This application to work with All Our Stories (AOS) projects builds on the University of Hertfordshire's commitment to academic-community partnerships in history and heritage. Over the last three years, the University's Heritage Hub (HH) has supported research and development work essentially connected to and shaped by the communities the University serves http://heritagehub.herts.ac.uk/. Phase 1 Connected Communities funding allowed us to expand and accelerate our activities, taking University researchers to museums and community events, and bringing members of local history groups, schools and individual researchers into the University. We are now in a position to consolidate this experience. Through a partnership with AOS groups in Smallford, Sopwell and Wheathampstead, we will explore new ways of doing collaborative research and embedding skills and knowledge across regional and academic communities. The first strand of activity, a programme of bespoke training and mentoring, has been determined in consultation with the AOS groups. Two early career researchers (ECRs), experts in oral history and archival prospecting, will lead this aspect of the project. With support from the PI, the team will enhance the initial training in oral history for which the AOS groups have already budgeted. In particular they will mentor groups throughout the research process, developing skills (the art of questioning, an ear for the telling story etc) and building confidence. Through partnership with Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (HALS) a similar and responsive programme of activities will be provided around archival resources. The project re-affirms our commitment to break down divisions between researchers inside and outside the University. We believe that the University can play a vital role in connecting projects and research across the region and beyond. Our ambition here is to go beyond a 'local for locals' framework and encourage participants to feel part of an (inter)national endeavour. For that reason we include two further strands of activity, both of which are designed to enrich the AOS groups' research contexts and will also be relevant to AOS projects across the region and beyond it. Digital story-telling (via DigiTales) and digital mapping (via Historypin) can make research into a multi-way, international conversation. Community and University researchers will participate in a genuine process of knowledge exchange, as close to equals as the structures allow, creating new forms of spatial and relational knowledge with public and academic value. AOS funding has empowered many community heritage groups. The University's HH will provide this project with a channel to share that experience with those who did not apply for AOS funding or whose bids were unsuccessful. Through shadowing and, where appropriate, sharing activities with successful projects, other organisations will gain practical skills and confidence to participate actively in exploring the region's heritage, perhaps developing their own funding applications. Digital storytelling and Historypin are two specific vehicles for exchanging knowledge and building ambitions. Through creating material they will enrich research collaborations and expand the opportunities for participants, including AOS groups, to locate discrete projects in variegated regional and global contexts. Our intention here is to give substance to a notion of communities connected in a shared historical landscape. This stream of the project will also address issues of fragmentation and sustainability beyond the formal life of AOS activities. The project will create additional AOS outputs, specifically in the form of digital mapping and storytelling, and build capacity, resilience and sustainability. The process will give the ECRs in particular a close insight into working with community groups, while also creating substantial knowledge about local and global histories.

