"<< Background >>We apply for this project to implement innovations and changes in teaching curricula, and also to bring greater flexibility and modernizing into our organizations. We focus on new content, new forms of learning methods, greater accessibility, and openness to existing and new target groups. This project helps us to become more dynamic and student-oriented organizations. The need to make changes in teaching curricula is an outcome of the international conference taking place in Bratislava, on the 7th of March, 2020 about the Asian invasive species, among them Asian hornets (Vespa velutina). The video from the conference is accessible on the youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybT3LRqbh-4 , The need to prepare citizens and different stakeholders concerned is also recommended by the Regulation EU 1143/2014. The Agency for food safety in Austria is already alerted and it provides basic information through its website: https://www.ages.at/en/topics/harmful-organisms/asian-hornet/The project focuses on capacity-building mainly of Slovak, Austrian, and Czech beekeepers. At the same time, it will help also firefighters and thirdly, also administrators of the self-governing region to prepare for the upcoming invasion of Asian hornets, Vespa velutina. BEFORE IT´S TOO LATE is our project motto and also the name of the education campaign we want to launch in this partnership cooperation. Why should we care?In Europe, the Asian hornet, Vespa velutina nigrithorax, was first found in southwestern France in 2004. Since then, it has dispersed in all directions and is now established in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and since 2020, also in Switzerland. The problems caused by the Asian hornet are threefold. Firstly, it is a large predator of honey bees hunting them by hovering in front of beehives. In heavily infested areas, many beehives have been devastated, causing exasperation among beekeepers. Secondly, the Asian hornet is a voracious predator of many other insects (mainly bees, wasps, and flies) including many pollinators and other beneficial insects. Given its abundance in some regions, it is feared that it will have a significant impact on biodiversity. It could also compete with the European hornet and native wasps. Finally, although the Asian hornet is no more aggressive towards humans than the European hornet, it is much more abundant in invaded regions. Its bites are painful and can be dangerous for people with allergies.The progression of the Vespa velutina does not seem to be stopping. It might soon reach countries in Central and Eastern Europe and cause economic, ecological, and social difficulties. Although it is illusory to try to eradicate this species, it is known that targeted monitoring and control would limit its threatening trend. Since there are only a few academics, mostly in the specific research community, who might be well informed about Vespa velutina, the need to rapidly launch education information campaign is becoming rather urgent. By the same token, capacity building and training initiatives at the local and national level, accompanied by suitable training and learning materials are inevitable. The choice of the best control method for Vespa velutina may differ, depending on whether one takes the side of a beekeeper looking for a simple, fast and inexpensive solution, or a citizen bothered by Vespa velutina or even a decision-maker who must make strategic choices. Most probably, the best solution would be a combination of various approaches and techniques adapted to individual countries. The objective of the project is to fill the missing knowledge and skills of beekeepers (first target group), firefighters (second target), and the representatives of the self-governing region (third target group), and establish a service-oriented, cross-sectoral information network that would be able to take action against Vespa velutina.<< Objectives >>By implementing this project we want to build capacity in the field of monitoring and controlling Vespa velutina in Central Europe before the situation gets critical. The project partners will help to establish an information network of beekeepers, firefighters, trainers/researchers, public administrators but possibly also volunteers/citizens which will serve as a platform for the notification, identification of hornet observations, monitoring and control. The members of this network will have a comprehensive understanding of the impact of Vespa velutina on beekeeping and other selected activities in urban and rural contexts. They will be able to know how these impacts relate to larger systemic processes such as climate change and global trade of goods and resources. The members of this network will have very good knowledge about different preventive, monitoring and control measures to protect apiaries and other targets from Vespa populations, to limit their expansion, and to avoid damages for the various target group, including citizens. This project helps us to collect the information on the methods and measures, which will be presented with a discussion on their applicability in a given country, and with first estimates on the effect and changes, especially in countries where not much knowledge and awareness are yet present.The project creates foundations for necessary infrastructure and human capacity that need to be deployed to address this imminent challenge.