The Arctic plays a key role in the Earth’s climate system and is an area of growing strategic importance for European policy. In this ETN, we will train the next generation of Arctic microbiology and biogeochemistry experts who, through their unique understanding of the Arctic environment and the factors that impact ecosystem and organism response to the warming Arctic, will be able to respond to the need for leadership from public, policy and commercial interests. The training and research programme of MicroArctic is made up of seven interlinked Work Packages (WP). WP1 to WP4 are research work packages at the cutting edge of Arctic microbiology and biogeochemistry and these will be supported by three overarching WPs (WP5-7) associated with the management, training and dissemination of results. WP1 will deliver information about the role of external inputs (e.g., atmospheric) of nutrients and microorganism that drive biogeochemical processes in relation to annual variation in Arctic microbial activity and biogeochemical processes. WP2 will explore ecosystem response on time scales of 100s of years to these inputs using a chrnosequence approach in the already changing Arctic. The effect of time and season and the warming of the Arctic on ecosystem functioning and natural resources will be quantified through geochemical analyses and next generation multi-omics approaches. Complementing WP1 and WP2, WP3 will focus on organism response and adaptation using a range of biochemical, molecular, experimental and culturing approaches. WP4 will address specific applied issues such as colonisation by pathogenic organisms and biotechnological exploitation of Arctic ecosystems. MicroArctic will bring together interdisciplinary experts from both the academic and non-academic sectors across Europe into a network of 20 Institutions across 11 countries.

"The aim of the project ""Competencies for Universities - using Technology in Education"" (CUTE) is to develop a more institutionally based strategy to improve digital competencies for university teaching and to develop a methodology for other institutions to do the same. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across Europe are challenged by digital transformation and the need for more digital competencies for teachers. However, teachers at HEIs are still primarily hired and rewarded for their research – and there is traditionally very little hands-on management when it comes to teaching. Therefore, the development of digital teaching skills is often a slow process and relies heavily on the goodwill (and free time) of those already interested in developing their teaching with digital tools.This project wants to work strategic by using the European Framework for Digital Competence for Educators (DigCompEdu) to create change on a more institutional level. Using DigCompEdu is a way forward and by testing and documenting the steps to take, the project can pave the way for other European HEIs to do the same in their local contexts. Furthermore, the project will provide policy recommendations for further development of the DigCompEdu framework.The CUTE-project is a collaboration between six partners. The University of Copenhagen (Denmark) is the project owner. Four other universities participate: the University of Akureyri (Iceland), University of Murcia (Spain), AGH (Poland) and National University Ireland Galway, all of them with a long tradition of teachers training in HE and in Digital Competence for teachers. The final partner is a technical partner with a strong background in competence grid development GTN (Austria) , associated with the Federal Center education Austria and the University College of Education Upper Austria .The project will first do a mapping of the local approaches to digital competence development (IO1) regarding: is the DigCompEdu already in use, what are the existing strategies, regulations and practices. This local knowledge will be collected and used to produce road maps for development (short, middle and long term) (IO2). This process will be a collaborative process sharing knowledge and ideas between the partner institutions and innovate together. This will also result in a template for other institutions who wants to do the same. Short term actions (IO3) will then be planned in collaboration and initiated locally. Initiatives will be developed by several institutions in collaboration and may be implemented in one or more institutions depending on their relevance in the different local. The short-term action initiatives (IO3) will not only result in changes in the local institution, but also be collected as ""use cases"" together with a description of how to plan and initiate this in another institution in the future. This process will be supported by relevant digital Open Source tools for the mapping, competence grid and the ability to integrate these in a local LMS. The results and findings will be shared via webinars to relevant stakeholders in other HEIs or further education institutions in the partner countries. This helps disseminate and use the CUTE-project results, and also qualify the results as the inputs will be considered when developing the next stage. GTN who will cooperate with the University College of Education Upper Austria to complete the tasks in IO1-IO3, will be using the project use cases from all six partner countries.The local scenarios (IO1), the road maps for development (IO2) and the short-term action initiatives (IO3) will all go into a ""HE Toolkit for using the DigCompEdu in practice' (IO4) along with methods and advice for other European institutions wanting to implement the same initiatives, or develop their own, based on the DigCompEdu framework. Again, webinars and local networks will be used to qualify, discuss and disseminate the results.Finally, all of the collected knowledge, innovation and experience will go into a set of policy recommendations for improving the DigCompEdu in the future (IO5). This will be produced in a first version, then put to the test by national debate seminars in each of the partner countries with relevant existing networks or stakeholders discussing the recommendations to qualify the results. Multiplier events will afterwards be held in each country spreading the results and the toolkit.The project results include methods, recommendations and tools for collaborating on digital competencies development across the European HEIs. The impact will be focused both on the partner institutions and on reaching the relevant stakeholders and decision makers at a national and European level. The toolkit will be an excellent starting point for other European HEIs who wants to use the DigCompEdu framework to develop their teacher's digital skills and competencies, as teachers will only need more of this in the years to come."

