The primary goal of the project is to advance the theory of dynamical systems governed by differential equations with multiple parameters, leveraging this enriched understanding to dissect mathematical models that mirror real-world phenomena and processes. Our exploration will span both qualitative and quantitative attributes of these systems, including their general structure, solution properties, bifurcations, stability etc. In a practical application of our theoretical insights and computational techniques, we will delve into the analysis of certain biochemical networks, with a focus on those integral to reaction kinetics. Employing a synergistic approach that melds symbolic and numerical computation, we aim to enhance the analysis of stability and bifurcations within intricate biochemical systems. This will be achieved by developing bespoke symbolic-numeric tools designed to uncover instances of multi-stability and bifurcations. Our qualitative and computational evaluations will serve dual purposes: elucidating established biological phenomena and forecasting emergent ones.Additionally, our research will extend to the emphasizing parameter estimation and the resolution of control dilemmas for biomedical applications. We will explore novel territories of positive and impulsive control, areas currently lightly tread in existing literature.This project is inherently interdisciplinary, seeking to fuse and expand upon the methodologies from mathematics, applied mathematics and reaction kinetics, alongside the computational algorithms of symbolic computation. Incorporating the principles of the Green Charter, our research will also emphasize sustainable practices and the development of simulations aimed at addressing and mitigating environmental impacts associated with the processes under study. Furthermore, this endeavor promises substantial training opportunities for early-stage researchers, fostering an environment conducive to learning and innovation.

Maritime shipping industry is one of the most dynamic economic sectors throughout Europe due to the constant changes of its development needs. It is also closely linked to the changes in Marine Sciences and IT Technologies. Consequently, education and training in marine sciences has to follow closely the industry's trends in order to keep pace with the new competencies required by the development of maritime transportation technologies. Project MINE-EMI is focused at elaboration of Joint Master Program (JMPs) that facilitate developing skills and competences to raise awareness on emerging maritime issues in the wider Black Sea Basin in order to promote sustainable management of the maritime sector in the Black Sea basin. It involves representatives from the business sector and local administrations in order to fill the gap between the requirements in the maritime sector (management, transport operations, logistic) and the current lacking offer of updated courses in that matter. In the longer term, the objective is to establish a “Black Sea Community of MET (Maritime Education and Training) Institutions ” to contribute for boosting sustainable European maritime economy, Blue Growth, and Integrated Maritime Policy implementation by providing modern and adequate E&T.In line with the main objectives of the EU Integrated Maritime Policy - more coherent approach to maritime issues, with increased coordination between different policy areas - the project contributes to achieving efficient, safe, secure and environmentally shipping and logistic operations and the overall efficiency of tackling the maritime issues, through:- promotion of the quality of education and training in the MET sector to address the specific maritime challenges and prepare the future managers and experts applying innovative methods, practical oriented approach and e-learning model;- Facilitation the European mobility for students and teachers, involving educational and training institutions that wish to contribute to overcoming these challenges, in line with the “Maritime Erasmus” concept;- Cooperation between European MET organizations and industry in the field of education and training for managing the issues in maritime sector for upgrading competences and adapting to the requirements of the maritime industry.PARTNERS: 1 Piri Reis University - Lead Partner, PRU2 Constanta Maritime University, CMU3 Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy, NVNA4 University of the Aegean, UAEGEAN5 Marine Cluster Bulgaria, MCB6 Municipality of Piraeus, MP7 Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions, CPMRAll the partners have a consolidate experience based on its scientific/ academic and professional background, direct management of maritime scientific and vocational education and close links with stakeholders. The HEIs have been previously involved in similar projects and have experience not only to lead the IOs development, but to contribute best to the internationalization of the work.The project implementation is based on the progressive model, including preparatory activities, development, testing and finalization of JMPs. The preparatory activities consist of a need analysis involving industrial and governmental stakeholders in order to design a syllabus that corresponds to the contemporary needs and requirements and specific case studies at European level to identify, select and analyze accordingly the specific subject areas of maritime issues.In the development phase, educational material will be elaborated, collected, evaluated and selected, satisfying the criteria set by the stakeholders. While PRU, NVNA and UAEGEAN will work on theoretical part of the teaching materials, CMU will mainly work on practical side, creating scenarios for maritime simulators on the specific topics of the subject. The both parts will be developed on coordinated way in order to synchronize all the elements. A unified assessment system will be set up and implemented.PRU will led the integration of the developed modules in the JMPs. The lead partner will develop JMPs course catalogue together with the partner's HEIs for better adaptation to institutions specificities and to offer the courses outside the partnership framework.The produced material will be tested and evaluated during the mobility events. For the evaluation of the content, the teaching style, predefined assessment methods will be used, so to get measurable and comparable results. The feedback received will be then used to finalize the courses. The project derives from the experiences and needs of the participating institutions to raise awareness on emerging maritime issues. The beneficiaries of the project will be equipped with innovative tools for MET in master degree higher education that can be directly exploited and applied to the every-day life of the HEIs in practical, concrete level.The novelty of the project is determined by the innovative multi-dimensional approach, depending on objectives.

