In Spring 2020, schools around Europe closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Research reports published during this time identified several issues experienced by teachers during the rapid move to online teaching. A survey of 720 Irish, second-level teachers conducted by the TCD team reported that students’ engagement with education decreased significantly during this time. The findings also highlight an associated decline in teaching and learning practices that focus on the development of key skills and competences such as collaboration and communication. This, and other research across the EU, highlights the increased risk of disengagement in schools that serve underrepresented communities, in which existing socio-economic disadvantage is further exacerbated by “digital poverty” among students. Stemming from these research findings, the purpose of this project is to empower teachers to develop pedagogical competences for establishing effective and engaging learning experiences in a digital space, whether as part of a blended experience or wholly online. The project aims to address two key areas: inclusion and digital pedagogical competences, with the main target group being second-level teachers. The approach will be based on the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework (Cast.org), an inclusive approach to teaching and learning that offers all students an equal opportunity to fulfil their potential. This framework offers students different options for accessing, building and internalising learning. It guides teachers to provide multiple means for students to: a) engage with; b) represent; and c) action/express their learning. A key output of this project is to provide a digital overlay to the UDL framework to scaffold teachers’ implementation of UDL principles in remote/blended contexts, such as during school closures. The other project outputs will flow from the development of this digital overlay, to provide further layers of supports for teachers to adopt digital learning principles of UDL. These include: a self-evaluation tool for teachers to identify aspects of the digital UDL framework with which they require support; an associated learning model to support teachers’ creation of digital, UDL activities that include a focus on key skills and competences; Open Educational Resources to scaffold implementation of the framework; and a professional development module which will focus on Area 5 of the DigCompEdu Framework: empowering learners through accessibility and inclusion, differentiation and personalisation. These tools will aim to support teachers and schools to develop inclusive strategies for the digital provision of teaching and learning in their own educational context, with an overarching goal of ensuring high levels of student engagement notwithstanding the mode of content delivery. The project will create a consortium of partners from Ireland, Greece, Belgium and Spain, representing a mixture of second-level teachers and education researchers, with the common aim of harnessing UDL to achieve ‘an EU-wide common understanding of how to make distance, online & blended learning effective, inclusive & engaging' (a strategic priority of the EC Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027). Our outputs will be developed collaboratively across the consortium, with training and testing of the tools to be carried out at 3 Learning, Teaching and Training events. We will then pilot the tools with our primary target group of second-level teachers, and disseminate the results at a series of Multiplier Events and a Project Conference. Throughout the 2-year project duration, qualitative and quantitative indicators will be employed to monitor the progress, quality and expected impacts of the project and its outputs. During this time, we expect the outputs to positively impact ongoing digital teaching and learning of second-level teachers in partner institutions. The development of a related professional development module and associated resources that will be openly accessible on the eTwinning platform and on the project website provides potential for longer-term impact across the wider networks of educators in Europe. All partners’ existing relationships with European-wide organisations such as initial teacher education providers, professional development networks, school principal networks and publications, teacher accreditation bodies and national or regional curriculum development bodies, will be leveraged in order to reach our goals. Funding for this project will therefore provide an opportunity for transnational collaboration and sharing of expertise at a time of crucial importance in educational development. It will allow us to develop outputs to address some of the gaps that have already been identified through the education-related Covid-19 research, as well as to capitalize on the positives that continue to emerge, as a result of the international shift towards increased use of digital learning.