40% reduction on emissions should be achieved by 2030 within EU with the outstanding goal for Europe to become the first climate neutral continent by 2050. These goals need to be reached without jeopardizing economic development and growth, and simultaneously fulfilling the UN goals for sustainability. One of the main contributors to climate change and global warming is emissions from our vehicles as these mainly use petroleum-based fuels. To address this, new approaches, methodologies, and technologies must be developed. Biodiesel is one option to substitute diesel; however, its production has been controversial since it requires the use of edible oils and thus creates conflicts with the production of food crops, making it less attractive. Because of this problem, newer technologies are being developed to treat lower quality nonedible oils. However, as yet, these are not economically viable. To address these problems, UNPRECEDENTED will focus on the use of waste oil. This new raw material has been tested experimentally with promising results. However, how the reaction is taking place and the steps involved is far from being understood. This lack of knowledge has a negative effect when selecting new technologies or testing new feedstocks. UNPRECEDENTED will use a combine methodology of experimental data and theoretical modelling (DFT based calculations) to study and fully comprehend the biodiesel production reaction. This methodology will permit a full understanding of the reactive steps involved, the reaction pathway that is followed as well as the energies involved in each reactive step. This methodology will assess for the conversion of waste oil in the presence of renewable alcohols to produce biodiesel when using new catalytic materials that are biobased, produce from renewable sources, and enriched with glycerol.

As a consortium of Higher Education Institutes (HEI) in urban areas (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris, Vienna) we are increasingly aware that we, students, teaching & research staff, have a role in contributing to develop a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient economy and society in our cities. We build on experience since 2007 with an international intercity cooperation programme for students: International Virtual Consulting Firm (IVCF) related to city marketing questions from companies & municipal departments. In 2020 the needs of cities and HEIs have changed. Cities struggle to reclaim a balance between the popular central area and unpopular peripheral areas. The narrative of cities needs to be enlarged. Urban peripheral areas are new centres of interest. HEIs need to prepare students to be critical thinkers in the age of information and for jobs which have not yet been defined.The Researching the City: Mapping Imaginaries (IMAGE) method combines these needs. A new approach uses mapping tools to bring attention to the peripheral, often neglected, areas of our cities and maps them as enclaves of dynamism and creativity. With this method students are trained to actively search for information, stimulating critical thinking. Students work with city partners such as city council, inhabitants, citizens initiatives and local cultural organisations and companies on real life societal challenges. In interdisciplinary and intercultural settings they share their research findings with colleague students abroad in this way enhancing the solutions to include knowledge and experience from other cities. This cooperation as partners is the core of this method.Original partners in the IVCF cooperation, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Ramon Lull University/Blanquerna and Ecole Supérieure de Gestion de Commerce Paris are joined by University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna and Escola Superior de Comunicação Social at Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa.At least 10 city partners are involved as associate partners. Cooperating in the assignment design with specific examples, expertise and network. Also contributing to teaching material and training of teaching staff. During the final interactive conference they present and showcase on location. Data generated by the project is used by them in their policy plans and implementation of solutions.METHODOLOGYThe 2-year project will produce 6 Intellectual Outputs (IO) together forming the IMAGE teaching & research method. Each IO and activity is led by a HEI based of its experience and expertise. During three testing pilot rounds teaching staff will design a prototype, test, evaluate and then revise the prototype with all stakeholders, students, teaching staff, city partners. All partners feel joint and equal responsibility for the results of the project. Three pilots for students and teaching staff to work with the IMAGE method, will contribute to the dissemination of the project within the HEIs and partners. Two training events will prepare the teaching staff for the development and running of the pilots. Transnational Project meetings will contribute to team building, the common understanding of the project, the tasks, the responsibilities and the lines of communication. A final multiplier event will present and share the results of the project. A popular scientific magazine and a documentary will show the training of students, the mapping of the peripheries, the train the trainers and the outcomes of the student research findings. A community of practice on Researching the city is established including stakeholders from HEIs and city partners. RESULTS & IMPACTA suite of open access materials (IOs) can be used by everyone to implement the IMAGE method; the Knowledge Hub platform, teaching case & process guide, teacher training material, mapping toolkit. Individual impact: students develop in their understanding of places and their employability skills, including first generation HEI students from peripheral areas. Teaching Staff become researching the city experts. Inhabitants and city partners in the city peripheries experience an uplift of the image of the area they live in and feel empowered.Institutional impact: IMAGE is an influential research-based didactical method at all partner HEIs and part of the curricula.Regional/National/international impact: engaged extended European intercity network of stakeholders, including HEIs, municipalities, business and civil life. Peripheral areas have become more visible and prestigious, an integrated part of the city as a whole. Beyond project time IMAGE is to be further disseminated within partner university networks to enhance growth of collaboration projects. Project results will be multiplied outside the local project teams in each (city) partner via the media in the cities and in an Expanded Researching the City Network. Written during Covid-19 times, IMAGE gives us hope for the future.

