The project Start up for Development(START UP) is focusing on the concept of smart cities/villages and the understanding of this concept by the municipalities who are the ones implementing smart solutions in their environment. It is based on a premise that the understanding of the concept of smart cities/villages by municipalities is on a low level due to the fact that the problem is too wide, solutions even wider and there is also the lack of experts offering comprehensive solutions for municipalities. Especially those small municipalities that can not afford to have such experts in their employment.Based on the project's goal above is to prepare a course for trainers who will be able to give municipalities a clear and comprehensive explanation of what smart cities/villages would mean in their specific environment. Moreover they will be also able to give a training to other trainers and thus contribute to further dissemination of project results. To achieve this goal a set of intellectual outputswill be achieved during the project period. It will start with the survey of needs of municipalities and trainers. Following will be the curriculum development. Next it is course materials development and an organisation of a webinar for training of trainers. Once all the materials of the course are finalised they will be internationalised, i.e. translated to local languages of the consortium. All the project'scourse materials will be freely available in the form of Moodle course also after the end of the project. In order to even more strengthen the outcomes of the project its last part will be dedicated to organising international conferences in all the partner countries of the project.The project's consortium consists of five partners from Spain, Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria and Greece.The main target group of the project will be represented by adult educators who will be trained also during the project lifetime. Final beneficiaries can be defined as adult educators for whom there will be an online course freely available, representatives of municipalities who will benefit from betterunderstanding of smart cities/villages concept and finally general public that will directly benefit from smart solutions in their municipalities. The project will last for 30 months and its working language will be English.

"<< Background >>FROM THE SIDE OF THE PARTNERSHIP:The consortium consists of two types of organisations: training providers and secondary schools. Both profiles have encountered during the current school year the difficult reality in which TOGETHER AGAIN wants to be part of the solution. The educational centres, including the entire educational community (teachers, students, parents) have had to experience the gradual return to normality after months of confinement and distance from face-to-face classes. This long period of isolation and social distancing has had an enormous effect, especially on pupils, who have been caught in the middle of the process of psychosocial development and emotional relationships. This is why TOGETHER AGAIN is in line with the schools' need to harmonise the return to face-to-face training and the recovery of interpersonal relationships at a critical time for the protagonists.For their part, training provider organisations, especially those that actively collaborate with schools and in teacher training, have been surprised by the demand for this type of training, which until now had not been necessary. Only now, after long months of separation and absence, have we realised the need to know how to relate to each other, to harmonise interpersonal relationships and to generate healthy bonds. This is why TOGETHER AGAIN is aligned with the needs of the partners.FROM THE SIDE OF TARGET GROUPS: Taking into account the double line of TOGETHER AGAIN with respect to its target groups (teachers and secondary school students, 12-16 years old), our project fits their needs for the following reasons:STUDENTS: Sadness, anxiety, stress, apathy, fear... are some of the emotions that shake teenagers since the pandemic began. At a stage in their lives when everything is about to happen to them, they have suddenly had to slow down and press the pause button.As UNICEF points out, ""the pandemic is not only compromising our physical health. It also affects our mental health, particularly that of the most vulnerable, including children and adolescents. And it is urgent that we adults review this point, because 25% children and adolescents who have suffered isolation due to Covid-19 have depressive and/or anxiety symptoms.According to experts, it is still too early to fully assess the emotional, social and educational repercussions, but some research is already emerging. According to Miguel Hernández University (UMH), more than 85% of parents of children aged between 3 and 18 (in Spain, Italy and Portugal) noted changes in the emotional state and behaviour of their children, with the most common symptoms being difficulty concentrating (77%), lack of interest and boredom (52%), irritability (39%), worry and family arguments (30%), anxiety (28%), as well as agitation, nervousness, feelings of loneliness, restlessness..."".Despite everything, adolescence is a period in which peers are the great reference and source of satisfaction. For this reason, between the ages of 11 and 19, socialisation becomes one of the main pillars of adolescent development. In this context, the educational centre is the great context in which adolescents relate to their peers. The social aspect is of utmost importance for adolescents because it involves integration, feeling part of the group, feeling loved and valued. Children between the ages of 12 and 16 are in the midst of a formative period in all areas: academic, emotional and personal, and this pandemic has definitively changed the way they relate to each other and to society. That is why TOGETHER AGAIN is fully aligned with their needs.TEACHERS: According to a study carried out by the educational platform Kahoot!, in which more than 1,000 teachers from different countries were surveyed, 64% of the participants say that the most difficult part of the switch to distance learning was the lack of social contact with their students, as well as seeing them motivated.