<< Background >>The concept of coworking and other flexible workspaces (e.g., fab labs, incubators, or accelerators) has become increasingly important over the past years and this development was even spurred by the remote tele-working trend due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Research proved that coworking spaces are beneficial in several ways. For example, they stimulate the finding of mates for teams, projects, and entrepreneurship. Especially entrepreneurial performance improves by the learning processes among coworking users that take upon the individual efficacy, trust, and community among other users. This social support and collaboration typically go hand in hand with high levels of diversity and inclusion (e.g., migrants or socially/financially disadvantaged people seeking new opportunities) and spurs creativity and innovation, oftentimes in the form of social and sustainability-oriented innovation. Moreover, coworking spaces represent important microclusters to the local dynamics of knowledge creation and transfer. However, since these concepts are still rather young, especially in connection with universities, there is a lack in verified knowledge and best practices about how to integrate and leverage such spaces into the teaching, transfer, and internationalisation activities of universities. The use of coworking spaces by students is still rare but has great future potential, because it has the capacity to offer low-threshold (and low-cost) entry opportunities into entrepreneurship or other creative and innovative occupational fields and offers affordable office space. Against this backdrop, Cowork4EU aims to build capacities for the mutual exchange of current and best practices as well as the development and piloting of joint teaching activities with the focus on university coworking between four European universities from Germany, Austria, France, and the Czech Republic. In doing so, Cowork4EU addresses the needs of diverse stakeholder groups. First, students want to experience learning activities outside the classroom and work in real-world settings on real-world cases. Cowork4EU will also offer them opportunities for international peer-learning and international mobility. Similarly, teachers want to enhance the effectiveness of teaching and training activities through experience learning activities in creative environments. Third, universities want to leverage the potential of their coworking spaces and increase the visibility and acceptance among students to use them on a regular basis and create important touchpoints with the surrounding entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem. Fourth, external coworking spaces, corporates, and investors may also seek cooperations with universities to enhance knowledge exchange and access to potential users or talents. Fifth, (student) entrepreneurs have a strong need for inclusion into the regional ecosystem, finding team members, and affordable but professional office spaces. Finally, the project addresses the need for evidence-based insights that help the aforementioned groups as well as scholars and policymakers to better understand the role and dynamics of university coworking for the overall development of local and regional entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems.<< Objectives >>By implementing the Cowork4EU project, we want to achieve improvement to the needs of the stakeholder groups above identified. Overall, we aim to achieve the following main objectives: • Create an evidence-based best practice framework for the use of coworking spaces in university teaching and learning activities and as places for the creative exchange among (international) students and staff, especially between different faculties and disciplines, but also with non-university members (e.g., firms) to spur innovation. The aim is to achieve a closer and better cooperation between universities and their own coworking space (but also other associated external spaces) to foster the long-term integration of coworking spaces into the teaching, transfer, and internationalisation activities of universities. In more detail, the project does not only intend to design and pilot certain activities in these areas but also evaluate their outcomes (i.e., their effectiveness) within the project period and beyond. There is currently a lack of empirical evidence to further support the meaningfulness of coworking spaces in student contexts. With the integrated collection of survey data during the project, this issue will be addressed and a solid data basis for the best practice recommendations will be created. The best practice work tools identified in the project will be openly accessible and subsequently, they will be potentially used by other institutions but also policymakers to build on the produced know-how for the design and implementation of support programmes.