"MENTORESS is a project which aims to increase the awareness of women in maritime, esp. seafarer women, to develop their situation in maritime, to give them the place they deserve in the sector and to furnish them with skills to cope with the problems they face. The objective of this project is to develop, test and implement an identical 1- semester extracurricular programme to give necessary leadership and intercultural communication skills to female cadets. With an eye to do this, it intends to design a syllabus and to import it to the Leadership and Management curriculum of maritime faculties to help prospective female staff cope with the hardships they are likely to encounter in seagoing services and maritime jobs and to make them realize themselves to the full extent. It also aims to increase the number of women in maritime jobs and, by this way, to raise awareness for the presence of women on-board the ships, to create a women-friendly atmosphere which requires elaborate behaviours and language, to encourage appropriate behaviour among personnel and to foster good camaraderie. It will also provide the participants with awareness and cultural considerations with regard to gender.The project which was carried out by four partner countries, which are Turkey, Bulgaria, Poland and Romania, addressed all the stakeholders in the maritime sector, including students and instructors from not only maritime schools but also from other higher education institutions including naval academies, representatives from shipping companies, maritime & port authorities, maritime industry or naval defense system and profit and non-profit organizations in the sector. It addressed a total of more than 3000 people.There took place 4 multiplier events in the project. Each included a workshop related to the main theme of the event. In addition to the multiplier events, the project had four Learning/Teaching/ Training Activities which were in parallel with the main theme of the preceding multiplier event. They were planned as 2 intensive study programmes and 2 joint staff training sessions. They brought added value to the main objective - the educational network - by providing the opportunity to test and evaluate the developed ""Gender Identity Management and Leadership in Maritime Professions"" common syllabus. All intellectual outputs, multiplier events, intensive study programmes and short-term joint staff training events in the scope of the project were realized successfully. A Charter which consisted of the papers prepared within the frame of the project was prepared. The papers in the Charter analyzed multi-dimensional aspects of women integration in the maritime professions. The charter revealed measures needed to bridge the gender gap in order to ease the access of female officers and managers onto the maritime labour market and naval defence occupations.Apart from the Charter, the partners developed the ""Gender Identity Management and Leadership in Maritime Professions"" common syllabus which was based on the educational requirements extracted from the survey. The educational management of the syllabus – prerequisites, learning objectives, overall workload (lectures, seminars, projects, individual study), assessment of learning outcomes and references were jointly agreed upon.Last but not least of the results is MENTORESS virtual network, which is hosted by MARPLAT, a product of another European funded project. It has established an efficient media for communication within the partners and for the dissemination of the project’s results. It has also included the educational references for the syllabus designed. Moreover, the virtual network allows on-line course for Gender Identity Management and Leadership in Maritime Professions. The project has impacts on participants, participating organizations, target groups and stakeholders at local, regional, national and international levels. The first impact is increasing diversity awareness and awareness about the women in the maritime professions. The impact has already been stated positively by relevant stakeholders who attended the activities and reported that they had effectively benefited from them.The Project is foreseen to have a great impact on the equal chance for women to be employed in the sector. On the completion of the project and after making the outcome available to all the parties concerned, more women are expected to be encouraged to take part in the maritime sector and they will have the necessary intellectual background to cope with the problems they are likely to encounter. This will help the number of women in the maritime increase in time, and all maritime sector will benefit from the increase in the workforce, for they will have the chance to select the most suitable candidates for the vacant positions. This will eventually give way to an increase in the welfare of society."

BLUE4SEAS project aims to build a strategic partnership between five maritime academic institutions “to bridge” the Baltic, Black, and Mediterranean Seas, to place a “brick” in the foundation of European universities in order to obtain competitive advantages through the exchange of good practices and the exchange of knowledge within the network in improving teaching skills and learning methods through simulation, providing a solid ground for excellence in teaching and skills development processes. Maritime officers are educated and trained in naval academies and maritime universities and the specific curricula have also to comply with Bologna higher education requirements and their related quality standards. The differences between national education maritime systems can lead to problems with the recognition of educational qualifications from other countries and of periods of study taken abroad. Into the maritime European space BLUE4SEAS will lead to an increase in the competitiveness of maritime higher education institutions (MHEI) providers supporting the implementation of the Bologna principles, implicitly by giving and recognizing ECTS credits and developing a successful EEA.The protection of environment has now become a topical issue and IMO initiatives provides ample opportunities and catalysts for MET institutions to review their provisions while at same time incorporating changes in STCW requirements. The risks of an incident likely to cause massive pollution by oil or other hazardous substances continues to be high and organized, equipped, well-trained and competent human resources able to cooperate with all stakeholders is absolutely necessary. Regional cooperation and mutual assistance are indispensable when dealing with a major marine pollution accident. Also, in context of current crisis created by COVID 19, it is even more important to focus on developing online courses and creating virtual online simulation platforms. A prerequisite for such cooperation are best practices and knowledge sharing, education, keeping up with new technological achievements and development of information system.BLUE4SEAS will facilitate the use of the digital technologies and of innovative and open pedagogies in MHEI through virtual online training platform (VOTP) on the environmentally friendly maritime shipping industry as an open