Wind energy is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world's energy markets. According to the EWEA, the European wind market it is expected to grow consistently at a compound annual growth rate of 9.8%. As annual blade failures are estimated at around 3,800 with poor maintenance the most common cause of accidents, ensuring the integrity of blades is a key issue with respect to the business, safety and the environment. The overall problem envisaged is the lack of effective condition monitoring systems for the blades, representing a business opportunity for the project’s partners Hence, the Project aims to commercialize a novel solution, BladeSave, marketed as a fusion between a Fibre Optic Structural Health Monitoring System providing multi-sensing capability and a management software incorporating risk based inspection data analysis and offering a comprehensive solution for blade monitoring, repair and management. Based on existing technologies developed by the partners at TRL6, BladeSave will assist WFOs in satisfying newly imposed regulations by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (amendments to EN 50308) and benefit European ISPs in the CM services market, giving them a competitive edge over global rivals. Our product market target consists predominantly of the WTFs installed before 2011 (currently around 71,620 in Europe) as old wind turbines have an average annual maintenance cost larger than newer models, are not covered by warranties and offer a bigger risk of catastrophic failures. The project brings together five experienced companies with a unique set of skills and expertise in the wind industry. BladeSave will have an impact on both European and foreign markets, and over the five year sales projection, we forecast a total cumulative gross profits of at least €48 million, a return of EU investment of 23:1 and the creation of about 380 jobs within consortium and associated companies which are part of the supply chain.

Over 50% global oil and gas is produced by offshore assets beyond midpoint of their design lives. 50% all asset failures related to technical integrity are due to ageing (MARS). Ageing assets therefore represent major hazards for offshore oil and gas personnel, the environment and the society. Europe accounted for 28% reported major accident loss of containment from 1980 to 2006, with 11 fatalities, 183 injuries & >€170M economic loss (HSE). The recent crude oil price drop is forcing oil and gas operators to increasingly focus on extending lifespan of existing offshore assets (above design life), as oppose to asset replacement. Assuring assets integrity and safety of personnel, environment & society also remains a top priority. 2016 oil and gas industry report concluded that new asset inspection technologies could generate €1bn p.a. for the sector. We timely propose to finalize a unique and first commercial system (ASPIRE) which combines & automates: asset inspection; inspection data analyses; and maintenance scheduling. The system will inspect & report maintenance schedules for critical assets (e.g. well conductor) within 1 day at cost of €4K. Current industry standard and state-of-the-art methods are fragmented: inspection companies generate large amounts of data manually, which is time-consuming (e.g. 5 days for well conductor), extremely risky (access hazardous environments without prior sound knowledge of asset status) and expensive. Inspection data is then passed to data analyses firm for interpretation/reporting (+5 days), followed by maintenance planning (+5 days), costing >€20K for the whole process for a 100m/24 well conductor. ASPIRE combines these 3 Steps in 1. It reduces inspection and maintenance scheduling time (1 day vs 15 days/well conductor) and cost (€4K vs >€20K). ASPIRETM will generate €49.5M revenue & €24.7M gross profit for SME-led consortium within 5 years (2019-2023),i.e. 10:1 ROI for EC grant, creating 62 new consortium jobs in the process.