• Develop and pilot a joint coworking course that brings together students from the partner countries in an open and creative space. Through this innovative pedagogic experience, students and staff build new skills and get in touch with the coworking community. Such pedagogic approaches can also help students with, for example, concentration problems or with difficulties in adapting to classical pedagogic systems, because they benefit from project-based courses and peer learning. Moreover, we enhance the visibility of coworking spaces as promising places to pursue entrepreneurial and other creative and innovative endeavours, connect with like-minded people, and find mutual support. With this objective, we expect that the integration of coworking spaces into different university activities can enhance entrepreneurial and innovation initiatives and their success.• Create a common European Academic Coworking Network (EACN) that connects universities and coworking spaces (both university-owned and external) to form a vivid European-wide network of ports of call for exchange students, entrepreneurs, expats, and other people that require a professional workplace or community support abroad. The aim of this is to achieve closer and easier cooperation, exchange, and mutual agreements among the participants, which will likely enhance the mobility of students, staff, and other users. It will further enable a smoother conduct of internationalisation activities of universities, individuals, and ventures. • Support people facing disadvantages (e.g., migrants, financial/social/learning obstacles etc.) through affordable office spaces and low-threshold opportunities for inclusion in their surrounding entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems but also when they are abroad. With this objective, we want to achieve greater inclusion of people with diverse backgrounds (e.g., personal or knowledge diversity) within the coworking community in general and within new venture teams in particular. Diverse teams and know-how are well established to enhance the performance of work and founding teams. • In sum, with the above objectives we aim to further strengthen the position of universities and coworking spaces within the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems and to help individuals develop up-to-date skills, build professional network, and successfully realise their ideas and potential.<< Implementation >>The Cowork4EU project is going to implement various activities of mutual exchange and capacity building in the field of university coworking. These activities include joint teaching, student and staff mobility, network building, and research activities. In one digital and four face-to-face transnational project meetings, the project partners will have opportunities for personal exchange of their current practices and experiences with university coworking, which will serve as a basis to develop a theory-driven and evidence-based framework for best practice recommendations in this field. Joint teaching and learning activities are implemented to pilot the developed coworking course and constantly improve its curriculum and content during the project. The teaching and learning activities will be carried out with a European scope with different students from each university visiting each partner country on a rolling basis during the project. Together with their international peers, they will have the opportunity to collaborate on real-world challenges that are developed together with the respective coworking spaces and present them in front of a professional audience to get hands-on feedback. These activities will result in four pilot courses in four different spaces with 160 students participating in total. An integrated data collection will take place during and after the courses to evaluate participants’ satisfaction and the effectiveness of the activities.Another important activity that will be carried out during the project period is the building and promotion of a European Academic Coworking network (EACN) as a web platform to foster mutual support and exchange in the field of university coworking. This emerging network offers participants advantages in terms of visibility, knowledge sharing, or even partnership agreements for the mobility of students, staff, and other coworking users between coworking spaces in different cities and countries across Europe. Four multiplier events will take place during the project with different foci and participants (e.g., university members, coworking staff and users, coworking associations etc.). At the beginning of the project, a multiplier event will take place in the form of a requirement workshop to gather input and gain a deeper understanding of the needs of the different stakeholder groups. In a second event, the project team will be present the planned coworking course and survey and gather feedback for improvements. The third event will be used for the presentation and promotion of the EACN and the presentation of the first preliminary best practice results. In a final multiplier event, the overall project results in the form of the evidence-based best practices will be shared for further use and dissemination and the way forward beyond the project will be discussed.