"<< Background >>The COVID-19 pandemic has already devastating effects that are likely to have long-term social and economic consequences. It is considerably impacting the global economy, and its effects may already be noted in several quarterly macroeconomic indicators as suggested by several economic reports. Economic activity has been hit hard and experts argue that the real pandemic impacts will only be measured in a few years. Most governments around the world temporarily closed educational as a response. These nationwide closures were “impacting over 60% of the world’s student population. Several other countries have implemented localized closures impacting millions of additional learners” as observed by UNESCO. Mitigating the immediate impact of educational institutes closures as well as facilitating the continuity of education for all through remote learning is crucial.However, the pandemic has created new markets and needs and has highlighted the importance of some services and products, creating new business opportunities. The pandemic will provide significant changes in the entrepreneurial activity of all countries, while some of them are positive and others are negative, but several studies indicate that university entrepreneurship can become a pillar of recovery (WEF, 2020). Among the most promising aspects of entrepreneurship is digital entrepreneurship relying on the utilization of digital technologies which enable the creation of new business ventures and digital start-ups based on digitization of business models, offering of digital products or services, digital platforms, digital tools or infrastructure, digital artefacts and more. Most aspiring young entrepreneurs today are students and recent graduates. Looking forward to carve out their own path to success, they look for educational resources and support via coaching, mentoring and networking, usually offered by incubation programmes offered in HEIs, business schools, incubators and accelerators to support students’ and graduates’ employability. In the face of a global lockdown or prolonged shut downs and social distancing restrictions, the incubation resources are difficult to maintain, leading many programmes to end or rely on meeting tools and forums to communicate with their teams without any previous preparation, affecting: (a)education systems and institutions who should maintain educational continuity not only in teaching and research but also in supporting students and graduates employability, (b)the educators who should acquire technical competencies to adapt their training programmes, workshops and material to the new normal of a fully digital education, (c)the students and graduates who should have digital competencies, as well as be granted equitable access to an inclusive learning environment through a high-quality educational experience, making entrepreneurship a key competence for lifelong learning and be able to use it in order to be successful in a new and largely unknown job market (as described by EntreComp Framework) Entrepreneurship education is not novel, but its online form has failed to gain widespread adoption since contemporary approaches to entrepreneurship education stress the need for deliberate practice, real-world immersion, and experiential approaches. To this end these skills must be provided through novel digital methods in order to ensure their efficiency. INFUSSE will analyze the landscape of Digital Entrepreneurship Education, Training and Incubation Programmes in order to develop a successful evidence-based 100% Virtual Learning programme on “Digital Entrepreneurship”, compiled by two core modules: a fully Digital Training and a “Virtual Incubation” Programme that will address digital transformation through development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity, promote inter-connected HE systems, stimulate innovative learning and teaching practices and support digital capabilities of the HE sector.<< Objectives >>For many students, the semester close to graduation is an exciting time filled with internships, job interviews, travel and seeking new entrepreneurial endeavors. But Covid-19 has been hit this young entrepreneurs-in-the-making the most. To build new competencies, they must rapidly learn new skills and mindsets in an era where resources are difficult to maintain. HEIs are called to adapt and evolve, utilizing digital technologies and tools to develop strategies and actions to respond to Covid-19 impact, offering equal opportunities among students without the much-needed digital skills. The emphasis on the development of digital and entrepreneurial competencies can play a major role in impacting student’s development and ensure ongoing support for purpose-driven entrepreneurs. Educators also need to adapt their training programmes and material to the new normal of fully digital education and acquire technical competencies to be able to manage a virtual classroom, but also develop entrepreneurial thinking qualifications that will keep the students engaged in their lesson and help them understand the knowledge that they would like to transfer to them. In the face of recovery, several opportunities arise and HEIs should prioritise the human factor when managing a