The combined agricultural and food sector accounts today for 30 million jobs (13.4% of total employment) and for 3.5% of total Gross Value Added in the EU-28 (Eurostat 2014). In 2012, the European Economic and Social Committee of European Union contemplated that regional food value chains and cross-sectoral fertilisation of productive processes have a strong impact on local development. Several initiatives and projects carried out at local and regional level, confirm the huge potential of food to contribute to job creation, social well-being, and cultural and health commodity. Food tourism strategies are significant instruments of regional development, particularly because of the potential leverage between products from the two sectors (Hall and al. 2005), and consequently significant sectors for new enterprises creation and increased job offers. Food is also part of the immaterial cultural heritage, as stated by the WTO (2012), as embedded in local identities of destinations. In spite of high potential and running policies to enhance food tourism, implementation face major problems, such as difficult dialogue among heterogeneous stakeholders, which often have very different set of values and interests; lack of training and business planning, due to limited time, finances, personnel, skills, and experience of food producers and local touristic players (Verbole 2003; Saxena et al. 2007); high skills mismatch between graduates in related subjects and the sector needs.In the frame of a socioecological approach, that is particularly relevant in sectors where the environment and the strength of communities play a key role for local development, higher education institutions could initiate and favour processes of community learning, in particular by focusing on the role of students. Higher education students could be key players of innovation, and key mediators between research, business, and local development: they represent the educated workforce of the future, and to be employable and active contributors of economy, they should acquire skills that are relevant to the labour market. However, in addition to what the universities are used to do (courses on soft skills, career development support and career guidance, entrepreneurship courses etc.), they need to know, understand and be aware of contexts and communities in which they live. Professional network building is also very important, and should be pursued since the study years. On the basis of these considerations, the project implemented a series of learning and networking activities putting the student in the centre of the action. By using participatory approaches, the project has organised workshops, seminars, learning events in order to support co-creation processes of local development in which the students had an active role.At the end of the project in October 2019, informal networks acting as learning communities have been established in the areas of the universities of the consortium. Working to that aim, the project has produced and validated tools and materials, that can support other universities, companies, policy makers and other stakeholders in the field of food and gastronomy, to increase their regional dimension to support both local development and students employability. All project outputs are freely accessible from the project website and the learning platform of the FOODBIZ project, and published with open licenses.

<< Background >>In a global context marked by the Agenda 2030, sustainability is going to be one of the values governing society and a key competency for graduate students in the upcoming decades. Food discipline graduates will need to address challenges such as climate change, food waste and food losses as well as providing support to food producers seeking to meet global economic, social and environmental sustainability targets. NEMOS project will link sustainability, service learning (SL) and food to demonstrate how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) can be achieved. Higher Education (HE) is crucial to achieving the SDGs: to create a more sustainable world, a collective effort is required by all individuals and societies. While policies and public initiatives can raise awareness and initiate sustainable actions, Education is one of the most powerful vehicles for sustainable development. Education includes both working with and for the socio-economic ecosystem and the inner transformation of the individual mindset, values, behaviours and capacities (Wamsler, 2020). Teaching, learning and curriculum design should therefore integrate sustainability competences (Bianchi, 2020). The Joint Research Center, through the recent publication on Sustainable Competences has pointed out their transversal nature: knowledge, skills and in particular attitudes should be acquired all along the educational pathway. Furthermore, a previous E+ project, namely the project TEFSI -Transformation of European Food Systems towards Sustainability by Transnational, Innovative Teaching-, worked to train HE teachers in food and gastronomy, by focusing on experiential learning practices (teachers-centered) that can foster sustainability mind-set in students. Nevertheless, despite the prominence of sustainability as a concept, societies’ trajectories remain deeply unsustainable (WEF, 2018; WWF, 2016). NEMOS project builds on the previous results by focusing on service learning as a means to increase sustainability competences in students alongside the community to which the university belongs. Service learning is an educational approach that combines