Surface chemistry and sub-surface phenomena have been played a crucial role in developing a host of modern technologies and represent a driving-force of current interdisciplinary approaches. The control of the surface, structure and morphology through advanced surface engineering and well controlled fabrication has rapidly expanded in line with the demand for emerging applications. The aim of the project is to enhance SU’s scientific excellence and innovation capacity in engineered surfaces and films for emerging technologies to the European level, by working with leading European institutes of proven capability to innovate and deliver technology to industry. Excellence will be achieved by embedding University’s activities in a network of excellence provided by our twinning partners and will allow SU access to the latest know-how and facilities, improve our R&D innovation capacity, strengthen research management, administration skills, train SU’s academics and ESRs. To achieve this aim, a 3 year project will be built upon the existing strong research and innovation interaction with our twinning partners, Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research (AMBER) Centre hosted in Trinity College of Dublin (TCD) (Ireland) and Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Trento, Italy. EngSurf-Twin will boost SU’s scientific excellence and innovation capacity in this critical interdisciplinary field by providing training activities for ESRs spanning nanofabrication, characterisation, materials and interfaces, advanced sensing concepts, smart materials and structural environment, nano-devices and microsystems. By linking with internationally-leading research institutions EngSurf-Twin will enhance the S&T capacity, raise the research profile of SU, increase research excellence, enhanced the reputation, attractiveness and networking channels at EU level. Improved partnership and S&T capacity will lead to new collaboration opportunities and better integration into Horizon Europe projects.

<< Objectives >>The aim of the project is to increase digital literacy of young women and mums in suburbs.Education and training should be at the centre of the strategies implemented to achieve gender equality in the digital era. Specific strategies should be promoted for the different age ranges, in particular for young women because this is pivotal to achieving sustainability, productivity, growth, jobs and, of course, social inclusion.<< Implementation >>Activities during the project:1) Creation of training methodology;2) Collection of project participants in all participating project countries;3) Trainings in all participating countries;4) Creation of digital platform for created training manual and results sharing with others.<< Results >>1) Developed training methodology;2) 60 young women and moms from suburbs acquiring new IT skills, increasing awarenes of cybersecurity.3) Acquisition of new competencies of 6 lecturers;4) Sharing of experiences and cultural differences between project participants and institutions;5) Gaining international experience.

Supporting the connection of HEIs is one of the KA2 call priorities under the ESCI, further to the European Commission announcement in March 2019 that from 2021 HEIs participating in the Erasmus programme will have to gradually adhere to the EWP standards. Another mention of digitalisation is also placed in the new Erasmus Charter for HE for which the call has been published in February, 2020. As a consequence, the next Erasmus Programme framework is foreseen to be digital in nature taking into account a gradual shift towards fully digital mobility management.The main objective of the SUDTE project is to facilitate this change of paradigm by ensuring extensive support in achieving a smooth and well-coordinated digital transformation process. The project seeks respond the challenges of digital transformation that HEIs, students and National Agencies will face in the next Erasmus+ programme.The EU Commission as the regulatory body needs to provide stability and future certainty for the overarching initiative to be harmonious and streamlined. The digital platforms provided to the HEIs must be able to serve to the needs of more than 5000 universities taking part in the Erasmus+ Programme. To do so, they need to be implemented and tested by HEIs of different structures as early as possible. A systematic set of supporting initiative will be offered by the SUDTE project which is expected to play an important role in contributing the roadmap of the ESCI with the following goals: -Determination of the needs of HEIs and NAs in the integration process through a systematic mapping-Assessing and comparing the available digital tools to address the challenging infrastructural transformation -Assisting HEIs in design and execute their implementation strategies based on evidence-based decision-making and policy formulation-Measuring efficiency gains and impact assessment regarding workload reduction-Equipping students and staff with the knowledge and skills with a view to ensures readiness for next Erasmus programme-Developing software modules to expand available IT servicesDigital transformation of the HEIs is at the core of how we will interact with ESCI in the next Erasmus programme. The EUF universities have been key drivers in bringing about this change of paradigm, and are thus particularly well positioned to take leverage on their shared know-how. The SUDTE project