<< Implementation >>We are going to create and implement awareness-raising, an education-oriented campaign through specialized learning and training activities organized in partnership, targeted beekeepers, firefighters and public administrators. In the first project year, we will focus on the development of learning and awareness-raising materials serving the selected target groups, adapted to their specific missions and activities. The partners will co-prepare on preparing of new content structured educational materials using digital and non-digital tools, relying more on new media such as videos, visual messages, short animated presentations, but also web-based texts, brochures and a training handbook, they will serve for the first one-day pilot course for the firefighters with the targeted content and activities focused on the protection of the public spaces and citizen homes. The second pilot course will be offered to beekeepers, including the practical training on the preventive and control measures and the targeted activities on the apiaries and the third half-day pilot course adapted to representatives of the self-governing regions with the targeted activities related to the legislation, administration, and communication with a large public.The campaign will continue during the entire project period via intensive social media campaigns such as Facebook, Youtube and web-based tools. Monthy published education messages about the topic, relevant to beekeepers will be uploaded on various social interest groups. The list with all published messages will be used as a quantitative indicator for the interim and final project report.Part of the campaign will concentrate on the creation of the thematic issue fully dedicated to the Vespa velutina, published in the Czech and Slovak beekeeping magazine ""Moderní včelař"" (Modern Beekeeper). Other project activities will result in the development of the comprehensive handbook. These activities will include: • Extensive literature review in various languages (DE, EN, FR, SK, ES). • Interviews with experts and relevant actors e.g., through targeted surveys and online and/or face-to-face meetings/work discussions. • A modularly structured content framework to ease exchange and common work. • Working on documents via an online platform to incorporate inputs of various experts and participants • Developing and incorporate info-graphics and diagrams, to condense relevant information and allow easier use in various media, in extracted form. • Including interactive graphics and links to e.g., demonstration videos (with QR codes) to document and show specific measures for monitoring and controlling vespa velutina. • Including action plans which show how Vespa velutina measures are planned and implemented in line with inspections and apiary routine work during the whole beekeeping season, possibly for small and large apiary operations, also for moving beekeepers and for different areas (forest, open fields, protected areas, orchards and plantations, urban beekeeping). The education campaign will also include activities for the organization of three multiplication events jointly implemented by the partners to disseminate the project results and reach the maximum audience possible.<< Results >>The main outcome is the innovation of the existing vocational education and training in a topic of invasive Vespa delivered by the project partners bothindividually and in a common partnership. This insect has the ability to spread very quickly and undesirably or harmfully, therefore it should be a worrying concern for all, not just beekeepers because it is a predator of various insects including pollinator insects and it might establish its nests in public spaces and people´s properties. Another outcome is the openness and attractiveness of the VET school in Banska Bystrica to other target groups such as firefighters and representatives of the self-governing region of Banska Bystrica in the topic that is relevant to them. The other expected project outcome is the creation of an international service-oriented and cooperative network of trained international practitioners who will be not only informed, educated but also trained in the distraction of nests and adults of Vespa, in case of its detection on the project partner territories. The first tangible result created within the project implementation is the awareness-raising campaign named ""BEFORE IT´S TOO LATE"" implemented through education activities using different media channels. One of the channels is the new website section, serving as the first-hand information about Vespa v., but also as any sightings of the Asian hornet or nests. It will be integrated into the existing education platform www.blesabee.online, available in German, Slovak, and English languages. Within the campaign, the partners will jointly develop and give three different pilot trainings to the key selected target groups about the Vespa velutina biology and cycle of Vespa v., impact and preventive measures, monitoring and control methods. The learning materials (texts, infographics, images, videos, etc.) for the pilot courses will be prepared and adapted with regard to each target group. The materials can be later used by the municipalities, National food and veterinary institutions, environmental organizations, research groups, etc. for their own purposes. Within the campaign, the partners will prepare Vespa velutina brochure for different target groups, available in printed and online versions. The objective of the campaign is not only to inform, educate and train, but also to establish a cross-sectoral structure, organization and report alarm system if any sightings of the Asian hornet or nests occur in the concerned territories of Central Europe. We also want to invite young researchers to investigate, search for new information and continuously monitor the situation with Vespa in Europe and provide updates to the information network. The course for the firefighters will include not only the theoretical part but also the practical part to identify the primary and secondary nests of the Asian hornets and in the case of need, take actions for the removal of the nests sometimes 25 meters high, which requires special equipment, techniques and also skills. The second project result is the comprehensive handbook serving as learning material, including video presentations with multi-language subtitles explaining the impact of Vespa on beekeeping and other selected activities of humans in urban and rural contexts. The handbook will become available for various groups, though it will be mainly designed for beekeepers, providing info on ""when, what and how to take measures"". It will outline how these impacts relate to larger systemic processes such as climate change and global trade of goods and resources, and it will present the directions and strategies to reduce these impacts, in particular, yet not exclusively, for beekeeping operators. The handbook will feature a very good review of the different preventive, monitoring, and control measures to protect apiaries and other targets from Vespa populations, to limit their expansion, and to avoid damages to the various target groups, citizens included."