Evolution in healthcare service and significant demographic changes put pressure on the delivery of health service and therefore on ambulance workers, (which can be Nurses, Paramedics or EMT´s), hereafter called paramedics. This has changed the prehospital service from being focusing on first aid, stabilization and rapid transportation to hospitals, over to make an advanced diagnostic often in emergency situation, offer community health service, acute mental disorder prehospital diagnosis and even to provide treatment that previously were given in hospitals. This demands more knowledge and skills among Paramedics. Cross-border co-operation, for example, in major accidents, requires Paramedics to have comparable knowledge and to provide comparable services between countries. Consequently, more education has been called for in Paramedicine and many countries are aiming to educate and graduate Paramedics at an undergraduate level, but education of Paramedics varies drastically within European countries. Even within neighboring countries like the Nordic countries. Some require an undergraduate degree while other settle for shorter coursework on a lower academic level. Two Nordic countries Finland and Sweden have many years of experience in educating Paramedics at a university level. Norway started few years ago while Denmark and Iceland are in preparation stage for teaching Paramedicine at a university level. However, it is peculiar that not a harmonized curriculum is used and, as mentioned earlier, it is desirable that Paramedics have a similar academic background and qualifications. We need to respond to this reality, and as a start, four Nordic countries have decided to work together with the objective to create exemplary curricula for the education of Paramedics at the university level (BS, 180 ECTS or more, according to Bologna principles). It would be of great benefit to these countries to have the same curriculum that could even become exemplary to other European countries.The coordinated curriculum also strengthens the international collaboration between the universities, which is currently quite uncommon regarding Paramedic education. There are possibilities to teach joint courses online and students can go abroad for vocational and simulation training as well in the context of this proposed collaboration. By offering BS degree for Paramedic at a university level, it is also a chance that the extra product of the projects, at least in some countries where the profession of paramedics has been majority male, that the number of male students in universities will increase. Witch can be a good news where women are now outnumber men at universities in many countries. Number and profile of participants.Participants in this project are in addition the applicant (University of Akureyri, Iceland) who will coordinate the project. Three Nordic Universities . Yrkeshogskolan Arcada Finland, Oslomet - Storbyuniveritetet, Norway and Emergency Medical Services Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is a strength of the application that these countries have their Paramedic education in different ways so that one can exploit the best practices from each of these different partners to create the ideal model for Paramedic education. Methodology, description of activity and result.The results will be obtained by a number of steps or timed work packages. Among other things, these are:1) To gather information on the differences between Paramedic education within the participating countries, historically.2) Compare current situation and curriculum.3) Review the legal side of the profession, are there differences in rights and duties, is there a need for new amendments?4) Which form of education is most appropriate like distance (digital) learning, online courses, practical simulation e.c.. How can we make the study accessible to everyone regardless of residence?5) Design a new exemplary curriculum, the Intellectual output, that addresses all the modern problems that the profession faces and looks to the future. There will be online meetings and transnational meetings where it must be ensured that the timetable will be met and that the result will be as planned Long term benefit.Long-term benefits will be improved paramedics education at the tertiary level. Coordination between the Nordic countries in Paramedic education. Greater opportunities for cross-border work, students and teachers exchange.As the Intellectual Output will be available for other universities this might be used as a model for other European countries.

