The Erasmus Mundus Integrated Master’s in Hydro-InfoGrapHics for Mediterranean and arid environments (HIGH-Med) will implement the preparatory activities to submit a full proposal on a new, highly integrated transnational Master’s programme on innovative water management. HIGH-Med has an international character with partners form 6 countries; 4 universities from programme countries (Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Netherlands) along with 3 universities from partner countries (Jordan 1, Palestine 2). This international consortium aspires to attract high caliber students, foster knowledge exchange & study visits in different countries (at least 1 partner & 1 programme country). The intended project timely responds to the water scarcity crisis in these regions with climate change impacts further exacerbating pressures on water quantity & quality. In arid regions, rain scarcity can trigger droughts affecting the availability & quality of surface & ground water, essential to sustain ecosystems & human activities. Sustainable water management should therefore be enhanced in these regions by training future water managers in new innovative methods & technologies. Hence, this project will focus on hydro-informatics, hydro-infographics & advanced risk assessment models to analyze accurately large datasets required for sustainable water management & to communicate this information effectively to decision makers. It will also focus on novel multi-hazard risk assessment tools for climate change assessment, new environmentally-friendly approaches (ecosystem-based approaches, nature-based solutions) & sensitive ecosystems (deltas, wetlands). Another ambition is to establish collaboration between university & public/private organizations dealing with water. Currently there are few MUNDUS programme focusing on water, but this is the first to focus on Mediterranean and arid environments that will train professionals in innovative sustainable water management approaches and technologies.

The International Hellenic University’s MSc in Bioeconomy Law, Regulation and Management is designed to develop technological, financial, legal, and managerial expertise for people who intend to work in public or private services dealing with the studies, consultation, management, regulation and development of biotechnological processes and products. It targets to provide with real world skills the professionals involved in health care facilities, pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies, food production and in general in the agro/industrial sector (agricultural, chemical, energy industries, biochemical industries etc.) as well as research centers and universities, and the scientists who deal with specific legal, biosafety and bioethical issues in biotechnology, pharmacy, health, biochemistry, engineering and environmental sciences.The aim of the proposed partnership action is to enrich the curriculum of two taught courses in the MSc, the “Biolaw, Biosafety and Environment” and the “Biomedicine and Law” in connection to related recent technological achievements, in order to increase the Programme’s alumni connections to the Bioeconomy market in the fields of biosafety management and biorisk assessment in regards to environmental protection, and to clinical research safety and ethics. To achieve this, the other two partners are companies that have a specialized know-how in the safe use of biological material with respect to the environment, public health, biomedicine practices, clinical research and the full spectrum of biosafety-related principles in general. The students and the academic stuff of the Programme will gain valuable insight from real-life case studies presented and analyzed by the companies’ experts and knowledge of the needs of the market. Students will also have the opportunity to work on real-life projects proposed by the partners in different sectors (e.g. agri-food, health, industry), and with different stakeholders (authorities, industry). At the same time, the companies’ biosafety and regulatory specialists will acquire up-to-date academic knowledge of novel biotechnological breakthrough tools used in agro-industrial, marine, environmental and red biotechnology area (e.g. Next Generation Sequencing, bioinformatic analysis, Gene Modification, CRISPR, Genetic Engineering and Recombinant DNA). Furthermore, the clinical research experts will get informed by the University’s academic legal experts on Biolaw, about the regulative directions concerning Biomedicine Law and clinical research biosafety management, according to the up-to-date European legislation and directives.

<< Objectives >>1ePoint is being implemented by three partners from Spain, Greece and Cyprus, an NGO, a research lad and an SME, aiming to upgrade the skills of SMEs owners and employees of the retail sector in the areas of business, financial management and digital marketing. 1ePoint seeks to address a long term need of SMEs of the retail arose due to the financial and the COVID health crises where SMEs were unable to manage their finances to or create their e-shop due to lack of know-how.<< Implementation >>The main activities are the adjustment of the trainings implemented by the university in business, finance, and digital marketing to the needs of the SMEs owners of the retail sector. In total 60 SMEs owners and employees will be involved at the trainings to upgrade their skills so as their business to thrive. Additionally, an Application will be developed to further support the knowledge acquisition of the learners. Also, project management and dissemination events will take place.<< Results >>1ePoint aims to deliver a tailor made training module and conduct training for SMEs owners and employees from the retail sector on business, financial management and digital marketing. The educational material will be available in an OER, to develop an Application as a gamification process to further support the knowledge acquisition and to organize 3 communication events in the partner countries. If skills and competences are improved and updated will allow for a more sustainable retail sector.

