Valuable materials are leaking from our economies. In a world where demand and competition for finite and sometimes scarce resources will continue to increase, and pressure on resources is causing greater environmental degradation and fragility, Europe can benefit economically and environmentally from making better use of those resources. Since the industrial revolution, our economies have developed a ‘take-make-consume and dispose’ pattern of growth — a linear model based on the assumption that resources are abundant, available, easy to source and cheap to dispose of. It is increasingly being understood that this threatens the competitiveness of Europe.Moving towards a more circular economy is essential to deliver the resource efficiency agenda established under the EU2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The Circular economy offers an opportunity to reinvent our economy, making it more sustainable and competitive. With this new plan to make Europe’s economy cleaner and more competitive, the EC is delivering ambitious measures to cut resource use, reduce waste and boost recycling.Higher and sustained improvements of resource efficiency performance are within reach and can bring major economic benefits. The EC adopted an ambitious Circular Economy Package, which includes revised legislative proposals on waste to stimulate Europe's transition towards a circular economy which will boost global competitiveness, foster sustainable economic growth and generate new jobs.Successful implementation can create more than 180000 direct jobs in the EU by 2030, in addition to the estimated 400000 jobs that will be created by the implementation of the waste legislation in force. It will lead to satisfying between 10 and 40% of the raw material demand in the EU, while contributing to achieving the 2030 EU target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40%.In this context, CICLO visions the development of an interactive, needs-oriented online Circular Economy labor market ecosystem and skills mapping and provide a training package for employed and unemployed persons to equip them with basic circular economy jobs skills related to recycling management, reuse and remanufacturing opportunities, servitisation (services instead of products) development.CICLO and its training accredited partners will secure the recognition of skills and qualifications of CICLO participants based on the EQF, and the ECVET maximizing their potential for access to the labor market, social and financial integration and simultaneously offering new inclusive pedagogies in education.CICLO it satisfies a number of Erasmus+ objectives such as:• Develop a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation among EU citizens• Support inclusive training initiatives and digital inclusion for all•Open and innovative education, training and youth work, embedded in the digital era•Provide an innovative ICT–based educational practice that will motivate the adults to commit in active learning•Transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications to facilitate learning, employability and labor mobility•Sustainable investment, performance and efficiency in education and training•Combine higher levels of excellence and attractiveness of training and education with increased opportunities for all, including those at disadvantage•Strengthening key competences in C-VET curricula and providing more effective opportunities to acquire or develop those skills through I-VET and C-VET• Enhancing access to training and qualifications through C-VET, by increasing the quality, supply and accessibility of C-VET, validation of non-formal and informal learning, and promoting work-place learningThe work of the consortium will be broken down into a series of overlapping phases incorporating research and analysis, design and development, testing and implementation, validation, localization, communication and exploitation of project outputs. The consortium consists of 8 partners from 7 European countries, covering a wide range of expertise related to the scope and the aims of the project, having as well a Pan-European outreach in their activities. Longer term benefits: -Place the new, expected economic shift of EU towards Circular Economy and its accompanied labor market skills at the heart of a flourishing EU Market and establishing the EU the pioneer actor in the global market -Address contemporary employment, economy and digital skills at EU Level offering advanced tools for relevant skills upgrade and accreditation -Empower stakeholders to use accredited innovative ICT-based educational practices in enhancing people’s entrepreneurial, collaboration, problem solving, and innovation skills

"The ""My Europe - Your Europe - Your Say"" project (ME-YOU-US) aimed at teaching students age 11 to 15 to be more open-minded, more tolerant and empathic, learn about the universal human rights and get skills and competences of living and acting in communities in which community member feels valued and accepted, know their rights and obligations as citizens. The second major target group were the teachers who got a tool and were trained so that they acquired the skills of delivering trainings to students making use of project outputs. The project used as a basis the manual of the ""Otherness"" Erasmus+ strategic partnership project (2015-2018) but took it a step further both regarding contents and geographical spread. The ME-YOU-US project involved some of the founding partner from Portugal and Greece, but also 3 new partners who contributed with their expertise, experience and potential to deliver trainings to larger numbers of numbers of teachers. The new partners were representatives of different stakeholders involved in school education - a representative of tertiary education, of regional authorities in school education and a nongovernmental organization working with vulnerable groups. The partners revised and upgraded the training resources from the ""Otherness"" project, created 18 new teaching resources (lesson plans and accompanying digital resources) and the final edition of the Resource Pack finally comprises 66 teaching resources which were used by teachers in the implementation phase. The collection of e-resources was created with cutting edge technologies. They are primarily meant to be used as complimentary to the activities described in the Teacher's Manual, but could also can be used independently by students as food for thought or tutorials for acquiring new skills. A project website was designed in 7 languages (English, and the partners' mother tongues - Bulgarian, Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish). Both intellectual outputs are freely available on the project website in the respective language version. The implementation phase of the project involved some 5200 students in training activities making use of the Resource Pack created within the project. The project was implemented in 3 new countries (Poland, Spain and Romania) as well as in the old partner countries: Bulgaria, Portugal and Greece. The students in the ME-YOU-US project took part in regular training activities during two school years (2019/20 and 2020/21) on a monthly basis. Two opinion polls were carried out to analyse what we have achieved by designing the Resource pack and organizing training activities with it. We evaluated the changes in students' attitude to people, the new concepts and ideas they learned about and embraced, their skills as active citizens and members of communities, as citizens who care about and value all people regardless of their social status or cultural background. The poll questions can be grouped in several categories: Differences between people, Tolerance – Diversity – Mistreatment, Traditions– Culture – Refugees/Migrants, Socioeconomic Status, Disabilities, Aggressive Behaviour and Human Rights. There are positive changes in all categories, especially concerning the percentage of students who initially indicated they had no opinion, were not sure in their understanding of the poll questions or stated that they were neither for nor against the statements. Project results and findings were disseminated through the partner websites and internal networks, through the project Facebook page, through the multiplier events organized as face-to-face events in Bulgaria, Romania and Greece, and through the project web site. According to Google analytics, which was activated in December 2019, the monthly average of visitors is 131 sessions, corresponding to 715 page views; the ratio of new to returning visitors is 53% to 47% for the project duration; the vast majority of visitors to the website come from the countries of the partner institutions in the project, but access from other countries in the EU, the USA and China is also relevant."

Europe is facing important challenges such as cultural complex diversity in classrooms, early school leaving and disadvantaged backgrounds for some children. Quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) can be a bridge to tackle these challenges. Not only children’s presence in ECEC is important but also their level and quality of active participation and engagement in the social and learning activities of early childhood provision.HangingOUT! is an ambitious project that investigates the possibilities to use 'every' outdoor environment as a way to deal with the mentioned challenges. Eleven complementary strategic partners and different associated partners from five different countries (BE, LT, PT, UK, DK) want to give students, ECEC professionals and parents the confidence, tools and support to explore and create possibilities and experiments with different outdoor educational practices.Our HangingOUT! project has 4 objectives:(1) To further develop the professionalisation of educators in ECEC within our transnational network by strengthening the confidence of teachers and responsible adults in going outdoors.(2) To enhance the quality of ECEC through implementing and recognizing innovative pedagogies in outdoor education.(3) To discover the opportunities of different outdoor environments (from city streets to mindscapes and from forests over factories to school grounds) while recognizing the wide variety in local, cultural and ecological contexts by experimenting with concrete educational practices.(4) To install a culture of cooperation and co-creation between the different partners and stakeholders in early childhood education and care; deepening on the educational context of each country (care and education, formal and informal education, different stages in education,…).To reach our goals we will establish 6 associated local networks between a HEI and 2 field partners (pre-schools, kindergartens, organisations, ...). Each local network has its own focus depending on the interest, needs and expertise of the partnership: children's participation, diversity, 0-3 year old and ICT. Via this way of working we bring together a lot of expertise, co-create with the different stakeholders and have an impact that is really sustainable.The associated networks meet semi-annual F2F and online to share expertise, ways of seeing and knowing and experiment with each other's outdoor practices. Connected to the F2F meetings are international weeks where we can share and discuss our outputs and expertise with students and other lecturers from the different strategic partners and more broadly with all interested members of the Comenius Association, a European network of teacher training institutes of which all HEI's are longtime partners.The strength of working within the local networks in Belgium, Portugal, United Kingdom, Denmark and Lithuania is the diversity and quality of the intellectual outputs it will generate; 7 intellectual outputs in total. Ranging from an innovative GoPro-video database where we will gain insights in interactions between children and the material environment that can be used by teachers, parents but also policy makers, architects, etc. Over the development of inspirational flash cards showing children’s autonomy and that foster inclusion through outdoor activities. To an App that searches for (learning) opportunities in the outdoor environment (urban and rural), bridging the gap between the digital and natural environment. Or collecting outdoor inspiration for children aged 0-3 years old, overcoming the 0-3 yo & 3-6 yo divide in ECEC in many European countries.HangingOUT! has been conceived and designed with long term sustainability in mind. The consortium has the strong intention to integrate the outdoor topic in HEI curricula. This will ensure that what is implemented during the Hangout! project lifetime will endure and strengthen the profile of future ECEC professionals who will critically adopt an outdoor approach as the new normal.The dissemination and exploitation will be extended beyond the duration of the project. The transnational knowledge exchange between HEIs will be promoted and maintained beyond the completion of the project through the online platform including links to the local websites of the different partners. The project outputs will be further developed beyond the lifetime of the project and will be made available using Creative Commons licence.

