Sustainable development is among the grand challenges of the next decades. To come closer to achieving that state, the EU is committed to mainstream the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the European policy framework and current Commission priorities. Moreover, special attention is paid to means for the achievement of the SDGs, their universal application to all countries and the simultaneous address of the economic, environmental and societal dimensions of sustainability. Thus, there is the need of not only raising awareness, but acquiring a sustainability literacy, in the sense of a functional education that will provide the necessary skills and motives to cope with the challenges of and contribute to sustainable development. As a result, it is essential to provide an innovative pedagogy to students of higher education that will be the policy makers of tomorrow. In particular, their education should be exploring sustainability and the complexity among its different dimensions; moreover, it should provide the necessary means for the students to experience processes of complex decision making, sharpen, their clarity of thought, enhance their communication abilities and help them develop critical thinking as well as key competences to address the complexities of sustainable development. This type of education needs to become a learning process move towards being transformed into a more experiential and student-centered way of learning: thus helping students to constantly assess the environment, operating and adapting to it through processes of revision from their frames of reference and provide the appropriate materials to comprehend systemic complexity. The objective of the SUSTAIN project is to commence and promote sustainable literacy among students of higher education (and young people in general) through an innovative and student-centered education. To achieve this objective, we will design, develop and implement a course to be taught in students of higher education; a course hybrid in nature, as it will combine game-based learning with an analytical style of education. In detail: 1) The course will deal with transportation sustainability, societal metabolism and decision making under those contexts. The purpose will be to teach students the definitions of those notions, how they are translated in everyday life, and formalize the mathematics necessary to make robust decisions. 2) The project team will develop small, illustrative simulation models that will make the definitions more concrete and allow students to experiment in a consequence-free environment. The simulation models can be used to identify scenario exemplars on how we can achieve sustainable urban transportation and a balanced societal metabolism, while taking into account formal decision making process. Thus, greater insights will be provided to the policy makers of the future regarding the complexities of decisions in uncertain issues where many stakeholders are involved. 3) The approach of the SUSTAIN project is hybrid and as such the material develop so far, will be translated, in elements and mechanics of a Serious Game. The purpose is to create a board game that will allow students to learn about transportation sustainability and societal metabolism through playing. One important aspect of the design of the game it will be that it will avoid to be just an informational/fact-delivering game; the core design principle will combine delivery of facts with experiential elements that will allow students to explore their own sustainability goals and the means to achieve them. The project team envisages that the impact of the project will be in three ares: - At the European (and EU) level, the project will provided added value in the efforts of the EU to disseminate the principles of sustainability, while at the same time educate the future generation of policy makers to be better equipped to promote and achieve the SDGs. Furthermore, the project will continue the effort for an enhanced education that will utilize and incorporate the principles of game-based learning and IC Technologies. - For the partners of the project, the impact will take the form of a strengthened cooperation and networking of different organizations among different European countries and with different scopes and experiences. At the same time, it will strengthen the role of the participating partners in their respective areas, as the project will bring cutting-edge research closer to students and citizens. - Finally, for the students that will participate in the project, the new course will provide a more student-centered education that will inform them on important EU and global issues, and at the same time help teach them develop the key competences to deal with complex situations that they will have to face. The project will bring them in touch with the work performed by the partners and connect them with other facets of the European culture.

The project aims to create skills on the topic of project management (PM) and intends to do so using the concept of Edutainment in depth. To do this, it was decided to unite the world of the PM and that of the Board Games: this combination aims to facilitate the learning of the concepts of the PM but intends to do it through a new model, not only through the game, but using a game in which the players interact in a common space and do it in person, ergo endowed with a very marked social component.The PM, today, is a competence that has a very strong relevance in almost all fields and is increasingly requested by people who do not have to become real Project Managers. This is because it includes skills that are transversal to all sectors and is therefore a subject that is perceived as a fundamental and basic element on which to build the rest of the expertise of a member of the organization, be it public, private or non-profit.The use of the Board Game, however, is back in the spotlight after a period of torpor and the data indicate them as a phenomenon of massive and inter-generational interest, especially for young people who discover them as a personal relationship together with the digital social networks.The PMBoG project aims to use this new renaissance of Board Games to create a game that regards the PM and legitimate the dynamics of this discipline, and intends to do this through the interaction between players/learners through the rules of a board game. The PMBoG project will address the complex nature of Project Management by allowing professional adults to manage situations where not only PM’s theory is relevant but where also a deep understanding of the structure underlying the dynamics of projects can play a crucial role for the correct management of resources and ultimately for a successful completion of an endeavor in terms of time, budget and result quality. Simultaneously, the project will extend and develop the competences of management educators and other personnel who support adult learners, with the purpose of developing a learning pathway that will certify Project Management as an essential skill with transversal value.To achieve the objectives of the project, we will combine a hybrid-style of education:- A crash-course on PM using the traditional analytical tools (e-books, papers etc.)- The development of Interactive Learning Environments (ILEs) based on simulation models that provide meaningful insights about Project Management -The development of a board game that will incorporate every element of the previous results and translate them into a scenario that will allow the participants to experience a learning process that not only delivers facts/information but allows them to understand Project Management in their own terms and find their own solutions.The strategic partnership envisages that the impact of the project will be:For the partners of the project, the impact will take the form of a strengthened cooperation and with different scopes and experiences. At the same time it will strengthen the role of the participating partners both in their respective countries and in the countries of all the participants, as the project will bring cutting-edge research and awareness campaigns closer to students and citizens. Simultaneously, the project partnership will try to address the gaps in the research: the design and implementation of a course targeted to educators of Project Management and Professionals and secondly, inform the academic community on the gap of game-based learning with regards to the assessment of the learning progress.For the participants, the new course will provide an innovative type of education, which is more student-centered and not overly reliant on the traditional style of education. This innovative education will allow the participants to achieve competences such as the ability of time management, budget management, negotiation skills, creating and delivering presentations, relationship management, risk management and using technology effectively. These competences will allow them to deal with complex decisions and decision making processes in their current and future careers in private and public organizations and provide insights into the complexity and the effort required to achieve a unique progress in a highly competitive global environment.Furthermore, the PMBoG project will provide to educators and professionals a range of tools that have high transferable value since every aspect in life can be thought and managed in terms of Project Management. Finally, the PMBoG project will bring the participants in touch with work performed by the partners and will connect them with other facets of the European culture. Last but not least, the partnership aims at bringing elements of pure fun in academic and research institutions and the corridors of professional companies.