The European seed sector is facing major challenges in the years to come, especially growing world population and an increasing role of European food production the impact of climate change and environmental stresses on agricultural production and the need for a more sustainable agricultural system. The European seed sector will therefore have to develop new high-yielding plant varieties and new seed innovations.However, to tackle these challenges, the European seed sector will require well trained breeding project leaders with in-depth knowledge of both, traditional plant breeding techniques and biotechnological techniques, who can communicate between those two worlds, who have project management experience and who have had international experience to be able to grasp the bigger picture. Those profiles are currently very rare on the job market and are more and more asked for. There is a strong need for this profile of human resources for the development of the European seed sector.The University of Gent, Ege University, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Swedish University of Agricultural Science and Polytechnic Institute UniLaSalle have decided to join forces to develop the European Plant Breeding College (EPBC) to:- Share knowledge and experience for the benefit of their students- Improve the academic quality of their Plant Breeding Master Programmes- Improve the employability of their alumni- Create a European dialogue with the seed sector on human resource policy- Increase the excellence, international visibility and integration among European Plant Breeding education programmes- Increase the number of joint projects among EPBC participantsTo achieve these objectives, the EPBC has:- Shared knowledge and experience with their students via innovative teaching methods such as online courses, webinars and pilot cases- Facilitated mobility of their students and immersion in new cultural contexts and teams through Intensive Study Programmes and mobilities in the speciality of the partner universities- Boosted the transition of EPBC students from university to the labour market through a pan-European Internship Network- Interacted through Multiplier Events with prospective students, and professionals from the seed sectorAs a result, EPBC has contributed on its scale to ensuring European food supply, the development of the seed sector in Europe and to a more competitive and sustainable European agriculture through student training, integration of programs Masters in Plant Breeding and the creation of a Erasmus Mundus Master's Program of Excellence (emPLANT).

UPGRADE seeks to broaden the research scope of the involved teams, focusing on tackling key challenges in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. Specifically, it aims to pioneer innovative solutions for repurposing waste geomaterials generated by construction and mining industries worldwide. Waste geomaterials represents half of the waste volume generated in EU. These waste geomaterials generally exhibit poor engineering characteristics that prevent their direct use at construction/mining sites. However, if adequately treated, they could represent an excellent resource for construction purposes with significant money saving and reduction in the environmental footprint, thus contributing to the establishment of a circular handling/management of geomaterials. To achieve this, UPGRADE will develop protocols, software and tools to improve the engineering characteristics of waste geomaterials, and to guarantee the performance level over the service life of geostructures built from waste geomaterials considering site-specific conditions. The fundamental concern of UPGRADE is to promote strategies for sustainable use of waste geomaterials generated by geoengineering activities, and to determine how to turn a waste geomaterial into a durable material, with a positive revenue stream. The originality of UPGRADE's approach is that not only it draws expertise on the environment and geotechnics, but also in computer sciences, geochemistry, analytical chemistry, natural resources exploitation, and in the circulatory economy. We intend to form a multidisciplinary consortium composed of 10 academic and 5 industrial beneficiaries and 6 Third Country partners which aim to address this problem. UPGRADE will create an international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral network of creative and innovative researchers and practising engineers ready to face geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering challenges which arise in the vanguard of technological innovation.

The project BIOGASMENA follows an innovative, integrated and multi-disciplinary approach for the development of biogas technology and know-how in the ERA and the MENA region, combining technology transfer and laboratory research with academic exchanges, communication and training activities directed to both the general public, especially small farmers from the MENA region, and the academic community, with a particular focus on young researchers. The project includes the following tasks: (1) building dry fermentation biogas plant at pilot scale, (2) building a hybrid energy system at pilot scale, combining biogas, solar and wind energies for autonomous electricity supply, (3) equipping biogas laboratories in Algeria and Tunisia, (4) investigating biogas production in the MENA region, in particular via dry fermentation in lab-scale and bench-scale experiments, (5) including results into an online database for modeling of bioconversion kinetics, (6) optimizing digestate treatment, characterization and utilization, (7) investigating the combination of biogas production with microalgae cultivation, (8) LCA and techno-economic analyzes of designs for biogas production in the MENA region, (9) training young researchers from the MENA region in EU, in particular by following CIHEAM courses (10) informing of the research community, farmers, and the general public about biogas technology. A small-scale pilot plant of 5m3, with a planned electrical power of 500W will be built in Tunisia with concerted efforts from the partners. A thermal solar heating system will be implemented to maintain the temperature of the reactors. The biogas plant will be integrated into a hybrid system with solar photovoltaic and wind energy for grid-independent (island) electricity production, and serve as a demonstration platform for future research in the MENA region. Research laboratories in the MENA region will be equipped. In Tunisia as well, dry fermentation reactors will be built at the laboratory and coupled with a module for dewatering and ultrafiltration, which will be connected to microalgae cultures. In Algeria, a highly efficient, patented methane potential assay developed previously at the University of Hohenheim, will be installed. In the MENA region and EU, concerted research efforts will be carried out to optimize the biogas process, in particular with dry fermentation, focusing on temperature level, structure of the feedstocks, nutrient balance, as well as trace metals supply and supplementation. The quality and maturity of digestates from dry fermentation will be analyzed, and tested for plant growth in pot experiments. Furthermore, innovative digestate treatment methods will be tested, including a system for ammonia recovery during drying of digestate, and the cultivation of saline microalgae and mixotrophic microalgae fed with the liquid fraction of digestate. Young Researchers from the MENA region will move to EU to work on practical topics of the project. Promising young students will be sent to CIHEAM-IAMB in Bari to follow the International Master course in Land and Water Engineering, with second-year secondments on the project. Finally, experiences of rural communities in Egypt with household biogas production based on Indian-type digesters will be analyzed, and the techno-economic potential for the implementation of dry fermentation for electricity production will be studied.

