<< Background >>The AISkills4CircularTransition will explore the opportunities and challenges that come with this monumental new taskforce that is defining the new standards of business, through the implementation of a training programme on the opportunities Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Circular economy (CE) can offer to agri-food businesses. The whole training programme aims at supporting the transition of European SMEs of the agri-food sector from a traditional development model to a circular one that will enhance the regeneration of skills and competences at workplace and favours circular businesses and organisation models. AISkills4CircularTransition will thus rethink and redesign the jobs already performed to exploit the skills already available at workplace, avoid their underutilisation and enhance the career path of the (older and recently hired) employees that miss the right competences. Skills formation at workplace has been proven to alleviate this phenomenon and is one of the main pillars of the EU 2020 strategy for economic growth.The AISkills4CircularTransition project is based on a genuine and adequate analysis of the needs of these target groups: In first place, the needs to be trained and upskilled about the innovative solutions and practices that could support them to initiate a circular and digital transformation of their activities and practices, have been expressed by them-selves. As reported by ANIA, FIAB and SEVT, the agri-food professionals require to advance their knowledge and increase their competences and capacity to lead the transformation process, both digital and circular, and accommodate the need for new skills in interdisciplinary courses. In second place, a specific training approach and methodology are needed to design and elaborate the different modules and contents in order to meet the expectations of the target groups. The learners are the agri-food professionals, in activity, with various backgrounds and professional experiences. The training program, approach and schedule will be specially adapted to them, taking into account their availability. As mentioned, the trainees who will participate in the project, are professionals in activity and their professional commitment and everyday activities could be an obstacle to follow a course if the conditions are not adapted in terms of schedule, duration, frequency, online availability. Aware of the importance of this element, the project members will design the training program to overcome this potential boundary to the effective participation.<< Objectives >>AISkills4CircularTransition project aims at providing agri-food professionals with fit-for-purpose knowledge and skills on AI technologies to nurture the development of fairer circular food chain models, combining the environmental, social, economic, and digital dimensions.The project main goal is to sensibilize and train professionals from the agri-food sectors to the use of AI along the supply chains allowing a fair digital transition of their industries, with a specific focus on how AI could facilitate and help the implementation of circular economy principles.The project main objectives are:-Raise awareness, improve knowledge and skills of agri-food professionals about AI and CE, and the opportunity of transformation and sustainable development they can offer-Empower the agri-food professionals to engage transformation and innovation activities that will have a positive impact on the development of their businesses and local communities, and to the green and climate-neutral transition-Support and strengthen capacity-building and capacity-adaptation of the professionals and improve their resilience to manage and address complex challenges and issues-Build new cross-sector networks and stimulate multidisciplinary way of thinking-Promote innovative pedagogical approaches in VET.<< Implementation >>To achieve the project objectives, the partners agreed on a 36-month work plan structured in six work packages, including three categories of actions: 1) related to project activities, 2) sharing and promotion actions, and 3) project management.WP1 to WP4 are dedicated to set up all the defined activities which will lead to the expected project results. The main activities that will be deployed will consist in a logical sequence of tasks in order to release the defined outputs. -The PR1: Pedagogical scenarios and methodological framework design, will be handled in WP1 concerning the specifications of the learning contents and pedagogical methodology. -WP2 will lead to the PR2: Tailored multi-media modules on AI and CE integrated into the e-platform. Once the specifications and methodology defined in WP1 and consolidated in PR1, raw contents for the training programmes will be developed, including assessment tools. -The activities in WP3 will be dedicated to the project platform development. (PR3: Project platform development).