The proposal F.I.T. for Future for the European Researchers’ Nights 2014 and 2015 is the advancement of the successful concepts of 2011 F.I.T. for Research (www.fit-fuer-forschung.eu) and 2013 Destination Future (www.destinationfuture.eu). The proposal suggests one concept to be implemented in two different locations in the Vienna Region for 2014 (Vienna, Aula der Wissenschaften) and 2015 (St. Pölten, city center). In the German language, the acronym FIT can stand for Forschung, Innovation and Technology (“Research, Innovation and Technology”). This special understanding of F.I.T.ness states that Research, Innovation and Technology are the keys to the most important challenges of our society. Thus F.I.T. for Future presents European efforts to cope with the manifold complex questions concerning our future and to solve the upcoming problems. From the societal challenges mentioned in Horizon 2020 F.I.T. for Future especially addresses demographic change and wellbeing, food security, smart, green and integrated transports and inclusive, innovative and secure societies. As initiator, coordinator and curator of the EU Researchers’ Night in Austria St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences refers not only to the experience of the successful events in 2011 and 2013 as well as some other similar several similar actions, but to the capacity of staff and more than 1000 students in media technology and media economics (covering topics such as event management, event technology, public relations, content production and others) and research focuses on info- and edutainment and science communication. To keep the management as simple as possible, St. Poelten University of Applied Sciences acts as the only participant. As in 2011 and 2013 intensive cooperation with other institutions, initiatives, researchers and scientists, such as the Science Center Network, Science Slam Austria, NÖ Forschung + Bildung (Research + Education Lower Austria) and many others will be important.

For the third and fourth edition of “Life is Science” the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology plans to extend its thematic focus on life sciences to the topic of digitization and has initiated a cooperation with St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences. Together, an open event for the general public in the frame of the European Researchers’ Night is planned in Austria: Life is Science in a Digital World (LiS-Dig). Visitors will gain insights into the every-day work of researchers in the disciplines of life sciences and digitization and their impacts on our daily life. The event offers the participants to discover scientific contents along the following dedicated story lines: Health & Food, Climate & Environment, Culture & Community and Digital Transformation. Visiting laboratories and organizations, putting hands on, discussing with scientists, contributing to open innovation and citizen science and watching demonstrations, the participants will dive into recent scientific discoveries. The "Researchers at School" activities (workshops in school classes) will provide an increased flexibility for schools to attend the event independently from the main events in 2022 and 2023. The envisaged activities aim to allow visitors to identify the connection between research and our daily life. To drive participants’ motivation to be active at LiS-Dig, they will have the possibility to win some gifts (hotel vouchers, book vouchers, experimental kits etc). In this way, some may discover their passion for science and their preference for a research career.

<< Background >>Social work is a profession and discipline dedicated to combating poverty and promoting the health and well-being of people. It fosters social integration into living environments, is dedicated to the social inclusion of disadvantaged groups of people and promotes social change. It is committed to fundamental democratic values and human rights. Its principal focus is on supporting people affected by and at risk of poverty, delinquents, addicts, chronically and/or mentally ill people, children and young people in institutional care, and people with disabilities. In the project ‘TransSoDia’, three universities from Austria, the Netherlands, and Germany intensify their cooperation to support the inclusion efforts of social work professionals. Students and practitioners of social work further develop their diagnostic competencies to identify their clients' psychosocial problems and barriers to self-determined living, in addition to strengths and resources for coping with challenging life situations in a theoretically sound and cooperative manner. TransSoDia endeavours to enhance the quality and pertinence of activities in the thematic field of social diagnostics and supports the development of cutting-edge technologies and innovative didactic designs. The starting point of the project is two specific instruments of cooperative social diagnostics: the ego-centered network map and the biographical time bar. Both were originally developed by Peter Pantucek-Eisenbacher, the former head of the Department of Social Work at the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten and a recognised pioneer of life-world orientated Case Work and social diagnostics. a)The ego-centered network map can be used to record social relationships with family members, friends/acquaintances, colleagues, and professional helpers. The cooperative visualisation and analysis of the network structure and the potentials for achievable social support are the starting point for inclusion- and health-promoting interventions. b)In the biographical time bar, the biography of a person is understood as a multidimensional process. In accordance with findings based on a biographical interview, family, housing, education, work, health and support biographies of the client are noted along a time axis. The collaborative analysis allows for targeted intervention planning that recognises self-identity and promotes individualised coping