"All European honey bees are highly exposed to various negative stress factors. Our society is witnessing a changing situation for bees that has dramatically worsened their living conditions. As a consequence of the reduction of the bee pasture quality and the increased use of pesticides, either from the side of the farmers or the producers of pesticide-based veterinary drugs, which are steadily increasing, we observe that the colonies are constantly losing their ability to cope with pests and various bee diseases. A new era of problems started and there is a need to start treating the bees in a different way, because if beekeepers and farmers continue constantly to increase the doses of pesticides, honeybees no longer can support them and honey products lose their reputation of natural products „good-for-health“.The overall project goal was to improve the teaching content in the project partner organizations with a nationwide outreach and to strengthen the competences and professional skills of beekeeping teachers in Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia. The project coordinator was the Secondary Vocational School Pod Banosom (Slovakia), which is the main educational institution for beekeepers in Slovakia. The Slovak Association of Beekeepers and the Czech Association of Beekeepers, which associate more than 90% of all registered beekeepers in these countries, participated in the project through communication activities during pilot training courses and conferences. The Austrian partner Ecodesign Company GmbH played a unique role in the project as this organization owns the high quality expertise in the new chemical-free treatment methods of bees and also owns the efficient, tested and scientifically approved device, Varroa Controller, which has been applied in Austria for almost 10 years now. The other Austrian project partner Mehrdafon-Bienenliebe Imkercentrum GmbH supported the project with experience in vocational dual education system and trainings for not only hobby, but also master beekeepers.The BLESABEE project helped to increase the competences and skills of teachers involved in the beekeeping vocational education and training in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Austria. The project involved 40 beekeeping teachers and indirectly more than 800 beekeeping trainers and technicians of veterinary doctors and beekeepers in the Czech and Slovak Republics who participated in multiplication events and seminars taking place within the project.The main outputs and achievements of the project are new educational materials for beekeeping schools and centers available in a form of a new educational website (www.blesabee.online) and a textbook “HOW TO MANAGE AND MAINTAIN HEALTHY BEES"", which was awarded by the Gold Medal at the International Congress Apimondia 2019 in Montreal, Canada. This textbook briefly discussed both, the stress factors threatening the bees and the key aspects contributing to their well-being. Moreover, it focuses especially on strategies to keep healthy bees by avoiding chemicals in the bee hives. The interested users can read, watch and share the best beekeeping practices from this textbook for free. The learning material contains QR codes for easy access to short beekeeping training videos and testimonials. The innovative part of the project in relation to other existing beekeeping projects was the process of creation of new course, which brought together scientists and practitioners and which has been expanded from a regional to a global context via international beekeeping congress and competition in Montreal (Canada) Apimondia 2019.The second output is the approval of new veterinary methods of treatment bees against bee diseases and pests, which were successfully submitted and integrated by the state veterinary authorities into a legal system in the Czech and Slovak Republics. At the same time, a new veterinary device, Varroa Controller, has been certified by the veterinary authorities in both countries, which was necessary for enabling of safe and effective non-chemical treatment of bees.The third output created within the project is PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR BEEKEEPING INSTRUCTORS, which describes the Austrian beekeeping education system, including the dual vocational system, with particular emphasis on the training of apprentices and beekeeping masters. The guide can serve as an inspiration and blueprint for the next upper education level for beekeepers in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.To provide sustainability of the project the new funding schemes for education and training were already put at place within the national beekeeping programmes of the EU in Czech and Slovak republic for the years 2019-2021. This project created solid basis for an ongoing cooperation among beekeeping organizations involved, it has significantly increased the number of knowledge exchange among the experts involved and it also established the foundations to extend activities to other European countries."

