Leishmania causes devastating human diseases – leishmaniases - representing an important public health problem in the Mediterranean basin and declared as emerging diseases in the EU due to climate change and population displacement. The LeiSHield-MATI consortium will for the first time investigate in an integrative fashion the complex parasite-vector-host interplay in cutaneous leishmaniasis affecting Morrocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Iran (MATI), using field isolates and human clinical samples. The ultimate goal of our project is to identify genetic factors selected during natural infection and to understand how the complex parasite-vector-animal interaction impacts clinical outcome in infected patients. This goal will be achieved through a highly ambitious secondment plan between all partners, and the organization of courses and workshops to train the next generation of scientists generating a long-term impact on the research capacities in endemic areas. Capitalizing on complementary infrastructures of its EU, African and Asian partners and their expertise in molecular parasitology, epidemiology, systems level analyses, bioinformatics, computational biology, immunology, dermatology, field studies, and public health, our project will drive important innovation in clinical research, strengthen capacities in disease endemic regions, inform authorities on control measures, and raise awareness in all partner countries on this emerging EU public health problem. The highly inter-disciplinary and inter-sectorial structure of LeiSHield-MATI, and its powerful integrative and comparative approach is novel in parasitic systems and will drive a unique bio-marker discovery pipeline for the future development of new prognostic and diagnostic tools, as well as novel preventive and therapeutic measures that will ensure long-term collaboration, promote scientific and commercial self-sustainability of its partners, and will have an important impact to improve public health.

The TEFSI project supported cooperation between 9 European universities to develop, implement and widely disseminate innovative teaching approaches, materials, methods and tools, and thus to increase university teachers’competences and innovation, and to improve the quality and effectiveness of university teaching. Usage of innovative teaching methods in TEFSI was illustrated for the subjects covering various aspects of sustainable food systems, in order to increase teachers awareness about the importance of including sustainability issues into their everyday lecturing, and therefore could be seen as a step of food science, human nutrition, agriculture, and related life science education towards sustainability. The project began with an in-depth analysis of the level of inclusion of food system sustainability issues in higher education by European University lecturers, the lecturing tools being used and perspectives for innovation in this area, followed by the development of quality training materials on the innovative teaching tools & concepts (presentations, handbook, short video lectures) and by sharing them during 5 international staff training events, implementing them in everyday teaching activities at participating universities, and finally disseminating during project Multiplier Events and other dissemination activities. Transnationality of the project allowed the biggest strengths of teaching approaches and strategies of all participating Universities to be extracted, analysed & put together in the project activities and outputs.

The low success rates of students in science courses and the negative attitudes and perceptions towards these courses are frequently mentioned in the science education literature.As a solution of this problem,out of school environments can provide important contributions as a complementary tool in formal education.In this project,it is aimed to develop an out-of-school curriculum for teacher education programs by following these steps:(i)finding out about different out of school learning environments,approaches and resources used in countries where out-of-school education has been successfully conducted over years,(ii) acquire and possess high-quality skills, competences,knowledge and skills related to strategies,methods and techniques that can be used in out-of-school activities,(iii) collaborate with partners to construct scaffolds which will help us to develop an out-of-school curriculum,and(iv) test and refine the curriculum first in Hacettepe University (the applicant university)(v) translate and apply the curriculum in participant countries.The curriculum will consist of following aspects:interdisciplinary connections, STEM education,using mobile applications,virtual museums,augmented reality, assessment.Although in service and pre-service teachers (PSTs) know some out of school environments such as science centres,they have difficulty in planning how to follow a methodological way in these environments and learning how to use them as a complementary tool in their teaching.As a result, these kinds of trips are often an ordinary sight-recognition visits.To overcome these deficiencies,teacher education programs need a structured curriculum which will provide pre-service teachers opportunities to experience and implement out-of-school lesson plans.The goal of this curriculum is to combine the theoretical background with applied activities by creating on-site learning environments. The theoretical knowledge will be developed via intensive collaboration with the input emerged from national and international out of school practices and examples given by the teacher trainers and project experts.In order to support theory with practice,pre-service teachers will create learning environments by choosing one of the out-of-school learning environments (e.g. planetarium,museum,zoo, etc.)The project will start with a need analysis collecting input from different stakeholders (e.g. academicians, teacher educators from formal (private school [Sınav Koleji] and public schools [Etimesgut District National Education Directorate]), and informal institutions (Muğla BİLSEM). The need analysis will inform us what teacher educators, pre-service and in-service teachers expectations are from a new curriculum, what they believe that is important to focus on out-of-school learning.The project will be carried out by four program member countries (Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Turkey) and three associated partners from Turkey. As a result, a common training content will be developed with the participation of each member. In this process, each country will hold a meeting and prepare a visit to out of school learning environments in that country. During these visits,out of school practices will be experienced in the European dimension.These meeting will facilitate to establish the theoretical infrastructure of out-of-school curriculum, and the team members will have access to reliable sources of information.The project will produce two major outcomes:(1)Out-of-School Learning in European Countries as an ebook,(2) The out-of-school learning curriculum for teacher education programs.To measure the effectiveness of the project; the quality of the out-of-school learning environments developed by PSTs during the implementation of the newly developed curriculum will be analyzed. Additionally, we will have different assessments for PSTs to help us identify how their ideas about out-of-school learning developed.These assessment tools include interviews during the course, documentation which presents PSTs’ experiences during the course (e.g. pre-service teachers’ journals),field trip evaluation form, lesson plan evaluation rubric, and course evaluation survey. Totally 7 partners will organize appropriate dissemination activities and meetings with relevant institutions.At these meetings, outputs of the project will be discussed in detail and detailed analysis will be carried out along with stakeholders in all participant countries.This last meeting of the project will host an Out-of-School Learning Conference including invited paper and poster presentations.The purpose of this conference is providing an opportunity for researchers to make connections with the practitioners and enable dissemination of the curriculum and the ebook.The project will be followed up on the webpage after the project ends with an emphasis on how the curriculum will be applied in different universities to ensure dissemination.

Re-imagining Environments for Connection and Engagement: Testing Actions for Social Prescribing in Natural Spaces (RECETAS) will address loneliness, a modifiable health condition that is known to shorten one´s lifespan and may be as dangerous to one’s health as smoking or obesity. In Europe alone, and before COVID-19 pandemic, over 75 million European adults reported meeting with family and friends at most once per month and 30 million European adults frequently felt lonely. Loneliness knows no geographic, economic, cultural, and social boundaries and affects all age groups. For urban dwellers, nearby nature, with social structures, can improve health and mental well-being and reduce loneliness. Even under the extraordinary circumstances of COVID-19, people need time in nature for its healing benefits and its role in allowing people to interact in nature. Investments in nature-based solutions (NBS) and green infrastructure (GI) that address rapid urbanization and its adverse consequences on environmental systems in our cities, can be harnessed for health and well-being even in times of health emergencies. RECETAS explores loneliness through a transdisciplinary lens, integrating social, behavioral, health, and natural sciences, and is grounded in participatory principles. It will use randomized controlled trials (RCT) and other epidemiologic, anthropological and health economic methods to test socially- and culturally-innovative nature-based social prescribing (NBSP) in six cities in Europe, Latin America, and Australia. The approach aims to improve upon real-world policy and practice to reduce loneliness by connecting people experiencing loneliness with helping professionals and extensive investments in NBS and GI, while alleviating pressures on stressed health care systems. If successful, it will systematically reduce loneliness, promote and sustain vibrant, socially-connected communities, and reduce health inequalities by connecting to nature in meaningful ways. “RECETAS” is part of the European Cluster on Urban Health.