The European Commission’s 2020 Strategy Report highlights three mutually reinforcing priorities for Europe: smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. This project is largely compatible with those priorities. To improve New Media Literacy (NML) skills of school students (12-17 years old), this project aims to gather and share knowledge among the participant countries (the Netherlands, Italy, and Turkey) and generate both definitive results and tools that serve teachers in guiding students’ enhancement of their NML skills. The context of the project is that of ‘new media’, which plays a central role in the creation of a participatory culture by giving a voice to the often unheard. On the one hand, this provides increased communication opportunities but on the other hand, it exposes users to the risks and dangers of the dark side of the digital world. Thus, NML represents a critical field as new media forms are becoming increasingly accessible to students. In accordance with the Strategic Framework for European Cooperation in Education and Training, this project aims to cooperate in building best practices by; (1) contributing to lifelong learning and mobility of teachers through LTTs on building the relevant NML skills, (2) improving the quality and efficiency of education and training through the development of NML skills, (3) promoting equity and social cohesion by including teachers of students with special needs and active citizenship by upskilling the NML of teachers and (4) enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship at all levels of education and training through holistic NML training conducted by scholars of Communication and Entrepreneurship. Thus, the main objective, following best practices in Europe, is to enhance NML skills of teachers in order to best mediate knowledge for students. To achieve the objective, the first activity will be a TPM in Turkey. The second (LTT) will take place in Italy and the third (LTT) in the Netherlands. The last LTT will be organized in Turkey. Each partner will be responsible for disseminating the work, explorations, and interactions of the project. At the TPM; partners will introduce their countries and organizations and decide on the interview questions to be applied to teachers in their home countries. The LTT in Italy will include; the presentation of the best NML cases from each country, a discussion on the findings of the interviews and a workshop on the first two pillars of NML (access and analysis). The LTT in the Netherlands will comprise a workshop on the latter two pillars of NML (evaluation and content creation), discussions and a final decision on the integrated online platform applicable to all participating countries. The LTT in Turkey will include the introduction and an interactive trial of the online platform and an NML workshop on the effective communication skills required to transmit NML skills to students. All LTTs will involve a local stakeholder visit and a cultural tour. Partners (scholars, teachers, and representatives from Bornova District National Education Directorate) will participate in all four events. At the TPM, the Turkish partners will participate with their full project teams each foreign partner will participate with one representative. At the LTTs, the directorate will have two participants, Ege University four, University of Florence two, Istituto Enrico Medi three, and the remaining partners will have one representative each. While introducing the online platform at the final LTT, local stakeholders will also be available. At the last LTT, Turkish partners will attend with more participants in order to increase the dissemination since it does not necessitate an extra budget. Finally, all partners are expected to share the project results in their dissemination events with teachers, students, and local stakeholders. Both quantitative and qualitative methods will be used in the project. The quantitative method involves measuring the level of NML skills of teachers and comparing the results among partner countries, while the qualitative method will be used to understand best practices and what meanings teachers attribute to new media. Trained teachers are expected to convey their knowledge of NML to enhance students’ skills in accessing, analyzing, evaluating and creating new media content. Students will learn how to think creatively, develop innovative ideas and even create a digital start-up, designed to fight unemployment. Teachers with NML skills are also expected to begin to use more technology-based contemporary teaching methods. Project results will be transferred onto an online platform, where teachers will be able to access all the necessary materials on a single platform that will function as a long-term sustainable information source.