The HEATWISE project aims to tackle various thermal management challenges in tertiary buildings with a significant IT load. The project has specific objectives to develop and validate (to TRL 4 and 5) its technological innovation in two interrelated aspects: for IT system equipment in facility rooms and for a complete building management level. The innovation toward achieving energy efficiency and thermal management optimization follows up on a detailed thermal need analysis framework and theoretical validation, and is fulfilled through four novel solutions: i) Hybrid future-proof cooling hardware solution for high-density data processing based on two-phase dielectric liquid cooling and air immersion ii) Digital twin-supported holistic high-density data processing management system with a smart workload orchestration system, iii) Integrated multi-objective building energy management system covering both IT equipment needs and human presence, and iv) Self-assessment tool for energy management needs in tertiary buildings with power-intensive IT systems. On top of that, the project will develop a knowledge-sharing platform to showcase potential improvement pathways in energy optimization of tertiary buildings and maximize the project's impact. The project consortium consists of 12 partners from 8 different countries across the EU and with a more global inclusion; including 3 universities, 3 research centers, 4 SMEs, 1 large company, and 1 national standardization body, making sure that all the required expertise for a successful accomplishment of the project and future exploitation exist, and the partners complement each other in the most optimal manner. The technologies will be demonstrated in different specific designs and integrations in a university, a supercomputing research centre, industrial and office buildings, in Denmark, Poland, Turkey, and Switzerland, with extended investigations for medical centres and hotels as impactful tertiary building categories.

“ENABLE: Self-learning for Arab refugee children” was a European project of the University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd (Germany), the NGO Back on Track Syria e.V. in Berlin, University of Calabria (Italy), University in Gävle (Sweden) and the Muğla Sitki Kocman University (Turkey). The project aimed at the better integration of refugee children in local school contexts by directly working with Arab mother-tongue educators. The objective was to offer those educators a training so they can support children in developing a positive self-concept, a positive and self-organized learning attitude and tackle subjects such as exclusion, stereotypization and the effect of trauma. Another objective was to further educate and professionalize mother-tongue trainers and teachers but also learn from their experiences on the ground. Since the situation in different countries in Europe is very diverse, the partner consortium gathered and exchanged experience in diverse formalized and non-formalized school and integration contexts, thereby targeting a variety of different educators and practitioners in schools, NGOs, Asylum institutions and universities.During the project, four transnational trainings in Berlin (Germany), Calabria (Italy), Gävle (Sweden) and Muğla (Turkey) were conducted, reaching a total number of 66 local mother-tongue trainers who migrated from Syria, Algeria, Libya, Iraq and Yemen who migrated and now worked as teachers, teacher assistants, voluntary mentors, cultural mediators and students with refugee children in Germany, Sweden, Italy and Turkey. Moreover the partner representatives took part in the training by sharing their knowledge and learning from other settings in the partner countries.Based on this in-dense on the ground experience, the ENABLE partner consortium developed and evaluated a highly accessible training concept for Arab mother-tongue educators as well as for other practitioners in an iterative way, consisting of seven modules in English and Arabic. This training was further transformed into a training platform (www.enable-tamkin.com/training-platform) where tutors worldwide can learn with it in English and Arabic about self-learning, the concept of self-efficacy and motivation, inclusion and exclusion dynamics in the classroom and trauma in refugee contexts. A further element of the project, which lasted from 2017 to 2019, was the implementation of six multiplier events (two in Berlin, one in Calabria, two in Sweden, one in Muğla) reaching a wide variety of local and international participants working in the field of education and integration in addition to the project partners' network. The project results have also been disseminated at more than 25 international and national conferences and seminars and through four publications to an audience of researchers, teachers, pedagogues, teacher students (further publications are already in the making).The project has given the often underrepresented and unprivileged group of Arab mother-tongue teachers in their new societies an initial professionalization and visibility in the public discourse. Moreover, mother-tongue trainers highly benefited from the trainings by better understanding the situation of refugee children, better knowing how to deal with children in different situations and becoming a better learning mentor. The children profited from teachers that understood better their situation and could better become positive learning mentors. Finally, Enable managed to open up an intensive knowledge exchange about the integration in schools, the Asylum systems and the role mother-tongue educators in diverse European contexts.

Objectives: Sustainable public procurement – SPP is about incorporating considerations pertaining to the environment or to social aspects in purchasing decisions. SPP can considerably contribute to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. SAPIENS will develop the scientific analyses needed for enhancing SPP and provide buyers in the public sector with tools to procure sustainably, in compliance with the applicable international and EU rules. Strategy: Unleashing the potential of SPP requires a new generation of experts capable of working across disciplines (law, economics, business sciences) and knowledgeable of the different relevant methodologies. SAPIENS will train the first generation of SPP experts sharing a common understanding of the challenges faced in achieving the SDGs. The PhD interdisciplinary research will focus on 15 innovative SPP topics articulated along three axes: (a) SPP from the international agenda to actual buying practices (actors, sustainable economics, new approaches to public buying), (b) procurement to achieve the SDGs (incl. human, workers, women rights, different environmental concerns, SMEs), and (c) sector-specific applied SPP (construction, textiles and catering). Relevance: Target 12.7 of the SDGs specifically focuses on promoting “public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities” but SPP is relevant for and may contribute to the achievement of most SDGs. Public procurement – PP also plays “a key role in the Europe 2020 strategy […] as one of the market-based instruments to be used to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth”. Enabling and enhancing SPP on the lines of the SAPIENS fully answer a relevant societal need, as proposed by the H2020 program.

This is a project for higher education student and staff mobility between Programme Countries and Partner Countries. Please consult the website of the organisation to obtain additional details.