Reducing youth unemployment is a priority of the European cohesion policy, the European Social Fund, Youth Employment Initiative and the European Regional Development Fund. According to ILO (2019) “working poverty, poor job quality and persistent labour market inequalities remain concerns” for Europe. The organisation alarms that globally, 21.2 per cent of young people were not in employment, education or training (NEET) in 2018. Progress during the past ten years has been negligible: in 2008, the NEET rate was 22 per cent. Among young people (aged 15–24), the decline in labour force participation has been even more pronounced, largely owing to extended education and an associated postponement of labour market entry. Youth employment rates closely relate to the general environment, namely legal-political, economic, socio-cultural and educational systems of a country – e.g. labour market regulations; mismatch between youth skills and aspirations and labour market demand and realities; constraints on self-employment and entrepreneurship development.YOUthCAP aims at successful model integration between youth’ associations, institutions, business and other value-chain actors to support higher employability and skill development of young people. The partnership is based on mutual economic, social and training benefits and empowers the participants to function as competent integrated system for the sustainable improvement of livelihoods of young people, considering both the local characteristics and the EU cohesion in progress. Our ambition is to support the occupational adaptation and professional development of youth through career guidance and capacity building of new sector-driven knowledge and skills.Given volatile markets and the unstable economic underpinnings, a focus on innovation and management is relevant. E-platform for Youth Career Guidance and Employability based on the transnational cooperation is a well-designed pathway from school to work that will help youth organizations to improve their performance and young people to find their professional realization. The consortium has the ambition to support the occupational adaptation and professional development of youth and to achieve it through career guidance and capacity development of new sector-driven knowledge and skills in various private public sectors. We will produce extensive studies and analysis on the deficits and the barriers to youth employment and achievement of the European policy priorities in this field. The dynamic network of partners and stakeholders in youth cooperation, higher education, public administration, business and civil society guarantees the synergy of the structural elements for building youth capacity.

AgriEco aims to build competitive knowledge-based youth milieu for developing agri-entrepreneurial potential and creativity competencies; to develop knowledge and skills to stimulate ecoinnovations as prioritized by the principles of the circular economy. Recognizing the developmental characteristics and mechanisms of the agri-market and labor environment, policy and economic conditions and factors, AgriEco will accumulate, assess and adapt proper initiatives in agri-entrepreneurship within the country-partners and shall enable sharing and development of innovative new tools, approaches and delivery methods in the field. AgriEco shall set the ground for a skilled and adaptable workforce with high-level qualifications and practically-based orientation; fostering the relationship between universities, business, NGOs, youth organizations and stimulating them for a wider participation in the practical realization of the HE students.AgriEco teaching technique follows the experiential learning model, based around the idea: “Tell me, and I forget; show me, and I remember; involve me, and I understand”. Within the framework of the project it is expected to achieve the following results:1. Offer accessible and flexible intensive training programme, coupled with blended mobility exchanges – theoretical and practical - for higher education students, to contribute to their chosen field of work, leading to real professional realization and job outcomes.2. Encourage business to cooperate with higher education systems and establish efficient partnership to maintain balance between business needs and academic processes and to promote youth professional realization on the market.3. Establish efficient relationships with stakeholders and increase strategic partnerships that support professional pathways of the young people e.g. mentor support and business coaching that will ensure sustainability of project achievements.Project methodology is built upon the general idea of creating a comprehensive framework to encompass the developmental characteristics and mechanisms of the youth environment, policy and economic conditions and factors.Work packages are planned as follows:• WP 1 “Shaping a holistic model of educational approach towards agri-entrepreneurship and innovation”• WP 2 “Comparative analysis of the stakeholders – successful examples at strategic and implementation level – TOWS analysis, possibility for win-win outcomes” • WP 3 “Interregional capacity building and learning - address knowledge gaps using/sharing regionally situated expertise. Pilot testing of key learning modules” • WP 4 “Intensive training session and blended training”• WP 5 “Dissemination and valorization of results”• WP 6 “Management”Participating organizations will have the opportunity to share best practices, develop network opportunities, innovate training, teaching and learning processes, improve transversal skills and competencies, practices and opportunities. In addition will be developed and maintained relationships with employers to clearly communicate what is expected from the young people before start of their work experience. Consortium members will also benefit from strengthening their capacity in providing tools, instruments and content on students’ entrepreneurial culture and education and experience as well for their staff to work within this target field. Students will receive direct assistance in creating/developing their own businesses through receiving adequate agri-entrepreneurship training, counselling and coaching, and technical assistance. Further potential benefits for students include:• gaining career readiness skills including the “soft skills” that employers look for in entry level workers;• increasing one’s knowledge of specific occupational skills and workplace settings;• establishing connections with employers that can aid in future job searches;• developing an understanding of different occupations in order to make informed career choices.AgriEco aspires to contribute to the needed of systemic change, where cross-sectoral collaboration align the higher education with the real industry and economic needs and identify areas where significant added value to the knowledge and learning, engagement of local authorities and business community at the European level will be achieved. Through the incorporated sustainability and transferability strategy, the AgriEco will:• Ensure that the quality of high education and generated knowledge is in the heart of youth employment levels, regional economic and developmental policies and strategic priorities;• Stimulate private sector to actively participate in educational process and evaluation of educational levels achieved; • Improve students’ quality and expertize and declare their position of active citizens;• Enhance students’ participation in building local economy;• Increase opportunities for international student exchange.

