The ELEMENT project at the Plovdiv Agricultural University, Bulgaria, represents a notable advance in cleantech and biomass resource efficiency. Key to this initiative is the appointment of an ERA Chair, which will bring significant expertise in applied sciences. The core objective of the project is to stimulate both basic and applied research, with a focus on broadening and enriching the knowledge base in these specific areas. In order to achieve these goals, ELEMENT will establish a new centre of excellence in cleantech and biomass resource efficiency. This centre is expected to optimise the use of existing scientific capabilities, improve the efficiency of innovation generation and application, and facilitate increased multinational cooperation. Through these efforts, the project aims to make a substantial contribution to the field and enhance Bulgaria's scientific standing in Cleantech and biomass resources.

In general most of the Macedonian farmers are uneducated and use fertilizers and pesticides spontaneously, what often results in inadequate production in means of quality and quantity. On the other hand, according to the EU regulations, the farmers will be required to follow approved production principles or will be facing possibilities to be penalized for applying amounts of fertilizer without performing soil analysis, or for applying certain pesticide which holds no permit to be applied over certain crop. This project aims to produce critical number of experts, OER and on-line tools that will provide service and expertise to professionals (advisors), farmers and rural community in order to increase the quantity and quality of their agricultural production, yet to be aware for the necessity for environmental protection as well. Groups of extension specialists in plant production and plant protection, along with organic farmers will be exposed to the foreign experiences in applying Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Organic farming principles on a farm level. HEI, members of this consortium will join forces in order to create short-term courses on most important IPM and Organic principles The reason for transnational nature is due to the lack of IPM and Organic practice in HEI in Macedonia. Two of the consortium members are registered and accredited in EU member country and conduct training for students and other interested parties on IPM & Organic farming principles in accordance to the EU regulations. Chania will be to be developed soil analysis procedure and fertilization recommendation as well as Organic and IPM production of so called Mediterranean crops and fruits i.e. olives and olive oil production, citruses and peaches growing, hence its role will be to transfer the know-how in growing mentioned crops according to the Organic and IPM principles. On the other hand, the Agrarian University in Plovdiv will be invited to develop know-how transfer through organizing short-term courses and development of learning tools in Organic & IPM management for apples, pears, table grape and grape for wine production. Four short-term courses (7 working days) will be organized. One of them on soil analysis and environmental protection through proper use of fertilizers in agricultural production. The second course will be organized for the IPM/organic principles in growing Mediterranean crops, such are table grape, peaches, olives, citruses and production of olive oil. These will take place at the premises of CIHEAM in Chania, Greece. The remaining short-term courses will take place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The topics that will be covered are to be Organic farming (preparation of mixtures for plant protection) and IPM in growing apple, pears, and table and wine grapes. Also one-day multiplier event will be held, on which presentation of new created IT and OER tools will be presented in front of number of local farmers and other stakeholders. UGD, the project applicant will also develop a project web site to host the OER and will develop and upload on-line calculator for applying fertilizers in accordance to the crop specifics as well as pesticide data-base registered for use in the Republic of Macedonia. The other tree partners are directly or indirectly involved in farming and will be users of the project intellectual outputs and responsible for further dissemination of the results to the farmers as individuals or companies. The expected impact of the project includes: Increased number of competent individuals who will understand the forthcoming implementation of standards which ordinary rural population (farmers included) hardly understand; Creation of tools for sustaining knowledge on different level of expertise. Introduction of IT tools in agriculture and changing the prejudice that computers and IT have no place in agriculture; Common understanding on the direction where Macedonian farmers need to develop in order to stay in production, as the introduction of the 'new' regulations could drive majority of them into bankruptcy; HEI to understand the necessity to include IT tools in learning process and to assist the agriculture sector in larger accessibility to information of various character.