will bring together a consortium of five EUF partners from Italy (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico), Spain (University of Vigo), Luxembourg (EUF) and Turkey (Selcuk University and Izmir Institute of Technology).The project activities leading to achieve expected results and outcomes as described in the Intellectual Outputs are designed to allow active collaboration of all the consortium partners. The SUDTE project will be employing a traditional management approach which uses sequential phases to define, build, test, and release project deliverables, known as waterfall method. When changes of requirements (e.g. as a result of new technologies, changes in the higher education area) cannot easily be incorporated with the waterfall method, more flexible methodology like Agile may be followed to be adaptable above all other qualities.During the project all partner institutions will expected to take leverage on their shared know-how to upgrade and update their IT infrastructure in compliance with ESCI requirements. While the project partners consider their role in addressing digital transformation within their organization as critical, it is targeted to ensure other EU Universities as well as National Agencies benefit from the outcomes of the project on its completion. Moreover, through the training activities, students and academicians will be able to equip themselves with the digital skills which is necessary to cope up with the challenges the scale of the transition presents as the world moves to a digital era. Facilitating the digital transformation of Higher Education Institutions in line with European Commission’s initiative will contribute to overcome the challenges in streamlining the gradual shift towards fully digital mobility management. The outcomes of the project are therefore intended to have a significant impact on the stakeholders of the ICTs.The general impacts of project implementation are also related to increased digitalisation, modernisation of HEIs and EU standardisation of mobility management. This strategic partnership will enable a meaningful, project-oriented and policy-relevant exchange of know-how between the participating institutions. Moreover, it will spread that knowledge to other individuals and institutions through a series of project outputs in which new content can be developed for the interested stakeholders.The project aims to improve in the long-term the quality of university services, the skills of staff of HEIs so as to guide students and aims in the adoption of the ESCI throughout Europe.

<< Background >>The Million of Erasmus Grants (MEGA) project’s ambition is to create and develop a digital tool that will simplify the management of Erasmus+ mobility grants at university level and secure the payment of these grants to the students concerned, both in terms of accuracy and calendar. It will take into consideration and respect the national and local contexts of the HEIs throughout the Erasmus grant process. Indeed, MEGA shall develop the best tool possible to facilitate the management of Erasmus grants. As such, the project has been divided between the partners in 4 milestones. Project Result 1 aims to draw a map of the situation by exploring through a survey the topic of grants management, which has been left untouched so far. It will help follow the grant procedure in different HEIs from various European countries, and collect relevant insights in order to fill the gap in the existing procedures. It will also collect the feedback of National Agencies. Project Result 2 will focus on building a digital solution developing a functional proof of concept (PoC) to reduce delays in the Erasmus grant payments process to the beneficiaries and allow any student to have access to the same simplified procedure whatever their home country and institution in Europe are. The purpose of Project Result 3 is to verify and investigate whether the PoC built within Project Result 2 answers the different issues raised by all the stakeholders within Projet Result 1 and study different scenarios of grant management. Finally, Projet Result 4 consists in making policy recommendations to the European institutions, based on the findings of the project. The potential success of the project MEGA will have a positive impact such as establishing performance indicators for the management of Erasmus grants but also considering new technological and organisational solutions for the challenges that lie ahead, and finally promoting innovation, efficiency and economies of scale in the management of Erasmus grants.<< Objectives >>Erasmus grant management is an inherently delicate topic. Up to now it has been up to each individual HEI to organise its own Erasmus grants payment system, which involves the risk of dissimilar treatment of students at European level but also other risks such as delays of payment that create undue difficulties for the beneficiaries. The increasing number of grants offered by the Erasmus+ programme confirms the value of providing a timely analysis of possible economies of scale in this area, some of which should benefit the participating student by reducing the average time or complexity of the payment procedure.Taking into account this context, MEGA project aims to:Carry out a research on how Erasmus programme grants are managed in different HEIs and European countries, eliciting quantitative data on average delays or other relevant indicators and highlighting