-Within WP4, the project consortium will assess the of pedagogical methodology, and contents. Based on the project overall analysis and will formalise a set of relevant recommendations for the key actors and stakeholders in the form of a Guidance and recommendations report. The activities defined in WP5 will carry out all the tasks linked with the sharing and promotion strategy of the consortium, and WP6 has been structured in order to ensure a good administrative and financial management. WP6 on management will ensure the quality of the process and best practices for daily administrative and financial management and reporting.<< Results >>During and after the completion of the AISkills4CircularTransition project, both direct tangible and intangible results will be produced and released as a final version.These tangible results will be considered as the main transferable assets:1) Tailored training content designed to be integrated on on diverse learning management systems, including specifications for training and learning methodology based on the analysis of the needs of targeted audiences.2) OER (Open Education Resources) – e-learning multimedia modules content for implementation and testing adapted to the targeted audience. This result will be consolidated into a public deliverable and will remain at open access for dissemination and future use.3) Assessment methodology, criteria and results of the training outputs of the project. A set of qualitative and quantitative indicators will be defined to objectively measure the efficiency and the learning impacts of the project activities. The feedback and the subjective perceptions of the involved audiences, both trainees and trainers, will also be taken in account to complete the analysis of the project activities and underline the possible margin of improvement.4) Finally, guidelines for transferability and reapplication will be elaborated to share and promote the project outcomes, findings and best practices at large scale, complemented by a living directory of AI technology providers and CE experts towards agri-food professionals.On the side of intangible results, the project will produce several outcomes:1) Contribute to fostering the digital transformation and 4.0 transition of agri-food businesses through the use and benefits of AI technologies to enhance their production and human resources management in a circular way.2) Contribute to improve key knowledge and competences of the agri-food professionals with an advanced skill set for the labour market, thus maintaining or enhanced their employability.

European farming is strongly affected by the high-impact of climate change emerging as a major threat on agriculture in Europe and across the world. Even though the digital transformation of agriculture promises to solve numerous environmental, economic and societal problems, and important steps have taken place towards this goal, agriculture sector is the least digitized of all major productive activities. By increasing digitalisation and adopting climate-smart practices in agricultural makes it is possible to produce products with ever higher efficiency and ever lower environmental impact. However, adoption of a climate-smart agriculture is not only a farmers’ concern. It is an interdisciplinary issue for agronomists, ICT experts, farmers, breeders etc. that Higher Education Institutions need to respond by developing new skills and technologies in their curricula.SmartROOT focuses on the preparation of a new Joint Master Degree program in the field of Mixed Farming Systems (MFS) by introducing user-friendly ICT tools to improve the resilience of agriculture subject to climate change. The rational is not only to prepare an international master degree program. It is also to actively involve students in the preparation process, receive their assessment and feedback on the ICT tools and material developed in terms of their operability, the user-friendly environment, the knowledge gained, the extent of international cooperation and the extent of satisfaction of their expectations. It will be a dynamic, inter-active process which ends to a Joint Master Degree program ready to run after the completion of the project.SmartROOT not only aims to prepare the future professionals in the agricultural sector, but also promotes ways for small and medium-sized farms to benefit from the new technologies by introducing and familiarising farmers to digital technologies. Farmers will gain knowledge on methodologies to foster the synergies between agricultural production, climate change mitigation and adaptation. SmartROOT expected results can be summarised in the following lines:1) Build an international Joint Master Degree (JMD) program in Mixed Farming Systems ready to run after the completion of the