Good teaching practices in experiential learning for effective education in embedded food systems (GOODFOOD)The GOODFOOD project aims at building a network of EU higher education institutions and rural food communities and territories, to develop, test and implement experiential learning activities and outcomes allowing university teachers and students to learn, explore and exchange knowledge about embedded food systems and best practices of their future development and implementation. It will increase students and teachers skills and capacity to contribute towards the resilience and sustainability of embedded food systems in rural communities and territories. For this not only scientific, but especially local and traditional knowledge of food systems stakeholders plays a crucial role, as an indispensable basis for permanent adaptation of embedded food systems to current global challenges such as improvement of food production and quality, marketing practices, market fluctuations and competition, inclusiveness of stakeholders, consumer choices, food sovereignty, rural development and climate change adaptation. To tackle this, the project envisages development of a broad spectrum of teaching actions and contents with the organization of 2 Intensive Study Programmes ‘Embedded food systems in territories’ where students from 6 EU universities will analyse various aspects of sustainability of the local food systems (in Münsterland and Piedmont regions) and their embeddedness in the territories. The Intensive Study Programmes will be preceded by e-learning modules, to offer students specific background knowledge needed for further embedded food system exploration. The outputs of the project include the analysis of students understanding of Embedded food systems and expectations towards education within this subject area, e-learning courses on ‘Embedded food systems in territories’, syllabus and educational materials for 2 Intensive Study Programmes, collection of embedded food systems case studies from Europe as basis for educational tools, and a catalogue of innovative teaching practices and best teaching tips for embedded food systems education. All outputs will be disseminated during 6 project Multiplier Events and other project dissemination activities.

The idea of submitting a project within the Key activity 2 of the Erasmus+ programme came from the shared motivation of six members of the European Network of Learning and Teaching in Agriculture and Rural Development (ENTER) to exchange good practices in terms of interdisciplinary approaches and didactics-training of VET teachers in the international environment. All six institutions have many things in common: They are institutions at a tertiary level of education - teacher training institutes for VET teachers and they offer both pedagogical and psychological guidance to VET teachers. Doing research in education sciences and through international projects, partners focus on similar issues such as didactic of vocational subjects, green education, intercultural education, interactive teaching methods, teachers´ competences, sustainable development etc. The target group of the ACROSS project were young VET teachers who teach vocational subjects within agricultural or other related fields and concurrently studied pedagogy at the partner training institutes in part-time or distance learning. The main aim of their education is to become fully qualified teachers both with vocational knowledge and pedagogical skills. The second target group of the project were academic staff from partner institutions whose expertise is didactics of vocational subjects, facilitating practical training, environmental education, intercultural education and social pedagogy. Their main role in the project was preparing teaching materials for two summer schools, teaching at the schools, taking part in short-term staff trainings, reviewing worksheets and exchanging good practices in terms of interdisciplinary and sustainable appraoch when working with each other and with the learners. The main task of the project were two intensive courses (summer schools) for young VET teachers from six partner countries. At both summer schools, young VET teachers and academic staff worked, learnt together as well as exchanged good practices how to deal with interdisciplinary approaches and how to integrate the social responsibility and sustainable development approach to their lesson plans and their teaching.The stakeholders of the project were headmasters of vocational schools, who were informed about the project results at the international ENTER conference in Berlin 2018 and at six national meetings in 2019.The topics of the ACROSS summer schools were cross-sectional topics of vocational subjects and civics and environmental education, as well as integration of social and “green pedagogy” into lessons at vocational schools. Students had to verify the newly acquired knowledge and skills through project-based teaching at two Dutch vocational schools and at a German national museum during two-day field trips.The remarkable impact of the project activities was not only on the professional competences of both project target groups but also be on the pupils at secondary schools. Moreover thanks project activities, trained VET teachers will bring new approaches to the lessons thereby focussing more on socially acute topics in their lessons. From these aspects the main aims of the project risen: • to motivate mobility teachers to extend their professional portfolio by introducing methods for finding cross-curricular links between concrete vocational subjects and civics and environmental education • strengthening professional and personal competences of young VET teachers and involved academic staff by designing tasks that address interdisciplinary and socially acute topics during the two summer schools • to encourage young VET teachers to introduce principles of education for sustainable development to teenagers in rural areas • to improve and adapt the training of young VET teachers to the European environment by organising international teams of learners • to create teaching materials accessible in two e-learning courses and the ENTER website http://www.enter.educagri.fr/projects.html • to encourage partnerships between six European teacher training institutes, giving the chance to experts to be in contact and know more about their common topics The other project output was, apart from the already mentioned professional and personal development of participants, reviewed 48 worksheets created during two summer schools. Another interesting project product were teaching materials, developed by academic staff of partner institutions especially for both summer schools. These materials are available on the Eliademy platform within two e-learning courses.Project results were published in national magazines, local press, the ENTER Study Days´ proceedings and disseminated at six national meetings, at several national or international events (seminars, conferences, meetings).

