Re-imagining Environments for Connection and Engagement: Testing Actions for Social Prescribing in Natural Spaces (RECETAS) will address loneliness, a modifiable health condition that is known to shorten one´s lifespan and may be as dangerous to one’s health as smoking or obesity. In Europe alone, and before COVID-19 pandemic, over 75 million European adults reported meeting with family and friends at most once per month and 30 million European adults frequently felt lonely. Loneliness knows no geographic, economic, cultural, and social boundaries and affects all age groups. For urban dwellers, nearby nature, with social structures, can improve health and mental well-being and reduce loneliness. Even under the extraordinary circumstances of COVID-19, people need time in nature for its healing benefits and its role in allowing people to interact in nature. Investments in nature-based solutions (NBS) and green infrastructure (GI) that address rapid urbanization and its adverse consequences on environmental systems in our cities, can be harnessed for health and well-being even in times of health emergencies. RECETAS explores loneliness through a transdisciplinary lens, integrating social, behavioral, health, and natural sciences, and is grounded in participatory principles. It will use randomized controlled trials (RCT) and other epidemiologic, anthropological and health economic methods to test socially- and culturally-innovative nature-based social prescribing (NBSP) in six cities in Europe, Latin America, and Australia. The approach aims to improve upon real-world policy and practice to reduce loneliness by connecting people experiencing loneliness with helping professionals and extensive investments in NBS and GI, while alleviating pressures on stressed health care systems. If successful, it will systematically reduce loneliness, promote and sustain vibrant, socially-connected communities, and reduce health inequalities by connecting to nature in meaningful ways. “RECETAS” is part of the European Cluster on Urban Health.

AIM: Communities for Sciences (C4S) will be developed in 9 European cities (Milan -Italy-, Brussels -Belgium-, Manresa -Spain-, Vic – Spain-, Vienna -Austria-, Budapest -Hungary-, Sofia -Bulgaria-, Lund -Sweden- and Berlin -Germany) and their areas of influence. The activities that will be implemented will be coordinated by a local Hub in 6 cities with the leadership of one of these local partners of the Consortium. Each Hub will focus on a specific vulnerable community (immigrants, Roma community and disabled citizens) working with and for children and youth aged from 0-16 years old and their families. C4S will study the relationships between science and society by focusing upon vulnerable communities due to the fact that they are often not visible as active social agents. It is necessary not only to create activities for them, but also to include them as co-participants of these activities in order to ensure a more coherent approach towards inclusive education and to promote anticipatory policy-making. This will be done through science education activities, through formal and non-formal educational institutions, from an inclusive standpoint, to provide them with better science awareness and capacities and to make them progressively aware of exclusionary practices that at times may occur in science. Special emphasis will be put on engaging them in an intersectional approach to fight against the gender discrimination suffered by women and girls on multiple levels. In addition to this, each HUB will engage with policy-makers, educators and institutional representatives to promote their role in supporting and promoting an inclusive science education approach and to consolidate such inclusive practices on more solid grounds.

European Union (EU) water resources are increasingly coming under pressure from climate change and inefficient management, with the agri-food sector exerting a 40-60% of water use. Despite recognising the need for resource optimisation, integrating sustainable innovative solutions into farming practices remain vague. AQUAGRI-KNOW, led by a multi-actor consortium of 12 partners from 5 EU countries, aims to tackle efficient water management on-farm by broadening EIP-AGRI OGs outcomes. AQUAGRI-KNOW’s endeavour has been thoughtfully chosen to address water scarcity and water quality concerns focusing on four strategies ensuring a circular water value chain (S1. Water Use, S2. Water Smart Crops, S3. Water-Soil Interface, and S4. Water Reuse). AQUAGRI-KNOW systematically adapts, enhances and builds-up practical knowledge through a five-step methodology: (1) Knowledge collection & homogenisation to gather EIP-AGRI OGs outcomes and beyond; (2) Contextualisation & alignment to integrate the needs, barriers, challenges, and opportunities of end-users; (3) Translation & adaptation to create a clearinghouse of tailored knowledge for farmers and practitioners; (4) Sharing & exchange to facilitate knowledge flow; and (5) Interconnection & widening to boost impact across borders and increase the lifespan of generated knowledge. AQUAGRI-KNOW impact is transformative, by modernising the agri-food sectorthrough the improvement of practitioners' access to easy-to-understand and practice-oriented knowledge. AQUAGRI-KNOW empowers farmers to make informed decisions, foster cross-border collaboration, and develop a comprehensive and scalable framework applicable to similarly impacted regions globally. Furthermore, an Ambassador Program will be placed, transferring knowledge to enable the adoption of innovative solutions in new sites, expanding AQUAGRI-KNOW’s impact. Through these efforts, AQUAGRI-KNOW envisions a collaborative, informed, sustainable future for EU agriculture.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO, ADI), 44 million people around the world have some form of dementia, for which there is no effective intervention, to halt or reverse the progressive cognitive impairment. As Europe’s population is ageing, long-term care for elderly citizens will become an increasing cost for society. To manage this transition healthcare policies in the EU and individual Member States are heavily focussed on extending the independent life of the elderly, with the dual aim of increasing their quality of life and reducing the costs of care. In this project, we will build a mHealth application that is specifically targeted to caregivers and patients with mild to moderate dementia. The result is CAREGIVERSPRO-MMD: a tool integrating a broader diagnostic approach, incorporating the live-in family caregiver-patient dyad and considering this dyad as the unit of care. CAREGIVERSPRO-MMD will provide value-added services based on social networks, tailored interventions, clinical strategies and gamification for improving quality of life for dementia’s patients and caregivers that allow them to live in the community for as long as possible. The project will comprise three phases: first, we will develop new services for patients with mild to moderate dementia and their respective caregivers to an existing application. In the second phase, we will conduct a user-centric analysis to re-design the existing application for patients with mild to moderate dementia. The development will be steered by patients, carers and doctors, through user-centric design: we will collect feedback on each new version of the application until the design is adapted to the users’ needs. In the third phase, we will pilot the optimised application with 550 dyads (patients and their respective caregivers) and 550 controls. This will show the clinical and social benefits for patients and caregivers, as well as financial benefits for the healthcare system.

