The European Union´s economy is currently highly dependent on trading with the rest of the world. Among all goods acquired by consumers, electrical and electronics, clothing and textile and food are based on globalised supply changes with a relevant contribution to the Gross Domestic Products and employment. But with a considerable environmental impact.Eco-Design was provided as one of the most important tools for the transitions of these goods towards a sustainable production consumption system, since during the design stage of a product, more than 80% of the environmental impact of a product is determined.In this regard, the ECOSIGN consortium works towards the identification of skills gaps related to Eco-Innovation among European Designers from the main sectors with production-consumption systems with globalised supply chains: Food (Packaging), Electrical and electronic goods and Textile. With the support from the European Commission in the Sector Skills Alliances action from the Erasmus+ programme. The main objective of this alliance is to address the gaps in Eco-Innovation skills of designers working in these sectors. ECOSIGN is composed by experts of the three different sectors, VET providers and authorities in the field of employment and training from Slovenia, Italy, Spain and Romania, working together towards the achievement of specific objectives clearly aligned with both the needs of the three sectors in terms of sustainability and the main aims of the participant institutions.During the project lifetime, partners comprising this alliance have worked in:-Developing a deep desk research, experts committees and questionnaire to determine those skills, knowledge and competences needs among designers from the target sectors. This was used to identify the main needs and requirements in Europe regarding Ecodesign applied in these sectors.-Building up a joint curriculum for Eco-Designers from each sector.-Developing all necessary didactic materials for the four different modules: Lectures, slides, quizzes,assignments and videos in all consortium languages.-Analyzing, selecting and deploying the training content in the most suitable Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) to be freely and massive delivered.-Assessing and selecting the most suitable Open Licenses for the delivered material.-Planning the validation and recognition of the learning outcomes-Arranging pilot test experiences to test the developed didactic contents and the OER platformenvironments.-Spreading the word of ECOSIGN at different levels and to the different targets.-Involving workers and managers, experts in design and VET experts and institutions.ECOSIGN has its own website (www.ecosign-project.eu), a YouTube channel(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9-Lms51F1hdxm8wBA0qapQ) and profiles at the most relevantsocial media: Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Ecosign-Project-665894146882357/), Linkedin(https://www.linkedin.com/company/ecosign-project/) and Twitter(@ecosign_project), constituting the main platforms for dissemination activities and containing all public information of the project. The project website contains a private area used as a file exchange repository and internal communication tool.

Islands are characterized by massive touristic flows concentrated in specific high-season Islands are characterized by massive touristic flows concentrated in specific high-season peaks, temporarily amplifying the local consumption of products and the consequent generation of waste materials. ReBoat aims at designing, developing and demonstrating a novel decentralized systemic circular solution focused on plastics and textile, exploiting a mobile, modular, sorting, recycling and reprocessing plant on a Boat that will transform local waste into new products, meeting the needs of island citizens, tourists and local artisans and workers. Three complementary pilots at Eolian, Ioninan and Azores islands, will CoCreate new objects, spaces and experiences through an Island Participatory Approach supported by Collaborative Digital tools, by the Boat technical infrastructure with recycling and reprocessing machineries onboard, and by Artists, working-holidays Students, and Designers who will animate a 2 weeks event in each pilot engaging people. Newly designed Tourism Packages will empower the engagement and enrich the offering, promoting conscious and sustainable holidays in European Islands. 15 partners from 7 Eu Member States, experts in heterogeneous and complementary sectors will cooperate to demonstrate the feasibility of the 6 innovation pillars and to provide a concrete experience to citizens and tourists that will be made publicly available through training materials, success stories, open access data. Replicability will be studied with the objective to obtain a concrete exploitation after the project ends. The project will obtain results in the following innovation pillars: a Boat for local recycling, the digital solutions for the CoCreation and scheduling in exploitation, the new touristic packages and signed agreements, the generation of new circular products to be sold, the engagement of local stakeholders and PAs, and the definition of the final business model.

The textile industry in Europe faces big challenges for qualified personnel and requires implementation of new research results. In order to keep their competitive advantage, textile enterprises have to focus on innovation. The gap between modern requirements at the workplace and the current skills of young apprentices has to be bridged by up-to-date educational materials. The Knowledge Matrix for Innovation (KMI) is a management instrument for quantifying the intangible assets of an enterprise. It is used to describe the assets of an enterprise. The project’s main aim is to increase the capacity of innovation and training in textile enterprises, by defining and implementing the KMI.Objectives:1. Development of work-based training envisaging key competences both to employers and employees in the textile field;2. Improving the innovation capacity and training methodology of textile enterprises with the support of research providers;3. Fostering use of ICT in innovation process within textile enterprises;4. Improving the strategic cooperation between research providers and enterprises in textiles at transnational level.The consortium of the project tackling these objectives, reflects a very well-balanced distribution of activities and responsibilities. There are two research institutes (INCDTP = coordinator, Centrocot) and two universities (University Maribor, Technical University Iasi) and one training / technology transfer center (TecMinho), from 4 countries with important contribution to the textile industry in Europe: Italy, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia.The project’s consortium undertook the following main activities:1.The KMI was defined, processed and adapted for textile enterprises. The structure of the KMI consists of Elements, Criteria and Factors on one dimension and of Conditions, Resources, Activities and Results on the second dimension. Thus, the project partners carefully prepared and synthesized the 52 Factors of the KMI. 2.The KMI was transformed into a Benchmarking questionnaire (BMQ) and the partners conducted the benchmarking activity by receiving questionnaires from 64 enterprises from the 4 partner countries both in online and written format.3.A Benchmarking report on European / partnership level as well as 4 Benchmarking reports on national level were prepared with the comparative situation to the European average. Moreover, dedicated reports for each participating enterprise were issued with the comparative situation to the European and National average (this outcome was not initially foreseen).4.A SWOT analysis was conducted to the Benchmarking report on European level and based on the identified Opportunities and they provided a number of 35 project’s solutions. The link between Opportunities and Solutions was performed by a cluster table. Moreover, an entire Guide with new solutions was prepared in all partner’s languages (IT, PT, RO and SI) and English, including the modules:Elements specific to innovationInstruments for supporting and promoting innovationInnovation based on scientific results (project solutions)Legislative framework for protecting innovation5.The e-learning tool with all these OER was implemented with the URL address www.advan2tex.eu/portal . The Moodle platform includes special customized e-learning courses in all partner’s languages and 658 user accounts. 6.Five blended courses and five multiplier events (one by each partner) were organized and unfolded for ensuring a proper impact to the envisaged target group, based on the performed outcomes. The results attained were:•199 stakeholders in textiles prepared within multiplier events (instead of 100 initially foreseen);•137 young trainees in textiles prepared within blended courses (instead of 95 initially foreseen);•64 textile enterprises involved within the Benchmarking activity (instead of 50 initially foreseen);•One new Erasmus+ / strategic partnership project proposal won in the 2018 competition. The impact of the project was achieved on five levels:1.Upon participants from the textile industry (stakeholders): a number of 19 textile enterprises interested in the project solutions and improved links research-industry;2.Upon young trainees: 36 trainees counseled for their career path and 16 trainees intending to follow a job in textiles or related fields; 3.Upon participating organizations: improved project management skills and cooperation relationships;4.Upon the dissemination target group: 23 papers in scientific magazines and conference proceedings, 29 PPT presentations at events, 20 poster presentations at fairs, 24 posts in newsletters and press releases, 26 links to social media networks and 44 other presentations at info days, symposia, cluster meetings etc. 5.Upon project’s website visitors (599 different users with 730 sessions) and e-learning tool visitors (620 different users with 1922 sessions).