<< Objectives >>PENELOPE aims to develop, transfer, and implement innovative practices on gender mainstreaming strategies in SMEs following a cluster-based approach, through the definition of guidelines for cluster organizations’ staff, the support of SMEs in building gender-inclusive cultures, promoting online cooperation and blended learning opportunities among Industry Clusters and SMEs in the field, and the development of a methodology for EU clusters to implement Gender Mainstreaming training for SMEs.<< Implementation >>PENELOPE includes implementation activities to develop the expected results that will involve partners, associated partners and target groups, like interviews, compilation of good practices, design of training paths, production of didactic content, testing, evaluation and improvement. It also includes activities to ensure the adequate planning, implementation and follow-up and an efficient collaboration, as well as online and physical activities to share, explain and promote the results.<< Results >>- A pioneer and innovative training handbook specifically developed for clusters’ staff towards gender mainstreaming.- A video toolkit on gender equality strategies for SMEs to build gender-inclusive company cultures.- An innovative Virtual Learning Environment that facilitates online cooperation and blended learning opportunities.- A defined methodology for European clusters to implement their own gender mainstreaming training for their associated companies, focusing specially on the SMEs.

In only 10 EU countries do women account for at least 25% of board members. Despite the EC’s proposed Directive to accelerate progress improving gender balance on corporate boards and a slight increase of 2.1% per year between 2010-2016, the proportion of women who are board members is still around 1 in 14. This is even lower among top executives with only 5.1% of large listed companies in EU having a female CEO (Gender balance on corporate boards, 2016). Women with a double disadvantage face further barriers to advancement across Europe including stereotypes about their abilities, lack of role models or mentoring, limited management experience and family obligations. This issue needs addressing through the empowerment of women not only in the early stages of their careers, but also consistently during their career progression, by developing their leadership strengths. Women Making Waves aims to not only strengthen double disadvantaged women’s leadership skills and build their self-confidence, it also aims to raise awareness of the gender gap in leadership positions. Many double disadvantaged women lack confidence and are often underemployed. A number of factors can prevent career progression including an old fashioned belief that the woman’s place is not in leadership. 5 partners based in all areas of the EU will develop a special dual training methodology combining online (Women Making Waves Academy) and face-to-face (Women Making Waves Training Programme and Leaders Circles™) learning that can be applied in any career path participants aim to take. This programme will be tested with a minimum of 40 women with a double disadvantage (NEET, migrant, disabled, in early career stages, women from rural areas, women returning to work after a long absence or pursuing a new career path).The combination of the on- and offline training programmes brings a flexible approach to participants’ learning experience (e-learning has proven to increase information retention rates by up to 60% - The Research Institute of America) while still taking into account the specific and individual needs of each participant. This will increase the opportunities of women to engage in the project and strengthens the quality of learning outcomes. A key element of the Women Making Waves project is that participants not only acquire theoretical knowledge of the inequalities they are up against, but receive practical tools to combat these inequalities (e.g. soft skills development). Participants’ learning progression will be documented in the Women Making Waves Portfolio developed by each participant. The Portfolio is a tool offered through the e-learning platform for learners to reflect on their learning path and set future goals regarding their leadership skills. Participants will have the chance to reflect on their own learning experience and will be able to share their experience with other learners through the Women Making Waves Community, and have access to online training materials through the Women Making Waves Academy.Women Making Waves will not only foster women’s leadership qualities and empower them to take on leadership positions, it will also take all opportunities to raise awareness about women’s underrepresentation in leadership positions. The main tool that will shed light on this issue is the Women Making Waves Policymakers Guide, demonstrating the importance of policies and programmes to build women’s confidence and leadership skills across the EU. It will set out recommendations to stakeholders and policymakers on how to bridge the existing gender gap in leadership positions, based on the project results and linked to existing government strategies to offer further support in successfully achieving their objectives. Women Making Waves aims to be an all-inclusive project where everyone can play a role in fighting gender inequalities. The Policymakers Guide will therefore be aimed at and relevant for both the direct project beneficiaries (double disadvantaged women) and indirect target groups (policymakers, formal and non-formal educational institutions, coaches, intermediaries, stakeholders, employment agencies, businesses and other interested parties) of the project. The project will hereby reach a twofold and highly sustainable impact:1.Double disadvantaged women will be fully empowered to raise their self-confidence and employability profile in order to attain stronger leadership position and combat the existing gender inequalities;2.It will raise awareness of the inequalities and challenges women face while trying to pursue a leadership position and the missed opportunities of not using female leadership to its full potential, and will include recommendations and methods on how to challenge these current trends. Hereby, it will encourage all actors involved in personal and educational development, employment growth and policymaking to actively combat these inequalities and become truly inclusive and equal.