project2) Actively involve students to the preparation, test and assessment of a JMD prior its official launch3) Enforce students’ insight to perceive the global trends on the agriculture domain in combination to climate change mitigation4) Increase students’ and stakeholders (e.g. farmers) awareness on environment friendly agricultural trends to minimise the climate change consequences5) Bridge the needs of agriculture experts and ICT scientists and familiarise farmers with ICT technological advancements6) Develop open educational and management platforms available to be used by individual farmers and agriculture professionals7) Act as a stepping stone towards the new challenge for HEIs in Europe as described under the Erasmus+ program: to create a network in the frame of the European Universities initiative SmartROOT’s results will be achieved through the following outputs:- O1 MFS e-book - O2 Open Hub for Knowledge Exchange - O3 SmartROOT Virtual Farm Hub- O4 MFS Educational Management Platform - O5 Augmented Reality Learning Environment - O6 SmartROOT Assessment Toolkit and Curriculum preparation1.Introduce the context of CSA and Mixed Farming Systems to HEIs involved through co-design of their curricula2.Educate students to new technological solutions for climate smart agriculture such as such as smart sensors, robots, UAVs, advanced tracking systems, long-range IoT-enabled sensors, middleware and gateways for extending the size of the potential monitoring area, facilitating, thus, data collection and processing of different farming systems at the same time, enabling optimal decisions,3.Develop an Open Access Climate-Smart agriculture platform to foster, support and promote Mixed Farming Systems (MFS), by facilitating the design, the deployment, and the management of crop-livestock-forestry combinations towards sustainable, efficient, and climate-aware MFS systems.4.Develop a continuous training platform, in the national language of each partner’s country, designed for the socio-professional network and based on the content and results of the 3-year project 5.Foster a European network between academia, experienced farmers and stakeholders, to engage end-users and allow exchange of knowledge on best practices on various combinations of mixed farming systems

In the food industry there are a high number of products susceptible to contamination. That is why the surfaces in contact with food products and the environment where these products are processed should be hygienically correct. This objective is only achieved through regular and systematic cleaning and disinfection (C&D). In the food&drink (F&D) sector these activities are carried out by the production workers or industrial cleaning companies who perform the c&d processes.Cleaning workers are affected by regulations and standards related with hygiene, environmental protection and health and safety in relation to the use of C&D products (many of them are biocides). Thus, adaptability of workers is needed to deal with continuous changes and developments emerging in the sector. Proper training of workers is essential to reduce the high number of workplace accidents and occupational illnesses as well as food hazards causing food-borne diseases. The project developed training materials that will improve training on C&D procedures, occupational hazards and hygiene in the food&drink sector, and therefore, will ensure the workers’ safety and the consumers’ health.The objectives of the project are: 1-To provide training on C&D procedures in the F&D industry. 2-To use both food hygiene and prevention of occupational risks training as a strategy to increase workers adaptability to changes and developments emerging in the sector, thereby improving their employability and competitiveness. 3-To encourage the spreading and implementation the European policy about food safety, contributing therefore to protect consumers' health and to protect workers' from occupational risks. 4-To guarantee the product quality and safety by continuous evaluation.The partnership was composed for several organisations with great experience in the vocational training for the F&D and chemical sector from Iceland, Italy, Spain, Lithuania and Romania.The results of the project was a comprehensive new training material on C&D procedures, hygiene, food safety, occupational risk and waste management. The training material is available on an e-platform with open access for all interested in taking the course. The main impact of the project results is to support Vocational and Educational Trainers (VET) by providing them with teaching resources about C&D procedures, food hygiene and occupational risks prevention to train workers performing C&D activities in the F&D sector; More favorable environment to encourage the use of ICT on education; Improvement of the training courses given by the VET system.

