Migrant women continue to face difficulties and challenges in their professional careers. Highly skilled migrant women tend to face a double disadvantage as a result of discrimination towards women and particularly those from a migrant background especially in non traditional sectors such as in Science, Engineering, Arts and Technology (STEAM). As a migrant, further barriers of underemployment and deskilling occurs. Migrants are often in positions they are overqualified for. It has been found that migrants tend to possess higher educational attainment compared with their native-born peers in many different countries (Eurostat, 2018). Yet, they do not seem to be accepted for positions which match their competencies.Women who are looking for employment, or are employed, in the STEAM sector can face further challenges in their professional journey, especially as a highly skilled migrant and as a minority in a male dominated profession. Highly skilled migrant women face challenges and barriers in areas such as the lack of recognition of their degrees. In 2017, 59% of men and 41% women were scientists and engineers in the EU (Eurostat, 2019). Women made up a minority of all ICT specialists working in the European Union, at 17.2% (Eurostat, 2018).The MentoraSTEAM project aims to develop highly skilled migrant women’s self-efficacy, confidence and soft skills in the STEAM sector in order to boost employability. There is a need to tackle this issue transnationally as women are underrepresented and are subjected to a gender gap globally (World Economic Forum, 2020). Furthermore, migrant women tend to have lower self-efficacy, especially in the STEAM sector (Tellhed et al, 2016; Gjersoe, 2018). Research has shown that initiatives to boost women’s confidence are important as it can encourage them to pursue a career in STEAM or stay in the field (Perez-Felkner, 2018). Therefore, there is a need for the partner countries of this project to work collaboratively to tackle the issues migrant women in STEAM face and to inform stakeholders of the challenges this target group currently face. The methodology of the current project will focus on the development of the MentoraSTEAM Policy Framework Guide (IO1), MentoraSTEAM Employability Booster (IO2) and MentoraSTEAM Circles™ (IO3).The MentoraSTEAM Policy Framework Guide will compile a comprehensive guide which will include case studies, existing initiatives (on a European and national scale) and focus group findings from all partner countries. This will be beneficial for further understanding of the disadvantages women experience in STEAM across a range of stakeholders from employers to Chambers of Commerce amongst others.As a result of the findings from the guide, the MentoraSTEAM Employability Booster training will be developed taking into consideration what has been found in the research conducted in the first output. 4 modules will be delivered by the partnership and two pilot testing phases will be carried out to boost the employability in highly skilled migrant women in STEAM. Migrant women will be invited to attend the MentoraSTEAM Circles™. They will be provided with peer mentoring sessions facilitated by an experienced trainer. This will further develop their skills and encourage them to set actions points for them to achieve while increasing their self-efficacy.A total of 8 multiplier events will take place in the project lifetime. After the finalisation of IO1, all partners will carry out an event to disseminate the findings of IO1. After the finalisation of all outputs, another multiplier event will take place in each partner country. The last 4 multiplier events will celebrate the achievements of the MentoraSTEAM project. It will inspire and empower women in STEAM and motivate stakeholders to take action in order to engage more this target group in their organisations. Through this project, the partnership can have an international effect on the development of skills for women in STEAM backgrounds and contribute to their empowerment. There will be a long-term effect of the project as it will improve social connectivity and build relationships between women in STEAM. Furthermore, it will provide women in STEAM with hope and skills for a more equal future.Main results:- Empowerment and training of migrant women with a STEAM background. There will be a development of new skills and development of existing skills. Thus, improving employability. - Building awareness of the inequalities and challenges of migrant women with STEAM background. Building connections between women who experience this inequality to empower one another and continue to work together outside of the project to spread the word. - Improve knowledge and understanding of the challenges this target group currently face amongst employers, employment agencies, the third sector, Chambers of Commerce and VET centres amongst others.