The CO2Fokus project aims to realise the full potential of a number of concrete strategies to exploit the direct use of CO2 for the production of dimethyl ether (DME) by CO2 hydrogenation. With CO2 utilisation at its heart, CO2Fokus will seek to exploit the inherent advantages of both chemical and electrochemical systems to establish robust, industrially optimal proofs-of-concept, reaching TRL 6 by the end of the project. The project will explore energy-efficient processes for two separate, potentially integrated systems, namely a 3D printed multichannel reactor and a solid oxide fuel cell (for co-electrolysis and electrolysis/reverse operation). Both systems will be evaluated for operational flexibility in an industrial environment with a CO2 emission point source. H2, as a renewable energy source, will be supplied via the solid oxide cell operating in electrolysis mode, The central focus will be on producing tangible improvements to the industrial processes in terms of energy efficiency and cost saving, by optimising the most promising conventional catalyst systems as well as innovative carbon-based ones. To this end, the catalyst will be printed and assembled as multi-channel arrays into modular, mobile prototype demonstration units. To enhance the effectiveness of the partners’ innovation efforts and reach ambitious commercial goals, CO2Fokus draws on expertise from partners across the industrial value chain, from industrial CO2 emitters, experts in catalyst manufacturing, petrochemical process engineering, chemistry and fuel cell specialists, offering a wealth of inter-disciplinary and market-oriented experience.

SUSTAINEXT is led by Natac and brings together 21 partners from Europe and Spain, 7 of them from the Extremadura region. The project will start in June 2023 and will last four and a half years. In summary, the technological objective of the project is to implement on an industrial scale a digital, dynamic, versatile, disruptive and multi-product biorefinery, with a processing capacity of 20,000 tonnes per year and following a NetZero Carbon strategy. This first-of-its-kind flagship will transform the plant-based ingredients sector, while showcasing and deploying a first-of its kind model likely to be replicable by the whole European bio-based industry. SUSTAINEXT aims to transform Natac's current production plant, located in Hervás in the north of Extremadura, into the most modern, digital, innovative and sustainable plant extracts factory in the world, placing the company and the region at the forefront of the sector at a global level. The model is based in the integration of the whole supply chain - from feedstock to end users - applying a disruptive circular model based on a smart dynamic analytical biorefinery (DYANA): a smart dynamic biorefining process for the cascade valorisation of feedstocks which is optimized batch-wise according to the initial composition of the feedstock to deliver maximum value with minimum environmental impact and ensure resource efficiency. DYANA will allow to achieve the complete valorisation of the processed feedstock with a zero-waste and zero-emissions ambition. SUSTAINEXT will be industrially deployed with six sustainably and locally sourced European feedstocks. Three medicinal and aromatic crops (rosemary, camomile, and lemon verbena) will be cultivated in Extremadura in disused tobacco fields as an alternative towards healthier crops, and also between solar panels (agrivoltaics) enhancing soil use. Three agro-industrial side streams (olive, artichoke/cardoon, and pomegranate) will showcase how biomass upcycling represents an opportunity to give a new life to certain underexploited bio-based feedstocks. SUSTAINEXT flagship will deliver 46 plant-based healthy extracts and functional ingredients out of which 13 are totally new on the market and 12 are newly produced in Europe. It will generate a revenue of 271 M€, will create more than 5,000 new green jobs (direct and indirect) and will have a decisive socioeconomic impact in Extremadura.