<< Background >>From an international perspective, which recognises the great importance of skills and competences acquired through Higher Education, the role of universities is increasingly important, becoming a key element for the future of Europe (European Commission, 2006). In fact, this issue is framed in a WHO directive (2020) calling on governments to focus on the training of health workers (Nursing and Midwifery), reinforced by the International Year of Health and Care Workers (YHCW), designated by the WHO (2021) in view of the current SARS-Covid-19 pandemic. If we focus on sexual competence, it stands out that, in the teaching and learning process in Higher Education, in part of the countries of the southern fringe of the European Union (EU) (Spain, Italy, Portugal), there is a standardised curricular dimension guided by a behaviourist line based on a biological vision. Even the theoretical and clinical teaching of sexuality is approached from a reproductive health perspective. If one takes into account that the factors that influence sexuality are also sociocultural, the need for sexual competence training with a more holistic vision becomes evident.This is why this project is requested, as it aims to carry out a cross-cultural and multidisciplinary training approach with the introduction of a comprehensive sexuality education model in Higher Education. Furthermore, it contributes to strengthen this in other social fields (youth associations, women and immigrants), bringing new visions in the field of sexual competence beyond our borders and to the modernisation of sexual education in the socio-health field. The transnational approach becomes a basic requirement, promotes intercultural dialogue and enables awareness of a new Europe enriched by different cultures. In line with goal 5 of the UN Agenda (2030) our project aims to train in sexuality education to achieve gender equality by empowering women and girls. In fact, the EU and the UN promote the Spotlight initiative (2020), which aims to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls in line with the project. In addition, the pandemic caused by Covid-19, has unbalanced the gender balance, so it is of utmost importance to include this issue.In order to frame the approach to the needs of the project, it is subdivided according to the actors involved in the project:1- For students: increasing knowledge; enhancing critical thinking; acquiring intercultural awareness/practical skills and constant practice; opening up to sexual, social, gender and cultural diversity by fostering a sense of belonging to the EU;2- For teachers: increase sexual skills/competences; use innovative pedagogical approaches focusing on students, migrants, women and young people, face-to-face/distance at international level; possibility of comparison/cooperation with other European universities; 3- For the universities involved in the project: facilitate theoretical/practical sexual competence; possibility of mobility and cooperation between EU partners; develop innovative educational approaches (gamification); produce face-to-face/distance learning formats; strengthen EU inter-university networks.4- For social and cultural groups: promote intercultural rapprochement and respect on a sexual level. Promote critical thinking.5- Degrees in Nursing Universities outside the project: facilitate the free use of distance learning formats on sexuality; promote the development of sexuality education within the European nursing profile.6- Degrees in Higher Education outside the project: facilitate free access to distance learning formats on sexuality.<< Objectives >>It aims to achieve:- To develop sexual competence in Higher Education; fostering a sense of belonging in the EU and discovering its cultural diversity in the field of health.- To develop transnational sexuality education tools by strengthening networks of partners and increasing the capacity to act together at international level.- To promote collective sexual awareness from a multidisciplinary perspective in an integrative way from the European member universities of the project.- To promote multicultural sexual vision in peer-to-peer Higher Education through mobility in European territories.- To generate openness to sexual diversity, understanding, dialogue with sexual, social, linguistic and cultural diversity.- To use innovative student-centred pedagogical approaches to sexuality (gamification), with shared recognition of acquired references, in line with the European portfolio (Bologna Process, 2015); -Produce multilingual distance learning formats on sexuality, gender and multiculturalism.<< Implementation >>The project is divided into the following activity blocks: A.- Activity Block 1: (Research Study/Analysis):Quantitative and qualitative study is carried out.1) Quantitative study: the aim is for students (1st, 2nd and 3rd year) to complete the Survey of Attitudes and Beliefs about Sexuality (SABS) validated from English to Spanish, Portuguese and Italian by this working group. The aim: to find out the needs and shortcomings of the students of the partner universities and the partner university with regard to the subject of the study.2) Qualitative study: the aim is to investigate the difficulties of teachers (theoretical/practical) in dealing with the sexual dimension of the patient. Since this difficulty emerges in the literature, this study is necessary. The approach of this study will be multicentre, observational. Data will be collected through semi-structured interview. This block involves a face-to-face training activity for teachers from the partner universities in the hospital qualitative research unit of reference at Unimore (Italy). The partner university will participate via Teams.B.