Already in 2003 the Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies (2003) and lately scientists from London`s Global University (2011) noticed, that the cultural diversity will be one of the most important factor in health-care area. Due to this, it is important to equip medical personnel with proper cultural competencies. As an answer to the above needs, the MICE-ICU project aimed at improving the knowledge, skills and cultural competencies of nurses working in intensive care units (ICUs). The MICE-ICU project was developed to improve knowledge, skills and competencies of ICU nurses in cultural sensitive care by developing and providing online access to a specialist, multicultural course for ICU nurses. The partnership started from the initiative of Polish Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Nurses (PTPAiIO). PTPAiIO and two higher education institutions: the College of Nursing in Celje from Slovenia and the University of Ostrava from Czech Republic engaged scientific experts in order to prepare proper methodological approach to achieve the objectives of the project. The high quality of the project results and the effectiveness of dissemination were ensured by the European federation of Critical Care Nursing associations (EfCCNa) - who is a European network and umbrella organisation for national associations of intensive/critical care nurses. EfCCNa consists of 28 national European critical care nursing associations, and represents more than 25 000 critical care nurses in Europe. The strategic partnership was supported by Danmar Computers Lld., who became the technical partner, responsible for preparing e-learning platform, MICE-ICU web site and other IT solutions. Finally the assist GmbH from Germany joined the partnership and offered expertise in training international soft skills as well as train-the-trainer training. All partners, except for Danmar Computers Lld. and assist GmbH acted as experts in the intensive nursing care. Despite the differences in the nature of main activities of the each partner, all of them contributed to the final outcomes of the MICE project. Main activities conducted during the project include: Literature review and ICU nurses training needs analysis – the systematic literature review was conducted by researchers from Poland, Slovenia and Czech Republic in order to identify nurses educational needs related to multicultural care in ICU in participating countries. Additionally the survey technique was used to identify actual cultural competences level of ICU nurses. The Healthcare Provider Cultural Competence Instrument (HPCCI) developed by Schwarz i in. (2015) was used for this purpose. In total 598 ICU nurses participated in this study including 155 nurses (25.92%) from Poland (PL), 218 (36.45%) from Czech Republic CZ), 97 (16.22%) from Slovenia (SI) and 128 (21.40%) from 20 European countries like Sweden, Izrael, Finland, Denmark. The results of literature review and training needs analysis formed the basis for developing the course curriculum and content. 1.The course was developed in cooperation between all partners and implemented on-line as e-learning course. It was agreed that the course will consist of three modules: Module I: Cultural awareness and sensitivity, Module II: Culturally diverse patients in health care environment, Module III: Specifics when caring for culturally diverse patients on ICU. The course starts with entry test of knowledge and ends with ending test. Topics prepared by the individual partner were reviewed by other partners, further developed or modified and finally the preliminary version of the course content was agreed. The course was translated into Polish, Czech and Slovenian languages. Danmar Computers Lld. implemented the course online and provided access to the testing platform. 2.Testing phase involved nurses from PL, CZ, SI and a few European countries, who took the e-learning course and answered questionnaires regarding usability, effectiveness and provided other suggestion to improve course quality. 3.The final version of the online course on multicultural care for ICU nurses was presented to EfCCNa council members and the join decision to recommend this course for ICU nurses all over the Europe was stated. The MICE-ICU project resulted in a specialized and accredited e-learning course on multicultural care dedicated to nurses working in intensive care environments. Besides main intellectual outputs, the multiplier events in all partner countries and the international Symposium on Multicultural Care were organized. The impact of MICE ICU project is expected on national and the European levels which assure long-term benefits in the shape of better qualified ICU nurses ready for caring for culturally dissimilar patients. If relevant, longer-term benefits. As the result, the ICU Nurses will increase their vocational competencies and receive a practical tool for work with patients from different cultures.

