The project came out as a practical answer to the context of the ageing population in EU. The needs of the beneficiaries targeted and then involved in the project showed that qualified medical assistance for palliative medicine in the partner countries was scarce and in many situations palliative health-care assistants acquired basic knowledge and skills on the job. The need to train qualified medical staff to meet the growing demand of assistance in the field of palliation in EU is a must. How to do this in a qualified, standardised way and with knowledge and skills aligned to the most recent research findings in the field was the practical challenge to be met and jointly answered in the project by the EU partnership. The project created a very comprehensive interdisciplinary MOOC which offers 20 fundamental palliative medicine procedures. Each procedure has a description that follows a standardised approach, with videos to illustrate how the procedure is being done, including the communication that accompanies the performance of that procedure and with a linguistic unit that practices that specialised communication flow. The 20 procedures with the videos and the accompanying linguistic units are available in 6 EU languages: DT, EN, FR, IT, ES, RO.The interdisciplinary approach is definitely an innovation where the medical content is fertilised by the linguistic approach; due to the inter-disciplinarity proposed by this resource, combined knowledge and skills from the medical and linguistic fields ensue plus specialised communication skills in the domain of palliative medicine are practise.The MOOC approach was a total innovation for all the countries involved in connection to the specialised field of palliative medicine. Added to this the pedagogy specific to technology-enriched education is a first applied to resources from the domain of palliative care. Collaborative learning and evaluation of knowledge and skills, networking and constructivism at the basis of introducing and practising skills for palliation through the MOOC resources and techniques are innovatively applied to a vocational field much indebted otherwise to classic teacher-centred approaches. The project covers the following specific objectives:- Promote stronger coherence between different EU and national transparency and recognition tools and ensure that skills are recognised across borders by identifying, defining and standardizing the palliative medical and nursing skills, which allow students across Europe to be active participants in clinical routine after their first year of medical studies.- Improve the level of key competences and skills, with particular regard to their relevance for the labour market (everyday medical practice), through strengthened cooperation between the world of education and training and the world of work; - Improve the teaching and learning of languages and promote the EU's broad linguistic diversity and intercultural awareness- Develop innovative and multidisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning and eLearning materials which support students both during their skills training and their practical module- Foster quality improvements, innovation excellence and internationalisation at the level of education and training institutions, in particular through enhanced transnational cooperation between education and training providers and other stakeholdersStarting with a partnership of 9 partners from 4 countries having complementary significant expertise and experience both academic (medical: P1, P2, P5, P6; linguistic & training: P3, P8, P9) and in the world of work (P4, P7); the project addresses and have a consistent impact on its direct target groups: - Lecturers & students in Medical Universities- (Foreign) in-service medical staff - Social assistants or other staff dealing with palliative care (hospitals/hospices/homecare)- Language teachers/trainers in medical institutions- Volunteering bodies - Educational centres- Companies active in social corporate responsibilityMain project results are:-Specialized research of medical literature and practice about palliative care in Romania, Italy, Spain and Belgium-Guide of 20 Medical Procedures in 6 languages, topics covered are: Catheterisation; Paracentesis; Automatic syringe; Bed transfer; Conspiracy of silence; Active listening; Communicating news; Spiritual assessment; Nutrition; Oral care; Patient bath; Pain assessment; Pain prescribing; Burn out syndrome; End of life care; Terminal phase; Prevention Ulcer; Awareness level; Patients’ network; Caregivers’ needs.-20 videos with simulation of palliative care procedures-120 language units for 6 languages-2 MOOCs in the fields of palliative care and medical communication-7 Educational Toolkits published on hard copies with DVDs (319 copies)-Project website - http://medlang.eu -1.469 people directly involved by the project activities and other 320.000 reached

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT ----- The concept of knowledge societies brings the need of progress in pedagogy, as the traditional approach to teaching consisting of in-class time delivering content does not allow students to achieve deeper learning. There is a broad range of instructional approaches which support collaborative learning (CL), i.e. activities involving joint intellectual effort by students who work together in groups, test their own understanding and examine the understanding of others. A widely accepted and widespread CL activity is Problem-Based Learning (PBL) developed in 1960’s. It is a student-centric learning activity in which an educator only acts as a moderator supporting the discussion around a problem to be solved by a small group of students. The group determines all necessary learning outcomes for solving the problem, conducts research around them and discusses the arisen issues together. A relatively new development in higher education is team-based learning (TBL), which has formed an alternative to PBL. Both PBL and TBL emphasize student engagement and active participation in learning, and adopt the general blended learning approach by mixing face-to-face instruction with online resources.OBJECTIVES ----- The TELSON project has aimed at innovating teaching and learning practice by using two collaborative learning methods – PBL (Problem-Based Learning) and TBL (Team-Based Learning). A unique feature of this project was the use of VS (Virtual Scenarios), which in both of the collaborative learning variants encourage students to use their knowledge-base to explore simple management decisions as they work through a case that mimics a real-world problem. Within this context, the TELSON project aimed at the following particular objectives; (i) developing students’ critical thinking and reasoning skills with the use of SBL (Scenario-Based Learning) methods in the study programs encompassing selected biomedical and life sciences; (ii) sharing know-how and transferring best practices from universities which have already gone through a successful implementation of authentic, motivating, competency-based learning styles into curricula; (iii) delivering interactive VS in the languages and cultures of the partners and associated educational networks; (iv) comparing pedagogical value and efficiency of two different but established SBL methods: Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and Team-Based Learning (TBL). The multi-institutional investigation of this type represents a benchmark in the exploration of pedagogy, efficacy and staffing efficiency of each method, in an era in which learning activities are increasingly blending face-to-face with eLearning. PARTICIPANTS ----- The partnership of this project comprised three institutions from three European countries: Masaryk University (Czechia), “Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Iasi (Romania), and St George’s University of London (United Kingdom). The project also engaged with partners’ networks, particularly RoEduNet and MEFANET, in order to increase the use of VS tools and SBL methodologies and to assess their effectiveness and advantages on large populations of students and teachers.RESULTS, IMPACT AND BENEFITS ----- Educators in the participating institutions acquired cutting edge skills in virtual scenario development and in pedagogy for collaborative learning activities, namely PBL and TBL. The created learning resources – 17 interactive virtual scenarios – with the carefully prepared PBL and TBL lessons contributed to education in biomedical and life science subjects at the involved institutions thanks to the implementation into parametrically mapped curricula. The number of training and learning activities organized during the project period enabled to trigger several feedbacks and thus to continuously test and validate educators’ efforts on real students. The project was concluded with a brochure and a paper describing multi-institutional investigation of students’ and other stakeholders’ perspectives on PBL and TBL. As a result, curriculum development staff at universities will have an opportunity to consider relative merits of PBL and TBL. This also has a value for general training and education in any area of competency.