crisis. INFUSSE will provide essential coaching and mentoring services to help aspiring digital young entrepreneurs navigate these uncertain times and make them feel part of their community. It will leverage new tools for online support services and business opportunities, making business models resilient; enhancing the capacities of both educators and students. INFUSSE’s main goal is to strongly support the digital entrepreneurship education uptake in HEIs, through an innovative learning methodology based on competency-based logic and emphasizing on authentic learning situations. INFUSSE consortium will deploy an innovative pedagogical methodology, designed to support both Educators and Learners to develop digital and entrepreneurial competencies in three competence areas, as suggested by DigComp 2.0 and EntreComp EU Frameworks: Ideas & Opportunities, Resources and Into Action. INFUSSE Virtual Incubation Program with its two pillars: the national and transnational one, enables participants to collaborate, grow their co-creation spirit in seeking new digital business ideas tackling joint challenges. The participants will live authentic learning experiences resulting from the COVID-19 reality during and after the pandemic, acquiring skills that allow them to adapt in virtual environments, as well as leveraging digital entrepreneurial skills to develop state-of-the-art digital solutions. This specific approach will promote the development of transversal skills, risk-taking culture, creativity, co-creation and open innovative thinking and provide a high added value to the initial training of learners as well as educators, beyond the specific technical and disciplinary knowledge and competencies. INFUSSE will support its target groups across EU, ensuring equitable access to an inclusive learning environment and a high-quality educational experience through its educational HUB. The HUB will allow end-users to customize our approach, pillars, modules and tools according to their specific needs and projects and considerably increase the likelihood of INFUSSE uptake to develop digital and entrepreneurial competences’ building, as well as sustainable partnerships at local, EU and international scale.INFUSSE will deploy a learning methodology to stimulate virtual cooperation and transnational teams’ formulation towards co-creation and co-development of digital solutions and projects to solve a joint challenge: mitigating the impact of the Covid-19 crisis by leveraging digital entrepreneurial skills. Moreover, stimulation of partners’ extensive networks and expertise will maximize the opportunities for its consideration and consolidation in European policies and initiatives.<< Implementation >>INFUSSE project aims at tackling these post pandemic effects by combining two significant pillars that will strengthen the HEIs Entrepreneurial activity and strengthen the labor market with reskilled and upskilled graduate students. This will strengthen the obstacles and deficiencies in skills and qualifications that many students, graduates and educators may not yet possess, as well as cover the need for the creation of a new balance in the field of Higher Education, adjusted in the demands of the post Covid-19 era. To achieve this a work programme has been defined, dividing all tasks to be carried out into 4 work packages to reach the results of the project. INFUSSE will produce 9 PRs in which all partners participate. Leadership of the tasks and responsibilities assigned were based on the competencies and experience of the partners.Analysis of “Digital Entrepreneurial Education” initiatives & Good Practices and Development of INFUSSE pedagogical scenarios: This is the introduction to the implementation of the PRs. It is including the PR1 - “Digital Entrepreneurial Education” pedagogical scenarios extraction including specifications for training, methodology and learning tools and the following activities under it: PR1/A1 Identification & Collection of initiatives and Real Life Case Studies, PR1/A2 Qualitative analysis of Case Studies resulting in Best Practices, Key processes & KPIs extraction , PR1/A3 Mapping and development of a database of key stakeholders of interest and PR1/A4 ""Digital Entrepreneurial Education"" stakeholders needs analysis. These activities form the studying phase of the project, where different aspects, stakeholders, and best practices of “Digital Entrepreneurial Education” will be examined toa set the base to design the following activities.Digital Learning Programme, Modules & Tools Development: This consists of PR2. INFUSSE Educators’ Training Path (digital skills, tools and guidelines to “train-the-trainers”), PR3. INFUSSE Virtual Incubation Programme : “Run a Digital Entrepreneurship Solution against CoVid-19” challenge, PR4 - INFUSSE Open Educational Resources HUB and PR5-INFUSSE Assessment Framework. In the WP, the methodologies, modules, and tools for the training of the trainers, the virtual incubation programme for the learners, the e-learning HUB, and the Assessment Framework of these activities will be developed. The proper design of these activities will allow the partners to organize better the activities of the next work package and monitor their impact.Training/Piloting: This is the testing phase of the previous, where methodology and tools will be used and tested by the participants of PR6 - Pilot test of the INFUSSE Educators’ Training Path enhancing the digital pedagogical competences of educators, PR7- Pilot test of the INFUSSE Virtual Incubation Programme for Digital Entrepreneurship in national level and PR8-Pilot Test the Transnational pillar of the INFUSSE Virtual Incubation Programme. These activities will enhance the digital skills of educators and prepare them to coach the learners in the local and transnational “Run a Digital Entrepreneurship Solution against CoVid-19” challenge. Additionally, students and graduates will develop their digital and entrepreneurial competencies.Aftermath - Guidelines & Recommendations: This includes the PR9-Development of local and pan-European conditions to incorporate the INFUSSE Approach in the education systems, as well as in the recently launched Digital Edu Action Plan, and the multiplier event of the project, E.1 - INFUSSE Final Conference. These activities have a crucial role in the sustainability and the impact of the project as well as to the efforts for INFUSSE Approach uptake and fostering Digital Entrepreneurial Education in HEIs. The ultimate aim is to develop, pilot test and incorporate an innovative ecosystem empowering participants to develop digital and entrepreneurial competencies and initiate their own endeavor.<< Results >>Our project aims at bringing together HEIs and innovation support organizations to develop a common educational mission to learn from each other in real-time as they coordinate initiatives to support educators with digital, technical and educational competencies to deliver high-quality virtual training programmes on digital entrepreneurial education. Learners will find their pathway by developing new ideas, co-create, innovate openly and start their own ventures supported by digital entrepreneurial competences (including both digital and entrepreneurial competences) and implementing digital aspects of entrepreneurship in sectors that have been hit by the Covid-19 crisis. This will be triggered by inviting, training and coaching them to leverage digital entrepreneurial competences mitigating the impact of the crisis on some of the hardest-hit sectors and ensuring business continuity as well as strengthening the labor market with reskilled and upskilled graduate students. The ultimate aim is to develop, pilot test and incorporate an innovative ecosystem that facilitates more open, effective and efficient use of digital content, tools and services (specifically online//virtual educational programs and virtual collaboration tools) specially adapted for personalized, collaborative or experimental learning by students/graduates, empowering them to develop digital and entrepreneurial competencies and initiate their own endeavor. INFUSSE will accelerate sustainable and impact-driven solutions. New challenges require new solutions, and HEIs are already showing incredible resilience to the challenges raised by the pandemic. Some of the key factors that will support HEIs become more dynamic, resilient, and ultimately competitive by enhancing their Entrepreneurial activity and strengthening the labor market with reskilled and upskilled graduate students. INFUSSE project aims to strengthen the HEIs Entrepreneurial activity, nursing the labor market with reskilled and upskilled graduates by limiting the obstacles and deficiencies in skills and qualifications as a response to the Digital Transition and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) challenges”. This will cover the need for the creation of a new balance in the field of Higher Education, adjusted in the demands of the post Covid-19 era.Through this process INFUSSE is shaping the next generation of entrepreneurs by scaling the networks of social, financial and knowledge capital that provide the foundation for successful and sustainable start-ups and scalable businesses in the post-pandemic era.The INFUSSE project results that will be available upon its completion will be the following:- The validated INFUSSE innovative learning methodology based on a competency-based logic and authentic learning scenarios- The proven INFUSSE Educators’ Training Path, providing subject matter expertise in Digital Entrepreneurship and digital pedagogical competences enhancement aiming at enhancing them to be digitally-competent and confident to run the Training Programme on “Digital Entrepreneurship” and support the Virtual Incubation as coaches/mentors for the participants.- The proven INFUSSE Virtual Incubation Program, aiming to reinforce the digital entrepreneurship capacities of learners (students and graduates), as well as empowering them to cooperate virtually with national and transnational teams towards co-creation and open innovation. -The tested INFUSSE high-quality digital learning material, available to any interested party via the INFUSSE Open Educational Resources Hub in English, Greek, Romanian and Polish-The INFUSSE guidelines, key assessment outputs and recommendations consolidating the experience gained throughout the project activities and providing a solid delivery mechanism for future exploitation to all target users."

