<< Background >>The demographics of Higher Education are changing. University graduates increasingly desire to expand their competences as they are confronted with multiple transformations in a globalized society. When returning to HE they face many barriers: responsabilities for family and professional context limit their mobility and time for studying. Conventional postgraduate programs do not offer an inclusive respons as they typically go with high registration costs and are tied to fixed periods in the academic calendar. While open courses now are available – particularly from non EU providers – there is little guidance as how to build a coherent learning experience. The partner universities introducing this Key Action proposal offer better chances for answering to the Lifelong Learning ambitions of the European Commission by developing flexible mechanisms that recognize short term intensive learning efforts in a transnational context. FLECSLAB stands for Flexible LEarning Communities Supporting Lifelong learning Across Borders and suggests a roadmap for a more inclusive approach in meaningful international learning processes that enable academia to reach a wide range of life long learners from various backgrounds and across disciplines .The major inspiration for launching this proposal derives from the acknowledgement of the limitations of current HE models to accommodate LLL students. FLECSLAB thereby expands the work of learning communities towards international connectedness of best practices in active learning.<< Objectives >>The proposal has two core objectives: (i)First the project delivers a framework and well-tested implementation tool to explore the potential of a European university alliance for creating a substantial LLL offer based on existing components of their curricula. Building on the development of the Connected Learning Communities in the EUTOPIA alliance, FLECSLAB will create a specialized instrument for all HE institutions going beyond the demand of degree seeking students and opening up to non-modal learners looking for international learning experiences. This tool will include guidelines and training modules to support academic staff in addressing adult learners.(ii)Second through piloting and real hands on experience the project aims at introducing a business model that will allow European universities to maintain their efforts for a high quality offer in LLL. Due to its focus on active learning and innovative transdisciplinary topics FLECSLAB will actively involve stakeholders operating in the social context of the learning communities and interested in cooperating with HEI for responding to LLL needs of citizens and professionals.<< Implementation >>The building blocks of FLECSLAB are Connected Learning Communities linking best practices in open and active learning across 6 partners of a European alliance, namely EUTOPIA. Interinstitutional teams of academic staff organize complementary teaching processes on selected topics that are transdisciplinary and embedded in a wide range of degree programs at all levels of the education cycle (ba, ma and phd). By stimulating cross-campus connectedness the academic authorities recognize and give support to a group of motivated teachers that are experimenting with challenge based and research driven learning formats. Under EUTOPIA academics revisit traditional learning formats and organise short term learning experiences that the students can take as part of their curriculum journey towards or alongside a degree. Despite its successful implementation and the promising results for curriculum development in a European University alliance EUTOPIA is not designed to accommodate lifelong learners. That is the gap that FLECSLAB addresses. Building on the developments in a large sample of the Connected Learning Communities, FLECSLAB provides a unique opportunity to introduce a roadmap based on tested designs that the HE sector can adopt and that will meet the needs of non-traditional students identified in the ecosystems of the learning communities. FLECSLAB will be the first project, to the best of our knowledge, to provide the Higher Education sector with such an intensive set of cases and to extrapolate the tools and business models for all transnational alliances willing to open up their curriculum offering towards a range of non-traditional learners.<< Results >>As discussed in the project results details the outcomes are arranged in stages. First FLECSLAB will be concerned with mapping the needs for lifelong learning in the ecosystems of the learning communities and their capacity to offer appropriate designs for LLL in relationship with existing curriculum .Then FLECSLAB will document the business cases for a broad sample of LLL scenarios. A final and critical stage is about translating the FLECSLAB experience to policy guidelines for academics, industry and public sector partners. An advisory Board is set up to inspire the development of the project in all stages. The board members are high level experts connected with international knowledge centers and policy making for Education and Employment. In that way they will help the project team to describe the conditions for maintaining the international dimension of the LLL processes and the incentives expected from the European authorities to facilitate cross-border access and recognition of the learning efforts. All project results are documented and the project team will produce a series of resources that help HE practitioners and policy makers in developing LLL pedagogies (the Lifelong Learning Toolbox) and sustainable offerings (the Lifelong Learning Business Model).