strategies. Basic software solutions for both these instruments have been developed in interdisciplinary cooperation between the Department of Social Work and the Department of Digital Technologies. However, users of these tools complain that they are now technically outdated and not suitable for use on mobile devices. They also complain that the methods are not suitable for all target groups, especially for people with cognitive disabilities and children. Furthermore, the extensive experience with distance learning and virtual counselling in the last two years has revealed the challenges associated with both practice-oriented teaching of social diagnostics in virtual space and the cooperative use of social diagnostic procedures in virtual space. The cooperation partnership ‘TransSoDia’ tackles these challenges by using a participative and user-oriented approach. In addition to great expertise in social diagnostics, the partners are united in their efforts to boost internationalisation of teaching and training programmes in the field of social diagnostics and further develop the content of the aforementioned methods and to modernise them for their digital use. Through ‘TransSoDia’, the networks of the partners will be reinforced with the aim of further developing diagnostic procedures and skills in such a way that they can be put at the service of social work clients.<< Objectives >>The participating partners pool their expertise and cooperate closely with practice, research and teaching in order to: -further develop two methods of social diagnostics - the ego-centered network map and the biographical time bar, -provide up-to-date software solutions for the digital application of these methods as well as comprehensive multimedia information and learning materials, -develop innovative didactic designs and formats for transnational and digital use at universities, and -implement these in their universities. To fulfil the needs and demands of the addressed target groups, the project is dedicated to the following objectives: TransSoDia will advance the digitisation of social work. Students and professionals of social work will be offered web-based software solutions for the digital application of social diagnostic procedures, which correspond to the state of the art, meet professional requirements, and allow a target group-oriented use in personal and virtual settings. Teachers at the participating universities will be provided with evidence-based teaching materials that meet the didactic requirements of blended learning and online seminars. Students, social work practitioners, and teachers will further develop their digital competencies in the thematic field of social diagnostics. Social diagnostic procedures and instruments that promote the participation of social work clients will be developed. For this purpose, variations of diversity-sensitive social diagnostic instruments will be designed that can allow the broadest possible use of the procedures with the most diverse target groups. Specific variations will be adapted to the abilities and competencies of people who face difficulties in understanding abstract visual symbols and text-heavy visualisations. Following the claim to application-oriented research and teaching, the experiences of professional social workers, as along with their knowledge of specific requirements of their target groups, will be collected and taken into account in the further professional development of social diagnostic procedures. Social work practitioners will be provided with comprehensive and multimedia work materials in the form of toolkits, which will enable them to learn and apply social diagnostic procedures in a self-organised manner. Students and practitioners will not only acquire knowledge about the social diagnostic procedures but will also be enabled to apply, analyse, and assess them. Further education at universities is believed to provide social work practitioners with opportunities for lifelong learning. In particular, TransSoDia will support expanding online continuing education formats to a) mitigate or eliminate barriers to participation, such as costs and travel times b) enable those people to participate who are unable to travel (far) for continuing education because of care obligations, and c) contribute to combating climate change by eliminating travel. Internationalisation of and transdisciplinary cooperation among universities will be promoted. For exchange and cooperation, the partners will focus on the use of contemporary digital media to reduce emissions associated with travel activities. Students and professionals will be motivated to participate in international academic discourse and provided with the opportunity to actively participate in transnational and interdisciplinary cooperation. TransSoDia will enhance academic discourse in the thematic area of social diagnostics and stimulate cross-sectoral cooperation among universities, social work organisations, and healthcare institutions.<< Implementation >>This project aims to develop six tangible products in a participatory and iterative process that can fulfil the demands of practice-oriented theory development and higher education. To ensure the participation of teachers, students, professionals and users of social work, the following strategies are adopted: •Teachers in the partner universities encourage their students to test and critically reflect on the interim results of the prototypes of the social diagnostic instruments and make the application experiences available for their further development. •Social work practitioners are invited to participate in specific learning and teaching activities (continuing education format/micro-credential), to further develop their diagnostic skills, test the procedures and instruments with clients, and incorporate their valuable feedback into the product development process. •In addition to the abovementioned prototypes, various designs and formats for transnational digital university teaching will be tested in specially