online program targeting interdisciplinary teachers and institutional staff from HEI institutions to build capacities to design, implement and sustain innovative international virtual and blended programs/initiatives.Develop an open interactive digital ecosystem that will host the action-training program and also support the organization of international competition hackathons bringing together institutions and teachers in the design of innovative international virtual and blended collaborations addressing urgent problems aligned to the SDGs and the Green agenda. Identify Higher Education policies and strategies for innovation in teaching and learning aiming to establish and sustain cross-border virtual and blended programs.<< Implementation >>The INVITE will develop several activities to achieve the proposed goals:Map the current institutional and educational approaches to the different cross-border and international collaboration in virtual and blended learning environments adopted by Higher Education Institutions in Europe. Selection of good practices and case studies explored in depth through interviews, underlying the factors that make a meaningful and sustainable contribution to teaching and learning processes.Engaging HE academic staff with expertise in innovative educational methodologies (e.g. problem-based learning, adaptive teaching, and assessment, computer-supported collaborative learning, learning-by-doing, problem-solving, etc.) in the systematization of international virtual and blended initiatives in order to support their pedagogical value. This framework will encourage creativity, skill development, and knowledge dissemination among learning designers in a pedagogically sound way.Guidelines on innovative methodologies adaptable for virtual and blended modalities. From R1 and R2A1, it will be identified, classified, and published a menu of active methodologies and didactics suggested to be applied in different kinds of international virtual and blended modalities, such as Collaborative Online International Learning projects, Project Oriented Learning Environments, Co-design virtual exchanges, Blended Intensive Programs, etc. Design and implementation of open online interactive training modules for the development of digital competencies for educators, with the aim of enabling them to implement effective international virtual and blended learning environments. Specific modules will be dedicated to institutional advisors and educational developers to promote awareness and mechanisms to support, scale up and sustain international blended and virtual mobility initiatives.Organization of the competition days -hackathons- with the participation of an international jury composed of undergraduate & postgraduate students, teaching, learning, and innovation experts as well as guests. The “hackathon” will bring together institutions and teachers internationally in the design of innovative international virtual and blended collaborations addressing urgent problems aligned to the SDGs and the Green agenda. Develop an Open Interactive Digital Ecosystem in the form of a platform that will host the action-training program and facilitate the organization of hackathons. Furthermore, the platform will contain a shared space for teachers to contact peers and design projects. Develop guidelines and technical specification for adapting the open interactive digital ecosystem to training and innovation activities in educationReview of the evidence on institutional policies, instruments, and processes, their impact, including unintended consequences and risks. The evidence will be reviewed, focused on the most relevant European experiences. Four main drivers will be systematically explored: strategy and policies, facilitating structures, support instruments, and the role of international collaboration.Develop policy recommendations based on a deliberative dialogue with institutional stakeholders to validate the evidence collected aiming to identify enablers and drivers for sustainable innovation.<< Results >>Through the INVITE project, we expect to achieve several outcomes and resultsOutcome 1. Understanding the innovative ways for international collaboration in virtual and blended modalities in HEI through developing R. 1.1 An overview of existing and emerging international virtual and blended modalities for teaching and (T&L) identifying its key characteristics, scope, and specific contribution to the improvement of teaching and learning process in HE; and R. 1.2 Selecting good practices and case studies to draw a profile of the most innovative and adaptable methodologies that are currently being used in HE for implementing international collaboration in virtual and blended learning environments. Outcome 2: Designing, implementing, and assessing student-centered international virtual and blended modalities. Through the development of R. 2.1 A learning design framework proposal for student-centered activities in cross-border blended and virtual environments and R. 2.2 Guidelines on innovative methodologies that could be effective for improving T&L in international virtual and blended modalities. Special attention will be given to methodologies such as problem-solving, problem-based teaching, collaborative learning, and others applicable to such environments. Outcome 3: Teachers and Institutional staff equipped with the skills, and resources for designing, implementing, and sustaining international virtual and blended programs. Through R. 3.1 Online interactive training modules and micro-credentials to build teachers’ capacities and institutional staff to implement effective virtual and blended environments for T&L in international settings and R.3.2 Repository of open materials to share tools and guidelines to support the design of international virtual and blended programs.Outcome 4: Mobilize teachers and institutional staff for designing innovative international virtual and blended projects aiming to solve global and societal challenges. Through the development of a digital learning ecosystem (R.4.1.2) that will host training modules and hackathons bringing together teachers to design innovative international collaborations addressing urgent problems such as the SDGs and the Green agenda (R4.1.1&R4.1.3). The whole ecosystem will be offered as OER so other interested parties can adjust it for their own use. Evidence-based guidelines on the design, implementation, and evaluation of such days will support the uptake of such activities by others. Outcome 5: Linking bottom-up initiatives with institutional policies and strategies. Through the development of R.5.1 Evidence-based report on institutional policies and strategies for enhancing teaching and learning innovation for virtual and blended modalities. And R.5.2 Policy recommendations based on a deliberative dialogue with stakeholders on barriers and enablers for virtual and blended modalities. Furthermore, it is important to mention results such as:- Initiating a new form of cooperation between partners by creating joint virtual and blended programs that could benefit from external Erasmus + funding for BIP - Blended Intensive Programs. - Increasing the scale of virtual and blended programs between partner organizations- Creating a digital learning ecosystem across borders and among different HEIs, which is composed of a transnational learning community that collaborates, and that hosts the activities and the shared resources. - Getting to know the national cultures of participants taking part in the project.- Captivating the interest of HEIs from outside the partnership in the field of the project such as those of the European Universities where partners belong to.