"Evidence-based Practice (EBP) is a problem-solving approach to clinical decision making in healthcare that integrates the best available scientific evidence with clinical experience and patient’s preferences and values. The healthcare systems are constantly evolving and becoming more complex. That requires more competent professionals, equipped with knowledge and skills that let them choose the better option for the patient. For this reason, the European Federation of Nurses Associations developed a Competency Framework (CF) based in the European Directive 2013/55/EU, that establishes the minimum educational requirements for nurses responsible of general care. This CF includes as a core competence ""to implement scientific findings for Evidence-based Practice"" (2015). Moreover, the importance of education in EBP is recognised by WHO in his technical guide for Member States: European strategic directions for strengthening nursing and midwifery towards Health 2020 goals (WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2015).Nevertheless, the incorporation of EBP into clinical nursing is slow and remains a challenge to the nursing profession. To deal with these changes it is crucial that future nurses and nurse educators (academic and clinical mentor) develop new competences on EBP, learning specific knowledge and skills in this area. However, limited resources are available to support EBP in European Nursing curricula; nurses’ educators and mentors are poorly prepared to teach students the connections between evidence-based practice, decision making, and health outcomes. There is no European framework for EBP competency, and no guidelines for EBP pedagogies.Therefore, the general objective of the project was to foster and harmonize the teaching and learning of EBP in the European Nursing curricula and to produce the acquisition of EBP competence earlier in professional life that can be continued for lifelong self-directed learning also among nurse educators and clinical mentors. Specific objectives of the project were to analyse the current situation of EBP in European Nursing Curricula, to agree on a European EBP Competency Framework and to develop Guidelines on the recommendations for teaching and learning EBP to Nursing European Curriculum. Following the recommendations of this preliminary work we developed a modular online self-learning course on EBP called “EBP e-Toolkit” including a reusable Open Educational Resource library on EBP. The course has been designed as a strategy for learning and training EBP in nursing oriented to undergraduate nursing students and professional nurses. The content has been developed using interactive multimedia tools, videos, clinical scenarios, quizzes, interactive games, examples and multiple activities to facilitate students’ self-learning. The materials have been validated with nursing students with very satisfactory learning and usage results.This project has been conducted by a partnership of six HEIs: University of Murcia, Hellenic Mediterranean University, UNIMORE, Angela Boškin Faculty of Health Care, University of Ostrava and Medical University of Warsaw. The collaboration brought together partners with a deep interest in the development of EBP in the nursing curricula. All of them teach EBP in the Nursing Degree as well as in continuing education for nurses. The Consortium has established the European Nursing virtual Centre for Learning Evidence-based Practice (ENCLEBP) to guarantee the project dissemination and sustainability and to facilitate and improve transnational academic cooperation between European countries and non-European countries.The the European Nursing virtual Centre for Learning Evidence-based Practice and all the resources developed in the project are open access and available in 7 languages: English, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Italian, Greek and Sloven. All the results of the project are free and available here: https://europeannursingebp.eu/ We expect that a great numbers of nursing students, educators and public health services will benefit from the results of this project. Furthermore, we expect to improve the quality of nursing care practice and patient´s health outcomes."

The project „Strengthening Teaching Competences in Higher Education in Natural and Mathematical Sciences – TeComp“ is aimed at improving the quality of higher education in the field of natural and mathematical sciences at higher education institutions in Serbia and Albania in line with advance EU practices, thereby enhancing their comparability and competitiveness in Europe and beyond. This wider aim will be achieved through completion of the set of specific objectives concerned with the areas where the measures should be applied:- to enhance professional competences and skills of teaching staff through training courses in contemporary pedagogical approaches, methodologies and educational technologies; - to upgrade educational infrastructure as a basis for wider integration of modern pedagogical principles and technologies in teaching and learning;- to deliver new/modified courses in psychology, pedagogy, methodology of teaching, and technology enhanced learning at the PC HEIs in line with the modern European strategies;- to strengthen personnel infrastructure through the introduction of continuous professional development in the system of higher education.According to these objectives, the proposed project is expected to achieve the following outcomes:- Identifying and adopting the necessary measures and actions required for quality enhancement of teaching and learning processes;- Upgrading educational infrastructure;- Training of teaching staff for harnessing pedagogical and methodological principles and new modes of teaching and learning;- Development of methodology and platforms for wider integration of ICT in teaching and learning.The project will particularly impact on raising awareness among teaching staff in all educational fields on the necessity of continuous professional training in pedagogy and teaching methodology, and wider integration of modern educational technologies in teaching an learning.

