<< Background >>As time goes on it is becoming increasingly clear that the emergence of an inverted population pyramid will create serious problems. In particular, it will be difficult to ensure the sustainability of health and pension systems in countries where the proportion of elderly people may even double. Population ageing is a challenge. However, it is also an opportunity. Elderly people will need new products and services, which will open up a new market that could contribute to stimulating industry in the region. So, contrary to the common negative perceptions, we can see that old age also has benefits. One of them is its economic potential.The set of products and services that people will consume when they are old is called the silver economy. Needs that emerge with older age require specific solutions. Considering the opportunities offered by new technologies, solutions in the future are likely to be different to those obtained by our parents and grandparents. This rise in internal demand will boost the regional economy, as the creation of new products and services will lead to new jobs and new companies, and increase the European Union’s competitiveness. These are businesses that have had a good return on their investments to date, and have been shown to be profitable. Innovative disciplines such as the nanosciences, biotechnology, robotics and artificial intelligence will be able to make money from their ideas by testing formulas to make our last years better years.A report of the European Commission highlights that by 2070, 30.3% of the population is projected to be aged 65 years or older and 13.2% is projected to be aged 80 years or older. The Green Paper on Ageing issued by the European Commission in January 2021 reports that the silver economy is expected to grow by about 5% a year from EUR 3.7 trillion in 2015 to EUR 5.7 trillion in 2025 and therefore it will open up new job opportunities in many sectors. Given this framework, it is clear that we should update the labour market to the elderly’s needs, starting from addressing the lack of skills concerning today’s companies, local authorities and the non-governmental sector.Considering these framework, ARGENTUM project wants to contribute to raising the european public’s awareness in relation to the general topic of active ageing and Silver economy. In a period of deep economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic, the european economy needs to find new sustainable ways to face the challenges ahead. In this respect, targets like seniors cannot be disregarded as they represent a growing part of nowadays and future consumers. ARGENTUM project wants to promote the concept of Silver economy, which, despite the demographic trend mentioned above, is not very well known among private and public entities. The primary mission of ARGENTUM project is to promote innovation and Silver economy and to create bridges between researchers, policy makers, business, education, local governments and civil society. We want to create a favourable environment for development of Silver economy and the institutional, academic, business and civil entities must be prepared to turn the challenge of an ageing population into an opportunity.<< Objectives >>ARGENTUM project will create an Innovative Cluster for Silver economy with the aim to enhance collaboration and give visibility to all the relevant actors for the sector.In the cluster will participate companies and service providers, which operate in Information technology, Welfare, Health&Care, Tourism, Leisure/Sport and Education (the 7 markets of Silver Economy). These actors will take part in the same training course (R2) which will respond to the different interests, priorities and profiles of the subjects. The training courses will help companies to align their production to the new technologies and, together with the Cluster, they will promote the spread of Best Practices in the field of silver economy.Furthermore, the project will provide integrated innovative training courses (R3) also to Local governments with the aim of driving them to adopt a new approach regarding innovative social services and supportive measures for healthy and well aging.Thanks to this Project we will create an innovative e-learning platform that will support the definition of the training courses’ contents (R2-R3) and their transferability.Participants from the 7 markets of Silver economy will be involved in an international hackathon.In general, this Project is line with general objective of Erasmus + programme and, wants to achieve two of the three priorities of Erasmus+ 2021-2027 Programme: the digital transition and the promotion of inclusion. By further engaging, the elderly in society ARGENTUM wants to contribute to the spreading of digital knowledge and participation among seniors.Through the activation and involvement of stakeholders at local, regional, national or transnational level, we will improve the autonomy, participation in social life, skills, and employability of older adults.<< Implementation >>First of all, the activities implemented within the three Work Packages (project management, the communication/dissemination of project results and the quality management) will take place throughout the whole life-cycle of the Project.As far as the other activities are concerned, they are divided on the basis of the four Results that the project wants to achieve. The activities related to the mapping and creation of an Innovative Cluster for Silver economy will be: the elaboration of guidelines for mapping the potential economic and business fabric, the elaboration of a potential members list, the definition of the structure, the aims and the activities of the Cluster, the set up of a facilitation strategy for round tables, the organisation of thematic round tables in partners' countries, the involvement/detection of potential members and, finally, the Cluster set up. InnoGrowth will be responsible for the successful implementation of the activities related to R1 which will take place from month 2 to month 12.As for the second and third results, the training course on integrated innovative services design for ageing peoples in Information technology, Welfare, Health& Care, Tourism, Leisure/Sport and Education (the 7 markets of Silver Economy) (R2) and the one on accelerating innovation in local governments (Innovative social services and supportive measures for well aging - R3) will both have the same structure made of the following activities: the elaboration of a preliminary survey on the learning needs of the target groups, the definition of Curriculum, the definition of learning and teaching methodologies, the development of a Curriculum, the gathering and involvement of participants for the pilot courses, the delivery of online pilot courses, their evaluation, the editing of the e - learning course, and the content’s translation. The partner responsible for R2 will be ARIS and the activities will take place between the month 8 and the month 18. The partner responsible for R3 will be Sofia Municipality and the activities will be implemented from month 15 to month 23.The fourth result concerns the set up of an e-learning platform and the production of learning materials. This result will be supervised by the spanish partner INIT (UJI) and its activities, which will take place between month 11 and month 24 will be: the preliminary definition of the e-learning design and structure, the development of material for the R2 training course, the testing for R2 training course and the production and translation for R2, the development of material for the R3 training course, the testing for R3 training course and the production and translation for R3 and, finally, the set up of the e-Learning platform.The Projects also provides the implementation of multiplier events that will take place in each State involved at the same time (month 12) , one final dissemination conference in Bulgaria and 4 transnational meetings taking place in months 1,8,15 and 21, and one Blended Mobility in Italy in month 19.