SHIFT-HUB aims to establish a pan-European Smart Health Innovation Hub bringing together a rich network of multidisciplinary stakeholders across the dimensions of the quadruple helix, with the mission to facilitate the development, ensure the promotion and foster the uptake of Smart Health technologies and services. SHIFT-HUB will develop and test with the community a complete service offer, integrating networking and matchmaking, identification of partners and support for procurement, guidance for access to funding, research infrastructures and scientific expertise. In complement to a complete service offer based on JRC’s guidelines for the establishment of DIH’s, SHIFT-HUB’s differentiating factors consist in: 1) an immersive approach to involve patients and citizens in the co-creation process based on the Living Lab methodology, coupled to an on-line gamification based e-learning journey allowing to raise awareness, increase literacy and foster the adoption of Smart Health solutions. 2) an approach based open innovation to foster a collaborative, demand-driven and SME-inclusive development and uptake of Smart Health solutions [in a ecosystem of multidisciplinary stakeholders]. 3) a technical platform pilot including a Health Data Hub, a Smart Health Apps Repository and an on-line Marketplace to support the experimental development based on a secure and interoperable access to data and showcase a portfolio of solutions developed by the community members. SHIFT-HUB will identify a pool of 100 high potential Smart Health apps, that will be assessed by at least 300 patients and citizens during 5 Living Lab events, 1500 users on-line and will be connected to at least 50 Healthcare organizations for further uptake.

Current research and practice on Open Innovation (OI) has not given emphasis on the ability of SMEs to develop and implement OI strategies - the lessons learned from large firms are not readily transferable to their context. INSPIRE aims to thoroughly investigate how OI is managed and organised in SMEs in order to leverage and expand the existing scattered initiatives and professionalize their services. The project seeks to understand in depth good practices of OI in SMEs across Europe, including the barriers they experience, the critical success factors and the open innovation ‘pathways’ they follow. Good practices will be identified in all varieties of SMEs in terms of economic context, innovation trajectory (e.g. both high-tech and low-tech SMEs) and stage of lifetime. The understanding of good practices will allow the design, development and validation of an Integrated Toolbox for OI in SMEs to enable the professional management of OI by SMEs in various kinds of open innovation initiatives (e.g. facilitated by large corporations, private-public partnerships). The Toolbox will include good practices, indicators and management modules to support the internal innovation activities of an SME and their interaction with OI partners. The Toolbox will be modular and it will include three prototypical scenarios of usage that can be flexibly adjusted to individual needs of SMEs. The Integrated Toolbox will be developed as a web platform and it will be validated through a series of pilots in real life OI projects carried out by SMEs across Europe. Moreover, the project will develop a deployment plan for the Open Innovation System to initiate an EU-wide strategic engagement of innovation stakeholders and spread the practices of OI. The consortium includes a variety of competencies to access the whole Open Innovation chain across a range of geographical, economic and SMEs’ contexts and includes academics, practitioners and intermediaries working with SMEs on Open Innovation.

Energy efficiency, Renewable Energy Sources, Energy Storage/Batteries, Hydrogen, Efficient Buildings, climate neutrality, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonization of industries & coal regions are in the heart of European Policies for the new programming period (ie. Green Deal, EU Strategic Energy Technology Plan, Twin Industrial Transition etc.). Many financial instruments have been setup to support these objectives that have a common denominator in sustainable energy. EU alliances across the value chains (ie. EBA), IPCEIs (ie. Descarbonization & Hydrogen, Batteries) and Research & Policy Platforms (ie. Coal Regions in Transition), are dedicated to facilitate the advancement of R&I in the field through the collective effort of EU members, and enable the transformation of EU regions to climate neutral, thriving economies. This context finds a lot of countries striving to comply, especially challenging those that traditionally have economies heavily dependent on fossil fuel mining and exploitation; a major shift has to be done in a short amount of time, putting at risk the balances in the local economies and making years-long expertise and well-established skills become obsolete. COALition intends to strengthen the regional innovation ecosystems in coal-depended areas through the creation of regional excellence hubs and the definition of a joint strategic agenda for sustainable energy so as to facilitate their transition in a just and inclusive way. The regions have been carefully selected (Western Macedonia - GR, Centru - RO, Southeastern - BG) among the under transition EU states that are also characterized as widening, in an attempt to maximize the long-term impact of the joint R&I strategy that will be developed within the project, as those territories are about to amass large amounts of funding and COALition aims to create multiplier effects in the given investments by attracting and mobilizing external investments.