<< Results >>Cowork4Eu produces four major project results:1) A curriculum for a joint coworking course including pilot course content: This project result refers to the development and piloting of a joint course conducted inside the partners’ coworking spaces with students from all four universities. The aim is to establish this course in the regular curriculum of each university and continue it after the project end. This project result also includes the creation of course content with innovative teaching and learning activities (e.g., multinational teams, peer learning etc.) that conclude with a final presentation in front of a professional audience in the respective coworking space. The curriculum and content will be continuously improved throughout the project and made available for transferability and reuse by others.2) A survey for (academic) coworking monitoring: To produce empirical evidence for the effectiveness of different activities (e.g., the joint coworking courses), the consortium will develop and implement multiple questionnaires. The questionnaires will include measures to assess the quality and perceived effectiveness of activities in the project but also other activities and programmes that the university coworking spaces are offering. The aim is to build a longitudinal data set capturing the participants personal characteristics, attitudes, and behaviours related to coworking and other flexible new work approaches as well as towards entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation topics. This data builds the foundation for our evidence-based best practice report.3) An evidence-based best practice report: This result refers to a final large-scale report based on the data collected during the whole project. This university coworking monitor offers insights into the general practices of the investigated coworking spaces, how they have been evaluated by the respective stakeholder groups and experts, and their effects on the target groups. A key aspect of this report is the analysis of the development in participants perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours toward entrepreneurship, innovation, and new work but also aspects relating to their openness and willingness for international exchange and cooperation during and after participation. The data collection and coworking monitor are planned to continue after the project end to produce such a report on a regular basis (e.g., annually) but with a growing sample also including further universities and coworking spaces that can be acquired through the building of an European Academic Coworking Network.4) A European Academic Coworking Network (EACN): This result aims to build an emerging network of European academic coworking spaces. The network will offer opportunities for mutual exchange of knowledge but also for student and staff mobility. Through this network, cooperations can be initiated to build capacities for student and staff exchange programmes with the focus on entrepreneurship and innovation but also scholarly exchange can be fostered, because these spaces offer environments for creative work and collaboration, for example, for visiting scholars. An interactive website will inform about the network and the advantages of participating in it. It will also allow users to browse the participating universities and spaces according to individual preference settings.Other expected (mid and long term) outcomes:• Higher entrepreneurship rates among graduates.• Higher growth and success rates among young ventures located in coworking spaces due to better matching and supply with interested talents.• Increased visibility, employability, and attractiveness of students and student-entrepreneurs for potential employers and investors.• Increased visibility and attractiveness of coworking spaces due to the cooperation/integration with universities.• Better infrastructure, support, and inclusion for people with social/economic obstacles or those living in rural areas.

Contexte : Depuis 2017 et jusqu’en 2020 il existe peu de supports éducatifs en ligne dédiés à l’entrepreneuriat pour les personnes réfugiées en Europe. En effet, certaines formations et accompagnements ont vu le jour mais rares sont celles présentes en ligne offrant une approche éducative inclusive et ayant comme groupe cible spécifique des porteurs de projets ayant le statut de réfugié. Objectifs : L'objectif principal du projet VIFRE est d’offrir une formation gratuite à l’entrepreneuriat ainsi que divers contenus en 4 langues (Français, Arabe, Allemand et Anglais) pour ces nouveaux arrivants européens via un incubateur virtuel : une plateforme en ligne. Le second objectif est de rendre disponible un kit de formation téléchargeable en ligne pour les professionnels des ONG qui travaillent et soutiennent au quotidien les entrepreneurs. La plateforme VIFRE a donc initialement été conçue de façon spécifique pour tous les réfugiés ayant l'intention de devenir entrepreneurs dans leur pays d’accueil européen. Tout au long du développement de la plateforme les bénéficiaires ont apporté leur contribution, suggestions