<< Results >>The first relevant result to these outcomes concerns the collaboration of different entities interested in the field of Silver economy and it will be implemented during the first year of the project life-cycle. Through the elaboration of specific guidelines these subjects will be mapped; then, thematic round tables will be set up in order to organise the structure, the aims and the activities of the Cluster. Clusters have the potential to increase the productivity of the entities involved therein, drive innovation and stimulate new businesses in the field. Moreover, clusters boost fresh ideas by stimulating the exchange of know-how and expertise among its units. By doing so, these platforms increase the capacity of the labour market and they contribute to the enhancement of the regional economy. The second and third important results, which will be delivered from the second half of the first year of the project lifecycle to its end, involve the delivery of training courses addressing the target groups of the project: Companies, NGOs (from the 7 markets of Silver economy) and Local Governments. Based on the learning needs of the target groups, methodologies of training will be selected and the participants for the pilot courses will be identified. The content of these pilot courses will vary according to the specific target groups. As far as the businesses are concerned, the provided lectures will be focused on the ways they can improve their performance by exploiting the economic and technological opportunities in response to the present demographic trend. As for the local government, the lessons will aim to promote a new approach regarding innovative social services and supportive measures for ageing people.The main expected project outcomes focus the market opportunities and service improvement for seniors. They are related to the improvement of autonomy, participation in social life, skills and employability of older adults and to the update of the labour market to the silver economy through innovative vocational education and training (VET).

Europe is facing the biggest migrant crisis since the end of World War II: never before have so many people fled political persecution and war as today. Tens of thousands of desperate people from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia are seeking refuge in Europe, striving for a better life for themselves and their families. At the same time, EU countries encounter the challenge of population aging, with the number of elderly people growing steadily in relation to the working-age population. However, many of the retired Europeans still have potential if not to stay in the workforce, then to contribute to the society in many other ways, such as active citizenship and volunteering, bringing with them their personal qualities of patience, wisdom and understanding, as well as a wealth of life and professional experience. To tackle these critical challenges the project will address two main target groups – elderly people and migrants/ refugees. Representatives of both groups tend to suffer from social isolation and are at a greater risk of social exclusion. With this project we aim to contribute to the successful integration of migrants / refugees into the host societies with the help of seniors and to tackle the social exclusion of older people through volunteering services to migrants. To accomplish the above aim the partnership will undertake the following objectives:-strengthening senior volunteers’ active citizenship and volunteering skills through the piloting training based on the training programme developed by the partnership-enhancing host country language learning and orientation process of migrants/ refugees through the provision of the developed social and civic integration tool–guide for migrants (App) as well as offering teaching/ mentoring support by the trained senior volunteers-raising public awareness on the issues related to migration and aging society using the film developed by the project reflecting on the unique experiences of the project participants - senior volunteers and migrants/refugees.The following participants will be directly involved in the project activities: senior volunteers - 15-20 per partner country, migrants/ refugees - 25 per partner country.During the project the following activities will be implemented / outputs will be produced:-training methodology and training programme for senior volunteers providing support for migrant/ refugee integration developed and tested by trainers in partner counties;-training material for teaching senior volunteers in a user-friendly downloadable format developed and piloting trainings organised in each partner country;-social and civic integration tool-a guide for migrants and refugees (App) developed and tested by migrants/ refugees during the exploitation-contact seminars;-exploitation-contact seminars in all partner countries involving senior volunteers and migrants/ refugees organised in all partner countries; the events will be aimed to present the developed social and civic integration tool and to establish contacts between senior volunteers and migrants/ refugees, as well as representatives of organisations providing services for migrants;-short awareness raising film reflecting on the unique experiences of project participants-senior volunteers and migrants/ refugees and aimed at reducing existing misconceptions, combating stereotypes on migration and aging society issues created;- international dissemination and awareness raising conference in Lithuania organised.The project will have an overall impact on various participating target groups, institutions and organisations, local communities through fostering the development of social, civic, intercultural, volunteering competences by providing representatives of both target groups with unique opportunities to integrate and reintegrate into the society, and at the same time providing mutual support to each other and to the society.The project will also have a siginficant and positive impact on the participating organisations and their staff, including trainers participating in the testing and piloting trainings by improving their personal and professional competencies and thereby enhancing the organisations.The project will create a lasting value for the community and society by raising public awareness about the specific issues of aging society as well as migrant / refugee integration in Europe.