A great number of cultural centres, libraries, universities of third age, NGOs acting in culture are placed in small towns and rural areas (further called a “small CCS”). With the COVID-19 pandemic, they cannot organise their usual cultural events, courses and other activities. The above is common in all participating countries: Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Cyprus and Greece.Senior citizens are a group particularly exposed to the risk of the COVID-19 pandemic, often resulting in social exclusion and isolation, because many of them have very basic or no digital competences. Numerous courses in digital literacy have been organised for several years by local CCS institutions in all participating countries but their effectiveness is limited. What is more, due to COVID-19 pandemic, educators from local CCS institutions need to find a way to get in touch with people with limited digital skills and to offer them some sort of on-line cultural activities that are attractive enough to motivate them to enter the digital world. This is particularly difficult now, when they are locked in their homes.Taking into account all the above, the objectives of the project are:1.To offer to trainers / educators from CCS institutions based in rural areas or small cities in Poland, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece and Portugal a new innovative training programme which motivates citizens (especially seniors) to:a.enter the digital world in a safe way, b.discover the culture & arts resources and events accessible on-line,c.be creative and share their works with others,d.stay in touch with other people when social contacts are limited.2.To create on-line tools for the afore mentioned trainers/educators which will help them to implement such activities: a.an e-learning course presenting an innovative methodology of assisting people with low digital competences in the digital world and motivating them to discover it in a safe and easy way;b.a toolkit in the form of a webportal including a range of tools, resources and sample exercises that can be used in on-line cultural activities, as well as an on-line space for sharing results of this work (a “seniortube”), motivating other educators and participants to show what they have done.3.To disseminate the project results (training methodology, learning and teaching materials, on-line tools etc.) within all the participating countries and across the EU.The main target groups involved in the project are:- trainers and educators working in the small CCS sector, who will test the e-learning course and training materials (50 trainers from 5 countries);- senior citizens participating in workshops and surveys provided within the project, mainly from rural areas and small towns (250 seniors from 5 countries).The project outputs and results will be widely disseminated in the 5 participating countries and across EU. All project outputs will be available in 5 languages: English, Polish, Czech, Greek and Portuguese. 6 partners from 5 countries will co-operate to produce valuable training materials and on-line tools, to test them internally and externally, as well as to build on online community of users of the webportal with useful tools and training activities.The expected impact on seniors will be to enhance their digital skills, creativity and interests in culture and arts in a broad sense, to improve their confidence and social relations during the COVID-19 pandemic. They will connect with adult trainers/ educators from the small CCS sector as well as with other senior thanks to the “Seniortube” created within the project. The expected impact on participating organisations and on trainers / educators from small CCS sector is that they will get a ready to use training materials and a toolkit to develop them and share their ideas and experience with others. They will also develop their competences thanks to a specially tailored e-learning course on with methodological framework for teaching seniors on-line and improving their creativity in the field of art and culture.Through the participating networks but also through the planned promotional activities, theassociated partners and the extended dissemination channels in regional, national and European level the partnership has, the project is expected to reach around 40000 people during its 2 years of implementation.

Biomedical and Medical Informatics (BMI) is a very dynamic field undergoing rapid evolution and featuring centrally in health reforms across Europe. Emerging technologies in BMI are central to making healthcare more personalised, precise, reliable, safer and cost effective. The increased interest in BMI education and training is leading to transformative trends in creating new educational programs at higher education institutions in Europe offering a BMI degree. New emerging interdisciplinary domains are being added to the curriculum offering additional possibilities and challenges for engineers and system scientists to be involved, but at the same time imposing new demands on core teaching and learning competences.The development and implementation of the Centre-BMI to support educational process and courses appropriately addresses this pressing and real problem. This Centre will exploit new innovative cloud technology to support the creation and delivery of new courses/subjects in BMI that is complex and multidisciplinary. Courses will be offered both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels to address a wide spectrum of core competency requirements. The Centre will provide an invigorating environment for the cooperation of technical and medical universities, and enterprises in BMI that will provide a pool of supplementary expertise, skills, and competences in this area. Both universities and enterprises’ contemporaneous participation in the project fosters a new trend of integrated medicine and IT educational provision relevant for the definition of an emerging innovative BMI-related professional profile that is well sought after by enterprises. This Centre will be open to other non-consortium partners that would like to be involved in cooperative activities helping to ensure the project’s impact and sustainability.