CONCISE aims to generate a European-wide debate on science communication, involving a wide array of stakeholders, from media outlets to policy makers, from scientists to business companies, from science communicators to civil society organisations. CONCISE aims at providing qualitative knowledge through citizen consultation on the means/channels (media and social networks, life experience, relatives, religion, political ideology, educational system...), by which EU citizens acquire their science-related science knowledge, and how this knowledge influences their beliefs, opinions, and perceptions. For this purpose, CONCISE will explore the understanding of 500 citizens (representing the 500 million EU citizens), regarding four selected topics: vaccines, complementary and alternative medicine use (CAM), genetically modified organism (GMO), and climate change. CONCISE will carry out a citizen consultation in four countries: Lisbon (Portugal), Valencia (Spain), Vicenza (Italy), Trnava (Slovakia) and Lodz (Poland), with the participation of 100 citizens in each country (selected volunteers and representatives of different social groups, considering gender, age, educational level, ethnic minorities, impaired people, and professional careers). Their understanding and position on these four scientific topics will be evaluated, validated, compared and analysed, in order to publish the results in open access by the CONSORTIUM team. Citizen opinions will be recorded; transcript and analysed with a corpus linguistics software in order to get different indicators that will help all stakeholders to have a more direct and fruitful communication, avoiding the danger of discourses that generatedistrust and misunderstandings. CONCISE results will be scalable and its methodology could be applied to other European countries in order to increase the communication of science in terms of quality and quantity all over Europe.

Because mathematics is usually communicated in universally understood symbols it may appear that it does not require a lot of language to understand it but, in fact, its reasoning processes are very dependent on vocabulary and syntax. You may be able to write mathematics in symbols, but you need words and grammar to speak sums and equations, read about them and understand them when you hear them. When students do mathematics in a foreign language, the language itself adds a layer of difficulty to something that is already abstract and opaque. The result, as research shows, is that many secondary and tertiary level students, though they may be good at maths in their own languages, perform at below their level of ability when doing it in a foreign language. Conference attendees, academics and policy makers have asserted that the language of mathematics requires special attention and that there are very few resources available for teaching it.This was the background to the Mathspeak project. We set as our primary aim, the production of a language learning resource for secondary school students living in foreign European countries where they were not native speakers. Mathspeak would supplement foreign language learning by focussing exclusively on the language of mathematics. It would develop users’ receptive skills to the point that language problems ceased to obstruct their understanding of mathematics and enable them to verbally express mathematical concepts, appropriate to their age groups, put number problems into words and handle mathematical terminology with confidence. We put together a team which mixed educational practitioners with the creators of educational materials. The idea was that schools in various European countries would supply teachers and students to pilot the material whose feedback would influence the content and style of the course material.There is a well-known, though by no means universal, resistance to mathematics, especially amongst young people. So, in order to address this resistance, catch and maintain students’ interest in the language of mathematics, the writers took advantage of the current popularity of graphic novels and used comic strips to put over the teaching points. They took the form of light-hearted sketches peppered with fantasy and humour. The material was written one mathematical-themed unit at a time. Each unit was made available to the Mathspeak project partners through the AdminProject portal. The units were in three forms: 1. The finished English version comic strips, 2 A set of comic strips with no text (the blanks), 3. A document with text only for translation. When the translation was complete it would be transferred to the blanks by the IT experts at Danmar Computers. Partners were supplied with tests for the purpose of getting objective data about whether or not students were learning from the course. Most of the partners also used the original English version for the purposes of teaching English as a foreign language. They fed back assessments of the materials which informed further writing.Unfortunately, the Coronavirus pandemic intervened. In the middle of the project, schools closed. Though the Mathspeak project was temporarily suspended, our plans for piloting were seriously disrupted. Even when work restarted, our partner schools remained closed. Some partners were able to continue piloting in a limited way by incorporating Mathspeak into their online teaching. Other partners did not have this facility available. However, the writing and translating continued and the material was completed. 32 students participated in the piloting process, which was not an unsatisfactory number in the circumstancesAs schools have slowly returned to comparative normality, teachers have begun to use Mathspeak and, as we had hoped, news of it is spreading to other institutions. We are continuing to promote it and thereby bring it and the educational issues surrounding it to the notice of policy makers and syllabus designers.