the trigger points delaying the payments. Develop and test a PoC of a digital platform for grant management, which would work in synergy with other existing tools (EWP, OLA, Erasmus APP, European student card initiative) Publish policy recommendations on the findings of the project, to feed them into the mid-term review of the programme and to establish a dialogue with stakeholders regarding the deployment of a more performante Erasmus grant system.The MEGA project has the intention to help to promote equal opportunities for the beneficiaries by facilitating and securing the procedures that support students' mobility. The project will ensure that the payment of Erasmus grants is based on fairness and efficiency so that all students can get the full benefits of their Erasmus mobility. Going digital to address these issues will have a strong impact on future Erasmus mobility. Not only will it help students to benefit from a more efficient and secure payment procedure of their Erasmus grant, but it will also support the administration of HEIs throughout the process of distributing these grants.<< Implementation >>The MEGA project involves different types of activities necessary to its achievement.At first, the project partners will design and spread surveys to address to National Agencies, Universities and students to collect information about the problems in grant management (PR1)These results will be analyzed and translated in specific requirements for a digital prototype. The partners will then design, prototype and test a proof of concept of the new tool (PR2).Another survey, through working groups internal to the partners will be conducted to check whether the prototype allows a smoother grant management for all stakeholders (IROs and financial offices, beneficiaries). Alternative scenarios and use of the prototype will be studied at this stage through interviews and research work (PR3).Finally, the findings of the above mentioned results will be translated in policy recommendations to be addressed to the European Commission. Transnational meetings will give the project partners regular opportunities to meet and discuss the progress of the project, as well as to review the administrative and financial monitoring of the project. In between transnational meetings, each partner will continue to work on its assigned project result. The Université of Lorraine will coordinate the activities throughout the project to secure their coherent progress in line with the overall project.Transnational meetings will be held every 6 months. The project partners commit themselves to an environmentally-friendly approach by reducing the number of face-to-face transnational meetings of MEGA project, as up to 4 out of 6 project meetings will be held online.2 face-to-face transnational meetings will take place at the beginning and at the end of the project: the kick off meeting in January 2022 and the dissemination meeting in August 2024.A mid-term event will be organised at the end of PR1 to present the first results of the project, on the occasion of other events, such as EAIE.A website will be created, it will be regularly updated with information about the project.Each partner will do its own internal communication on the progress and evolution of the project.The EUF monthly and bi-monthly Newsletters will allow every partner to reach universities outside the consortium and members of the network.<< Results >>The MEGA project comes with the wish to develop an effective digital tool in order to easily manage Erasmus grants and eradicate delays in Erasmus grants payment. Not only will it help the HEI’ administration but also secure the payment of students who undertake mobility. Each task will allow partners to fill the gaps that are known throughout the process of grant management.The Project Results will include :PcA survey’s dissemination among European HEIs and students at the beginning of the project, to collect data on the difficulties that they face regarding the procedure of Erasmus grant payment.The development of a functional PoC of an automated Erasmus grant managementA testing of this PoC in the partner institutions and the necessary adjustments of the PoC following these feedbacks.The writing of policy recommendations to HEIs, National Erasmus+ Agency and European institutions.On a larger scale, the MEGA project intends to provide practical recommendations to policy makers with concrete and evidence-based indications on how to strengthen the cooperation and further improve the services and Erasmus+ mobility grants management. This could lead to the following expected results :The MEGA project’s results are expected to create strong synergies with other projects under the Erasmus Without Paper ecosystem and, as these are, be self-sustainable if the project funding runs out.The MEGA project could be integrated with the Erasmus+ Mobile App to inform every beneficiary about the situation of his/her grant, or even to get the GPS localisation of the beneficiary in order to launch or continue the payment of the grant.Furthermore, it would be possible to integrate the digital tool created by MEGA project within the European Student Card initiative closing the loop of the mobility management process digitalisation.Even more, Mega could integrate the EC Mobility Tool+ in managing the grant’s payment process in case the institutional fundings rely on a more centralised funding scheme, such as the EC or National Agencies.

