The objective of the project is to create new knowledge on the factors and expressions of young people’s (13-25 y.o.) participation, its authenticity in formal and non-formal education settings, as well as in extracurricular activities; develop strategies and practical solutions for the promotion of authentic and meaningful participation both on individual level and in the interaction of involved stakeholders; make an epistemological and practical contribution to the development of a youth-centred participatory approach. A methodology in which the boundary between researchers, educators and young people is made permeable has been chosen: design-based implementation research, participatory action research, and participatory evaluation research. Visual methods, including digital storytelling and photovoice, will be used to explore young people's experiences. The research project will be implemented by the Latvian Academy of Culture and its interdisciplinary researchers’ team experienced in research on democratic and participatory processes, as well as on the youth sector. Testing and validating new forms of civic participation will contribute to an open and democratic learning environment. Apart from scientific publications, a range of applied results are planned aimed at recommendations for youth and education policy makers. The impact of the project is planned on the field of education sciences, as well as youth sociology, and their research community in Latvia un abroad.

"The lack of effective solutions in access to culture and culture-forming activities by people with disabilities is undoubtedly a problem in modern Europe. There are countries where people with disabilities are still not full citizens due to the lack of solutions enabling active participation in social/ cultural life.In our opinion, the task of the ""Audio description and subtitles against exclusion"" project is to ensure that every resident of countries participating in the project has such right to equality, non-discrimination and active participation in cultural activities that are so important for proper functioning in society. In our opinion, audio description and subtitles for the deaf should be the standard in the functioning of all European cultural institutions. The research carried out by the Centrum Kultury Wroclaw-Zachod shows that despite a clear increase in proposals addressed also to people with disabilities, their number is insufficient. The reason for this is, among others, the lack of qualified staff who would take care of adapting the current offer to the needs of people with sight and hearing impairments. It is known from the survey and environmental interview that program employees of Wroclaw cultural institutions and Lower Silesian centres working with people with disabilities know what audio description and subtitles are. At the same time, they lack the competence and skills to implement these methods in the life of their institutions.The level of culture availability and adaptation of the offer to the needs of people excluded from it is different in different European countries. Western European countries (richer) are characterized by greater program diversity addressed to people with disabilities. Poor countries - Eastern Europe does not apply the principle of availability at all or it is minimal. Our action is a response to the requests and needs of people with disabilities who want to actively participate in society on equal terms. We will implement the ""Audio description and subtitles against exclusion"" project with institutions from Lithuania, Cyprus, Romania and Latvia. Institutions from countries where activities related to the adaptation of the cultural offer to the needs of people with sight and hearing impairments are practically absent.The main goal is to improve the qualifications and skills of the culture employees in creating audio description and subtitles for the hearing impaired, but at the same time adjusting the program offer (by preparing audio description and subtitles) to the reception by the blind and deaf. Workshops on creating audio description for films, performances, visual arts and subtitling will be organized.The implementation of the main goal will consist of a series of intermediate goals;- learning about the environment and the needs of the blind and deaf people. The workshops will also be conducted by blind people and will contain solutions from other countries, e.g. the ""didu"" method from Spain,- acquiring the ability to create programs integrating all groups of participants,- implementing audio description for the blind and subtitles for deaf to their own activities, - improving professional and non-professional skills.The target group are employees of partner institutions. International cooperation will allow the exchange of experiences and good practices, as well as a discussion on the level of culture accessibility in EU countries. The project involves the implementation of four 5-day workshops and study visits1. Audio description in theatre performances (Romania)2. Audio description in visual arts (Lithuania)3. Audio description in film (Latvia)4. Subtitling for films for hearing impaired, theatre performances and television programs (Cyprus)5. Conferences - events disseminating intellectual results6. Study visits The project will open with a study visit in Poland. 25 people will take part in the workshop, 5 people from each partner. They will be employees of cultural institutions, artists. Participation in trainings will enable participants to acquire new competences and skills, and will also allow them to broaden and acquire additional skills, change their professional qualifications and thus expand the cultural offer of their native institution. The knowledge from the workshop will allow the implementation of various artistic events in a comprehensive manner, providing recipients with sight and hearing disabilities on an international level. Extending the current offer with suggestions addressed also to the blind and deaf people will have a positive impact on the audience development and will minimize the effect of exclusion from the society of people with disabilities. The intellectual result will be a textbook containing theory and practical advices on how to create audio description and subtitles for the hearing impaired."

The project “Cultural and creative ecosystem of Latvia as a resource of resilience and sustainability” is implemented by the research Consortium of the leading arts and cultural research, higher education and cultural heritage institutions - the Latvian Academy of Culture (LAC); Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music (JVLAM); the Art Academy of Latvia (AAL); the National Library of Latvia (NLL), and the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia (ILFA). The goal: to create new knowledge based on an interdisciplinary research approach about the 1) manifestations of the resilience of the cultural and creative ecosystem in the current processes, especially by shedding light on the dynamics of the cultural offer and accessibility in the face-to-face and digital environment, as well as the employment and education processes of the sector; 2) the connection with historical processes, emphasizing and evaluating the role of the Soviet period to understand the current culture and arts; 3) representations of the social and economic impact on the sustainable development of society. The new knowledge will be shared in 76 scholarly articles, 8 monographs, 77 international conferences, Master’s and Doctoral theses, and integrated into academic curricula of all levels. The team will develop 11 policy reports, ensuring knowledge transfer and an inclusive dialogue of researchers and cultural and creative sector, strengthening its self-confidence and resilience