"Evidence suggests that many adults are unaware of how their individual consumer attitude can possibly have impact in the economy, the environment and society and are also inadequately prepared to participate effectively in the market place. Having said that, consumer literacy is an important skill that all European citizens should develop in an early age, therefore consumers’ literacy in European schools is necessary in order to enable youngsters to make informed economic decisions in the future. Including economic and consumer education in the official school curriculum is considered one of the most efficient and fair ways to reach a whole generation, as it introduces concepts of money and ways to manage it well, while promoting wise spending and rational consumer behavior. Economic and consumer education can take place as a standalone subject or it can be included in specific subjects (i.e. mathematics, economics or social sciences, citizenship). Its inclusion through a crosscurricular approach can allow for the development of more diverse and potentially innovative and engaging ways to link economic and consumer literacy to more familiar topics for both students and teachers.One of today’s challenges is also the fact that young people tend to allow their “mood” to ultimately control their spending patterns, resulting in impulse buying, regardless of formal budgeting or plans. There is the identified need to urge young people, and more specifically students, as the ECOLES project will be implemented in the school setting, to consider the impact of choices on the well-being of others, as they lack critical awareness and understanding of concepts of social, or/and even ecological responsibility. Furthermore, in schools where consumer education is being taught as a secondary component of various disciplines, teachers often are either not concerned or do not have the capacity to teach consumer concepts closely related to their root discipline or presenting real life scenarios effectively to foster better understanding of the concepts in their students.The ECOLES project aims to contribute to the following European development strategies: Europe 2020 Strategy: Target 4 – Education and Target 5 – Fighting poverty and social exclusion, while raising awareness within the school setting on the risks of poor personal financial management and irrational consumer behavior. In addition it aims to contribute in achieving the ET 2020´s strategic objective 2 – Improving the quality and efficiency of education and training.The innovation of the project lies in the fact that that it provides useful and easy to use tools for students and trainers/teachers so as to be able to improve knowledge on economic and consumer related issues combine the ""game"" experience with a set of proposed exercises and approaches for enhanced results. The educational material will also target a new age group 7-18 year old pupils for which such material is not yet widely available. Also, the ECOLES virtual consumer manager will provide a challenging and entertaining learning environment that enables a self-guided learning process.The project activities foreseen in the project follow a simple logic and a coherent project management structure. In particular, the project begins with a comprehensive conceptualization and definition of the project framework. A ""State of Art on economic and consumer literacy level of knowledge of students” will be conducted in each partner country, involving the main target groups i.e. pupils 7-18 year old, school teachers, school leaders, trainers in consumer issues. This activity leads to the production of IO1. The partners will then focus on the development of educational material for students and guidelines for trainers constituting the content of the game for improving the economic and consumer literacy knowledge in European schools (IO2). Furthermore, the partnership will also develop a virtual consumer manager game (IO3) with various scenarios and different levels which will test the theoretical knowledge acquired. IO3 will be designed to be used as a form of a ""game"" even without prior training. The development of IO2 and IO3 will be grouped into three activities a) Design and Development, b) Piloting and testing and c) finalization. These outputs will also be available through the ECOLES website. In parallel with the aforementioned activities which are directly related to the intellectual outputs foreseen, the partners will implement horizontal activities, which will ensure the smooth project implementation, quality assurance and target group outreach. These are: 1. Project Management; 2. Quality Assurance and evaluation; 3. Dissemination and Exploitation."

The project contributes to achieve Europe 2020 benchmarks: to decrease number of low-skilled adults in mathematical skills up to 15%, to increase employment rate by 75%; to raise participation of adults in lifelong learning by 15%. According to the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), conducted in 2014-2015, mostly all EU-28 countries have a big demand on increasing the low levels of adults’ skills at problem-solving in technology-rich environments: LT-45%, PL-40%, CY-38%, AT-25%, IT-45%. According to Eurostat (2016) 35.5 % of the 25–54 year-old non-EU-born population has attained only pre-primary, primary or lower secondary education. Education plays a crucial role in helping low-skilled migrants and refugees settle in new countries. So, their motivation for increasing competences and skills through life-long learning has to be improved. Thus, there is a great need over the European Union to increase engagement of the local communities in motivating low-skilled adults, including refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, to learn in order foster their inclusion and integration. Thus, the project has two aims:• To supply high quality ICT-based learning opportunities for improving basic mathematical skills of low-skilled adults, including refugees, asylum seekers and migrants • To increase awareness within the local communities about the importance of educational help for low-skilled adults, including refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.The objectives are:To improve the integration of low-skills adults through developing their mathematic skills by using problem-solving ICT-based approach. To monitor, assess and collect learners’ achievements in order to facilitate the validation of obtained basis skills.To extend and develop educators’ competences needed for effective training of the low-skilled.To increase engagement of local communities to foster inclusion and integration of low-skilled adults though education and learning. The objectives