Based on the experience of the Medinea network (Mediterranean Incubator for Emerging Artists), four cultural institutions from Portugal, Italy, Malta and Turkey have joined forces with the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence to create a strategic partnership around a project of collective musical creation in Europe and the Mediterranean. The project aimed at experimenting, implementing and disseminating an innovative creative process of intercultural collective composition in the specific field of improvised music from the Mediterranean heritage.Far from the formal education circuits, these experiences are open to young musicians from all over the Euro-Mediterranean area.Far from the formal education circuits, these experiences are open to young musicians from all over the Euro-Mediterranean area. This process is based on the notions of diversity, intercultural dialogue and the reappropriation of a common cultural heritage.Indeed, since 2011, the Euro-Mediterranean area is facing new geopolitical challenges, in addition to the challenges related to migration crises, which urgently require the recognition of the different cultures present on our territory and the construction of an intercultural dialogue. The experience of the Medinea network allows us to take a decisive step in the music sector towards this ambition, while accompanying young musicians in their professional integration by equipping them with key skills for their career: social, human, creative and entrepreneurial skills. Between 2018 and 2021, sixty-nine young people benefited from the mentorship of Fabrizio Cassol, composer and saxophonist, his guest artists, and the career development coaching of Christiane Louis, head of the Resources Department at the Philharmonie de Paris. Seven Medinea sessions took place in five different countries, all spaces of dialogue and creation open to a great diversity of musical aesthetics and Mediterranean expressions, offering a true intercultural ensemble experience. The Medinea series documents the creative process as well as the career development tools transmitted during the sessions to share key notions with the Medinea community of artists and beyond through videos available on the Medinea website.Led by the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence (France), this project was jointly realised by ARC Research & Consultancy (Malta), Ente Musicale di Nuoro (Italy), Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa (Portugal) and Istanbul Technical University (Turkey) and has laid the groundwork for further cooperation.

A new perception of the ‘child’ as a citizen, as a commoner and rights-holder has emerged relatively recently and has affected relationships between adults and children (Baraldi & Cockburn, 2018). This notion was developed on the basis of the perception of child as an active subject, as well as on the basis of the argument that children have the right to participate in the public sphere and, more generally, in the socio-political life. Children with their public interventions and mobilizations, like the recent ones about the protection of the environment and the planet, appear active, critical, and complex, with social skills and abilities. Recent developments in Childhood Studies, have made a decisive contribution to the conceptualization of the “child” as social actor capable of shaping his/her identity, producing and communicating reliable views of the social world, while retaining the right to actively participate in it (Perry-Smith & Thomas, 2010). Strengthening of the status of children, promotion and actualization of their image as ‘capable social actors’ requires an effective educational environment, commons-oriented, with highly skilled teachers able to create elastic, adaptive and smooth educational conditions helping children to consciously act as “commoners”.Project’s aim is to enable university students on Education Sciences, Social Sciences and Communication to explore values and practices of commons pedagogy and become acquainted on using innovative methodologies and tools leading to the development of a commons-based educational environment helping children to act as “commoners”. Through the development of Short-cycle training courses on “Commoning Practices”, based on a blended learning scheme, university students will gain theoretical and practical knowledge around the “commons” discourse (commons’ logic of sharing and caring, fair and open relations, co-participation in the production or provision of knowledge) and develop skills for building/strengthening the identity of commoner both for them and their future students.Therefore, the specific project objectives are, to: a.foster socio-educational and personal development within the Higher Education community.b.spread the dynamic of commons’ values and patterns and enhance individuals’ participation in democratic life, social and civic engagement.c.offer learning-outcomes oriented, practically-based and occupationally-specific certified training courses. d.offer a strategic plan of professional development for academic staff in line with individual needs and objectives.e.ensure a dynamic and professional environment to HEI, ready to integrate good practices and new methods into daily activitiesf.enabling young students to become peer teachers using “commoner” innovative skills.Project target groups are: undergraduate and postgraduate university students on Education Sciences, Social Sciences and Communication, social scientists, school teachers and educators, researchers in the scientific area of “commons”, academic teachers and instructional designers in HE, HEIs, professionals’ associations seeking to further their profession, education authorities and organisations employing commoners. Activities that will be realized in order to contribute to project’s overarching aim involve:a.Creation of a pool of certified learning outcomes oriented e-training material, including self-assessment courses, progress tests and examinations. b.Pilot operation of “ComPra” short-cycle training courses under real conditions, performed through intensive activities of blended training for students.c.Joint staff training activities for professors/tutors on developing blended learning and e-training methodologies as well as on acting as a trainer within the “ComPra” short-cycle training courses.d.Organisation of workshops on “Commoning Practices” training for school teachers, educators and educational authorities.e.Development of a Training e-Portfolio, as a reference tool for ensuring recognition, validation and transparency of competences and qualifications for those active in the field of “Commoning Practices” among Europe.f.Preparation of a catalog of transnational good practices in learning by doing and service-learning experiences, specially related to peer-to-peer coeducation practices.The project addresses the horizontal priorities and dynamic of commons’ values/patterns and participation in democratic life, social and civic engagement through blended learning activities; transparency and recognition of skills and competences through the development of the “Commoners” e-Portfolio. It also addresses key innovations highlighted in the Communication adapted by the European Commission (September, 2013), which are also inevitable conditions for modernization of higher education: open educational resources (OER), technology enhanced learning (TEL) curriculum designing, and virtual and blended mobility forms.