<< Background >>Big Data is today a key element of economic development. Data-driven innovation is a key driver of growth and jobs that can significantly boost European competitiveness in the global market. In the next future of Europe, digital and data will become an essential resource for economic growth, competitiveness, innovation, job creation and societal progress in general.Despite this great relevance of big data – both in terms of citizenship and emerging data economy –, Europe must face a series of challenges: a) a not sufficient data-driven approach in the European economy; b) a small number of Big Tech firms that hold a large part of the world’s data; c) personal data security; d) a lack of Data Literacy and Data Communication skills.Through the DATASTORYTELLERS project, we want to bridge this lack of competencies related to Big Data Communication in the European universities curricula. Thanks to a project consortium that brings together universities and start-up companies, we will develop innovative learning experience and materials to foster close-to-work skills in universities students and teachers. The innovative learning experiences and materials will be co-created between partnership members from different countries (Sweden, Italy, Belgium, Lithuania), disciplines (Data Science and Information Design) and economic sectors (universities and start-up companies). The core idea of the project is to use Visual Storytelling to make Big Data communication more effective and engaging. As Rosenthal Tolisano points out, Visualisation is a key for developing 21st Century Skills The project aims to address the specific needs of the identified target groups1) The need for new digital competencies in university students2) The Need for new marketable skills for young people3) The Need for Universities to improving their curricula toward a post-pandemic digital world’s4) The Need of society in general to be more informed and educated on Big Data<< Objectives >>The project addresses two general objectives and a set of correlated specific objectives:GENERAL OBJECTIVES: 1 - INNOVATE HIGHER EDUCATION THROUGH DIGITALISATION AND NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH DIFFERENT ECONOMIC SECTORS (PUBLIC AND PRIVATE). Developing strategic cooperation BETWEEN HIGHER EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC SECTOR helps innovation in terms of facilitating permeability of the education sector from social needs. Developing Common learning activities between partnership members from different countries, disciplines and economic sectors (public/private), ensuring the relevance towards the needs of the labour market in terms of a) more employability of the universities students; b) more cooperation between different organisations crossing sectors; c) skill mismatch reduction at European level; d) strengthening cooperation and exchange in digital education at EU level; e) develop Higher Education modules bases on real cases and close to market needs2 - INNOVATE HIGHER EDUCATION INTRODUCING NEW DIGITAL SKILLS (XXI Century Skills) INCREASING JOB OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUTH. Generally, digitalisation has a positive effect on the labour market, creating more jobs than it destroys. However, this does not mean that the jobs will remain the same. Around 14% of all jobs are in danger of being automated, while 32% will potentially experience ‘significant change’. Consequently, learning new digital skills at the university level can better prepare for future digitally disrupted professions increasing significantly job opportunities for Youth Europeans. Specific Objectives1.DEVELOP OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER) TO TRAIN NEW SKILLS: BIG DATA STORYTELLING.2.DEVELOP COMMON (PRIVATES AND ACADEMIES) LEARNING ACTIVITIES/MODULE AS OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER). 3.INCREASE YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY STRENGTHENING BIG DATA SKILLS. 4.TO CREATE EUROPEAN NETWORK TO STRENGTH AND SUPPORT EU STRATEGY ON BIG DATA.<< Implementation >>Project activities related to the Management and communication of the project:WORK PACKAGE 1 / PROJECT MANAGEMENT Activities supported by project management funds according to the Workplan.A.1.1 REPORTING and OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENTA.1.2 QUALITY ASSURANCEWP2 COMMUNICATION AND DISSEMINATION The second Work Package covers all the activities concerning the visibility of the project and the spreading of project results.A2.1 COMMUNICATION AND DISSEMINATION PLANProduction of a complete plan at the beginning of the project to guide all partners throughout the entire project in each activity concerning the communication of the existence andvisibility of the project: how, when and where to disseminate project results.A2.2 COMMUNICATION TEMPLATES AND GRAPHICSProduction of templates for project dissemination materials based upon the guidelines of the communication and dissemination plan (Word template, PowerPoint template, flyertemplate, Roll-up template). A2.3 COMMUNICATION AND DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIESAll the activities focused on the communication of results that could require minor expenses (conferences, promotional videos, podcasts, TV presence, press conferences) will beundertaken here.A2.4 PROJECT WEBSITEHosting, design, creation and uploading of the project website. The site will store project news, partnership info, IOS descriptions and all other kinds of news that the consortium will deem relevant.Project activities related to the delivery of planned project results:Work package 3 - Creation of Big Data Set repository for open training. Task 3.1 Research and Collection of free-access data set from each partner Task 3.2 Validation and verification of each dataset as valuable training material for studentsTask 3.3 Validation of each dataset for compliance with GDPR regulation and other privacy issuesTask 3.4 The consortium will make sure all the gathered and validated items are available to the public through the project outlets (web site, social media, etc.)Work package 4 - Design, creation and delivery of Open Webinars on Big Data Storytelling and Visualization Task 4.1Content design: syllabus: production of baseline indexes of topics to be covered in the webinars (details in the specific IO section)Task 4.2 Courseware development: Production of pdf, pptx and other media content (details in the specific IO section and decisions during the project by the consortium)Task 4.3 Review of content in the pilot webinar of learning activityTask 4.4 Content publication through the website and all other possible means of disseminationWork package 5 - Elaboration of Research Paper on Big Data for Tourism and Cultural Heritage Task 5.1: Draft of the Research Paper on Big Data for Tourism and Cultural Heritage. The Research Paper will be co-authored by KTH, TMU, VMU and i-strategies. The article will be drafted in English and submitted to a peer-review process.Task 5.2: Elaboration of the European Chart on Big Data for Social Change. The Chart will be the result of an ethical and philosophical reflection on Big Data developed in the Scientific Articles and additional documents and scientific literature on the link between Big Data, Ethics, Social Change and Common Good. Task 5.3 Evaluation on the possible evolution of the EU Network of big data for social change: results from the Research Paper on Big Data for Tourism and Cultural Heritage co-authored by project partners will be the cornerstone of a chart of values: The European Chart on Big Data for Social Change. The Eu Network on Bigdata for social change will try to involveof private and public European institutions that decide to join the chart and its principles.Task 5.4 Publication of the research paper drafted in task 5.1 in a European academic scientific Journal (if possible). Open access publication of the article through all project dissemination outlets<< Results >>The project will produce three main project results, namely:project result 1: Big Datasets RepositoryThe first project result will consist of gathering a data set repository, the first Open Educational Resource (OES) of DATASTORYTELLER. On the basis of pre-submission interviews, carried out with university partners, one of their needs is to find big data sets from the “real world” (for example, open data in tourism: Open Data in tourism | data.europa.eu) that are useful for engaging universities students in:1) close-to-work practical exercises; 2) exercises that are able to contribute to the common good (e.g. better presentation of Open Data to the general public). Through O1 a big data repository will be provided for practical exercises on storytelling for big data.The BIG DATA SET OF REAL WORLD CASES will be a result of a gathering activity from all project partners based on the following criteria: a) “real-world” big data set; b) data collected are easy to be visualized/represented; c) Open Educational Resource (OES); d) multisectorial origin; e) compliant with GDPR and ethical issues. Project result 2: Open webinars on big data storytellingTHE OPEN WEBINARS ON BIG DATA will be the second Open Educational Resource (OED) of the DataStoryteller project that consists of an e-learning activity to share knowledge about how to Storytell Big Data. The online webinars will focus, at least, on six topics: 1) Data Set preparation; 2) Best practices of Information Design; 3) Best practices of Big Data Storytelling; 4) Tools and Digital Platforms for Big Data Visualisation (Tableau, Infogram, etc.); 5) Data Visualisation for Intangible Cultural Heritage and Tourism; 6) The EU Strategy on Big Data. The open webinars will be developed by project partners also involving external experts (e.g. Information Designers). At least 10 online webinars (1h per webinar) will be provided in asynchronous (recorded) learning mode.Project result 3: The third project output will be a Research Paper on the topic “Big Data for Tourism and Cultural Heritage”. The article will focus - following the EU approach that pays attention to the link between Big Data and Humanities - on the role of Big Data for Tourism and Cultural Heritage, underlining the role of Data Visualization in this process.The Research Paper will be the result of the scientific background and experiences in Tourism and Cultural Heritage of Thomas More University and i-strategies (with special attention on Intangible Heritage) and technical knowledge about Big Data from KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Vytautas University with additional knowledge acquired thanks to the project activities (webinars).

EPIC-WE introduces cultural game jams, culture- and value-sensitive game-making and games through and for culture as a novel approach to empower young people as co-creators of European culture and shapers of their own futures in society, cultural institutions (CHIs) and creative industries (CIs). The backbone of the project is the EPIC-WE helix ecosystem - a transferable framework where youth, CHIs, CIs and higher education institutions (HEIs) cooperate as actors in the ecosystem. Together EPIC-WE engage in cultural games jams to create games through and for culture inspired by cultural heritage. The framework explores the potentials of this approach as a method for strengthening European values, belonging and cultural participation. Through game-making activities, EPIC-WE will equip youth with cultural-creative imagination and competencies to face societal challenges with curiosity, creativity, agency and imagination – what we call Empowered Participation. The project is carried out as an ambitious Design-Based Research and Innovation (DBR) action across three European sites, where EPIC-WE ecosystem actors co-create, and through this, develop, implement and evaluate the proposed framework. The validated DBR innovations are presented as accessible resources that enable organisations across Europe to replicate the EPIC-WE ecosystem, formats, and methods. Through extensive research, capacity building and policy advocacy activities, EPIC-WE will ensure that the project’s results reach a wide range of European CHI, CI and HEI actors, including the game industry, civil society organizations and youth. The consortium is in itself a helix ecosystem, bringing together leading research, cultural and creative sector organisations with multidisciplinary excellence in DBR, participatory and value-sensitive design, game design and youth engagement to empower youth as future culture-makers and game-makers in CHIs, CCIs and HEIs and as value-sensitive agents of change in society.