have been met by developing three main intellectual outputs openly accessible within e-learning platform https://measy.lpf.lt/: 1)Training course M-Easy “Improve Your mathematical skills’; 2).Adult Educators Guide with the toolkit for developing competences needed for effective running of ‘M-Easy’ training course; 3).Communities’ Workshop training materials “Success of the inclusion and integration of low skilled adults through education”.The general methodology to all 3 intellectual outputs is based on Open Educational Resources in order to promote the open access to developed educational tools. However, each outcome is based on the specific to this outcome methodology. The methodology of the training course ‘M-Easy’ is based on open and innovative digital era Mobile applications approach using problem-oriented experiential learning, blended learning and reverse training. The training course is developed to improve 27 basic mathematical skills, defined by partnership within needs analysis stage. M-EASY mobile application includes the set of 21 problem-oriented practical exercises, developed and programmed by partnership, is available on https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vizuali.m_easy. The methodology of the Adult educator’s Guide for adult educators is based on self-directed e-learning as it consists of five on-line learning modules to help the effective facilitation of ‘M-Easy’ training course for the low-skilled. Training materials for adult educators-practitioners on how to run local communities’ workshop is based on reversed training methodology using 10 digital success stories (for self-learning prior the workshop) and e-Guide for adult-educators-practitionersTarget groups: •Low-skilled adults, including refugees, asylum seekers, migrants: 82 were involved in piloting.• Adult educators/facilitators engaged in mathematical skills training of the low-skilled: 17 were trained within the learning activity, 19 were involved in the piloting as trainers and 81 – in the multiplying events.• Adult educators/practitioners working in the field of community education: 100 were involved in piloting. The main impact on 82 low-skilled adult learners, participating in the piloting of M-EASY training course, was on upgrading of their mathematical skills for 41%. The measure of this impact was possible by using the Assessment tool for pre-assessment and post-assessment of 27 basic mathematical skills of the learners.The impact on adult educators/facilitators/practitioners was in strengthening their capacities and developing their digital, social and civic competences to offer ‘M-Easy’ training course based on mobile applications and tailored for low-skilled individual learners (85% stated their satisfaction of the usefulness of the Adult educator’s Guide). 97% of the adult educators and community leaders concluded that they have gained enough knowledge and self-confidence to to lead a Workshop in the local communities on their own.

The problemSmall companies in specific sectors would like to adopt AMT to reduce production costs, improve the quality of their products and services, improve their employees’ productivity and reduce production lead time. However, they lack the knowledge and resources (human & financial) to break through the AMT barriers.The target groups:SMEs, including micro-SMEs from the following sectors:- Food and Beverages - Wood industry - Metal industry - NACE 24 25 - Electronic and Electrical EquipmentThe solutionThe FAME project has developed a training program and tools to strengthen the skills of SMEs in the above selected sectors for them to adopt ICT-enabled AMTs. The project also facilitates the building of a network of FAME adopters through an AMT assistant and Knowledge Retention Skills space. The FAME Network of practitioners and enthusiasts promotes the uptake of high-end AMT through dynamic demonstrators and hands-on workshops even after the end of the project.Main objectivesThe specific purpose of the project is to support SMEs regarding skills, local ecosystems and access to finance, promote the uptake of high-end AMT through joint pilot plants and demonstrators, support new service-based business models for the diffusion of AMT, improve the alignment of European, national and regional policies. The focus is on ICT-enabled AMTs:- 3D printing- Cloud manufacturing- Adaptable manufacturing- VR and simulation - Supply chain - Product Lifecycle Management - Enterprise Resource PlanningThe partnersThe partnership comprised 7 partners from 7 countries. A software development company with ECVET expertise, an educational technology and knowledge dissemination company, one higher education institute of engineering and industrial process management, one company known for innovation in product development, an ICT SME, a Furnishings Cluster and Innovation Hub, a consultant in business development.MethodologyThe project started with a comparative analysis of the current state of play in ICT-enabled AMT practices of SMEs in partner countries and winning practices in countries outside the partnership (Germany, The Netherlands, Norway). The aim of the analysis was to identify the actual needs of the target group in order to form a training program tailored to them.The next step was the validation of the needs by representatives of the direct target group in order to address and describe the learning outcomes for the AMT Manager profile. The training methodology and strategies recommended for the SMEs are based on the validated needs.Upon the results, the partnership developed an action-based course materializing the strategies and supporting their implementation in real working environments. To that end, 7 modules were created comprising specific actions linked to ECVET points in relation with the learning outcomes defined in the validation phase.Together with the AMT Assistant, a personalized tool delivering the action-based course in all partner languages, the Knowledge Retention Service, was deployed with re-modeled actions complementing the training program.ResultsThe outcomes of FAME comprise the:- AMT Course: instructor led and e-Learning- AMT Strategy Genie: personalisation of training paths- Learning Motivation Environment: skills retention functionality- ECVET tools for the AMT Manager for SMEsLong-term benefitsWith the support of the Learning Motivation Environment (LME), a virtual space developed for sustainability of the training program, SMEs are able to implement AMT management strategies at their business which will ensure reduction of production costs, improvement of the quality of their products and services, improvement of their employees’ productivity and reduction of the production lead time.