- Activity block 2 addressed to Higher Education (HE): Block 01: - Module 1: Covert Sexual Violence: Behind Sexual Consent, April (2022). Seattle delivered via Teams (by teachers, experts on the topic), to all students (Partner and Associate Universities).- Module 2: Sexual Diversity: Validating emotions from sexuality, May (2022). Face-to-face in each of the partner universities, taught by teachers, experts on the subject.Block 02: A face-to-face training activity will be carried out in the sexuality unit (Hospital Nacional de Parapléjicos-HNP), for students and teaching staff from all the partner universities. The partner university will carry it out by Teams.- Modules 4: Functional diversity lived from sexuality. October (2022). Via Teams Italy will be taught to all students (partner and associate universities).- Module 5: Migrant cultures: looking at sexuality from a transcultural perspective. Presential in each of the partner universities.C.- Activity block 3 (EC):Block 01: - Module 3: aimed at community training. It will contain 3 activities, one per group (women, immigrants and youth). March/April/May 2022. Face-to-face at each of the Partner universities. Seattle will carry out this activity (March), aimed at women. Block 02: - Module 6: aimed at community building. It will contain 3 activities, one per group (women, immigrants and youth). October/November/December 2022. Face-to-face at each of the Partner universities. Seattle will carry out this activity (December), aimed at young people. D.- Activity Block 4 (Training Guide): to facilitate the acquisition of sexual competence, with a corresponding format applying interactive tools (Toolkit). It can be downloaded from the EdSex website, used by university teachers and interested persons. The activity blocks will contribute to the use and dissemination of innovative pedagogical approaches, focusing on a new formative vision of sexuality for the student body and community, in line with the European portfolio (Bologna Process, 2015). Furthermore, it will help to develop and give permanence to the transnational tools implemented in this sexuality education project after the end of the project. It will be available in English, Portuguese, Italian and Spanish. It will be used by all member countries and stakeholders.<< Results >>RESULT 1. Research study and analysis: it is necessary to visualise the real existing needs. In such a way that, before the implementation of the project, it will inform the research team of the possible contents and practices to be developed within higher education. It is intended to produce a research report, which will consist of:a) Quantitative study using the Survey of Attitudes and Beliefs on Sexuality (SABS) validated from English to Spanish, Portuguese and Italian by the partner universities. It will be carried out with the courses (1st, 2nd, 3rd) involved in the study. Students from the partner and guest universities will complete the survey. The results will be analysed and processed by the University of Unimore (Italy), which will produce a document reflecting the state of sexual competence.b) Qualitative study, being the University of Unimore (Italy) the manager of this result, with the joint participation of the partner universities and the invited university. The interview will be carried out with both theoretical and practical teachers belonging to hospitalisation, primary health care and socio-sanitary devices, without forgetting school nursing. The data will be collected with the prior consent of the participants, eliminating their identification, and will be processed by the Atlas-Ti programme. 9.RESULT 2.- REA-EdSex: Higher Education: hosted within the Web-EdSex platform. The University of Castilla-La Mancha will manage the contents to be included and will advise on their development, following consensus with all participating/invited universities. Two blocks:Block 01: 1st Training Module: Covert Sexual Violence: Behind Sexual Consent; April 2022: delivered by expert teaching staff from the invited university in Seattle to all partners (via Teams).2nd Training Module: Sexual Diversity: Validating Emotions through Sexuality; May 2022: delivered by each partner university. Expert teachers will be available to carry out the planned activities. Block 02: 4th Training Module: Functional Diversity experienced through sexuality; October 2022: delivered by Reggio Emilia staff to all partners (through the Teams). 5th Training Module: Migrant Cultures: looking at sexuality from a cross-cultural perspective; November 2022: delivered by each partner university. Expert faculty/staff will be available to carry out the planned activities.RESULT 3-REA-EdSex: Community (youth, immigrant and women's associations), hosted within the EdSex Web platform. The University of Évora will manage the contents to be included and will assess the development of this, following consensus with all the participating universities and the invited university. It will be developed by all the partner universities by teachers/experts in the topics covered/participating students who wish to collaborate in community training:Block 01:3rd Module: Social Perception of sexuality: urban environment; disseminated in the community during March/April/May 2022 (women/immigrants/youth). The invited partner, will develop this aimed at women in the month of March 2022.Block 02:6th Module: Social Perception of sexuality: rural setting; disseminated in the community during October/November/December 2022.The invited partner, will develop this one targeting youth in the month of December 2022.RESULT 4- Training Guide: To be implemented after the development of at least two training modules. The University of Santarém will manage the contents to be included, prior consensus with participating/guest universities. (Hosted by EdSex Web: 1st block: June 2022/2nd block: January 23).