While in the lаst two decаdes in Europe, entrepreneurship аnd entrepreneuriаl potentiаl re-emerged аs а key item in the politicаl аnd economic аgendаs, Western Balkans are аdopting а new growth model for unlocking regionаl potentiаl. In this process of (re-) vitаlizing entrepreneurship, four inter-linked components аre considered аs importаnt pаrt: 1) regionаl development аctors аnd the relаtionships emerging аt institutionаl аnd civil level; 2) business environment fаctors аnd specific constrаints; 3) institutionаl support (incl. locаl аuthorities, community support), аnd finаlly 4) economic, sociаl аnd environmentаl trends. These components make-up the entrepreneurial eco-system . However, copying well-performing national entrepreneurial eco-system is not an option in the transition process of post-soviet economies because of both resources and capabilities .The weak labor market performance in WB countries is a key social concern - the rate of youth unemployment affects 30%-50% of the young people (World Bank). More than 1/3 of young people less than 25 years old are unemployed in Montenegro and Albania, more than 2/5 in Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, exceeds ½ of all young persons in Kosovo, and is above 3/5 in Bosnia & Herzegovina. While the employment policy is fragmented and narrowly focused, based on poor coordination among participating bodies and lack of appropriate skill development the unfavorable trends will exist.In line with the priority of the European cohesion policy, the European Social Fund, Youth Employment Initiative and the European Regional Development Fund to reduce youth unemployment, our proposal will bridge the gap between the needs and requirements of the MSMEs sector, market, education and employment by:• Strengthening competitive-based value chains by identifying and developing key intervention points (capacity-building, training, knowledge transfer);• Identifying driving factors that could improve competitive-based value chains;• Facilitating quality level and excellence of the regional stakeholders and institutions by proposing recommendations/ structural models to contribute to active international integration and strong view on regional sustainability.in this process the EU recommendations for capacity building for youth via skill and competencies training for a successful career through continued education, apprenticeship, traineeship will be followed, including ESCO initiative and Youthpass. The project undertakes the responsibility to design blended learning courses, which will prepare young people according the recommendations of the employers and their own profile for open and on-going qualification and personal development. We aim at successful integration between youth’ associations, academia, institutions, business and other value-chain actors to support higher employability and skill development of young people.

Aging puts forward the fundamental challenge, which faces modern societies. One of crucial aspects of dealing with this phenomenon is to develop and design new ways to better utilize and develop the capacity of growing part of society consisting of older adults (65+).This goal can be achieved through effective engagement in area of science, which can lead to multiple positive ends like helping to maintain both mental and physical) well-being of older adults.An method of achieving the above mentioned goal with the intended project is to engage senior adults using citizen science, which advances in diverse areas like: ecology, astronomy, medicine, computer science, statistics, psychology, genetics, engineering and many more. The massive collaborations that can occur through citizen science allow investigations at regional and even global scales and across decades—leading to discovery that a single scientist could never achieve on their own.By definition in citizen science research projects participate not professional scientists. Rather, people who are curious or concerned and want to collaborate with professional scientists in ways that advance scientific research on topics they care about. Participation in research projects under the label of citizen science can play an important role in activating senior adults, particularly those who feel that they are being left behind, since they have difficulties in understanding new developments in area of science and technology, nor how those developments impact their life and how to use some of the modern technologies.The recipients of the project will be three groups:- Senior adults - Professional researchers from universities and research institution, which are of scientific expertize can utilize citizen science- Educators working with senior adultsTo achieve its goals project consortium will develop a didactic material which will contain methodology how to engage senior adults in research projects under the label of citizen science, good practices on how to increase popularity of volunteerism among older adults, curriculum path dedicated for seniors (the description of workshops and other activities designed for senior adults indicating expected learning outcomes). The project envisages the testing phase – the suggestions from the textbook will be put in the practice in the form of a workshop training for educators.Potential longer-term project`s benefits are following:a) promotion of life - long learning among senior adultsb) activating senior adults by participating in science research projectsc) popularizing citizen science among science community in countries represented in the project.To maximize the dissemination of projects results will be organized one multiplier event in each country represented by consortium members. Important feature of the intended project is to gather institutions from countries with different experience and achievements in the area of senior adults engagement. It will allow to develop universal solution to common challenge which is a longevity revolution. Consortium members have an extraordinary opportunity to engage senior adults with science in ways that can benefit both individuals and societies.

Science is the poetry of reality and 15 Bulgarian universities, research institutes and NGO partners join together in SEARCH to prove the statement that, combining Science + Environment + Art will bring Resilience for European Researchers Night in 2022-23. The experienced consortium led by Center for Research & Analysis and numerous associated partners bring longitudinal insight from their own 5 years’ partnership as well as EU and national findings in this 24-month project which aims to assert among the general public the crucial role of science in society and its relevance to everyday lives, and heighten young people’s interest in research careers, including of those from small towns and villages, and young people with disabilities. True to our approach, our country-wide, hybrid, multidisciplinary, hands-on programme of science and art events will focus on one central topic per year – the most versatile material in human history and its essential role in society, for technological, scientific and economic advancement – glass (UN International Year of Glass 2022), and the most urgent existential choices humanity needs to make – adapting to climate change, one of the new EU Missions supporting the European Green Deal. SEARCH for the popular formats of researchers’ public engagement like inspiring talks, spectacular shows and hands-on experiments, a range of sci-art collaborations, researchers at schools activities, and the innovative Young Voices podcasts and Instagram Looking Glass competitions. We will reach 3.6 mln, and engage with 30,000 direct participants online and offline, including teachers and school pupils, and along with boosting public engagement skills of researchers and teachers, we will demonstrate irrevocably how relevant, exciting and important the job of researchers is, and encourage young Bulgarians, especially girls and people with special needs to choose STEAM careers.