ConquerIons is seeking a definitive solution for the detection of ions in real scenarios by innovatively addressing the limitations of traditional ion-sensing concepts in terms of effectiveness, sensitiveness, robustness and downscaled platforms. The project proposes a new generation of voltammetric, amperometric and optical ion sensors based on calibration-free selective membranes inspired by conventional membranes used in the well-established potentiometry field but with a thickness at the nanoscale. The uniqueness of the dynamic electrochemical tuning of ion-transfer processes across these nano-membranes opens up a revolutionary approach that allows for the monitoring of ion concentration in a sample with unprecedented analytical performance. Thus, the project combines efforts from the synthetic chemistry, material science, nanoscience, electrochemistry and analytical chemistry disciplines resulting in a universal concept for the reliable detection of ions. ConquerIons is based on a research approach carefully designed mainly considering the following challenges: (i) the use of novel materials to afford a robust and universal detection; (ii) the implementation of thin-layer concepts of electrochemical and/or optical-sensing platforms to achieve reduced limits of detection and calibration-free methodology; (iii) the translation of the developed concepts to the single-entity scale (i.e. single nanoparticles) towards the study of ion-transfer processes employing, for the first time, ‘nanocoulometry’ readout; and (iv) exploitation of sensors from the laboratory context based on relevant cases as the next step towards the final use as daily smart informers operating in real scenarios. This latter purpose will lead to a series of extraordinary analytical applications from a long-term perspective related to very distinct fields, such as cell-scale therapies and speciation of trace ion levels in environmental analysis.

In today's creative industries the new digital technology is a strong factor that can develop our relations and cultural encounters. A rapidly growing branch is videoconferencing and distance learning in virtual environments that replaces travel and among other things contributes to a better environment. In the nearest future, the need for trained personnel working for the companies and organizations, which provide conference-hosting services, will increase. To be cost-effective single staff member will be required to master technical skills from multiple ICT areas and able to handle communication systems including such aspects as video, image, audio, light and data transmission.The objective of the project Educational Program for Conference Hosts was to take the branch of conference hosting a step further by putting research done by the industry and universities into practice by creating an educational program for the ones working or planning to work in the area of conference hosting. The project has combined different knowledge areas and ICT putting those together within the framework of one project thus complementing the other projects in the ICT field.Number and profile of participating organisationsThe partners of the project have been Svefi Academy in Haparanda, Sweden, working with sound engineering, lighting design and other technical aspects both training students and providing services in the relevant sphere; Catholic University of Murcia, Spain, training the students at different levels among other things in different types of media and transmission technologies; The 4System, Poland, a prominent software development company with various software solutions including proprietary distance learning system and training programs for a number of different branches.The project partners have developed their part of the educational program for conference hosts and technicians consisting of two levels (Basic part I & II, and Advanced), based on the area of the partners’ competence.Svefi Academy was responsible for (1) Lighting Design part, which covered such areas as:Svefi Academy was responsible for (2) Sound Engineering part, which covered such areas as:UCAM was responsible for (3) Video, Image and Signal Transmission4System was responsible for (4) IT, Data and Presentation as well as Distance Learning and Video conferencingThe project has arranged 6 training activities for the staff members of all the institutions with hands-on workshops where the project results were presented, the developed content tested, verified and improved. The project has involved external experts from the branch of conference hosting to those activities in order to get their feedback and adjust the training courses according to their needs and requirements.The project arranged a number of activities in all the project countries to test the created content on the vocational students/participants whose work would be related to conference hosting or adjacent technical areas to make sure that the materials were of good level and quality.The participating organizations have done spreading nationally in order to reach education providers, companies/organizations to inform about the training possibilities within conference hosting.Methodology that was used in carrying out the projectThe project used the adaptive methodology with the traditional planning, implementation and control phases to get the best possible results and value out of the resources the project had access to. We used the competence of the partner organizations, external experts representing the branch of the conference hosts as well as involved the target groups into the planning, development and evaluation of the results at all the stages in order to deliver the best possible educational programs for the conference hosts.Description of the resultsThe project has develop a 2-level course for conference hosts and technicians combining 4 different areas of competence. The course is available as a number of downloadable pdf-documents and as an on-line course with interactive content. The partners have produced the instructions describing the course in the document called Curriculum for the education providers for the ease of running the short and the long course of the educational program for the conference hosts. These materials have been used for testing and pilot training of the students/participants planning to work within the branch of conference hosts. The participants of the pilot training had an opportunity to meet employers and the best ones get hands-on experience at live events arranged by the events companies and conference hosting providers.Long-term benefitsThe companies and organizations providing conference-hosting services could be more cost-effective by employing the personnel, trained with the help of the developed course, with multiple skills able to handle sound, video, lighting and other ICT areas, deliver high-quality experience.