et réflexions au projet. Ces dernières ont permis à VIFRE d’élargir son champ d'action à tous ceux qui souhaitent développer leur entreprise dans leur pays d'accueil ainsi qu’aux employés d’ONG chargés d’accompagner ces nouveaux arrivants dans la création d’entreprise. Notre projet a mis l'accent sur trois pays spécifiques, à savoir la France, l'Allemagne et l'Irlande.Le projet a été mis en oeuvre par un consortium complémentaire dans chaque pays couplant à la fois des partenaires académiques et des ONG:- Trois universités : SAS ESGCV- PSB Paris School of Business, DBS Dublin Business School et l’Université de Bremen - Trois organisations à but non lucratif, soutenant les réfugiés : l'Institut de Recherche Socio-pédagogique Mainz- ISM (Allemagne), l’IRC Irish Refugee Council (Irlande) et SINGA France. - Une société de développement informatique : Euroquality (France) en charge du développement et implémentation de la plateforme. Les résultats les plus significatifs du projet sont :- La création de 24 cours en ligne sur l’entrepreneuriat adaptés à l’avancée du projet de l’entrepreneur (phase d’idéation, de développement ou de création d’entreprise) disponibles en anglais, français, arabe et allemand. Ouverts, gratuits et disponibles à l'échelle de l'UE et adaptés au contexte national du pays d’accueil (France, Irlande, Allemagne). - La possibilité d’évaluation des connaissances via des quizz- Un Kit de Formation adapté aux employés des ONG- Une plateforme d'apprentissage en ligne qui répond également aux problématiques rencontrées lors de l’arrivée dans un pays d'accueil grâce aux sections “Welcome Package”, “Legal Advice”: quels sont mes droits dans mon pays d’accueil ? Vers quelles structures, institutions et associations puis-je me tourner ? Où apprendre la langue de mon pays d’accueil ? etc. - Un outil digital innovant adapté aux besoins du public cible primaire (nouveaux arrivants en Europe) et secondaire (employés des ONG).Cet outil est le résultat d'une vaste recherche menée sur les besoins du groupe cible en matière de : formation à l'entrepreneuriat et de documentation/compréhension du système du pays d’accueil. Cet outil peut être utilisé par d'autres porteurs de projets ou d’autres organisations dans son format actuel ou adapté.De plus, le projet a les impacts suivants:- Promotion et renforcement de la pensée et des compétences entrepreneuriales auprès des porteurs de projet, notamment en encourageant les nouveaux arrivants en Europe à se lancer dans une aventure entrepreneuriale.- Contribution à la mise en place d'une éducation inclusive et co-construction entre ONG et Universités. - Encourager et sensibiliser les ONG à la nécessité d’employer des personnes pouvant accompagner les porteurs de projets réfugiés, répondre à leurs besoins, exploiter leur potentiel spécifique et identifier leurs ressources. - Promotion d’un outil digital innovant et stimulation de l’apprentissage en ligne grâce au développement de contenus pédagogiques open source de haute qualité via une plateforme virtuelle encourageant la création d'entreprises.

Depuis 2016 et jusqu'en 2019, il existe très peu de solutions pour fournir du support éducatif de manière inclusive en Europe. Il existe plusieurs grandes plates-formes, spécialement conçues pour les personnes handicapées, mais la plupart d'entre elles se trouvent en dehors de l'Europe. D'autre part, les plates-formes de formation en ligne actuellement disponibles en ligne proposent des MOOC (cours en libre accès massifs) sur l'entrepreneuriat ou sur certains de ses aspects, qui ont toujours été un sujet d'intérêt majeurEn outre, il est difficile de trouver un cours en ligne sur l’entrepreneuriat inclusif ou un autre, utilisant une approche éducative inclusive ou ayant des personnes handicapées comme groupe cible spécifique.L'objectif général du projet est de développer une plate-forme d'apprentissage en ligne innovante permettant aux étudiants des universités européennes d'accéder à une formation en compétences entrepreneuriales, en mettant l'accent sur les personnes ayant des besoins particuliers en les intégrant et en adoptant une approche d'éducation inclusive, est complètement atteint. Le cours en ligne Success4all est de qualité sur l’entrepreneuriat, gratuit, à la demande et à la carte, utilisant une approche inclusive.Les objectifs spécifiques du projet sont également atteints:• promouvoir l’entrepreneuriat et renforcer les compétences des étudiants, en encourageant en particulier les étudiants en situation de handicap en Europe;• partager des pratiques et une expertise réussies en matière de formation en entrepreneuriat et d'éducation en ligne;• contribuer à l'intégration des étudiants en situation de handicap dans l'enseignement supérieur et à la promotion du programme d'éducation pour l'inclusion;• sensibiliser les entreprises à la nécessité d'employer des jeunes handicapés, de répondre à leurs besoins et d'exploiter leur potentiel spécifique;• développer, tester et valider un cours en ligne novateur sur les compétences en entrepreneuriat, parfaitement adapté aux personnes en situation de handicap;• Rédiger une méthodologie d’apprentissage en ligne innovante spécialement conçue pour répondre aux besoins du groupe cible.