In response to the COVID-19 unprecedented crisis schools and universities closing down almost immediately and simultaneously, education all around the world needed to change its course of action and move the majority of the class interaction online. The project partners noticed that the cohort of students most affected by the consequences of the global health crisis was made up of the mobile students (both incoming and outgoing). Apart from the need to adjust to online teaching and learning, the mobile students also had to adapt to the new conditions of living in lock-down in a foreign country with little to no cultural background/information and sometimes isolated from other students with whom they could connect and share. The psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis on mobile students cannot be denied and nobody can predict the extent in which their academic and personal development track has been shaken. The main objective of the CONFIDENT project is to address the needs of mobile students signaled in times of crisis and equip them with proper instruments and tools in order to enhance their confidence, their readiness to take on the world and enrich their personality. The project will allow mobile students to consolidate and expand their soft skills which are most of the times neglected and tap into these competences whenever they will need them in their work and personal life. The newly acquired transferable skills will be of much use in the new world the students will live in and will help them better cope with future challenges.The project reunites 3 partner universities of a larger consortium, ENGAGED, who have already worked together for the submission of a project within the European Universities call, namely: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi (UAIC), Romania, Hochschule Bremen City University of Applied Sciences (HSB), Germany and Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK), Finland. Other three universities from the larger consortium will be Associated Partners (Hanze University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands, Polytechnic Institute of Braganza, Portugal and Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland). Five (5) Intellectual Outputs will be carried out throughout the project: 1 Online Self-Assessment Intercultural & Digital Competence Tool (IO1) which will assess the students’ competency level in the field of Intercultural Communication and Digital Learning and will be a starting point for the construction of the IO2 and IO3, 2 Learning Modules in Intercultural Communication (IO2) and Digital Learning (IO3) under video form which will be openly available on the partner universities’ websites, 1 Cyber Café (IO4) whose role will be to gather the mobile students around the two focal topics of the project (Intercultural Communication and Digital Learning) and at the same time provide a virtual space for social and personal interaction. The final IO5 will be comprised of the Satisfaction Survey and Analysis Report which will highlight how the mobile students evaluated their newly acquired skills. The IOs will be tested and implemented during the Intensive Fall Week for Mobile Students (C1) which will host mobile students from the partner universities.Three (3) Multiplier Events will be organized in each of the partner institutions with the aim to raise awareness regarding the development of mobile students’ soft skills which are much needed in today’s global, digital world. The Multiplier Events will be organized as follows: the 1st Multiplier Event will be hosted by University of Applied Sciences Bremen, Germany (dissemination of IO1 - Online Self-Assessment Intercultural & Digital Competence Tool). The 2nd Multiplier Event will be organized in Tampere by Tampere University of Applied Sciences (dissemination of IO2 - Online Open Module in Intercultural Communication and IO3 - Online Open Module in Digital Learning) while the 3rd Multiplier Event will take place in Iasi at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi (dissemination of IO4 - the Cyber Café for Mobile Students and IO5 -Satisfaction Survey and Analysis Report). Four (4) Transnational Meetings among partners will be held as part of the management and communication strategy to expose, develop and analyze the results of the IOs. The results of the project will enable the staff involved in the project (IROs and administrative offices, teaching staff) get acquainted with the expectations of mobile students so that they can cater better to their needs. It will be at the same time an opportunity to reflect on the added value of these competences and their practical use in the students’ daily life. The main desired impact of the project at local, regional, national and EU level is the development of shared awareness on the usefulness of intercultural and digital skills before, during and after an international mobility, spreading from the partners of the project to other partner institutions and stakeholders.

"The purpose of the project ECI: From A to Z is to contribute to the development of competences and skills in higher education systems. The formal curricula provides higher education students with the basic framework to develop their professional activities, but in general they do not take into account the need to promote civic engagement and participation in several spheres of public life. This project aims to fill in this gap and provide a structured offer within the participant organisations that allow for the development of civic engagement and participation skills within a Higher Education environment. This will constitute a life-long experience that will accompany students for the rest of their lives and provide them with tools that they can and probably will use in their path to an ever-increasing active and inclusive citizenship. The instrument of the European Citizens' Initiative established in Treaty of the European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union is a field of excellence for this engagement and participation to take place since it involves procedures and mechanisms that have a defined scope and purpose and where participants can understand the relevance of their arguments, proposals and activities. Also it furthers the bettering of the European Union through critical thought and leads to more open policies and legislation.The core purpose of the project is to develop new methods and tools for learning processes that are to be applied in a collaborative and practical way (learning by doing) in which students are the co-constitutive creators of their own European Citizens Initiative. At the final parts of this project (that is divided generally in two parts, each with a different group of students) students will understand the relevance of their participation within the European Union, will be able to recognise and apply participatory instruments and use them in a argumentative and technically sound way, and evaluate the goals and, so far, the effects of the ECI.Therefore besides sharing knowledges about the ECI, this project will promote collaboration and inclusiveness as well as it will help finding and defining subjects of common concern in European Union ""extremes"".The organisation of a wide number, scope and relevance of intellectual deliverables and of learning, teaching and training activities - all of them integrated into a well oiled system of outputs, that will be disseminated online and offline - is the central part of the project. The combination of diverse processes and methodologies such as peer-learning, courses on ECI and Models ECI, allow for a constant effort and engagement on the project both from researchers/tutors and from students. Also many of the outputs will outlive the project and stay available according to an open-access policy, multiplying even more the impact of the project.The project will certainly touch positively:- Students directly committed to the project, given the possibility to experience a new instrument and methodology with colleagues from other backgrounds and universities;- Other Students and persons that wish to participate more actively in public life and that will have the basic knowledges and tools to do so;- Researchers and tutors, whose teaching, coaching and social skills will be highly augmented by the general concept of the project and by the several activities and outputs it entails;- Other Researchers and tutors who might feel motivated by the project and replicate it in their Higher Education Institutions;- Stakeholders that will be involved during the project or that will be touched by it in their areas of activity (for instance, by one or more of the topics chosen by the students to be subject of an ECI);- The legislative and political actors, that will have contact with the project and may use it as a platform of discussion on their own strategies and activities;- The community of European Union Citizens since this project will raise the bar in what regards participation within the European Union, leaving behind a trail of activities and outputs (on-line and on paper) that will continue to stimulate the expression of opinions and the active participatory abilities of youth."