<< Background >>The Retail sector supposes the second largest service sector in the EU, employing 29 million people (8.6% of total employment) and contributing 11% to the EU's GDP. The sector is mainly composed by SMEs, from which 18% are self-employed. Furthermore, it is estimated that the retail sector adds value in the amount of €1 trillion to other sectors like wholesalers, transport, finance or manufacturing, a 10% of total EU amount, according to the European Commission. Retail sector is thus a key driver of economic growth in the long run for its importance boosting internal demand and consumption, as according to the European Commission, households spend one third of their budget in retail shops. Moreover, it has an impact on quality of life in EU citizens, as well as being a key driver of competitiveness, growth and innovation. However, productivity and dynamism in the EU sector has lagged behind in comparison with other sectors and other economies (for instance Japan, US or China), a situation that threatens the sector’s stability and importance. According to the European Parliament, globalization will force actors from this sector sooner or later to internationalize due to the competition and the lack of protection in the domestic markets. This trend was largely accentuated with the COVID-19 pandemy and mobility / shopping restriction, which were accompanied by the explosion of e-commerce. Thus, the internationalization process is becoming crucial for European SMEs in the retail sector, as it supposes an opportunity to obtain additional capacity, strengthen their financial position, achieve innovation, increase revenues, diversify risks and attract talented workers. Even when the EU Single Market gives access to 500 million potential consumers, still few EU SMEs decide to go international, either inside or beyond the EU, as the literature shows relatively low rates of exports (inside Europe and beyond) from EU retails, which shows that the EU still has much room for improvement. This situation is caused by barriers retailers face related to the internationalization process. As such, partners have observed among the major issues: - Disinformation of international markets. The lack of knowledge about local business practices as well as insufficient analysis of markets.- Difficulty of identifying foreign business opportunities and potentially beneficial synergies with local business.- Lack of a solid distribution channel that could guarantee optimal provision.- Limited internal structure regarding human and financial resources, managerial attitudes to growth and training.- Lack of experienced departments (marketing, logistics…) to overcome foreign barriers like culture, linguistics or legal problems.- Reluctance from local business to provide SMEs guidance and representation.From the analysis above, we deducted a clear need for training in the internationalisation field for professionals and future professionals from the sector.<< Objectives >>START- “Improve Internationalization Skills of SMEs in Retail sector” project aims to improve internationalization skills of SMEs in the retail sector in order to encourage retailers to develop their business in international markets. The project will provide experienced retailers and youth or unemployed interested in retail for career development with tools for enhancing their competences in internationalization and achieve required knowledge to be capable to develop a competitive strategy entering in a foreign market. Retailing sector is a low margin business from which benefiting from economies of purchase, supply chain investments and technologies for boosting productivity can only be achieved by large retailers. For SMEs that operate in mature national sectors of the economy, gaining productivity and competitiveness is a tough fruitless work. Reaching foreign markets present an opportunity for diversifying economic activity, decreasing risks and taking advantage of an unexplored market, widening target and market share. The main objective of START project is to help current and future professionals from the retail sector in developing an international strategy for their business, thanks to a proper training able to guide that path and the successful implementation of the internationalization process, using the latest technologies available. In the detail, partners have formulated 4 Specific Objectives that they wish to address:Specific Objective 1: Define the professional profile of an internationalization manager of SMEs in the retail sector that will support further training in this field. This profile should become a standard of reference while talking about internationalization training for retail. Specific Objective 2: Train entrepreneurs, start-ups, and decision makers from retail SMEs with key competences and skills so that they can extend their implementation internationallySpecific Objective 3: Train young and unemployed people seeking for new job opportunities in the retail sector, giving them a strong plus-value on the job market. Specific Objective 4: Increase the digital literacy of learners to ease the distance learning process and for an optimisation of the use of e-commerce technologies to further develop small retail businesses.<< Implementation >>The START project brings together 5 partners from 6 countries and regions that are particularly concerned by the fashion industry: Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Poland, Romania and Cyprus, while meeting the required skills to implement such action, with partners being business support organisations and experts in internationalisation, business management or VET education. Together, they will address: - Experienced retail entrepreneurs, needing to renew their skills and up-skills to develop further their SMEs toward international practices, integrating digital, social, and economic factors.