<< Background >>Digital literature—literature intended as authentic materials with cultural value—is an engaging and interactive narrative form delivered via digital media, encompassing the language of books, films, web pages, radio, etc. The field of research addressing the impact of digital literature on students’ reading activities, though more and more appealing, is still under investigated (Carioli 2015); hence the first need this project meets is to provide an organic and systematic overview on the state of the research on Digital Literature Literacy (DLL), namely how scientific literature has so far considered the influence of these many types of texts on the way readers read. Eventually, in line with the Bologna and Open Education principles, the advice of the Council of Europe on strategic competences for Life-long Learning, the Council Conclusions on European Teacher and Trainers for the Future of May 2020, the 2020 Commission’s Communication on Achieving the European Education Area by 2025, and the Commission’s Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027), the project aims to implement tools to promote digital literature in schools and to enhance reading skills both for native speakers and to Foreign Language/ Second Language students in different European countries.As digital instruments change the dynamic relationship between reader, text, and factors influencing the reading process and hence comprehension, the education systems need updated and available tools and structures to help teachers (and learners) to cope with the implications of digital texts fruition in the pedagogy of reading, especially in multilingual situations. Both teachers and students need guidelines and support to apply digital reading (reading texts from the technological apparatus such as the screen of smart phones, tablets, or computers either online or offline) to literature so as to: foster teaching of reading; teach both language and literature by reading with digital tools; contribute to fostering intercultural understanding and social inclusion; being able to develop/consolidate ICT competences and skills (see Council of Europe key competences framework).These lines of inquiry intersect the main issue of the making of the readers, and of what feeds and shapes their imaginary, their capacity of making hypothesis, predicting, figuring the world from a different perspective, imagining, but also decoding their actual context and expanding their learning and competences.<< Objectives >>DILECTINGS aims to promote and scale-up Digital Literature Literacy (DLL) and Literature Digital Reading (LDR) Skills in European schools through achievement, assessment and exchange of specific digital competences in both educators and students. The project will implement sustainable infrastructure, resources and guidelines for the enhancement of DLL and LDR Skills in European schools. It will enhance DLL and LDR by improving ICT Skills, along with reading, language and culture competences in both teachers and pupils at the primary and lower-secondary level, possibly to smooth the passage from the Primary to the Secondary cycle of education.Key innovations in DILECTINGS are:- Online, Open & Flexible Education approach to promoting the achievement, assessment and exchange of DLL and LDR Skills- Innovative pedagogies for achievement of DLL and LDR Skills: online modules and tools - Innovative approaches/technologies for assessment and use of DLL and LDR Skills with links to competency frameworks- Engaging and effective learner experience in a Personal Learning Environment.<< Implementation >>DILECTINGS will:1.Set a basis for a pedagogic Framework of best practices for DLL, leading to the drafting of Guide Lines possibly integrating DIGICOMP (see http://www.digital-competences-for-teachers.eu/) and the European platforms for teachers and schools, such as eTwinning and School Gateway.2.Create a European DLL and LDR Hub (Teaching platform: European guide to digital literature) for achievement, assessment and exchange of Digital Literature Skills and competences as a central reference point. The DILECTINGS project aims at the construction of a Moodle-based distance education platform that can act as a hub connecting teachers, pupils and schools involved (http://moodle.com). Furthermore, an integration with the eTwinning/School Education Gateway platform is foreseen in order to insert the modules developed through the DILECTINGS platform directly into the new comprehensive European platform. The platform will be particularly usable in mobility and on mobile devices through the automatic adaptation of the graphical and textual elements contained in the courses.3.Develop an innovative toolkit to enhance achievement, assessment and exchange of DLL and LDR Skills (i.e. a CANVAS, an assessment grid, a materials evaluation grid). The toolkit would also be integrated into the eTwinning/School Education Gateway platform, and left at the disposal of pre/in-service teachers.4.Promote intercultural awareness and inclusion in schools, educators and students enhancing shared experiences and cooperation on DLL and LDR projects.<< Results >>The main results our project expects to have are:PR1: A Conceptual Framework for achievement, assessment and exchange of DLL and LDR Skills. (R3) PR2: A European DLL Platform hosting online training modules for the training of teachers, a space for interactive intercultural digital activities to enhance Story reading, digital reading, story digital writing (authors’ materials, stories, debates groups, book-clubs, writing workshops). The platform will function as a Hub, a central reference point for DLL and LDR in Europe (hosted by R3, content managed by UVIC). PR3: A training activity will be provided to the teachers of the schools involved, so as to cater them with the necessary competences to translate the contents of the modules into their teaching practice; this will also serve as an assessment/feedback for the toolkit’s usability and effectiveness (WUT)PR4: Implementation of a Smart Toolkit supporting learning, assessment and exchange of DLL and LDR skills for teachers (developed by TCD; pedagogical frame provided by R3) PR5: e-book guidelines for teachers/schools for achievement, assessment and exchange of DLL and LDR Skills, and define what areas they need support in (UVIC).