source. The innovative educational resources and training facilities developed could be shared as a pilot module to other interested MHEI. The intensive training courses are multidisciplinary (Europass) recognized in all HEI involved in this project, facilitating exchange of students through ERASMUS + programs and flatting the skills gaps and mismatches in maritime education and training system, based on networking with a high potential not only in education but also in research. These courses will use new innovative tools for teaching, research and innovation to prepare future maritime graduates to deal successfully in increasingly demanding international labor markets. Models and scenarios simulated in teaching activities are based on real-world applications. Courses are based on ICT being designed to be modular; the assessment will be both online and face to face; based on the collaborative practices of all partner universities involved in the project. Target groups teams are made of students/professors from all 5 countries participating in the projectMain objectives of the BLUE4SEAS are:- Creation of strategic partnership between the 5 MHEI located in countries bordering on three of four seas of the Europe. The creation of Network of research and innovation on maritime environment protection is designed to support academic exchanges, to share knowledge, to promote infrastructure facilities and research activities between these maritime institutions with aim to be extended at European and international level.- Enhancing the capacities of MHEI participating in the project through cooperation in the field of marine environment protection with a view to their modernization and internationalization, to promote innovation and to exchange best practices and know-how materialized by the VOTP, common courses with ECTS credits, joint research studies on simulating environment efficiency and effectiveness for maritime education and training, a student competition, video tutorials in order to enhance the learning process by accessing digital resources, common syllabuses and course materials to be harmonized with STCW where the simulators are used, conferences and transnational meetings, and training courses.Expected impact consists in the logical project's follow-ups which would be the expansion of the common syllabus to joint study programmes and also the building of research. BLUE4SEAS results can eventually offer possibility of starting consistent joint degree study programmes between the partners and could be replicated at the European and international Maritime Higher Institutions.

"The 2014 Communication ""Innovation in the Blue Economy” recognizes the lack of skilled workforce knowledgeable in the latest technologies and a range of other disciplines, as a challenge and hindering factor of blue economy. Alike, the New Skills Agenda for Europe confirms same status and suggests taking action for the improvement of the quality and relevance of training for obtaining the necessary skills. A challenge met across blue economy is the poor image of the activities among young and the lack of information in respect to career opportunities, which in combination with the ageing trend of European population may generate lack of qualified personnel.Maritime schools face several challenges in preparing students to meet workplace demands in an increasingly complex, knowledge and technology-based environment while lacking generic skills that are requested by employers, such as critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, communication and teamwork. In this context iSOL-MET aims to:-Bridge the gap between shipping world requirements in respect to human resources soft skills and competences, through developing innovative educational material based on the case study methodology-Bridge the needs of maritime professionals for ongoing career opportunities even after completing their sea service on board-Bridge the experience gap of maritime universities’ students in respect to the on-board operations and the shipping practices.-Exchange best practices and cultural awareness on maritime education and shipping issues.Project addresses the needs of the students for obtaining the required skills for entering the shipping market and provides to educators new educational tools. Furthermore, addresses the needs of the shipping industry for qualified personnel.To achieve the aforementioned objective iSOL-MET will produce:1.Maritime skills courses for multidisciplinary and multicultural groups of students: a comprehensive course program that will integrate International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) model course guidelines, practice-oriented, to link theory and practice through using maritime case studies, for cultivating specific soft skills2.Maritime Case Study Handbook: a collection of all case studies identified and analyzed during project’ life time. Case studies will be identified in close collaboration with the industry and will constitute an integrated educational material, designed to address current soft skills gaps, while providing to the educators with useful material in respect to the content and the teaching methods3.Guidelines for the development of soft skills educational material: a practical set of recommendations to course designers in developing, conducting and evaluating a course focusing on soft skills using cases studies.4.Soft skills evaluation tools: a set of tools that an educator or a manager can use for evaluating the soft skills competences of students or employees. The aim is the creation of an Assessment Center for systematizing the process of soft skills evaluation, through case studies.. Assessment Center will link the academia with the business world since, the case studies developed in combination with designed assessment tools could be used in the shipping industry for assessing the competences of existing employees or for recruitment reasons. Through iSOL-MET is expected to:•Enhance the quality and relevance of the learning offer in maritime education through developing innovative educational material, using the case study methodology •Help students recognize and adopt ""growth"" mindset, meaning that their capacities are expandable. Students' mindset shifting is expected to affect their performance and motivation. •Develop competency and knowledge sharing, through mobilizing the maritime skills across participating countries.•Meet the demand of highly skilled maritime professionals and enhancing youth employment possibilities•Improve the attractiveness of the maritime profession and remedying to the observed lack of articulated educational proposition for sea-related activities, by adapting the courses content to the new maritime environment and emerging trends of the industry•Bundle forces from intergovernmental organizations, research institutes and the shipping industry to provide innovative skills for marine business•Promote and support networks connecting education and training organisations in EU level and encourage opportunities of cluster academia cooperation.•Change the professors’ mentality about teaching techniques helping them to improve their effectiveness and the quality of their teaching method."