"Acquiring place BRANDing competences at work through continuing VET to increase the attractiveness of EUropean cities (Brand-EU) is a project that involved 7 public bodies from 5 European countries. The participating partners had in common the size, were all medium-sized cities anf the situation: not many people decide to move in or businesses decide to invest due to a general lack of attraction of the cities. In particular, businesses do not find it profitable to invest in our cities due to this lack of attraction. There is a lack of knowledge on communication and skills. More attention should be given to present the cities as a system, also because there is a lack of awareness about what you they have to offer. Starting from these considerations the partners have identified that civil servants needs to be equipped with competences on place branding strategies in order to boost the attractiveness of the local areas. OBJECTIVES The general objective of the project was to raise the attractiveness of European cities through the exchange of best practices on the place branding strategies designed and implemented by Municipalities in collaboration with stakeholders in order to create more favourable condition for local development. In order to achieve the general objective above the projects will aim at: 1. Developing high quality place branding skills in the staff of municipalities and local stakeholders 2. Increasing the collaboration between municipalities and local actors for common place branding strategies 3. Creating more training opportunities for municipalities and local actors' staff at transnational level The target groups involved in the activities during and after the project will be: civil servants; political representatives; and local actors, including SMEs, category associations, chamber of commerce, associations for the promotion of the territory etc. ACTIVITIES The activities of ""Brand EU"" were implemented on two levels: - At transnational level the participating organisations undertook an intense exchange of their best practices on place branding. Four transnational events have been organised to coordinate the project (1 online) and 3 joint staff training events aimed at increasing the competences of the participating staff. - At local level the partners defined along the years their Place Branding Strategies on the basis of the skills acquired through of the training activities carried out at transnational level. This process included also a strong involvement of stakeholders in order to build local network of cooperation oriented at raising the attractiveness of the European cities participating. PROJECT RESULTS The project increased the competences on place branding in the civil servants of the participating municipalities. At the same time ""Brand EU"" raised the attention on investing in continuing VET as a way to re-skill the staff of public authorities and develop strategies that have an impact on local development (like in this case place branding strategy) In the long run, the tight collaboration between municipalities and stakeholders will increase the attractiveness of the cities involved, and create more appealing conditions for citizens and businesses to settle."

Within the Roadmaps for Energy (R4E) project the partners will work together to develop a new type of energy strategy through visions and roadmaps for the 8 partner cities, in co-creation with local stakeholders. The stakeholders include the benefactors of the strategy, such as citizens, as well as relevant research and industry partners, to offer a clear picture of the future potential of the city. In the R4E project a four step process is applied. The FIRST step sets the ambitions for the project. The ambitions of the participating cities on sustainable energy and Smart Cities in general are set, as well as the partner cities' choice for 2 focus areas within Smart Energy Savings: 1.Smart Buildings, 2. Smart Mobility or 3. Smart Urban Spaces. The SECOND step is to develop desired scenarios for the cities for the selected focus areas. During the THIRD step the roadmap will be created, existing and future technologies and other developments will be identified, which enable the realization of the desired future scenarios. Opportunities and developments will be plotted on a timeline to provide insight in the required steps and milestones towards the favoured scenarios. The roadmaps will contain generic parts that are common for the partner cities, as well as specific parts that cater for the specific context of the cities. During the final and FOURTH step a project portfolio will be generated with new projects and initiatives to reach the ambitions, visions and roadmaps of the cities. This portfolio provides an overview of individual and joint projects and includes a cross-city learning plan and a financial plan. At the end of the project each partner city will each have 2 future scenarios, 2 roadmaps and a portfolio of individual and joint projects to implement sustainable energy policies and measures. Also the visioning and roadmapping capacities within the municipalities are developed to spur future development and implementation of innovative energy solutions.

Quality in Early childhood education and care (ECEC) has gained an increasingly prominent position on European and national policy agendas. Quality of ECEC depends largely on the system as whole and on the competence of its components like staff, families and communities. The main problem that the partnership has identified and intends to address stands in the fact that involvement and participation of the parents and carers are scarcely or not sufficiently acknowledged as a key component contributing to quality of ECEC as a competent system.The project has pursued four specific objectives:1) To identify, test and mainstream best practices and innovative methods of participation particularly in context of diversity (socio-economic and cultural diversity, minorities, etc);2) To improve the teachers competences pertaining strategies and approaches the involvement of parent by learning from the experiences of colleagues from other countries in Europe ;3) To improve the integration and interaction of the different components of the system (children, practitioners, researchers, families, community);4) To address participation in ECEC as a process in a more effective way through quality indicators;The partnership consists of 11 partners from 7 EU countries. The organizations involved in the partnership are: 3 pre-schools, 2 local authorities managing pre-schools, 1 teachers training organization, 2 universities, 2 research centers, 1 transnational networks of local and regional authorities.The project has involved a total of 162 participants in the transnational meetings and training actvities and 618 participants in the multiplier events representing three main target groups: practitioners (pre-school teachers and managers, representative of local authorities and academics / trainers).The achievement of the goals was possible thanks to an implementation path based on the following macro phases. The first phase saw an analysis of national situations in relation to the topic in terms of existing policy framework and guidelines. This phase ended with the identification of practices on participation in the context of the partnership and made it possible to create a baseline for setting up the next phase. The second phase of the project was focused on defining the project's approach to the theme of participation with the definition of the four areas of participation (learning about the family, communicating with the family, deciding and acting together with the family, collaborating and cooperating with the community ) and the indicators connected to each area. The third phase was focused on identifying the practices to be deepened in the ligt of the focus areas and the indicators and the subsequent observation activity through job shadowing. The fourth step was to transfer and experiment on practices locally based on job shadowing results. Based on the transfer and the effectiveness of the practice in a European context other than the original one, the fifth phase of the creation of the toolbox prototype started. Subsequently the prototypes were shared with the stakeholders through the multiplication bodies (phase six) and on the basis of the feedback received, the paper and online versions were finalized (seven steps).The main results (impact resulting from the activities in the local contexts of the partners) of the project have been:Innovative forms of participation (enabling practices and methods) were identified, transferred in other EU countries and tested; A toolbox enhancing participation has been created including (introduction, instructions, focus areas, and best practices) and disseminated in 9 EU languages. The toolbox has both a paper version and online version;Increased interaction of the different components of the system (family members, practitioners, community)Increased competences of the ECEC staff pertaining participation Increased internationalization and stronger European dimension of the involved pre-schoolsDevelopment of more effective indicators addressing comprehensively the theme of participationOne of the main long term impact of the project has been an increased awareness locally and internationally and more centrality attached to participation of families and carers as a key component enhancing quality of the Early Childhood Education and Care