community services and experiential learning (students-centered) into a comprehensive individual experience that is both individual (learner) and collective (learning community). The main aim of the project is therefore to provide an educational model, complete with students´ toolkit and educational practices patterns in order to integrate the acquisition of sustainability competences during curricular education. The model will be developed within Food-related degrees, then piloted, validated, and made available and transferrable to other subject-fields. While there have been substantial advancements in sustainability education leading also to new knowledge over the past two decades, they do not seem to have catalyzed the necessary change to address todays’ increasingly complex challenges (Wals & Corcoran, 2012; Wamsler et al., 2018). As a result, more integral approaches and pedagogies are urgently needed. To address current gaps, it is only recently that the concept of the inner or personal transformation has received growing attention in sustainability science and education. Although UNESCO has started to openly advocate for better recognition of the cognitive and socio-emotional dimension of learning in SDG-related education (UNESCO, 2017), related knowledge is scarce and fragmented. In fact, despite growing interest, the inner (or personal) transformation has, to date, not been systematically connected to sustainability education (Leichenko & ÒBrien, 2019; Fisher et al, 2017; Frank et al., 2019; Wamsler et al., 2018). Their potential for education for sustainability, both as an end and means, remains a scarcely researched area in general, and even more, when it comes to educational approaches and interventions.<< Objectives >>The five universities of this project (Public University of Navarre -UPNA- in Spain, University of Pisa -UniPI- in Italy, TU Graz in Austria, TU Dublin in Ireland and ISARA-Lyon in France) will be pioneers in designing a new educational model based on how to effectively acquire sustainability competences, through SL. The graduates will be better prepared to face the challenges of our global world. The project will also involve students from different disciplines, they will have an international experience with all the values linked to it. The students will increase their awareness about sustainability and SL, the global challenges of humanity and the importance of integrating all this in their professional future. The importance of sustainable food innovation is reflected in the 17 SDGs; in particular, in Goal 2 (“end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture and farming”) and Goal 12 (“responsible production and consumption”). Education is a key change agent in catalyzing the achievement of the SDGs. In particular, SDG 4.7 requires all learners to acquire critical skills, essential knowledge and an ontological mindset for becoming deeply committed to building a sustainable future. The objectives of this project are the following ones:O1)Defining a food sustainability profile (FSP) through a community building methodology by developing a model of intervention common to all universities involved, focused on sustainability and pedagogical practices, included service learning (SL).O2)Defining a methodological handbook (MH) in Food sustainability through SL as a common framework of activities for acquisition of sustainability competences for SL and roadmaps of implementation.O3)Defining assessment tools of FSP and MH by co-creation practices in SL.O4)Defining a new educational model suitable for the acquisition of sustainability competences through green pedagogies and SL.Therefore, the final results would be this new educational model that we propose as the germ of change in the current educational model. Globally, the expected impact on the participants, participating organisations, target groups and other relevant stakeholders involved in this project is mainly to become aware of the importance of being change-makers in designing a new educational system, that deals with the impact of human activity in a holistic way. Embedding sustainability in the students´curricula, as a key competence through SL will provoke an inner awakening to this need. If we want to produce and consume new food products, let´s do it in a sustainable way and with the aim of contributing to the eradication of hunger from the world. From a more specific point of view, there are different levels of impact: All the staff involved in the project will increase their awareness about sustainability and Climate Change issues. They will integrate the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs in their expertise and they will focus their teaching, training or professional activity from a more holistic position, with awareness of technical development. On the other hand, they will have the opportunity to develop international collaboration, taking part in a multidisciplinary and multicultural team; this will improve their skills and competencies in different areas such as conflict resolution, teamwork, European identity, common concerns, critical thinking and curricula design. The project will motivate the staff to get involved in international projects, exchanges, and collaborations in the future. They will also be closer to stakeholders’ vision, needs, capacity of support, so they will bring the university closer to society thanks to the SL methodology. Moreover, SL helps to build and to apply values that enable students to create a reflective opinion on how the world is and should be. It increases the awareness of societal problems and the analytical skills to evaluate them regarding the given circumstances.