designed teaching and learning activities. First year of the project: During the first year of the project, previous experiences and existing feedback on the ego-centered network map and the biographical time bar will be categorised for the development of first prototypes for web-based software solutions and multimedia information materials in the form of toolkits. First prototypes of the (adapted) software solutions and drafts of the materials will be presented in transnational teaching activities such as a seminar on social diagnostics for bachelor students of social work, an online training for practitioners and a first staff training. The application experiences of the participants as along with the feedback on the didactic approach will be evaluated and will flow into the further development of the products. Second year of the project: During the second year of the project, the revised prototypes of the products will be presented in a second cycle of teaching activities, and application experiences will be discussed. With the expansion of the activities to include lectures on social diagnostics and a workshop on biographical diagnostics, the development of the most diverse possible didactic designs and teaching materials will be encouraged. To further develop target group-oriented variations of the procedures, an online training will focus on different needs and requirements of different fields of action of social work. The previous project experiences and results will be systematically evaluated and discussed in a staff training. In addition, audiovisual learning materials will be produced in this project phase. Third year of the project: During the third year of the project, the products will be advanced so that they can be presented and discussed during different multiplier events for teachers from other universities and social work professionals. In addition, parts of the project results will be translated into English. These results will be disseminated in the form of journal articles, book contributions, presentations, and project reports. The software solutions and the toolkits with multimedia information materials will be made publicly available under open-access conditions. Finally, the participants of the last online training will be trained for using the latest versions of the web-based tools. Their feedback on the didactic approach will support the planned transfer of this transnational teaching activity into the standard offer of the partner universities. The continuous and close professional exchange of the project partners ensures that the goals of the project are consistently worked on, and any necessary adjustments to the project can be made promptly.<< Results >>In total, six tangible products will be created during the cooperation partnership ‘TransSoDia’: 1) Formats, designs, and digital elements for transnational blended learning university teaching: With regard to the sustainable implementation of transnational teaching in the curricula of the partner universities, formats, designs, and materials for virtual teaching in different settings such as lectures, seminars, and exercises will be developed. In addition to designs for synchronous joint lectures, materials for asynchronous teaching, for example, videos and podcasts, will be developed. As the sub-products will be produced by experts in social diagnostics and will be already subjected to a practical test during the process, they fulfil professional and didactic quality criteria of university teaching. 2) Formats, designs, and digital elements for transnational blended learning: In the spirit of promoting lifelong learning as well as intersectoral and international networking, transnational virtual continuing education courses for social work professionals will be designed. These will be tested and evaluated in the course of the project to be able to implement evidence-based concepts in the continuing education programmes of the partner universities. 3) Software for the creation and analysis of ego-centered network maps (easyNWK relaunched): The software easyNWK, originally developed at the FH St. Pölten, allows a simple visualisation of ego-centered networks as well as an automated evaluation of important key figures. The programming language used is now outdated, which is why the program is hardly usable anymore. In the course of the project, the software easyNWK will be further developed in a participatory process according to the requirements of the expert community and users. 4) Toolkit for network diagnostics: This multimedia collection of informational materials will include theoretical basic texts, working aids for personal application possibilities of ego-centered network diagnostics, German- and English-language manuals for the software, video tutorials, orientation aids for the analysis and assessment of ego-centered networks, and an annotated bibliography. 5) Software for the visualisation of biographies (easyBiograph relaunched): The easyBiograph software developed by the FH St. Pölten is now technically outdated. In the development of a new program, attention will be paid – among other things – to the improved readability of the entries, the optional focus on selected life phases, and the integration of visual elements in order to expand the possible range of application of the instrument. In the course of the project, the easyBiograph software will be further developed in a participatory process according to the requirements of the expert community and users. 6) Toolkit for biographical diagnostics: A comprehensive toolkit will introduce a wide array of biographical diagnostics to clarify the purpose and possible risks of reconstructing biographies. The multimedia collection of materials contains theoretical basic texts, working aids for personal application possibilities, German- and English-language manuals for the software, video tutorials and podcast contributions, as along with orientation aids for the analysis and assessment of biographies and biographical narratives.