Context/background of projectThe University of Derby are part of the KA103 project for staff and student mobility for programme countries, it has participated in the Erasmus+ 2014-2020 project since it began.ObjectivesWe had seen a growth in our outgoing students and our main objective was to continue to increase student mobility. Number and type/profile of participants55 participants overall 18 student learning mobilities16 student traineeships16 staff teaching5 staff trainingDescription of undertaken activitiesMost activity was with our students for study exchanges, however, in this project there has been an increase in students for traineeship exchanges so this is more equal in number than previously achieved. Our staff exchanges are predominately for teaching. Results and impact attainedOverall the result from 2016 to 2017 have remained around the same level. We have increased the number of students on a traineeship this year by working with our partners to provide more opportunities for our students to go on exchange. The promotion work accompanying this has increased the students from a disadvantaged background who take part in a traineeship exchange. Longer-term benefitsThe long term benefits are that we have had the opportunity to develop further with our partners which will allow students and staff to experience a more internationally focused offer.

This is a higher education student and staff mobility project, please consult the website of the organisation to obtain additional details.

Objectives;Over the previous years we have received more incoming activity therefore our main objective is to increase outgoing mobility activity for staff and students under KA1. Number and type/profile of participants; 52 participants 24 student learning mobilities8 student traineeships11 staff teaching9 staff trainingDescription of undertaken activities; As previously stated we operated predominately under KA1 and therefore we undertook numerous mobilities with our existing and newly established partners. We also created a strong link with the Maltese Film Commission and several of our traineeships students were employed by the Maltese Film Commission after their mobility and worked on numerous productions including working with Brad Pitt on a project. Results and impact attained; The results are significant we increased our overall outgoing mobility by 246% Student mobility went from 9 to 32 with a 255% overall increase Staff mobility went from 6 to 18 with a 200% overall Therefore the impact attained runs in line with the University of Derby internationalisation policy and our initial Erasmus+ objective. If relevant, longer-term benefits The long term benefits are that we have had the opportunity to develop further partners which will allow students and staff to experience a more internationally focussed offer.

Concrete is the most used construction material worldwide for infrastructure projects. Due to deterioration, regular maintenance works are necessary to seal the concrete cracks and restore durability. In Europe, infrastructures such as tunnels and earth retaining walls alone cost approximately 5 billion EUR per year. Self-healing strategies (particularly bacterial-based self-healing) are regarded as a promising solution to reduce the high maintenance and repair cost of concrete infrastructures. It is believed if self-healing concrete had been used for all these structures, up to 120 million EUR could be saved annually on their maintenance. The research to date has tended to focus on the self-healing process in air or water environment. However, infrastructures (i.e. bridges, buildings, tunnels) are built on or in the ground, where part of their concrete structures are inevitably embedded in soil environment with all sorts of ground conditions such as different types of soil, saturation regimes, and chemical exposures. It is not clear if the process of self-healing is efficient within concrete elements exposed to such complicated ground conditions. The project aims to explore the efficiency of the bacterial-based self-healing (bio-hydrogels) in underground concrete structures. By using a novel interdisciplinary approach, the research combines state-of-the-art technologies applied in materials/concrete, geotechnical engineering, and microbiology to conduct a series of lab-scale experiments on mortar specimens incubated within various soil environments. Purpose-built experimental tools are used to investigate the effect of several factors including the type of soil, saturation regime and class of (chemical) exposures, on the bio-self-healing process. The outcomes of this research are highly relevant to the construction industry and the knowledge produced by the project will have an economic, financial and societal impact in EU and other regions.

We have been part of the Erasmus project since the start, it is a valued part of the offer to our students. Although our staff are engaged in the project, our student are not as engaged as we would want. The security situation in Europe has had an impact on this as well as internal changes. Our activity is higher for staff teaching and student study in this project. The main objective for this year was to raise the profile of our Erasmus+ exchanges, working with staff and students around the university to ensure they are well informed and can promote this fantastic opportunity. The promotion of the project has been successful with raising awareness of the opportunities, improving the information available and strengthening our relationship with our partners. By maintaining the links and promotional activity we can ensure staff and students are offered these opportunities.