- Youth, especially low-skilled youth or unemployed, providing them new knowledge, skills and competence in international retail business management to develop new career opportunities. - Supporting stakeholders for the exploitation and mainstreaming of the training to be developed. During this project, partners will implement the following activities:- Development of a mobile report about the skills needed by retail SMEs when deciding to internationalise according to representatives from the sector (entrepreneurs and trainers), in the view of developing a professional profile and associated standard of competences and an online training course answering to the international training needs. - Piloting activities will be implemented where the different target group will meet and increase their respective skills. At least 200 individuals will be trained during the projet life. - Dissemination events, that will be organized in each country at the end of the project as a way to promote the results achieved in a sustainable way. - ICT will be used as a catalyst for the project activities impact. - Our activities will be transnational, being in line with an international scenario for smart growth.- And of course, all those activities will be supported by an efficient management system that will itself be designed with the idea of optimisation of resources, transnational meetings and virtual meetings, online dissemination strategy, the use of online management tools, and a continuous reporting effort to spread our achievements.<< Results >>As a main result, our partnership expects to raise the level of competence of retailers and future retailers from all over Europe in the field of internationalisation, bettering our chances to deliver our products on larger territories in the context of globalized markets. This result will be achieved through the production of 2 main results: Result 1 : Mobile report about the skills needed by retail SMEs when deciding to internationalise according to representatives from the sector. This report, established on the basis of large scale questionnaires and focus groups is aimed at delivering a profile of the needed competence to properly internationalise a retail business. It will give us a better understanding of what are the training needs observed on the ground. This report will be accompanied by at least 10 best practices of retail SMEs internationalisation. It will be delivered in a digital format for a higher diffusion and impact. Result 2: START training courseThe START training course will be an online open educational resource that proposes to fill the gap observed in retailers competences profile. It will address topics such as retail sub-sectors market trends, fairs and commercial missions, e-commerce, etc. At least 4 full training modules will be developed and 20 retail entrepreneurs and 20 future professionals from the sector will be trained by each partner (total 200). Thanks to this, partners expect to achieve significant impact at local, and further national and European levels, supporting retail SMEs to open their horizon towards new market niches that were until now non-explored, making full benefits of e-commerce technologies.

Due to COVID-19 organisations across Europe have had to make rapid changes to how they operate accelerating their digital transformation which is filled with a promise of new occupations and improved quality of life for all but also points towards the risk of widening the skills gaps and greater inequality. Whilst increasing rates of youth unemployment of 14% across Europe (Statista, 2020) remains a challenge at the same time businesses of all types and sizes are struggling to fill a wide range of technology roles that are critical for future growth.The EU Digital Skills and Job Coalition confirms that 37% of EU workers have insufficient digital skills and there are clear signs that the digital skills gap is widening. By 2022, there could be almost 500,000 unfilled digital technology jobs in Europe. On the other hand, young people are described as “digital natives” with an almost instinctive skill for digital mastery. Unfortunately, young people believe they are ill-equipped to navigate the new economy and to understand the skills needed for the future, digital jobs. There is also a significant mismatch between the career aspirations of young people and reality of the jobs market due to misinformation and a lack of high quality career advice which needs to be elevated by showcasing information about future roles. The World Economic Forum Reports 2018 on Future of Jobs stresses the importance of VET career advisors in preparing young people to become the new agile learners in future workforcesby providing a high quality career advice that is essential to personal and economic wellbeing. Finally, in the light of COVID-19 the career guidance provision is becoming even more crucial and there is a need for a digital platform that can assist VET career advisors to provide a high quality career provision featuring the future digital job trends. The partnership of Our Digital Future is a response to the above described challenges and the partnership focuses on working with:The Our Digital Future project will be working with the following target group:- 80 VET career advisors working at VET institutions who provide group and individual career sessions online to young people - 16 Experts (scientists, policy makers, start ups, businesses) currently specialising in the emerging, digital jobs within space exploration, alternative energy consultancy, 3D printing oforgan/body part creation, food technology, robotics, cyber security, virtual reality design and artificial intelligence development.- 40 Other VET stakeholders and decision makers who are in position of the influence in relation to the future emerging jobs and can shape the importance of high quality career adviceand guidance.The key outcomes of the project are:- Contributing to the initial and continuous professional development of VET career advisors by providing them with an accessible information to strengthen their understanding of the futuredigital job trends in the labour market within 8 innovative sectors- Supporting the uptake of digital practices for the teaching by supplying VET career advisors with a set of resources on a digital platform and an app to deliver group and individual career sessions online featuring the future digital job trends.