<< Objectives >>CONTEXT: According to the UNICEF report ""The Pandemic Classroom"" (March 2021), around 170 million children worldwide have gone more than a full year without attending face-to-face classes due to the confinements imposed by COVID-19. In addition, around 214 million (one in seven) have missed more than three quarters of face-to-face education, resulting in a serious disruption to students' habits. During these months they have lost direct contact with classmates, friends and teachers, and have been forced to manage their learning autonomously.The WEF report ""A Global Framework for Youth Mental Health"" (2020) states that because of the pandemic, 99% of the world's children and adolescents suffer from various forms of limitation of their autonomy of movement, including suspension of school attendance, and 60% live in countries with partial or total blockade, causing high levels of stress and isolation that can affect the psychophysical development of children and adolescents, even in the long term.Because for more than a year, millions of teachers and students at all levels of education in the EU have been using digital technology as an alternative tool to face-to-face education. While its use is widespread, there has been growing concern about its effects on children and adolescents, especially in the aftermath of confinement and particularly in relation to their psychosocial development.NEEDS: Science has already observed that children who suffer from social isolation experience cognitive, social and emotional difficulties in adulthood. A study conducted by Boston Children's Hospital and published in Science has shown how the brain alterations that give rise to such dysfunctions arise.It is clear that remote education in a context of confinement and affective restrictions is an important risk factor for social and emotional isolation and alienation for European children and adolescents.Thus, the study ""Health Behaviour in School-age Children"" (2020), published by the WHO Regional Office for Europe on the social behaviours of European schoolchildren aged 11-15, shows that the mental well-being of adolescents declined in many countries between 2014 and 2019, correlating among other factors with social isolation resulting from the increasing use of digital technology.Thus, the report ""Strengthening Social and Emotional Education as a core curricular area across the EU"" (2018) states:•That children and teens need concrete emotional and relational exchanges. •That these are the only real form of learning and healthy development. •The use of digital technologies can enrich and stimulate a child's experience, but it can never replace the human relationship, the source of growth.The conclusion is that confinements, restrictions, and the substitution of interpersonal social and affective relationships by the use of remote relational and educational options pose a huge risk (present and future) to healthy psychosocial development in children and adolescents. In fact, all Member State governments agree on one issue: the return to school was vital and all pupils in Europe should return to face-to-face classes as soon as health conditions make it possible. SOLUTION: TOGETHER AGAIN aims to support European children and adolescents through a training plan that strengthens their intrapersonal and interpersonal skills and competences by working on emotional intelligence, psychosocial and affective development at a key moment for the establishment of these areas.Our vision is to alleviate the consequences of the isolation and social distancing that children have experienced as a result of the measures imposed to control the pandemic. These include virtual education, which has deprived children of social and emotional relationships with their peer groups.TARGET GROUPS:-Secondary school students (12-16 years old).-Secondary school teachers.<< Implementation >>TOGETHER AGAIN consists of a training plan that will implement the tools and resources proposed by Emotional Intelligence for the development of interpersonal and intrapersonal competences in the target groups (teachers and students in Secondary school). The final goal is to compensate for the deficits in their psychosocial development generated by the isolation and social distancing imposed for the control of the pandemicFollowing these general lines, and in order to achieve the expected results, the partnership has planned has designed a meticulous plan which, in its implementation phase (subsequent to the preparation of this proposal) starts with the KOM. This first meeting will set the bases of the project, going through the goals and dividing the task and responsibilities. In this way, it will be a key point in the establishment of the Steering committee, Promotion and Quality Committee. According to the sections described in this application form, the first set of activities will be directed toward the establishment of working groups, who will be responsible for activities concerning the detailed working plan for the three PR of the project. TRANSVERSAL ACTIVITIES will cover aspects such as project management, monitoring and evaluation, dissemination and former exploitation of the results and contents of the project. They will last the whole duration of the project as described in the dissemination element of this application.PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION activities led by the project coordinator will also include the Quality Control activities, risk assessment and prevention activities, financial management and coordination of all partners in financial reporting as well as content reporting, organizing project meetings and online meetings, monitoring and addressing all issues and problems as they appear, as well as providing all national activities (research, promotion, etc.). AN INTERNAL AREA for project management and administration will be generated at the first stages of the project in order to facilitate communication, interchange of ideas, comments, files and materials between partners, as well as collaboration in the general management of TOGETHER AGAIN.FOUR TP will facilitate cooperate and partnership working amongst the project partners and support the management and delivery of key project activities and outcomes. Moreover, a