The Roadmap to a Resource-Efficient Europe outlines the significant impact of manufacturing goods on natural resources, energy, the environment and climate change. In this way, significant improvements in furniture manufacturing processes and materials have the potential to contribute to a competitive furniture sector and related industries, as well as to their sustainability and energy efficiency. Thus, the Commission set in its “7th Environment Action Programme” that by 2020 50% of all public tendering procedures should endorse common core EU Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria. For that purpose, it has already been established a set of GPP criteria for different aspects of the furniture, such as production, use and waste. The GPP-Furniture project established an innovative partnership in four European countries (Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and Spain) formed by six partners: clusters, chambers and professional associations with a strong relation with the furniture and the procurement administrative bodies; Universities specialized on wood technology, design furniture and public procurement legislation; and a SME specialized in IT learning solutions. GPP-Furniture project had for objective to design and develop an e-learning training course to cover the skill and knowledge needs on green public procurement for current and future managers and workers of the furniture industry and habitat sector. To achieve this objective the partnership has carried out the following activities: - Analysis to identify the needs on the furniture sector related with public procurement and green public procurement. For this task it was done a survey to 65 respondents from the different consortium countries. As a final result, a report with survey results and main conclusions was launched.- Definition of the GPP-Furniture Joint Curriculum. Starting from the results of the previous survey, firstly it was defined the specific learning outcomes that the GPP-Furniture has to cover. Secondly, all learning outcomes were grouped into different units and modules. Finally, the different units and modules were weighted in accordance to the ECVET points, in order to facilitate future workers mobility and training course recognition. Three reports were drafted during the development of this task.- Study of the training methodology to be implemented in the GPP-Furniture course, taking into account the final audience or target group, and the distance learning methodology. During this activity it was decided the specifications of the training course, such as the duration of the course, the certifying assessment, distribution of the work among partners, etc. As result of this task a final report was drafted.- Development of all training materials: videos, slides, scripts, quizzes, additional materials, etc. that constitute the core of the training course. Training materials have been developed in English and the different Consortium languages (Spanish, Bulgarian, Polish, and Romanian).- Development on a e-learning platform for the GPP-Furniture training course. The platform is open to all interested students and is the main contact point between Consortium partners and learners.- Realization of a pilot test with a group of students to know their comments and suggestions about training materials and training platform in order to detect possible improvements and mistakes. As a result of this task a report has been drafted.- Development of a joint curriculum with the integration of different learning modes (distance, face to face, etc) and innovative approaches. Apart of these activities, consortium partners have been carried out an intensive dissemination activity on the different project steps and achievements, besides of different multiplier events that all partners have organized.GPP-Furniture has demonstrated a great impact. It has been performed the Impact+ Exercise developed by the UK National Agency that demonstrate the wide number of benefits in short, medium and large scale for the partners´ organizations, staff involved in the project, learners and general system or society. Thanks to GPP-Furniture project European furniture SMEs has a new tool to foster modernization and knowledge expansion aligned to the needs and opportunities offered by the increasing number of “green” tenders by the public administration.

In the year 2016, the EU market was the major market for clothing, accounting for 37.4% of the world imports and being the second on the world top for textile exporters [1]. The fashion and textile industry are, conversely, two of the most polluting industries. In fact, the European Commission estimates that the EU textile industry generates waste at 16 million tons per year [2]. Consequently, there is a need to move away from the current linear model and to approach to a new circular textile model. For that matter, design in the textile and fashion sector is a key step to facilitate the transition to a circular model. Around 80% of a product’s environmental impact is locked in at the design stage [3]. The Commission pointed out in that sense that “Ecodesign supports the Commission's overarching priority to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness and boost job creation and economic growth; it ensures a level playing field in the internal market, drives investment and innovation in a sustainable manner, and saves money for consumers while reducing CO2 emissions” [4]. Therefore, a preparation for current and future designers will be required encompassing the necessary skills on circular design or eco-design. Furthermore, in its Action Plan for the Circular Economy, the Commissions points out that “the transition to a circular economy will also require a qualified workforce with specific and sometimes new skills. If the right skills at all levels are to be developed, they will have to be espoused by the education and training systems.” [5]. The objective of Design4Circle is to create an innovative learning curriculum in line with the needs of designers of the textile and fashion industry towards a circular business model, being the main target group current and future fashion designers of the textile industry. Design4Circle will allow designers from the textile sector to reduce environmental impact during the product’s life-cycle, and to develop new and innovative businesses within the principles of circular economy. To reach the main objective, different activities will be carried out: 1. Analysis of current best practices and needs for ecodesign and implement circular business model in the textile sector 2. Joint Curriculum definition 3. Development of the training materials with different tools (texts, videos, photos, etc.) 4. Creation of an online MOOC platform to upload the training course and test validation In order to achieve such purposes, a Strategic Partnership has put 6 entities together from 6 