<< Implementation >>Initially, we will define a pre-model of intervention common to all the universities involved. This entails literature review both at educational and subject-field level on sustainability and pedagogical practices. Then, we will consult, involve and call for action of local communities, building up existing networks and enlarging them. This activity will include meetings, surveys and any other suitable channel to involve communities (companies, associations, citizens and general public, and policy makers).Also, teachers, tutors and support staff will be consulted, involved, and called for action. Furthermore, drafting and delivering of the processes’ outcomes will serve as a basis for the project result PR2 design and development. An analysis of strategic documentation informing food sustainability will be undertaken, providing a basis for mapping existing curricula to core sustainability concepts. Using these mappings as artefacts for interviews and expert-focus groups with key stakeholders (i.e. staff, students, sustainability experts and professional field) across the 6 project partners, an ideal Food Sustainability Profile (FSP) for students will be developed, integrating the different skills and technical capacities that define a knowledgeable student in food sustainability. A series of pedagogical interventions (Service Learning included) will then be designed and piloted to develop students’ FSPs. Both educators and learners will be actively involved in this action-research process with the final set of methodologies (MH) documented as guidelines for adoption and transferability to other disciplines. Assesssment tools of FSP and MH will be developed to enhance validity and they will act as an auditing instrument for evaluating the integration of sustainability through SL within Food related degrees. The delivery of a Pedagogical strategy in HE (based on Green Pedagogy) will be achieved by a more conscious understanding, reflected in new questions on how SL supports sustainability.It is relevant to stress the relation between the project outputs and outcomes and the overall process that is taking place in HE institutions which are already active in SDGs topics related to food, service learning and sustainability, and the project represents a step forward to integrate these subjects into curricula and teaching: the consortium has stated activities and indicators considered to be appropriate for project success.Moreover, implementation of the project will add both dissemination and exploitation activities to those listed. IGCAT, an EU-wide network and one of the NEMOS partners, will play a leading role in the dissemination of project results.The consortium is composed of organisations already working in the addressed topics and participating in large and diversified networks which are related to the project topic. It is therefore likely that additional activities will be implemented, according to ongoing opportunities. NEMOS project aims at providing a methodology and tools, and a first round of validated practices and learning resources, for a process that can be replicable in other degree programmes, disciplines, and fields of education and training. As regards the outputs of the project, they will be sustainable for the project partners, as integrated in regular activities of universities. Required resources, that will be lower than those required to launch the process, as instruments and methods, will be already fixed and mechanisms will be established during the project implementation. They will be provided by the members of the community themselves. Universities will provide learning by using internal resources, as in their mission.Developed Open Educational Resources will be reused and adapted for other courses in following academic years.Support to students’ development is already a duty for the universities: this will be enriched by the new methods and tools, and will be integrated in the regular support offer.<< Results >>This project will be focused on defining a new educational model in which we will integrate the sustainability competences in an effective way through SL, firstly in the field of Food-related Degrees. This could serve as a basis for application in other Degree programmes. This approach is innovative and brand-new for all the partners. Sustainability as a transversal topic is in an embryonic stage of development in teaching and learning in higher education. Yet, it is increasingly mandated by SDG 4.7 through university sustainability tracking and reporting systems, such as STARS AASHE (https://stars.aashe.org/). Specific learning outcomes, teaching and assessment methods have yet to be designed for developing the transversal skills needed to address the very complex problems posed by the sustainability challenge. Traditionally, food and sustainable development have been treated as disciplinary topics and not used for the development of transversal competencies. Regarding food-related- degrees students, they will acquire a transversal competence in their programmes, so they will be more prepared for the demands of their professional future. They will be more aware of the importance of focusing their profession from a global perspective, with diverse elements such as social, cultural, innovative, economic and environmental sustainability, under the lens of service learning and with a strong commitment with society. They will have the opportunity to take part in