series of four MULTIPLIER EVENTS are designed to promote the PRs and facilitate ongoing engagement with target groups.All PR will be implemented at a regional scale for regular personal contacts, keeping travel efforts low, and strengthening regional networks. They is the core of the project and all transversal, management and preparation activities are focused on the right execution of innovative and attractive training system for the target depicted in the description of the project. Thus, PR1 is the umbrella and departure point for all the activities in the Project, focusing on Secondary school teachers as a primary target group. PR2 will make emphasis in the relationship between teachers (adults) and students (teenagers), paying attention to the different perspective of each target group and the diverse way in which both have lived the time far from face-to-face school. Finally, in PR3, the partnership will focus especifically on students aged 12-16, the final beneficiaries of TOGETHER AGAIN. We will attention to how they resume interpersonal relationships, avoiding situations of risk or confrontation caused by social alienation and recovering the new normal after a critical period in their lives.<< Results >>TOGETHER AGAIN will produce two kind of outcomes:-Those related to content (Project Results)-Those related to management and implementationOur project will develop and test three Project Results with this outcomes:-PR1. A handbook for Secondary teachers on social emotional competences and a toolbox (20 practical tools) for teachers on interpersonal skills.-PR2. A practical bank of resources for teachers to relearn to interact with students.-PR3. Resource kit for student-to-student post Covid-19 relationships. More in detail, the project will produce the following minor deliverables:* Deliverables related to the activities of Management (also described in this application form):- Managing guidelines;- Reporting procedure and administrative guidelines;- 4 transnational meetings + meeting minutes.* Deliverables related to Monitoring and evaluation (also described in this application form):- Evaluation tools: meetings evaluation questionnaire, project progress questionnaire, Project Results evaluation tools and multiplier events evaluation questionnaire.- Evaluation Reports: mid-term and final evaluation report, Project Results reports;- Project risks analysis. * Deliverables related to the activities of promotion and sustainability (also described in this application form):- Project graphic design;- Social networks profiles;- Project website;- Project mailing list;- Newsletters;- Informative brochure; - In the Multiplier Events (E1-E4) the project consortium will hold workshops in order to ensure the sustainability of the project results beyond the project partnership and project’ lifetime.- In the training activity (C1) the result will be a train-the-trainers for 18 staff members in order to test and develop in practice and with real targets the tools and competences described and developed in the three PR."

Although air quality in Europe has improved over the last decade, there are still many places where concentrations of such pollutants as particulate matter (PM) or benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) significantly exceed WHO guidelines and EU norms. Pollution with PM2,5 only was responsible for 374 000 premature deaths in EU-28 countries in 2015. In countries as Poland, air pollution kills each year over 10 times more people than all road accidents. In 2017 as many as 17 countries registered PM10 concentrations above the EU norm. The situation is the most serious in hot-spot areas. For example, in many Polish cities concentration of benzo[a]pyrene exceeds the EU norm around 10 times. [1]As research shows, air pollution is not only a problem of large urban populations. Air within rural regions is often even more polluted, especially in the heating season. This in particular relates to such pollutants as PM and carcinogenic BaP or dioxins – as they are released when coal, wood or waste is burned in household heating appliances. [2] One of the worst air pollution hot spots in Europe covers CEE countries, including Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania and Romania, i.e. countries of project leaders and partners. Localities from these countries top all rankings of air pollution with PMs or benzo[a]pyrene in Europe . Although air quality in Spain is in general better than in Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic or Romania, Lithuania there are many areas which also suffer from excessive air pollution with particulate matter and benzo[a]pyrene.Health effects of long term exposure to high particulate matter and benzo[a]pyrene concentrations range from respiratory diseases (asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic bronchitis), through cardiovascular diseases (heart attack, hypertension, arrhythmia, cardiac insufficiency) and diseases of the nervous system (brain stroke, depression, anxiety, Alzheimer) to different types of cancer.The main reason behind high pollution levels in CEE is reliance on solid fuels (coal, wood) for heating. The household sector constitutes the largest single source of PM10 and B[a]P emissions in the analysed countries. The table below presents its share for respective countries. In Spain, residential heating with wood accounts for nearly half of particulate matter emissions. Biomass consumption in Spain increased by 27% since 2000. Czech Republic Poland Romania Slovakia Spain LithuaniaPM10 38% 52% 74% 83% 43% 55%BaP 87% 87% 63% 84% n.a. 77%Source: Informative Inventory Reports for each country prepared under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air PollutionA large portion of households in these countries continue using sold fuels (coal and wood) for space heating. In Poland alone the number of single family houses using coal and wood for heating exceeds 4 million buildings. Low quality coal and wood remain the cheapest source of heat energy. They are often mixed with waste, which significantly aggravates the problem and health effects.Transnational approachAs the problem of air pollution concerns all EU countries it requires applying a transnational approach including, cooperation between the