• contribuer à l'intégration de l'enseignement de l'entrepreneuriat dans l'enseignement supérieur.Les groupes cibles du projet ont été identifiés comme suit: les étudiants, y compris les personnes en situation de handicap et les entrepreneurs, y compris les personnes en situation de handicap. Au total, 577 utilisateurs, y compris des personnes en situation de handicap, ont profité des différentes versions de la plate-forme et ont eu la chance de l'évaluer.Le projet a été mis en œuvre par un consortium très fort.-Deux universités: SAS ESGCV - PSB Paris School of Business et South-West University Neofit Rilski-Deux organisations de recherche, analyse et conseil aux entreprises: Center for Research and Analyses et BIEDRIBA EUROFORTIS-Trois organisations à but non lucratif, soutenant les personnes et les entrepreneurs en situation de handicap: Center for independent living, NODIBINAJUMS INVALIDU UN VINU DRAUGU APVIENIBA APEIRONS, H’up Entrepreneurs (anciennement UPTIH)-Une organisation spécialisée dans la gestion de projet et la conception d'outils de communication et de diffusion, y compris les sites Web et les portails de projets: EuroQualityLes résultats les plus significatifs du projet sont:- Une méthodologie innovante Success4All adaptée aux besoins du public cible primaire et secondaire. Cette méthodologie est le résultat d'une vaste recherche sur les besoins du groupe cible en matière de: formation à l'entrepreneuriat, approches pédagogiques innovantes en matière d'éducation inclusive. Cette méthodologie peut être transférée pour être utilisée dans d'autres projets ou par d’autres organisations dans son format actuel ou adapté.- Un cours en ligne en anglais, français, bulgare et letton, ouvert, gratuit et agréé à l'échelle de l'UE, adapté au contexte national.- une plate-forme d'apprentissage en ligne qui répond aux les problématiques d'accessibilité dans sa conception.De plus, le projet a les impacts suivants:- Promotion de la pensée entrepreneuriale et renforcement des compétences en entrepreneuriat (compétences transversales) auprès des étudiants, notamment en encourageant les étudiants en situation de handicap en Europe.- Contribuer à la mise en place d'une éducation inclusive.- Sensibiliser les entreprises à la nécessité d'employer des jeunes en situation de handicap, répondre à leurs besoins et exploiter leur potentiel spécifique.- Promotion de technologies informatiques innovantes et stimulation de la modernisation des produits d’enseignement supérieur grâce au développement de cours de formation open source de haute qualité via une plate-forme virtuelle, en agissant en tant que solution pour réduire l'emploi des jeunes de l'UE en stimulant le travail indépendant et la création d'entreprises.

"Providing optimal support for their students and graduates when entering the labour market has become an integral part in the roleof higher education institutions. The more institutions can prove the success of their graduates in finding adequate work orfounding successful businesses the higher their chances of recruiting bright future students, since the decision for a highereducation institution is often related to future career prospects. In that point the interests of HEIs and European policy are aligned,especially nowadays where the financial crisis has shown how vulnerable our markets are and how fast the consequences can be felt- especially by young graduates trying to start their own career.The aim of this application is to acquire the necessary funds to form a consortium of European career services that together form ashared ""transnational career service department"". This transnational career service will help to cater to various stakeholder needs, allrelated to building a career or business in a global/European context. We deliberately think career and entrepreneurship together,since we see a lot of potential and possibilities if one connects academic expert knowledge, experienced career administrators andrelated stakeholders under one ""roof"" and adds an international dimension.All proposed partner institutions have a strong track record of student mobility with courses and internships abroad. In fact, mostinstitutions have integrated compulsory study abroad periods and obligatory internships (not all have to but all can be doneabroad). But whilst we have strong ties in terms of study mobility cooperation, our career services focus mainly on national or evenlocal markets. We want to change that. Students are greatly in need of support structures with comprehensive internationalknowledge.The consortium is our answer for those needs. It pools resources, shares information on local labour markets, trains local careerservice staff and connects it with academic experts. This facilitates home students in finding their desired employment orsuccessfully launching businesses within Europe. To achieve this aim we wish to set up a shared online platform and series ofworkshops, summer schools and network meetings where