<< Background >>There is a common agreement among the agricultural society that feeding an extra two billion people by 2050 will require solutions relying heavily on innovative use of information and communication technologies (ICT). A commonly used term for the use of technological advances in the agriculture is “Agriculture 4.0” – sometimes considered to be the fourth agricultural revolution. Similar terms often used for this concept of ´Agriculture 4.0´ are ‘Smart Agriculture’, ‘Digital Farming’ or ´Digital Agriculture´, ICT4AG, ´Precision Agriculture´, ´Smart Farming´. The European Commission’s Digital Transformation Monitor (EC-DTM) concludes that ´Agriculture 4.0´ represents a process that will have a revolutionary effect on all of agriculture and even the global economy. Agriculture 4.0 is one of the lines of action set out in the Declaration and Action Plan of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Implementation of Smart ICT technologies is basically the way to strengthen the green economy: the low carbon industry, renewable energy resources, climate changes and handling the waste water.Project “Future IT for farms” (ITFARM) promotes the idea that the Fourth Industrial Revolution has the power to change things across a broad spectrum of the society and schools and other executives need to be ready.<< Objectives >>ITFARM promotes the idea that the Fourth Industrial Revolution has the power to change things across a broad spectrum of the society: It is here and now, and schools and other executives need to be ready. The old way of doing things is not enough anymore, and education (for both young and adult) will be the first embracing all facets of ´Industry 4.0´ and all the opportunities it will bring.Providing education for family farm entrepreneurship based on integrated digitization of business production processes following challenges of the ´Agriculture 4.0´ revolution is an opportunity of a great benefit. These are opportunities addressing the goal of the ITFARM project:Develop and provide education for family farm entrepreneurship based on integrated digitization of business processes following challenges of 2nd ICT revolution, in case of agriculture of ´Agriculture 4.0´ technologies. Analyse entrepreneurial activities of the family farms and evaluate the curriculum content from the point of view of motivation and mediation of the entrepreneurial skills of owners, managers and employees who mostly need adult/vocational tailor-made education.Development of study materials and teaching tool-kits tailor-made for family farms owners and employees to familiarize farmers with the newest technologies. Help farmers to transform their production activities to new standards based on implementation of the 2nd ICT revolution. Support of VET teachers focused to education of future employees and owners of family farms and to seeking talents. The project will strengthen the green components in existing VET education programs.Information for decision makers and other relevant stakeholders, who will participate directly and indirectly in the transformation of the production process of the family farms.The project’s aim is also to harmonize the needs of all involved targets and bring effective solutions that can help them to be more prepared and open to each other.<< Implementation >>The project is based on previous research provided by using a mix of quantitative and qualitative surveys at the involved universities and practical experience in teaching a training of adults. All partners were/are involved in EU projects with impacts to innovations. The project does not aspire to be scientific, but its primary aim is to make science available to farmers so that they can understand it and be able to respond to the innovative demands of the digital society. Universities will prepare the methodology and study materials; other partners will adapt results to national/regional needs. The consortium will ensure the wide dissemination of relevant materials among users. The project starts with the research survey (carried out by questioning) among farmers, SMEs, manufactures and distributors of relevant ICT technologies in order to identify the current state of ´Agriculture 4.0´ application levels, the knowledge competencies and requirements of farmers, the social, economic and environmental conditions in which the target groups live and do business.Based on the survey, ITFARM develops study materials and provide courses, tailor-made for family farms owners, managers and employees, to involve the newest ICT technologies and the concepts into daily farm practices. Pilot testing of the study portfolio and study courses in the test beds will give information to reflect on and re-engage developed study materials.<< Results >>The study portfolio consists of curriculum and pedagogical guide, syllabi, study modules developed in the form of study units, study supports and tool kits, cases, exercises, hand-outs. The website will offer farmers a comparison of the different technologies offered by technology equipment suppliers on the market.The project results will be available and accessible for free on the e-learning portal Moodle and the project websites where will be possible to either to use them online and/or download. All developed study materials and courses will be fully available VET teachers and interested bodies. Support of VET teachers will be focused to education of future employees and owners of family farms and to seeking talents.In addition to economic effects, the implications of ´Agriculture 4.0´ can be much further impacting social and environmental issues in the farming industry, life in regions and in the society in general.ITFARM will speak the language of farmers, SMEs and is user-friendly for them.