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than one billion people are in need of assistive tools. Such tools are becoming increasingly digitized through the use of Information Technology (IT). However, only a small percentage have access to needed technology what has a negative impact not only on their lives, but also on their caretakers/families and the society as whole. Because they are perceived as different, they also frequently encounter stigmatization, discrimination and inequalities, largely by people who are not properly educated on social inclusion. Therefore, without innovative IT solutions based on emerging technologies (e.g. IT tool with Augmented Reality glasses which displays communication commands for contacting caretakers), people with disabilities (PWDs) are isolated. The “Innovative Solutions based on Emerging Technologies for Improving Social Inclusion of People with Disabilities (INNOSID)” project builds upon ten years long activities of the “ICT-AAC Competence Network” and broadens its activities geographically (through internationalization) and technologically (through focusing on emerging technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and 3D-printing). ICT-AAC main vision is enhancing social inclusion of PWDs by designing and developing free IT solutions aimed at enabling communication, supporting education, and raising public awareness about needs and abilities of people with disabilities. The INNOSID project will be implemented by the consortium consisting of 6 higher education institutions (HEI) and 1 non-governmental organization (NGO) from the domain of the people with disabilities, from 5 EU countries (Croatia, Spain, France, Portugal, Hungary). The project goal is to improve social inclusion of PWDs by creating innovative IT solutions based on emerging technologies. To reach the project goal, the following three equally important objectives will be fulfilled: (i) developing a multilingual support for existing IT tools for improving social inclusion of people with disabilities; (ii) designing new innovative IT tools based on emerging technologies for improving social inclusion of people with disabilities; and (iii) improving higher education system through tackling skill gaps – raising awareness, developing open educational resources and providing training to students and lecturers in the area of innovative IT solutions based on emerging technologies.The INNOSID objectives will be achieved through delivery of the following results: (i) multilingual support for 5 ICT-AAC applications (support for Croatian, English, Spanish, Hungarian, French, Portuguese, including multilingual user guides); (ii) study on emerging technologies for improving social inclusion of people with disabilities; (iii) 4 product vision statements and specifications for IT tools for improving social inclusion of people with disabilities; (iv) 2 newly developed, free and publicly-available IT tools (software) for improving social inclusion of people with disabilities (including user guides); and (v) 20 slide decks published as Open Education Resources (OERs).In order to deliver INNOSID results, the consortium will organize and implement: (i) 4 multiplier events for disseminating project results to target groups (and broader audience); (ii) 4 learning/teaching/training (LTT) activities for providing training to students and lecturers (based on blended mobility and project-based learning) in the area of innovative IT solutions based on emerging technologies; (iii) 7 transnational project meetings to ensure project delivery tracking and quality verification; and (iv) dissemination and visibility activities based on project's web page and social media to ensure efficient communication about results to internal and external stakeholders, as well as project sustainability and impact by providing open and free access to developed IT tools, user manuals and OERs.INNOSID project target groups are: (i) people with disabilities; (ii) students from participating HEIs; (iii) lecturers (researchers) from participating HEIs; (iv) high school students; and (v) IT companies. The project will directly include a few dozen of people with disabilities through evaluation of the newly developed IT tools and participation in the multiplier events, while the number of indirectly impacted people with disabilities will be significantly higher as developed IT tools will be available for free download via Internet. Around 60 students and 35 lecturers from INNOSID consortium HEIs will be involved in learning/teaching/training activities, while around 300 high school students will participate in the INNOSID multiplier events. Several IT companies which will participate in the project will benefit from ready-to-use specifications for IT tools aimed to improve social inclusion of people with disabilities, what will help them to fulfill their corporate social responsibility function in such a way.