EC is focusing on encouraging unemployed people to start businesses; on improving the sustainability and quality of work of self-employed businesses; and on supporting social entrepreneurs (Report on Entrepreneurship in the EU and Beyond). According to EU Youth Report 2015, more than half of the respondents declared having no wish to start their own business (52%). Just one in five (22%) would like to start a business but considered it too difficult. Only a quarter of young Europeans are more proactive about starting a business (5% have done so, 17% intend to do so in the near future and 3% tried to start a business but gave up because it was too difficult). On the other hand, sport constitute one of the most prominent social phenomena which especially young people are interested in. Sport is not only a leisure activity and good for personal health, but it has a big industrial impact. With its € 294bn contribution to EU gross value added and 4.5 million people employed, the sport sector is considered a significant driver of growth. The sport industry, in its broad definition, is a real industry, which can be seen as a growth engine for the wider economy as it generates value added and jobs across a range of sectors, in manufacturing as well as in services, stimulating development and innovation. The sport industry is also characterized by constant and rapid waves of innovation, often in close collaboration with other industries. As a result, innovative products/services are progressively spread in different markets and used for different purposes. In line with all of the above mentioned needs, the project (SPINENT) is focused on technological sports entrepreneurship and innovation. The overall objective of SPINENT is to contribute to innovative approaches to youth sport entrepreneurship through attractive resources and training programs in line with individual needs and expectations. Also, the overall objective of SPINENT is to contribute to encourage greater allocation of financial resources for sport innovation through long-term positive impact on related participants and organizations.The direct target group of the project is young groups (18-30 aged) including at risk for social exclusion (unemployed young people, early school leavers, young people who are out of the education and labor market, young refugees etc.) in participant countries. The final beneficiaries of the project are young entrepreneurs, youth workers/educators, youth organizations, start-ups, accelerators and incubation centers, innovation and technology centers/networks, universities and research centers and investors across the Europe.The special purposes of the SPINENT are;- To support competition and employment in the sports industry in EU by using ICT-based methodologies,- To ensure the development and testing of innovative applications for the youth entrepreneurship at the local and European level for the sport sector,- To combat youth unemployment and social exclusion through outputs that will be tailored to the needs of young people at risk.Our project supports young entrepreneurship through the intellectual outputs to be produced and their impacts that will occur in the target group. The Intellectual Output-1 (O-1: An Interactive Guide and Toolkit on Sport Technological Entrepreneurship for Young People aged 18-30), which will be developed in our project, is aimed directly at young people to support their entrepreneur mind-set and self-employment.This Guide and Toolkit will be prepared for young people to help them understand the process of starting a company around a sport innovation. The Guide will provide information and understanding for young people about the resources in the ecosystem of entrepreneurship in the sport industry. The Interactive Guide and Toolkit will guide the young people through the use of the potential of these resources; - how to produce innovative ideas, - how to protect intellectual property rights, - how to transform these ideas into a technological product/service or initiative, - how to commercialize these products/services, initiatives and/or how to become a start-up and - how to do marketing these commercial products-services in sport sector.In addition, an intellectual output (IO-2: ICT-Based Sport-Oriented Technological Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management Training Course) for young people to gain the entrepreneurship skills needed by the sports industry is developed. Outputs of the project will provide open digital educational resources to enable them to develop their entrepreneurship and innovation management skills. The project focuses on the needs of young people, especially those facing social exclusion, while addressing all young people; - unemployed young people, - young people who are out of the education and labor market due to some problems, - young people at risk of marginalization and those with a migrant background, including newly comers.

According to European Commission, social innovations are new ideas that meet social needs, create social relationships and form new collaborations. These innovations can be products, services or models addressing unmet needs more effectively. The European Commission's objective is to encourage market uptake of innovative solutions and stimulate employment. The Commission’s actions on social innovation stem from the Innovation Union initiative (2010) and of the Social Investment Package (2013). These actions facilitate the inducement, uptake and scaling-up of social innovation solutions. The main objectives are: - promoting social innovation as a source of growth and jobs - sharing information about social innovation in Europe - supporting innovative entrepreneurs and mobilising investors and public organisations. Sport innovation is dynamic and affects areas such as sport management, emergence of new sports, social and community-based development in sport. Social innovation arises when sport organizations, groups or individuals (such as athletes and coaches) are faced with social issues that requires new and creative solutions. In this way, social innovation encourages solutions to complex social issues in sport contexts. Social issues as an aspect of sport innovation concern grassroots and ‘sport for all programs’ with an overall aim of contributing to greater social justice and equality in sport. This dynamic aspect of sport innovation includes opportunities for new marginalized social groups to participate and compete in sport, for example, through the introduction and creation of events such as the Paralympic Games, The Special Olympics or the ‘Homeless World Cup’ in football. With regard to this insight, SPINVET project seeks to address the following identified needs of VET for sport field in social innovation at the EU level: - Current curricula implemented by VET institutions responsible for VET of sports professionals are insufficient to train qualified sports managers to meet the needs of the sports labor market.