<< Background >>FILM-SKILLS is a project that brings together Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partners – three film schools and two film industry organisations - with the aim of developing occupational qualifications’ standards for film occupations as a recognition interface between the labour market, higher education institutions, and other forms of training. The export of film production services is on the rise, and so is the need for specialists of technical and coordinating positions. However, communication from the film industry has indicated that it may be difficult to fill certain crew positions with competent people. Film producers have expressed that occupational standards would help to understand skills gaps, competencies, and job descriptions of film workers and overcome existing disparities. FILM-SKILLS aims to align the needs of the film industry with the applied and academic approaches of higher film education. The skills acquired in higher learning should match the expectations of the labor market, and conversely, film sector participants should have access to additional training and skills’ validation.<< Objectives >>The qualifications system would allow film students and -workers to enhance their labour market compliance as they acquire new competencies and can prove their skills. Also, certification of skills would facilitate film workers’ transnational exchange if the certification is mutually recognized. The occupational qualifications system will be inclusive and open, taking to account previous work experience and training when assessing a persons’ qualification. FILM-SKILLS creates preconditions to offering courses and training to film sector participants, enrolled and non-enrolled, that lead to occupational certification. This is especially important in the fast-transforming film sector, the participants of which have to continuously familiarize themselves with new technologies and production norms.The project will help to organize the national film industries and create conditions for lifelong learning in the field. The project has the potential to enhance the partner countries’ image as strong „film countries“.<< Implementation >>The occupational qualifications system will be based on the model used by the Estonian Qualifications Authority (EQA) and ESCO (European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations) classification.The project partners adapt the existing guidelines to create a qualification standards’ system for the film sector in the Baltic region with the potential of extending the network internationally.<< Results >>Occupational standards for 18 film positions will be developed in cooperation of educators and acting film industry professionals. As such, skills’ mismatches and gaps will be assessed, with the possibility to regulate the gaps by creating the occupational standards that will be used and mutually recognized by the educators, film producers, and film workers alike.During the project, the principles of offering preparatory courses to the qualification certification will be developed, as well as examination guidelines.Course descriptions will be prepared and introductory materials compiled for the selected occupations. A website will be launched that displays the project results in an attractive manner, targeting film professionals and the general public. Project results – guidelines to creating qualification standards and the 18 developed occupational standard – will be openly available to be used by any organisation or person.

Cultural management MA programs are facing dualistic demands - on one hand, from potentialemployers, such as art organizations, nonprofits and governmental institutions, for practical skills andknowledge on the current practices of the art field; and on the other need for analytical skills, capacityto be critical and make transformations. Those programs programs need to pay more andcareful attention to balance the academic content with current management tools in wide spectrum,such as leading skills, accounting, communications and as well as policy development but also adding the multidiscplinary approach preparing student to adapt their skills and competences to many different professional scenarios. In the changing society, it is not enough to know the current practices and ways of doing work, as the work life is changing rapidly due to digitalization, globalization, and use of artificial intelligence in the fields of art and culture, It has become crucial for young professionals to enter the work life with already highly functional networks, field specific expertise and possession of key contacts, besides theacademic and transferable competencies.The aim of the projects is to create a learning model that allows both development of analytical andacademic competences and capturing the current field practices and tools and influence agencies responsible for occupational profiling to highlight the importance of a Mentor as occupation and further advocate for its definition in other partner countries. The project partners will co-create a new comprehensive understanding of mentorship as a framework for professional life- long learning as well as part of academic education. The project will have its focus on how to establish and maintain a sustainable interaction between students, potential employers and field practitioners, simultaneously creating a model enabling lifelong learning. We aim to renew the understanding of mentoring, creating a novel way for “mentorage” that allow co-creation of knowledge. We aim to capture both the needs of practitioners to share their knowledge and this with the aim to be as accessible and comprehensive, simple experience of a mobile and PC app. The needs of students to learn the skills of current practices and gain support for their career building in the context of international (global) labour market are also in focus. The participants for the project activities will be students of cultural management programs (app 50) and practitioners (app 70) from arts and cultural fields in European context. The project creates new knowledge and skills for teachers and trainers (app 20) of the field; also arts and management curricula leaders and administrators (app 10); established practitioners of arts and cultural field i.e. leaders of arts organisations and cultural projects who are or will become mentors or internship partners for students, regional, national agencies responsible for quality in HEI and occupational profiling. Based on the pre project analysis we create workshops in all participating countries with involvement of students and practitioners to co-create further the model. We aim to capture both the specifies of cultural setting in addition to a more universal learning model development. In this stage,we shall use design and arts based methods for enabling and facilitating co-creation. A number of focus group and interviews with practitioners, educators, leaders, national agencies for education will take place in order to establish professional profile of Mentor in CCI and inform related policies in to make the profession of Mentor internationally recognisable and thus ease the transferability of CCI workforce across Europe.The main outcomes of the projects are: 1) mentoring model that enables both career building support and development of practical knowledge and skills for students as well as allows lifelong learning for practitioners through mutually befitting interactions. 2) Interactive PC/mobile app guiding and informing stakeholder interested in becoming mentors that will also serve as matching platform between mentors and mentees. 3) Policy informing paper putting together suggestion for formulating professional standard and occupational profile of Mentor in CCI to be further disseminated across member states.The projects outcomes will be integrated to the curriculum of participating HEI’s. In addition, the model and app will be made available in European contextthrough networks and open sharing platforms and other networks. Moreover, the results and of policy papers will be presented in academic journal and conferences for wider audiences.The new model and app will be flexible to encounter the changes in society and labour markets, occurring, for example due to digitalization and use of artificial intelligence. It will be agile and the design of the model encourages constant reflection and updating dynamically.