This application creates a team of researchers who are committed to community engagement. Their previous experience ranges from scholarly publication to innovative ways of presenting research and engaging with different audiences. They bring practical heritage experience and offer a distinctive interdisciplinary mixture: history, art history, creative writing, digital media and tourism studies. As members of the University's Heritage Hub network, the researchers will tap intellectual resources across the University and already have strong working relationships in the fields of cultural geography, education and film studies. Through this project they will share expertise with one another and with community groups. As well as history societies and museums, collaborations will include inter-general activities and previously marginalised groups to reflect Hertfordshire's demographic profile, the University's social responsibilities and the capacity of heritage to foster a sense of identity and belonging. Through the University of Hertfordshire's Heritage Hub (HH), the University has made a start on these engagements and is currently looking for methods to increase their impact and reach. This application therefore captures a momentum that exists for exactly this sort of initiative. Individual HH members have delivered successful partnership projects (funded by KEEP3, AHRC and HLF, for example) and community interest has been stirred by events around 'Remembering the First World War'. The University, HH and History Department are also gaining ground as groups begin to appreciate the enthusiasm and support that exists in their local academic community. Without financial investment, current initiatives could fail to reach full potential, while new ideas may not emerge. The HH network was formed in response to a real and urgent demand for outside engagement. What has been achieved already has demonstrated the enormous potential locked within the University, from digital storytelling to policy making, knowledge of local histories and analyses of tourist sites, and the scope to interest and address the needs of community groups. External groups often lack capacity or expertise to make the most of their resources or explore possibilities for partnership working or further research or marketing. The project would provide access to additional support, advice and networking as well as tangible results in terms of research activities, case studies, oral histories and other outputs. On their side, community groups have an impressive record of heritage activity and specialised research. We have been working in an ad hoc way with those groups that have managed to locate appropriate experts in the University, but this project would allow us to expand, democratize and systematise such activity. The University of Hertfordshire's entrepreneurial approach and unusually outward-looking perspective have shaped our ambition to carve out something new in terms of outreach, public engagement and partnership working. Three of our proposed collaborative projects - Remembering the First World War; Low Carbon Pasts; Low Carbon Futures; and Instant Oral Histories -- are designed to provide a flexible framework to hold both academic and community research. By opening the University and taking it out into the community through project open days we intend to forge greater understanding on both sides of the relationship. This will strengthen support for projects that are initiated by community groups and brought to the researchers for practical or historical advice. But it will also create new relationships. These might explore hitherto unstudied material held by groups and organisations around the county and investigate innovative methods of reaching both academic and general audiences. They have the potential to bridge a gap between academic research and its popular dissemination, create sustainable collaborations and enrich knowledge of local heritage.

"According to the European Lifelong Guidance Policies, career guidance should be based on the European framework of the Career Management Skills (CMS) because it represents the set of competences and skills each person needs to take strategic e suitable decisions about the own future. MY FUTURE project stressed the main findings of a previous project (Learning and decision making resources Project Number 2014-1-IT02-KA200-004105) to improve and develop innovative practices and career learning tools for school systems in Europe. Learning Career Management Skills is pivotal for the implementation of the European Lifelong Guidance policy and for reaching the goals of the Education and Employment strategies.Furthermore, the growing of the information and communication technologies in the field of lifelong guidance opened new opportunities to integrate theoretical and participatory research findings with digital technologies that enable teachers and practitioners to get a concrete impact in the development of the career management skills of youth and youngers.Main objectives of MYFUTURE were:1- Supporting schools to tackle early school leaving2 - Developing assessment and evaluation methods and practices to improve the quality of Career Guidance at school, involving the local career guidance systems and the main stakeholders; 3 - Strengthening the capability of schools to cooperate and share open web resources with Municipalities, Local Authorities, Public Employment Services and Universities.4 - Identifying and developing innovative teaching and learning approaches, methods and ICT resources that effectively support the development of Career Guidance activities at school;5 - Sharing and spreading the European concept and framework of Career Management Skills, as transversal key competences for managing lifelong study and work transitions;6 - Providing coherent and ""user friendly"" tools and learning materials for students, teachers and school counsellors, in different languages.The partnership was a balanced mix of competences and knowledge made by academic institutions, with experts and researchers, and public and private providers of career guidance at school:1-The University of Camerino (Italy): Lead partner2- Regione