This project arose out of a need to fulfill a lack of knowledges and practices regarding gender issues in European Military Institutions. Recent research conducted in several European countries (e.g. UK, Germany, Norway) has found consistent effects of hegemonic masculinity in military organisations, which is manifested more clearly in the asymmetrical percentages of male (high%) to female (low%) personnel. In that regard, and responding to a lack of practical improvements in this area, it is important, and innovative, to investigate to what extent young cadets adapt (or not) to a military culture and to its hegemonic masculine environment. Another concern is the level of peer acceptance when women take over leadership positions, which we believe is demonstrative of the institution’s views on gender roles. Through data analysis, acquired from questionnaires and interviews, and also applying existing gender theories on the matter, we would develop a Military Gender Studies (MGS) module. This module would aim to improve the Military Institutions’ practices and commitment to an equalitarian perspective on gender roles in their educational systems, bringing them closer to current European gender debates. Therefore reinforcing the interaction between research, policy and practice in the partner institutions. The fact that the partners are from different socio-political realities (Portugal, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania) contributes to a greater scope in approach. The synergies from our collaboration would ultimately provide a more diverse and dynamic perspective on gender issues in European Military Institutions.The project’s main priority is to develop the aforementioned Military Gender Studies model, devised specifically to be taught in European Army Institutions. The project aims to create a MGS Army Handbook to be taught, initially, at the partner institutions. To achieve this, the project would train two target groups: 32 students, 8 from each partner’s Military Academies, in MGS workshops (C1 + C2), and 16 professionals, 4 from each partner institution, who will later teach (with our Handbook) on the topic of gender in the military (C3 + C4). This training system would ensure the promotion of the necessary social, civic, intercultural and interdisciplinary competences, improving institutional perspectives of equalitarian gender roles. This would establish the groundwork that would allow for a smooth integration of Military Gender Studies into the curricular offer of the partner military academies.Regarding methodology and activities, we intend to begin the process of research by conducting questionnaires and interviewing military personnel from different ranks (O1 + O2). Performed by all partner institutions, this would allow for a greater comprehension of the issues at hand, from a European standpoint. After that, we would move on to the creation of the Military Gender Studies - Army Handbook. Once completed, we would set up workshops with recruits from the partner institutions, and later training sessions with interested participants from the partner institutions.At the time of the project’s conclusion, all the partner institutions should have integrated Military Gender Studies into their curricular offer, contributing to a higher quality of education. We anticipate that, through teaching MGS, the institutions would see an increase in enlisted women, while being committed to the implementation of innovative practices regarding gender roles. As the armed forces are integrated in systemic power structures in societies, we believe that the improvement of sensibilities and practices regarding gender roles would prove to impact civilian society as well.We intend to disseminate results not only in military contexts, but also in civilian academic circles. We expect to participate in two European Gender Studies conferences/congresses, allowing us to disseminate our results. This would assure the openness of the project to possible interactions with civilian institutions. Furthermore, at the end of the project we would organize a Multiplier Event (E1) with the participation of military and civilian institutions. This event, while disseminating results, would hopefully draw other institutions to engage with our MGS module. Regarding the potential longer term benefits, we perceive the continuation of our work through lectures/seminars/workshops, as we would work towards the incorporation of the MGS module in other European Military Institutions. Another possible long-term goal is the adaptation of the MGS module to a general approach/initiation to military gender studies to be taught in earlier stages of education (e.g. ages 5 to 18). With this project we hope to actively contribute to a more modern, dynamic, committed and professional environment inside Military Institutions, making a difference in the lives of military women and men, in the institutions themselves, and in European societies.