- Social innovation in sports is a relatively new but rapidly developing field. There is no innovative course curriculum on social innovation that VET institutions in the field of sport can apply.- Trainers/lecturers responsible for VET of sports managers need innovative educational resources on social innovation.- The social innovation competencies of the sports professionals in the labor market are not sufficient.- Sports professionals in the labor market need open and digital learning platforms and training resources to improve their social innovation knowledge, skills and competences. With this scope, the overall objectives of the project are to contribute to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in Europe by; - supporting professional development of VET trainers/lecturers in sport field and- developing social innovation competencies for sports professionals working in sport organizations (non-profit and for profit). The specific aims of the project are: - to develop a course curriculum that addresses the challenges faced by sports managers in the development and delivery of innovative products, services and processes for the sports sector in order to contribute the solving of social problems and- to improve the social innovation competencies of sports managers with digital, open and innovative learning platform and training resources. The target groups of the project who benefit from the project products and took part in the projects’ activities are as follows: 1) Direct target group: sports managers, sport professionals, VET trainers/lecturers in the sport field, partner organizations and their staff 2) Indirect target group: Sport organizations, VET organizations/institutions, universities, training providers, trainers/lecturers of target organizations Intellectual Outputs (IOs) IO-1: A Course curriculum on social innovation in the field of sportIO-2: A Gamification based interactive learning platform for sports managers Work Packages (WPs): WP-1: Project management and implementation activitiesWP-2: Research activities (collection of evidence-based data via informal way, field research activities, focus group meetings)WP-3: Development of a course curriculum on social innovation in the field of sport and development of a gamification based interactive learning platform for sports managersWP-4: Online pilot scheme for sports managers to test the interactive learning platform (including short-term learning activity for VET trainers in the sport field)WP-5: Reporting (Progress and Final Report) and Dissemination Activities

"Our consortium has implemented an Erasmus + KA2 strategic partnerships project (Youth Field) called 'SPINENT' (https://spinent.eu/) that encourages young people to become technology focused sport entrepreneurs in 2018-2019. In the project SPINENT, a research was conducted to find out the educational needs of 200 young people on sport entrepreneurship. Interviews and focus group meetings with education planners, youth workers and academics were held. At the end of the project, an interactive guide, toolkit and online training course were developed to promote young people become technology-focused sport entrepreneurs. Then, these training materials were tested with the participation of 10 young entrepreneur candidates with the 5-day transnational learning activity organised in Murcia, Spain.Currently, our consortium have develped a new project called ""SPINENT 2.0: Mentor Up, Scale Up! Online Mentoring Platform for Young Sport Entrepreneurs"", which is the continuation of the SPINENT project and will increase its impact. In line with all of the above-mentioned background, the project (SPINENT 2.0) is focused on technological entrepreneurship in sport, physical activity and wellbeing.The overall objectives of SPINENT 2.0 are to:• contribute to innovative approaches to youth entrepreneurship through mentorship opportunities, pre-incubator programs and attractive educational resources in line with individual needs and expectations;• contribute to encourage greater allocation of financial resources for sport / wellbeing entrepreneurship through long-term positive impact on young people, related participants and organisations.The special aims of the project are to:• support young entrepreneur candidates by guiding and accelerating them through the development of the innovative mentoring platform and engage into intensive dissemination and exploitation of existing intellectual outputs (interactive guideline, toolkit and online training course) produced in the SPINENT project;• promote the technological entrepreneurship among young people through local and transnational activities that will encourage them to put ideas into practice in sport and wellbeing sectors.The direct target group of the project is potential young entrepreneur candidates (18-30 aged) including at risk for social exclusion (unemployed young people, early school leavers, young people who are out of the education and labour market, young refugees etc.) in participant countries. The final beneficiaries of the project are young entrepreneurs, youth workers/educators, youth organisations, lecturers, start-ups, accelerators and incubation centers, innovation and technology centers/networks, universities and research centers and investors across the Europe.The project consists of the following main work packages (M = Month):WP-1: Development of Technology-Focused Online Mentoring Platform (M2-M8)WP-2: Development of Guidelines of Best Practices on SportsTech and Wellbeing (M2-M5) Companies/StartupsWP-3: Local Actions to Promote and Encourage Young People (M8-M12)WP-4: Piloting: Transnational Pre-incubator Program (learning activity) and Mentoring Activities for Young People (M13-M14)With the implementation of the above work packages, the following intellectual outputs will be developed:IO-1: Technology-Focused Online Mentoring Platform for Young Entrepreneurs (Who are Interested in Sport, Physical Activity and Wellbeing)IO-2: Guidelines on Best Practices of Technology Oriented Sports EntrepreneurshipExpected Results After Completion of the Project in the Target Groups:- Young people who have developed an understanding of the entrepreneurship skills- Young people who have better understanding European sports entrepreneurship ecosystem- Young people who can communicate with technological sports entrepreneurship stakeholders and mentors- Young people who have developed advanced understanding of new technologies and the transformation of these technologies into commercial products and services- Young people who can use the bases of technological sports entrepreneurship- Young people who can develop and manage sports technology projects- Young people who have developed an understanding of the needs of the market- Young people with skills and competence in the development, testing and commercialisation of innovative products and services- Young people who have developed an understanding of modern business models"