working on a societal change of vision, that will help them to improve their international experience with relevant skills as teamwork, cultural diversity, European youth identity and others. The main impact expected in relevant stakeholders is their perception about university as an open and accessible university, interested not only in their problems, technical difficulties, professional needs, but also in their knowledge, vision and values, their local and global position in the actual world. At European level, the desired impact, while also including relationships with stakeholders, is more focused on increased harmonisation of methods and tools within the European HE system. This harmonisation will allow easier mobility of students across countries and, in the future, common language and attitudes toward sustainability. At international level, the desired impact is related to an increased number of students and communities having the opportunity to acquire sustainability competence through SL, since achievement of the SDGs is a global objective. This is a pioneer project and the impact will be assured by the accessibility of all the project activities and results in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. The project will be uploaded to the Erasmus+ Platform results and will thus be accesible to anyone interested. The results of the project will also be shared and presented in several international forums and congresses linked to sustainability. The Multiplier Events are also focused on this international and European impact, so they will allow the NEMOS project to be known, not only by the staff from European and International universities, but also by other institutions and organisations interested in sustainability and service learning. Therefore, integrating sustainability in the under- and graduates´ curricula is not an option but a need. As a general strategy, dissemination will be based mostly on the use of online tools. However, since the impact on universities at organisational level is quite relevant internally and at national levels, activities of communication and dissemination will also include bilateral meetings, presentations at local and national events (in addition to those of the project), when and if possible. Relations with local stakeholders in the frame of service learning will require a strong communication and dissemination action, which will begin at the project start and integrated into community building activities.

During the second semester of the academic year 2019-2020, almost all EU universities moved to online teaching, to ensure continuity of education during the lockdown and to apply safety measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The effort to provide quality online learning has been remarkable, in terms of infrastructural investment, teacher training, re-design of courses and revision of admin procedures, to meet the needs of online students also in mostly F2F-based universities. Within this process, among several issues due to the emergency situation forcing institutions to find alternative solutions in a very short time-frame, work-based learning was one of the most critical points. Work-based learning is widely acknowledged as a fundamental part of the students’ journey toward professionalization, as it allows the learner to gain experience in real work settings, deploy there his/her knowledge and skills, assess them, and better design career development strategies for employability purposes. During the pandemic emergency, most companies continued their activity through remote working, or by applying mixed arrangements, e.g. alternating days in the office with remote work. Instead, many universities found it difficult to arrange procedures, tutoring, guidance and even internship places for their students.ON-IT intends therefore to focus on the development of guidelines and resources to design and implement meaningful remote internships in higher education. Starting from both a mapping of experiences from EU institutions, that has been done informally during the pandemic within university networks, and a review of present guidelines for a quality internship, the consortium will work on drafting and testing of remote work-based learning pathways. The outputs will seek to cover the overall system that allows work-based learning, including advice on admin procedures: whereby remote internships could be known and used in some subject-fields (e.g. computer science), many institutions yet organise only or mostly F2F internships, and remote internships require different procedures and tools also from ad administrative point of view. Together with guidance tools, tutorials and guidelines for teachers, tutors (of both sending/receiving institutions), other university staff, and of course students, the project also intends to develop learning materials for all the involved targets. Learning materials will be addressed to work-based learning and employability. Online work requires different skills than working in a physical place. Regardless of the duration of the present pandemic, it is likely the pandemic experience will change the regular way of working in all economic fields, at least for many graduate jobs. For this reason, the project aims to focus also on skills development for remote working, to provide students with further employability skills to increase their professional success in a labour market shaped by digital transformation.As piloting action, ON-IT focuses on the tourism field and aims at providing outputs easily transferrable to all fields.