unCoVer is a functional network of research institutions collecting data derived from the provision of care to COVID-19 patients by health systems across Europe and internationally. These real-world data allow for studies into patient’s characteristics, risk factors, safety and effectiveness of treatments and potential strategies against COVID-19 in real settings, and complement findings from efficacy/safety clinical trials where vulnerable groups, and patients with comorbidities are often excluded. The network will facilitate access to otherwise scattered datasets, and build computational and analytical platforms to streamline studies on risk characterisation, and prediction modelling using standardised pooled data derived from real life practices. It will fill data gaps, unify current initiatives and create downstream exploitation opportunities for researchers and public health strategies to optimise COVID-19 strategies and minimise the impacts of future outbreaks

"Zoonotic diseases are ""those diseases and infections that are naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and man with or without an intermediate arthropod (WHO, 2017)"" They have become one of the leading causes of illness and death, negatively impacting commerce, travel and economies. More than a million people die of malaria each year; although malaria is a preventable disease, a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds. Each year at least 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections. Over 23% of dogs on EU are the hosts of dirofilaria, which causes pulmonary dirofilariasis in humans. Therefore, preventing and controlling these infections must be at the centre of public health care policy with a focus on the causes of emergence, persistence and spread of these zoonoses.In an effort to increase the knowledge and understanding of current and probable future public health significance infectious disease transmitted from non-human animals to humans, a consortium of 4 countries (RO, CR, LT, IT – 10 partners from Universities, medical & educational institutions, NGOs & IT centres) proposed the ZoonosesOnlineEducation project. The project aims the creation of open digital educational resources in the field of veterinary medicine based on developing innovative guidelines on infectious zoonotic diseases (selecting the most troublesome); shortcut to veterinary, medical, pedagogical, linguistic and raise-awareness interventions related to identifying, monitoring and controlling malaria and dirofilariosis, useful for the academic, professional & general beneficiaries.This general aim has been achieved through these specific objectives:-the development of a state-of-the-art research on the analysis of zoonoses, including literature research, indirect interviews with specialists, identification of best practices on zoonoses education in each partner country.-the creation of guides and open online course on the main parasitic diseases transmitted from non-human animals to humans, on malaria and dirofilariosis, including videos capturing zoonoses medical situations in simulation centres.-the creation of an open online course on medical communication; the linguistic version of the medical course processed from linguistic, cultural and communication points of view will be available to academics and professionals in veterinary medicine in 6 languages.-the creation of a handbook on health education meant to be included in the school curriculum (focusing on the risks and ways of prevention of the diseases) and piloting lessons in schools. -the creation of a protocol on epidemiological monitoring and disease control in public health practice and workshops with students on integration within the curriculum of medical faculties.Project brings together 5 educational sectors, all with impact in 5 different end beneficiaries groups:- Veterinary medicine: O1 –15 Country analysis on zoonoses state of arts Reports; O2 – 22 Studies on best practices on zoonoses interventions; O2 - Handbook of main zoonotic diseases identified in 4 EU countries; O3 – 2 Guides of main parasitic diseases transmitted from non-human animals to humans on Malaria and Dirofilariosis (in 6 languages); O4 – 2 Videos capturing zoonoses bio-manipulation in simulation centers; O6 – 2 Open Online Course on Zoonoses; O7 – 2 ZoonosesOnlineEducation Kit and 3 types of trainings for students, lectures, professionals & institutions in veterinary field.- Human medicine: O9 – Malaria - Protocol on epidemiological monitoring and disease control in public health practice; Workshops for students, lectures in medicine on integration within the curriculum of medical faculties.- Pedagogy-education: O8 - Pedagogical approaches in health education – Guide for teachers and parents (versions in EN, RO); Didactic demonstrations on health education future teachers, teachers, pupils aged 6-12, parents.- Languages: O5 – Medical communication linguistic resources; O6 - Language open online course for the veterinary medical field, for 6 languages (EN, RO, FR, CRO, LT, IT); for students, lectures, professionals & institutions in languages - Raise awareness – project website and O8 - Pedagogical approaches in health education – Guide for teachers and parents.The focus of the partners cooperation to find solutions to common challenges relies on connecting theory, research and the world of work in the veterinary and public health context under pressure of mobility and globalization; harmonizing the curriculum transversally; encouraging students to develop applied skills that are supported academically by knowledge gained though academic progress and years of clinical experience. In addition, ZOE takes advantage of a media-technology-enhanced learning context and the students are invited to explore the new tools enhancing the quality of the learning process."