Marche (Italy)3- Centre Studi Pluriversum (Italy)4-The University of Derby (United Kingdom)5-Hertfordshire County Council (United Kingdom)6-UU-Lillebælt (Denmark)7-University of Malta (Malta)8-CMBRAE Bucuresti (Romania)The methodological approach of the project was based on the participatory action research, with direct involvement of students, teachers and career practitioners to set out priorities and to share best practices and resources.Main activities implemented were:-Organization of focus groups with students and teachers in each partner countries;-Construction and sharing of questionnaires to collect data on needs, practices and tools;-Analysis of data and production of relevant knowledge in the field of career guidance practices;- Setting out and sharing guidelines for using the tools and to design guidance activities;-Development of open educational resources available on-line freely;-Development of ICT tools for teachers and students;-Dissemination of the project activities in events at national and international level;-Organization of conference seminars and training activities for teacher and career guidance practitioners.During the implementation of these activities were involved 174 students and practitioners for the field research, more than 205 questionnaires were administrated, 1152 among students and practitioners took part to the pilot actions, 121 participants attended the multiplier events,333 people subscribed the website, more than 1000 practitioners were reach with the social network and on line articles, 369 users download document from the platform.The intellectual outputs produced were:IO1-Developing career education. Publication.IO2-The potential of e-portfolios in career guidance. An innovative web site.IO3-Enhancing the quality of career guidance. The handbook for schools, with the on line check list to self evalutate quality standards.IO4-The map of career guidance. IO5-Career guidance App. A new tool for mobile phones.IO6-E-learning platform for teachers and practitionersThe products were designed for students services that reach ever-increasing numbers of young people in a cost effective and efficient way. The e-learning platform and the open education resources guarantee an increasing impact on the regional systems in each partner country. All the partner are implementing activities and planning new programmes based on the evidences of MYFUTURE project. The contacts achieved during the dissemination are creating new partnership and enlarging the communities of teachers an practitioners interesting in the development of digital resources and tools for career guidance at school.info on www.myfutureproject"

The proposal integrates the expertise of the research centres and project partners in transport policies and planning, design, operations and evaluation. The UK government, European Commission and other agencies rightly emphasise the importance of socially inclusive and sustainable interventions. As yet, however, there is a dearth of comprehensive 'toolkits' and resources to support those who are working to reduce social exclusion in journey environments. The shared vision is to produce rigorous methodologies for sustainable policies and practices that will deliver effective socially inclusive design and operation in transport and the public realm from macro down to micro level. Three Core Projects will develop decision-support tools that will establish benchmarks and incorporate inclusion into policies, and support the design and operation of journey environments and transport facilities. A real-world but controlled 'Testbed' facility will allow these to be piloted in the context of the policy intentions and constraints that shape implementation. Solutions will then be tested and transferred to other Case Study areas and sites. Phase 2 of AUNT-SUE will build on the suite of tools developed in Phase I and apply these to intensive case studies of transport interchanges, nodes and development areas. This will both develop and test techniques to design accessible journey environments (routes and facilities) and transport provision and planning, and consult on these with people who have been identified as socially excluded from travel. Three inter-linked research modules will be validated through integrated case studies outlined below, utilising a GIS-based platform supported by CAD, relational databases and both quantitative and qualitative social surveys.

The proposal integrates the expertise of the research centres and project partners in transport policies and planning, design, operations and evaluation. The UK government, European Commission and other agencies rightly emphasise the importance of socially inclusive and sustainable interventions. As yet, however, there is a dearth of comprehensive 'toolkits' and resources to support those who are working to reduce social exclusion in journey environments. The shared vision is to produce rigorous methodologies for sustainable policies and practices that will deliver effective socially inclusive design and operation in transport and the public realm from macro down to micro level. Three Core Projects will develop decision-support tools that will establish benchmarks and incorporate inclusion into policies, and support the design and operation of journey environments and transport facilities. A real-world but controlled 'Testbed' facility will allow these to be piloted in the context of the policy intentions and constraints that shape implementation. Solutions will then be tested and transferred to other Case Study areas and sites. Phase 2 of AUNT-SUE will build on the suite of tools developed in Phase I and apply these to intensive case studies of transport interchanges, nodes and development areas. This will both develop and test techniques to design accessible journey environments (routes and facilities) and transport provision and planning, and consult on these with people who have been identified as socially excluded from travel. Three inter-linked research modules will be validated through integrated case studies outlined below, utilising a GIS-based platform supported by CAD, relational databases and both quantitative and qualitative social surveys.