In the near future, the level of nanotechnology will be the indicator of that country’s economical power and countries that are able to control nanotechnology will control industry, too.For this purpose, being a higher education organization, we have planned this Project, especially for the purpose of making the young become aware of developments in nanotechnology, and of the importance of the subject, to make them include nanotechnology within their career plans.In Turkey, the number of education programs based on nanotechnology within master and doctoral programs increases constantly, but nanotechnology education is very limited at undergraduate level.Taking into consideration the new teaching methods and techniques, development of written-published educative materials and e-learning tools were planned within this Project. In this way, all of the targeted community were informed of technological developments and they were motivated to follow and make use of latest technology, in a continuous manner. Also, we believed that, through this project, the people who want to become scientists can choose consciously their area of expertise, and/or they will gain skills necessary for interdisciplinary works, they will contribute to economic development in a scientific-literate manner, and/or become entrepreneurs. The objective of UNINANO consisted of development of education materials, and bringing together students and professional nanotechnology scientists together, through workshop and seminars.Within the scope of the Project, it’s aimed that small student groups from Project partner countries had on-site nanotechnology-and-related-applications experience at European research centers of related industrial applications. Language skills development was additionally aimed throughout the Project.7 partners in total worked together within UNINANO Project:PAU was founded in 1992 in Denizli as a state university, and has completed successfully more than 20 Socrates and LLP projects.FBK,Center for Mat. and Microsystems is an applied research center that combines scientific excellence with the ability to transfer the results of that research at the business world. FBK-CMM operates in the areas of science and technology: materials and interfaces, nano-devices and microsystems, nanotechnologies, biotech, integrated systems, renewable energy and environmental monitoring.Cosvitec is a Private Body,and offers its expertise to Educational Institutions in planning and implementing training activities throughout Italy and in the EU.Technical University of Cluj-Napoca is a leading technical higher education institution in the North-West region of Romania with 13 faculties.CCS is an expert organization in instructional design and cross-platform e-Learning services and tools, and mobile applications.Selçuk University(SU) has began its educational endeavors in 1975, is one of the leading higher education institutions of Turkey, within 21 faculty, 6 institute, totally 73812 students. SU Advanced Tech. Res.-Appl. Center (ILTEK) established in 2005, has highly qualified staff and state of the art facilities to carry out research in the area of nanotechnology, advanced materials and biotechnology,and contributes actively to the growth of the region and its development.Afyon Kocatepe University(AKU) has educational activities with 12 faculties and 4 schools at Bachelor of Science degree level, 15 vocational colleges at Associate Degree level, 3 institutes for graduate education.AKU consists of several research groups in the faculties as well as the research laboratories. Department of Chemical Engineering conducts nanotechnology studies and takes part in European research projects. The project activities are 5 Transnational Meetings,2 Seminars,1 Workshop,4 Informative Meetings,2 Learning-Training Activities. All of them were realized.The main objective of UNINANO was to raise knowledge and awareness of nanotechnology among undergraduate level university students who attended two Nanotechnology courses.For this purpose, two instruments were adapted. As a result, general knowledge and motivation about nanotechnology increased during the two courses.Nanotechnology I and II courses will be offered at various faculties of PAU in longer-term. All materials and tools will be used as course materials in all over the country, and can serve not only to university students usage but also to other people.Through this project, nanotechnology, which is one of the main subjects that are supported by Turkish National Agency, will become subject to new innovative projects.The outputs of this project will inspire European students, researchers, educators, and other interest groups.Consequently, university-industry collaboration regarding nanotechnology will be improved in the future.