countries, experience sharing and development of joint measures. Not only because the sources of air pollution and required solutions to the problem are similar, but also because air pollution has a strong transboundary character. Project partners come mainly from one of the most serious European hot spots, i.e. CEE area. Participation of Spain will allow for diffusion of project products and results to other parts of the EU, beyond CEE.Objectives, target groups and needsThe objective of this project is to raise awareness in the countries covered by the project about the problem of air pollution, its reasons, health effects and possible solutions that can be taken by inhabitants in order to mitigate the problem and reduce local air pollution. This objective will be achieved by providing training for teachers in the topic of air pollution and equipping them with innovative, interactive education materials that they will use to teach their pupils and students about the problem. One of the main project outputs will be the game. This is the response to the feedback from the previous project realised by the consortium. The teachers taking part in the pilot testing in all the countries suggested that the interactive game would be a great tool to teach about air pollution. Recent reports in Poland show that 92.7% of respondents declared that in their future work will use computer games. [3]1.Air Quality in Europe – 2019 Report, European Environment Agency, 20192.See for example: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-QOsHuWI0UhcldwYi1fUVd4M0E/view?usp=sharing and http://polskialarmsmogowy3. https://depot.ceon.pl

Our intersectoral partnership combines the efforts of 8 organizations (4 schools and 4 training providers) from four European countries; Denmark, Bulgaria, Poland and Spain, in an attempt to create a unique innovative educational tool to support teachers in their daily activities to provide high quality of teaching and present contemporary learning opportunities to their students. We will work with students from 14 to 16 years old.Our main innovative proposal is based on the design of 20 work units (five units for each intellectual product). Each work unit will be formed by a description of the activity that we will develop with students from 14 to 16 years old. The work units will be grouped by categories: Learning to read, learning to write, learning to understand and learning to speak. In each work unit there will be details of the activity to be done with studentsThe work units will be formed by training lessons.UNEX T-YOU PROJECT is made up of a set of tools for teachers to implement using a more participatory, creative and flexible methodology, contributing to the integration and adaptation of students. At the same time the gained knowledge and skills will facilitate them in the future Integration into a society where they are increasingly required to compete and be versatile. It also will enhance the acquisition of knowledge, making it more meaningful for them and will allow a much more creative, personal, reflective and critical literary experience. In UNEX T-YOU PROJECT the student is seen from this perspective as the protagonist of the action and as the person directly responsible for the product.The project activities will be grouped into 4 main work processes (WP), which can be summarized as follows:1. WP1 - Management. Main activities: Design and the adoption of strategic documents, 4 partner meetings, Assignment of tasks, Reports, monitoring, Quality control, Risk management, Communication with the National Agency and Internal evaluation.2. WP2 - Development of the UNEX T-YOU PROJECT work units. This process will include several main stages: Design of the work units, which will be distributed by each partner. Translations in partners languages; Piloting in the classroom, evaluation reports and final tuning.3. WP3 - Creation of the UNEX T-YOU web. This process will involve several main stages: Prototyping; Review and feedback from teachers; Development of the first full version of the application in English; Translations to partners languages; Piloting among teachers, Evaluation reports and final tuning.4. WP4 - Dissemination and exploitation. Main activities to be delivered: Project website and development of Social network channels, Production and distribution of news, Presentations to National and European events, direct meetings with Stakeholders, promotion meetings with teachers in partner schools.The additional tangible results of the project, together with the 20 work units and the design of a web page that we hope can be summarized as follows:- 1 Project website in 5 language versions (DK, BG, PO, ES, EN);- 1 Profile of social networks of the project - Facebook page;- 40 Teachers (10 per country) participating in the piloting of intellectual products;- 240 Students participating in the piloting of the UNEX T-YOU activities;- 80 Teachers (20 per country) starting the mini-projects in their daily practice;- 480 Students (120 per country) participating in UNEX T-YOU activities;- 600 Teachers and 350 interested parties were reached through dissemination activities.

<< Objectives >>EU-DARE aims to provide a methodology for small farmers in rural areas, who are threatened by climate change to which they themselves contribute. To achieve this, EU-DARE offers a highly practical course based on agro-ecological practices that rethink the whole way communities relate to the land they inhabit. EU-DARE will be an entirely online course to meet learners' needs.<< Implementation >>EU-DARE is divided into two macro actions. First: research of best practices of farmers in rural areas who have adopted agroecology; the course contents will also have a theoretical part explaining how agroecology can support farmers' income, e.g. through cooperation. Second: Guidance for VEt providers and OERs.<< Results >>The OERs platform, which will be available for desktops, tablets and smart devices, will also serve as a forum where learners can exchange best practices, advice, and forge generative links. We expect that many farmers will learn agro-ecological practices that will contribute to reducing the impact of climate agriculture, and lead to a rethinking of the relationship between people and the environment.