different countries and expertise in the different fields of the proposed project: two Universities experts in textile design and technologies (RTU and TUIASI); one company expert in circular economy as new business model (ECORES); and three business associations and VET providers that cover different sectors of the textile industry and experts in ecodesign (TTA-TC, AMUEBLA and CTCP). The consortium will be completed with several associated partners (business associations, universities, VET authorities, etc.) that will be involved in different tasks and will ensure wide dissemination of the project results. The Design4Circle training course will be intended for designers of the European textile industry, but its results will benefit any interested person on ecodesign and circular economy. Therefore, the Design4Circle project will have a great impact on thousands of enterprises and therefore in the European economy. The Design4Circle project will achieve the following results and benefits: - The outputs obtained will strengthen the knowledge and training of textile designers and SMEs, equipping them with the necessary competences and skills to implement new practices on ecodesign. - Promotion of new circular businesses and the creation of new textile design companies looking towards a new circular economy. - Development of specific, basic and transversal competences and skills such as management, entrepreneurship, leadership, digital and creativity skills, and language competence in the field of VET. - Foster the implementation of the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy, both in a highly polluted sector as the textile one, and other industry sectors where design is a key process. [1] WTO (2017), World Trade Statistical Review 2017 [2] WRAP (2017), Valuing Our Clothes: the cost of UK fashion [3] WRAP (n.d.), WRAP and the circular economy [4] COM (2016) 773 final “Ecodesign working plan 2016-2019” [5] COM (2015) 614 final “Closing the loop - An EU action plan for the Circular Economy”

Europe currently spends less on R&D than the US, Japan and many other countries. Meanwhile, Europe's public authorities are major consumers of goods and services. Public procurement accounts for about 19% of the GDP in the European Union and offers an enormous potential market for innovative products and services [1].The Europe 2020 Strategy sets a target of 3% of the EU's GDP to be invested in R&D by 2020. In this way, innovation has been incorporated into the new European Public Procurement Directives approved on 26th February 2014 [2] as a new public policy, at the same level as the social and environmental one, which should be promoted through contractual instruments.The new directives open up a number of opportunities for Public Procurement of Innovative solutions (PPI), while maintaining the basic requirements of competition, transparency, equal treatment and compliance with EU state aid rules.Likewise, the European Commission establishes, among other strategic priorities, to boost innovation through public procurement, and to improve SMEs access to public tender market.On the other hand, the European habitat sector, dominated by SMEs, provides 1 million direct jobs in 130 thousand companies generating an annual turnover of around EUR 96 billion, and their purchases represent 16% of the GDP.The “Study on the EU furniture market situation” highlights that R&D and innovation are crucial factors to maintain market positions [3]. Nevertheless, only a small number of European companies carry out industrial research activities in order to develop new materials or technology for furniture.At the same time, there is an increasing demand for smart health care services, whose costs are covered by public expenditures in all EU countries. Thus, a high number of habitat companies has appeared in the last few years that implement Ambient Assisted Living technologies to offer new products related to the eHealth sector. These new products benefit patients, in the form of a more efficient treatment, and reduce the treatment costs. Hence, supporting innovative practices in the health care sector is a crucial step towards improving the services.For that reason, the main objective of the HAePPI project is to develop a new learning curriculum on PPI in line with the needs of habitat and eHealth SMEs. An innovative and open resource programme of vocational education and training, which will provide an adapted curriculum to equip professionals with the specific, basic and transversal skills currently required for the public procurement of innovation.To reach the main objective, different activities will be carried out:1. Learning outcomes definition based on a complete analysis of current best practices on PPI and SMEs´ needs2. Joint Curriculum definition3. Development of the training materials with interactive tools4. Complete learning evaluation on a developed online e-learning platformIn order to achieve such purposes, a Strategic Partnership has put 6 entities together from different countries and expertise in the different fields of the proposed project: two Universities with high expertise in public procurement policies (UNIZAR and ULO); two clusters from different sectors, habitat and eHealth (AMUEBLA and iVITA); a Technology Park and a business organisation expert in innovation management (STP); and a macro-regional hotspot for health and innovation (ScanBalt). The consortium will be completed with several associated partners (business associations, universities, development agencies, etc.) that will be involved in different tasks and will ensure wide dissemination for the project results.Although a HAePPI training course will be launched for the habitat and eHealth sectors, the final beneficiaries of the results will be a great number of SMEs and public institutions around Europe. Therefore, the HAePPI project will have a high final impact on thousands of enterprises and therefore in the European economy.The HAePPI project will achieve the following results and benefits:- The outputs obtained will strengthen the education and training paths of SMEs managers and workers, equipping them with the necessary competences and skills to participate in public tenders of innovation.- Development of specific, basic and transversal competences and skills relevant for SMEs, such as management, entrepreneurship, leadership, digital and creativity skills, and language competence in the field of VET.- Promotion of creative and innovative practices in the habitat and eHealth sectors, such as the implementation of electronic devices or internet of things technology.- Foster the PPI as an essential instrument to achieve the Horizon 2020 targets and to improve innovation in Europe.[1] Guidance for public authorities on Public Procurement of Innovation. DG Enterprise & Industry[2] Directives 2014/23/EU; 2014/24/EU, and 2014/25/EU[3] Study on the EU furniture market situation. Csil