- Creating an opportunity for VET career advisors to exchange innovative practices with each other and share digital tools- Raising awareness among other VET stakeholders and decision makers about the future emerging jobs and the importance of relevant career advice.For that reason, Our Digital Future partnership will collaborate to create a set of innovative practices:- 32 visual infographics showcasing key trends, skill requirements, job profiles in relation to the new emerging, digital roles across Europe within 8 innovative sectors from spaceexploration to artificial intelligence development- 16 video interviews with experts and professionals specialising in the digital emerging new roles across Europe accompanied by 16 lesson career advice plans incorporating the videos andpromoting the 8 innovative sectors- 1 digital platform and 1 app with set of digital functionalities: creation of login/avatar, interactive content display, a virtual networking room.Our Digital Future project contributes to the EU Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition's pledge as the intellectual outputs created within the project are promoting the acquisition of digitalskills amongst Europeans and the project implementation will result in:- raising an understanding about future digital jobs- increasing the professionalism of provided career advice by VET career advisors to young people in an online format- influencing educational systems to develop future talent to match the needs of employers and digital economy- boosting interest and capacity of VET career advisors to promote digital future jobs

"The main objective of ""INTEGRA EN RED EUROPA for employment and entrepreneurship (INTEGRAeu)"" is to improve the employability and promote entrepreneurship, inclusion and equality of adults with mild intellectual disabilities, through their participation in an e- Learning platform and several non-formal training activities, related to various forms of employment (employment, self-employment, entrepreneurship), and at the same time they learn about the socio-labor pathways of inclusion, from an innovative perspective.The idea of this project arises from a programme of the Spanish NGO Fundación Cibervoluntarios called Integra en Red, successfully developed nationally for years, focused on training people with functional diversity in ICT tools and skills for employment and entrepreneurship. Added to this are the data provided by EUROSTAT, which indicate that the average percentage of people with functional diversity in employment in Europe is around 48.1%, with marked differences between countries, as opposed to 73.9% for the general population. This indicates that the room for improvement for the inclusion of these people in the labour market is still quite wide.In this context, we wanted to focus the INTEGRAeu project on adults with mild intellectual disabilities, who represent the majority of people with intellectual disabilities (approximately 85%), and who are in a particularly unfavourable situation regarding employment. The most important problems for this group are the legal and organizational obstacles that appear in the educational and lifelong learning systems, the difficulty of finding an inclusive education, individualized and personalized training, adequate for them and for professionals working in this field, and it is clear that ICTs have the potential to improve this situation. For this reason, INTEGRAeu focuses on training and empowering people with mild intellectual disabilities in those digital tools and skills that allow them to improve their employability, and to do so at a European level, involving different countries with the aim of creating a common space where all people of this group are reflected.This objective will be achieved through a contextual analysis in the 5 participating partner countries, the creation of a new pedagogical methodology adapted to this reality and the development of a digital learning platform with open educational resources created for mixed training (online and offline), which will be tested locally through training activities. The project will end with the preparation of a usability report that will include recommendations for policymakers.In this way, the main objectives of the project are the following:-Raising awareness in Europe about the difficulties of access to employment for people with mild intellectual disabilities.-Raising awareness about how the use of ICT applications and non-formal education in different forms of employability can help to overcome and improve this situation.-Making available to all interested people in Europe and internationally, an open, inclusive and adapted digital learning tool, with an open and tested methodology and resources.-Promoting the participation and inclusion of people with mild intellectual disabilities in Europe, so that they have a more self-determined life and better access to their local communities.-Promoting gender equality in access to employment for people with mild intellectual disabilities.-Influencing policy makers on employment, inclusion and equality of people with mild intellectual disabilities.Therefore, the target groups are:-Adults with mild intellectual disabilities in Europe.-Organizations and entities whose beneficiaries are people with mild intellectual disabilities. They may include among their training offer this innovative e-platform focused on improving access to employment, education and quality of life for their beneficiaries.-Workers / trainers / volunteers: People who work day by day with people with mild intellectual disabilities, the main target of the project, carrying out innovative and inclusive good practices.-Researchers interested in the context and objectives of the project.-Public administrations and policy makers related to employment, inclusion and equality.The consortium is made up of 5 organizations from Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Ireland and Romania, with experience in working with people with mild intellectual disabilities and in developing projects focused on them and focused on training and the creation of educational resources. open.Finally, the project fits in with the Sustainable Development Goals, and especially with 10- ""Reduction of inequalities""."