<< Background >>Childhood obesity and overweight are inevitable contemporary problems. The evolution of children's diets over the last decades, coupled with an ever-lower energy expenditure, especially during the COVID-19 period, forces us to question the development and/or reinforcement of food education for children. In southern European countries this issue has a significant impact on the health and well-being of children. In this context, the EFFECT project aims to develop food education for primary school children in France, Greece and the USA. The uniqueness of the project lies in the fact that the EFFECT project will develop training content for the children's trainers, considering that only the training of the children's ecosystem will allow the establishment of sustainable habits.<< Objectives >>The main goals of the EFFECT project are to i) propose a thorough analysis of best practices in food education toward children across Europe, to ii) improve the trainer’s awareness and knowledge on food education through dedicated pedagogical material and training sessions, to iii) create and implement the Sustainable Lifestyle Fest in all participating countries, iv) to develop food education for children at the European level through dissemination and transferability activities. It’s envisioned impacts are i) an increase of the knowledge of best practices in food education towards children across Europe, ii) an increase of pedagogical resources and tools available to support trainers in the development of food education sessions towards children, iii) an increase of the children’s knowledge regarding food products, iv) a wider dissemination and uptake of the knowledge in EU educative communities via tailored content on an e-learning platform.<< Implementation >>Different activities will be implemented in the framework of the project: whereas the WP1 will be focused on the gathering of best practices in food education towards children and analysis of needs and requirements, WP2 will aim to create dedicated pedagogical material on food education towards children for trainers. This pedagogical material will be available on an e-learning platform created during WP3 of the project, and be used for both self-learning and blended learning, as trainer’s training sessions and food education sessions towards children will be implemented as part of WP4. For these training pilot experimentations, a toolkit on training trainers will be created. Finally, an innovative concept, the Sustainable Lifestyle Fest, will be implemented in several schools and extracurricular centres in the participating countries: this activity will give children a holistic approach of food (better knowledge of food products, of issues such as food waste, reappropriation of eating habits through the design of one's own menu…), and offer their trainers ideas and advices to implement regular physical activities depending of various contexts. Activities of communication and transferability are planned to increase the visibility of the project and to exploit its results to the fullest.<< Results >>The project has 5 main project’s results: -A White Book on the best practices in food education towards children-Dedicated pedagogical material on food education towards children for trainers-Online e-learning platform with adapted pedagogical content-Toolkit on training trainers in food education towards children-Creation, implementation and transferability of the Sustainable Lifestyle Fest The project’s partners expect to train 120 - 150 European trainers, and to reach another 300 trainers through dissemination and communication activities. More than 1 000 children and 1 000 families will be reached by the project. At a local and regional levels, the project will lead to an increase of pedagogical resources available to the trainers, and thus to better informed children, families and local stakeholders. At the schools level, this project will lead to a development of food education initiatives, notably with the adaptation of the Sustainable Lifestyle Fest. In the long term, the programme is expected to have an impact on the culinary habits of the children and families. At the national and European levels, this programme and its dissemination strategy is expected to raise awareness on the food education of children, and to improve knowledge on pedagogical practices and tools regarding food education. The project will improve EU trainers' knowledge on pedagogical practices in food education, which will empower them in the development of new, related initiatives by highlighting successful practices and providing key knowledge and skills for proper implementation.

The INDUCE project will develop an open access platform (INDUCE toolkit) where training material, online lessons, guidelines and tools will be available for companies aiming to increase their energy efficiency. Besides, the INDUCE methodology will be integrated in the platform with the objective of designing to design a specific capacity building programme for every company accessing the INDUCE toolkit, which will resulting in ad-hoc training adapted to the company’s needs and opportunities. The INDUCE methodology will link knowledge transfer on energy efficiency with behavioural and organizational change models, so an energy culture and an environment conducive for change are established in the company, while employees are motivated to act in a more sustainable manner. Unique about this methodology is that it will follow a Human-Centered Design approach, in which every phase will be conducted in close cooperation with the end users of the capacity building programme. This will enable INDUCE to interact and test together with the companies the best interventions, measures, etc. to be implemented. The INDUCE methodology and the toolkit will be both tested and validated in 15 pilot companies from the food and beverage sector in four countries that represent over 45% of the EU companies in this sector: Spain, France, the Netherlands and Germany. In a second replication step, an INDUCE community of trainers will be established by certifying 60 INDUCE trainers. They will be in charge of implementing the INDUCE methodology in another 300 companies, hence increasing INDUCE's impact up to 106 GWh/year of energy savings. The INDUCE Consortium includes three well-know research centres with expertise in energy efficiency, behavioural science and decision-making processes. In addition, a partner in charge of training at national level and an association as multiplier organization has been involved in every pilot country. Finally, this competitive consortium is completed by a research oriented SME focussed on exploitation and dissemination.