knowledge is accumulated and distributed in a sustainable way. Allmeasures will be implemented under the common umbrella of “European Centre for Career Development &Entrepreneurship” (ECCE). This creates a ""shared"" transnational career department and boosts the internal and external visibility ofthe project. Since employability and internationalization are of such significance to all students and form the core values of ourinstitutional mission statements and internationalisation strategies, the project is of great strategic importance for all businessschools and universities involved.To fulfil our requirement for a profound and sustainable enhancement of service we seek to:1. Internationalize career services & widen their scope of international and academic cooperation2. Improve career services through specific training3. Improve student employability4. Increase mobility of students, teaching and administrative staff5. Enable graduates to access different European labour markets6. Enable graduates to build businesses in different European countries7.Share local resources in order to provide a larger net of knowledge and information for all the students and institutions involved.Results aspired to after 3 years:1. Every student has the opportunity to access information on labour markets, established application practices, business etiquetteand job postings and can expect from his career service that they will be able to provide assistance on an always up to date basis.2. Every career service has at least one staff member who can provide this knowledge and is able to support students, colleaguesand superiors in matters of the European labour market whilst keeping in regular contact with European colleagues.3. The ECCE is established as a cooperation framework for inter-institutional staff and student development.To summarise: We aim to provide our students with the best prerequisites to smooth the way into international labour markets andto give optimal support in their international entrepreneurial endeavours. In order to do that and to truly recognise and embrace theopportunities for international mobility and flexibility, we will need first rate career service officers who are well prepared,knowledgeable in international affairs and working closely with academic experts regarding entrepreneurship and employment.Students and staff must also have easy access to information and resources. To set up and maintain such a structure at every singleinstitution can be costly and time intensive. However, our project is designed to create a cost efficient and sustainable solution thatwill be able to deliver the expected outcomes."

Building Entrepreneurial Mindset in Youth for a Sustainable Society (BE YOU) is a Strategic Partnership in the youth field. The project brings together 5 partners from France and Italy and a wide network of associated partners (in Italy France and Spain) to raise awareness young people's awareness of climate change issues and empower them to become factors of change in their local communities. To this end, the project plans to develop, pilot and disseminate three innovative workshops for young people:1. Ecological Renaissance: organised as a role play (including political actors, local community members, etc.) the workshop will offer a positive story of what communities could look like after a successful implementation of sustainability policies (which includes carbon neutrality in 2050, social justice, etc.). 2. 2 Tonnes: based on a carbon accounting tool that will allow players to visualize their own carbon footprint and simulate improvements, the workshop owes its name to the fact that each citizen must retain their carbon balance under 2 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year in order to achieve global carbon neutrality by 2050, limit global warming to +1.5°C thus preventing a climate disaster. 3. Social Entrepreneurship: a workshop that connects sustainable development and economic activity; it will consist of multiple sessions devoted to initiation into social entrepreneurship, analysing existing solutions to societal problem, developing new business that bring value to local communities, meeting local social enterprises for inspiration (meetings, visits, podcasts), and getting informed about possible follow-up activities.The workshops are based on a comprehensive pedagogical methodology for the main target group of the project - young people with fewer opportunities, mainly socio-economic obstacles, who are often left out of the conversation on sustainability. To ensure effective learning and behavioural change, the methodology is underpinned by the four pillars of learning (reasoning, imagination, emotion and structure), effective language, storytelling, gamification and participatory education. A Training for youth workers will be designed and piloted to build the capacities of youth workers and teachers to reap the full potential of these new youth workshops.Over a period of 25 months and numerous Multiplier Events, he project aims to reach 210 young people and 150 youth workers and teachers.