<< Objectives >>Rural poverty and difficult access to education for vulnerable groups often constitute an added disadvantage of life in rural settings. The FUNGIPRENEURS project is aimed at supporting the social inclusion of vulnerable groups in rural areas through environmental awareness about the importance of fungi for the ecosystems and the marketable value of mycological resources, promoting behaviour change, green skills development and responsible and sustainable social entrepreneurship.<< Implementation >>The project will focus on adult educators (project users) and on vulnerable groups in rural areas (project beneficiaries) by:- Developing the competences of adult educators dealing with project beneficiaries.- Producing ICT-based educational tools and methods that adult educators will use with vulnerable groups in rural areas to develop their skills and guide them to social entrepreneurship based on the use of mycological resources.- Testing the tools developed in real educational contexts.<< Results >>1. ECVET Training Curriculum on social inclusion by environmental awareness and social entrepreneurship through mycology2. Online course for adult educators3. e-Learning platform4. Training Path based on gamification and roadmapping methodologies5. Toolkit to be used by adult educators with vulnerable groups in rural areas6. Pilot trials in Spain, Portugal, Austria and Cyprus7. Intangible outcomes like environmental awareness raising and increased motivation of beneficiaries to learn.

Severe ocular disorders are affecting the lives of more than 100Mill people world-wide and at least 25% of the population above 70 years of age, a growing demographic group in EU. More than 8 million people lose their lives to cancer every year, making cancer a leading cause of pre-mature mortality in the world. The main hallmarks of severe eye conditions (i.e angiogenesis, inflammation and vascular permeability) play also pivotal roles in cancer, being therapeutic targets to treat both kind of diseases. The overall goal of 3D-NEONET is the improvement of available treatments for cancer and ocular disease by enhancing drug discovery-development and delivery to targeted tissues, through advanced international co-operation between academic and non-academic partners. The interdisciplinary expertise provided by 18 partners in 7 countries encompasses among others: drug screens, ADME, toxicology, preclinical models, nanotechnology, biomaterials and clinical trials. After the success with ongoing FP7-IAPP project 3D-NET (Drug Discovery and Development of Novel Eye Therapeutics; (www.ucd.ie/3dnet), we are assembling 3D-NEONET, this enlarged European interdisciplinary consortium that will join forces and exchange skills to enhance current therapies in oncology and ophthalmology. The 3 global objectives of 3D-NEONET are: 1- Enhance the discovery and development of novel drugs, targets and biomarkers for ophthalmology and oncology. 2- Improve the Delivery of Therapeutics for Oncology and Ophthalmology 3- Enhancement of Research, Commercial and Clinical Trial Project Management Practices in these fields. Through participation in the program, 3D-NEONET is the vehicle for driving synergies between academic and non-academic participants leading to increased scientific and technological excellence as well as tangible innovative outputs that will strengthen the competitiveness of both the researchers and industries of the network even beyond the lifetime of the network.

The past EU funding programs for the afforestation of agricultural marginal areas promoted many walnut quality hardwood planted forests in southern Europe, which are mostly small to medium-sized and dispersed in the territory. Although southern European countries have intensively invested in research on walnut silviculture and genetics, the owners of small planted forests lack the know-how needed to properly manage their plantations, being a majority of them poorly managed or abandoned. Moreover, the average age of the walnut plantations and their need for thinnings imply that large quantities of small-diameter trees will be produced in the years to come. However, small-dimensioned European walnut logs are not demanded by wood industry because of the higher transformation costs and because of the competition of the American walnut. WOODNat, focused on the whole walnut hardwood-chain, aims at increasing the use of quality walnut hardwood produced under sustainable management practices in planted forests of southern Europe, which implies adding value to the whole chain of the walnut hardwood market, involving the different stakeholders of the market. To help this approach, WOODNat will benefit from biotechnology, robotics, and the development of a mobile app. Thanks to WOODNat, walnut plant nurseries will improve characteristics of walnut plants in order to reach a higher standard in the market while increasing nursery productivity, and will keep after-sale contact with plantation managers to get feedback of the success of the walnut plants. A whole package of environmentally sustainable management practices, including sustainable innovative approaches to degrade by-products, will be implemented in walnut planted forests, not only in new plantations but also in many now abandoned or poorly-managed exploitations. Such package of good practices will increase not only productivity, but also multifunctionality of walnut plantations