<< Objectives >>The main objective of CUTIE is to develop approaches to improve and enhance digital competencies for university teaching which can be implemented at institutional and departmental levels, thereby facilitating systemic impact. The project Actions aim to embed digital teaching competence into the wider institutional perspective by broadening its reach to other participants, particularly those who influence both policy & practice, also to expand the implementation to other European institutions.<< Implementation >>The main activities of CUTIE - Competences for University Teaching & Institutional Empowerment is to develop approaches to improve & enhance digital competencies for HE teaching which can be implemented at institutional and departmental levels.Students' voices will be integrated into the institutional teachers' digital competencies development through co-creation, an online course for HE managers will be developed for empowering them to further local development of teachers’ digital competencie<< Results >>Open catalog of actions & relevant initiatives which can be used by HE institutions to promote the development of teachers’ digital competenciesExamples of staff-student partnership activities to support institutional transformationContent (OERs) & facilitator guide for an online course aimed at those who manage and lead teaching and learning within their unitConnections across existing networks and associations to disseminate and debate the development of digital competency development in HE

The life of many individuals is shaped by mobility. In 2015, almost 5 million individuals migrated to the 28 EU member-states, of which about half held citizenship outside the European Union. While migration management is on the political agenda, questions about equality and inclusion are at the heart of debates about mobility and immigration in Europe.REMix focused on the social, educational and intellectual role of the European university as an agent advocating for inclusion, equality and social justice in matters relating to migration. The engagement of universities in public contemporary debates plays an important role in shaping student’s understanding of societal matters and democratic and civic engagement. The main objectives of the project were 1) to strengthen the role played by the university in advocating for constructive, responsible and inclusive education about migration in Europe, 2) to facilitate and improve the possibilities for immigrants and refugees to have access to higher education and 3) to encourage European universities to provide a rational vehicle for contributions to the knowledge and the informed debate around migration.The consortium was composed of six entities that have been involved in the fields of innovation in education and work on immigration and cultural rights – each bringing with them a certain expertise and considerable knowledge: University of Akureyri (Iceland), University of Florence (Italy), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), University of Madeira (Portugal), Znanstveno-Raziskovalna Sredisce Koper (Slovenia) and the network ARMES Progetti (Italy). We have achieved the first and the third objective by creating an international and interdisciplinary online course, which has been taken so far by 74 students and is ready to be used in the future by our partners. In the summer 2020 the course had been tested locally in Iceland. In order to get proper feedback, two students had been selected to write an in-depth review (see attachment review), which enabled us to improve the course. Furthermore, the handbook „Inclusive societies. A textbook for interdisciplinary migration studies“ which was created in order to contribute to a rational discourse has so far been downloaded over 700 times and will stay available free of charge in the future.We also achieved our second objective by compiling a collection of successful practices. In order to increase the visibility, we included a resume from the collection into the handbook. Unfortunately, due to Covid the international conference which we planed in spring 2020 needed to be postponed until spring 2021. Please find attached the updated call for papers. The Handbook is available for being downloaded under: https://opinvisindi.is/bitstream/handle/20.500.11815/1906/Meckl_remix2020-4.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y The collection and analysis of successful practices is online on the website of the project. See link:https://www.remixerasmus.com/results The online course has so far been taken by 74 students and more information can be found on the website: https://www.remixerasmus.com/resultsThe longer-term benefits are:The handbook will stay available online and free of charge for users to download it. The online course will be available and free of charge for all associated partners and organizations who want to use the course.All partners benefited by learning to create online teaching material and saw the benefit of international collaboration.