<< Background >>The job market is continuously evolving. The specific occupations, skills, competences and qualifications that people need change over time, as does their description. To deal with this, effective and intelligent communication and information exchange between the job market and the education and training sector is vital. On the other hand, and from the perspective of the individual (job seeker), especially the less privileged there is a need for approaches that combine practical tools with motivation and mentoring support since skill-matching it is not enough, skill-building is also needed. Currently, job matching is increasingly carried out on the web (e.g. LinkedIn, EURES), that could lead to even a tedious and error-prone approach. On the other hand, from the educational (or life-long learning) perspective, there is also a shift towards innovative approaches on learning technologies, advanced learning management systems (LMSs), Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), use of social media and advanced tools like Web conferencing for synchronous on-line meetings. However, most of these educational platforms, tools, social media, LMSs do not conform to a standard way of describing the skills cultivated within their courses. With such an ambition to focus on learning outcomes, as empowered by the EC (European Commission) agenda, is enhanced the competence-based matching. With constant changes in job and educational markets and MOOCs flourishing, the problem of formalising a dynamic and flexible lifelong learning process becomes apparent.Towards dealing with the issue, such matching typically imposes the key challenge of having software systems talking to each other in a common language supported by semantics that understood from all sides. Our ambition is to focus on learning outcomes enhanced and annotated by semantics found in standard specifications (e.g. ESCO, IMS-SCORM, IMS-RDCEO, IMS-LD, HR-XML) to enhance competence-based matching. The European Skills/Competences, Qualifications and Occupations multilingual (ESCO) classification, when combined with IMS educational standards, provide a promising approach towards the solution of bridging gaps amongst individuals, jobs and teachers. On the other hand, we pay attention to skill building, hence, the project includes a variety of artificial intelligence such as agent technology.<< Objectives >>More specifically, in our proposal, we decompose the problem in the areas of:•searching for jobs and matching them with individual profiles (i.e. CVs), •searching for educational resources and matching them with individual profiles or job descriptions, in a layered approach,•skill building with the help of virtual assistants empowered by intelligent agents, used to the best of our knowledge first time under this domain, that will handle each participant as a unique case that should be supported and improved. This module will provide a personalised plan for skill-improvement (through open or low-cost educational activities) and job-finding (through providing motivation to employees and employers) even for the underprivileged young people in EU.<< Implementation >>This proposal follows a bottom-up methodology investigating the problem of formalising the lifelong learning process in a dynamic and flexible way. On the other hand, this proposal utilises a parallel top-down approach in applying semantics and standards upon data in order to alleviate the gap among individuals, workplaces and educational contexts for the benefit of all in a transparent way.<< Results >>Focusing on dissemination, deliverables, results and effects of this proposal, we summarise our intentions to provide: •tools to individuals to annotate CVs, manage their learning paths and offer people the possibility of compiling CVs and vacancies using ESCO’s vocabulary in all ESCO languages, enabling them to exchange information across borders. •tools to HR departments, job recruitment experts and other relevant stakeholders in order to best describe job vacancies, showing transparently how skills and competencies developed in one occupation are applicable and transferable to another one, i.e. cross-sectoral skills and competences. •tools to educational and HR experts to better describe formal qualifications to describe using web 2.0 techniques (e.g. recommendation-rating-reputation-badge systems) the not so formally acquired skills of individuals. •tools for the automated analysis, interpretation and matching of semi-structured and unstructured data (CVs and vacancies) and thus supporting competency-based job matching on the grounds of an individual’s work experience and qualifications. •recommendation machines providing fully automatic composite web-services or semi-automatic visualised services to EU citizens while building an e-portfolio for their lifelong learning and working progress within EU, •tools for intelligent analysis, recommendations and forecasts for curricula and courses to cover skills shortages required by the job market,•agent-based intelligent module that will analyse and support each individual participant in skill-building by providing virtual mentoring and long-life training dynamic and flexible plans.

The EMJM SMACCs is a unique 2-year 120 ECTS Master Degree, aiming at educating the next generation of engineers and scientists in Smart Cities and Communities.The SMACCs implements a curriculum specialized on fundamental pillars of a city sustainability, i.e. Energy, Transport, Buildings, Urban Planning and ICT as a key enabling factor for implementing sustainable solutions. Professionals mastering these aspects are urgently needed to accompany the sustainable and smart transition of our cities, through the massive deployment of multi-sector renewable energy communities in urban and peri-urban areas.The SMACCs proposes an international curriculum jointly designed and delivered by 4 European HEIs (Belgium, Spain, Greece, Finland) based on compulsory physical mobility between the four HEIs, with the support of more than 50 public or private Associated Partners from Europe and the whole world, in order to boost the students’ exposure to the professional and academic sectors.The programme fosters excellence through the high quality of its academic contents, developed in connection with the research activities of the 4 SMACCs HEIs and the ecosystem of partners, and through the attraction of the best students worldwide thanks to the implementation of a competitive, fair and transparent application system.The EMJM will benefit the following target groups:*Students & Young professionals: acquiring new state-of-the-art knowledge will improve chances on the labour market, in which demand in energy, ICT, transport and buildings is continuously growing*Academic staff: the MSc will increase the opportunities for research collaboration and exchange of good practices*Universities: the programme will foster international cooperation and visibility and diversify the recruitment of students*Companies: the MSc will provide a source of knowledgeable workers, at regional and transnational levels*Society: will benefit from the latest innovation in Smart Cities and Communities