The ERASMUS+ project of the TEI of Crete was for the exchange of Students (Studies and Traineeship) and Staff (Teaching and Training) between the TEI of Crete and our almost 200 partner HEI throughout Europe with the European Charter of Higher Education. The TEI of Crete sent 121 students, (52 for Traineeship and 69 for Studies) as well as 27 Professors for Teaching and Staff Training, resulting in 148 mobile individuals from the TEI of Crete within the ERASMUS+ Programme 2016-2017. The programme was active across all 5 Schools (Agriculture, Business, Health and Welfare, Engineering and Applied Sciences) as well as the Central Administration. The results and impacts are very strong indeed, especially for students and staff receiving a European dimension to their education. In traineeships in particular the employability of those involved greatly improved. The smaller number of mobility for teaching comparing with the last year was something unexpected and we have to improve this the next academic year.

This project is the second in the series of EC-financed parts of the Graphene Flagship. The Graphene Flagship is a 10 year research and innovation endeavour with a total project cost of 1,000,000,000 euros, funded jointly by the European Commission and member states and associated countries. The first part of the Flagship was a 30-month Collaborative Project, Coordination and Support Action (CP-CSA) under the 7th framework program (2013-2016), while this and the following parts are implemented as Core Projects under the Horizon 2020 framework. The mission of the Graphene Flagship is to take graphene and related layered materials from a state of raw potential to a point where they can revolutionise multiple industries. This will bring a new dimension to future technology – a faster, thinner, stronger, flexible, and broadband revolution. Our program will put Europe firmly at the heart of the process, with a manifold return on the EU investment, both in terms of technological innovation and economic growth. To realise this vision, we have brought together a larger European consortium with about 150 partners in 23 countries. The partners represent academia, research institutes and industries, which work closely together in 15 technical work packages and five supporting work packages covering the entire value chain from materials to components and systems. As time progresses, the centre of gravity of the Flagship moves towards applications, which is reflected in the increasing importance of the higher - system - levels of the value chain. In this first core project the main focus is on components and initial system level tasks. The first core project is divided into 4 divisions, which in turn comprise 3 to 5 work packages on related topics. A fifth, external division acts as a link to the parts of the Flagship that are funded by the member states and associated countries, or by other funding sources. This creates a collaborative framework for the entire Flagship.

Higher education institutions aim to prepare students to succeed in the labor market. Professional life requires professionals to excel in collaborative and communication skills at an international, cross-cultural environment. Thus, international exposure during studies, having a significant impact on personal and inter-personal development of students, plays a key role in promoting students employability.Innovative teaching paradigms are required in order to develop soft skills and facilitate international contact to higher education students within the available timespan and resources without demanding for costly curricula revisions. Blended mobility overcomes typical barriers to mobility thus allowing students to take advantage of the benefits of mobility and international exposure despite these barriers. However, blended mobility is hardly used and barely recognized as a serious alternative with great potential to overcome the common barriers to international mobility.Blended-AIM raises awareness to the added value of blended mobility with regards to its potential to overcome barriers to international mobility and provides the information and the tools to facilitate its implementation in HEI and companies. Blended-AIM aims to the sustainable promotion of students’ employability by means of blended mobility. The specific objectives of Blended-AIM are grouped in structural and pedagogical objectives.Structural objectives:• Settle the European foundation for blended mobility• Foster internationalization of education• Deploy, test and disseminate a blended mobility project course unit combining best practicesPedagogical objectives:• Promote students’ employability through non-formal learning not requiring curricula changes• Promote international experience of undergraduate students• Boost the provision of professional skills, support collaborative learning and critical thinkingThe partnership that implemented Blended-AIM and continues developing blended mobility in higher education is growing since 2015 when the project started. The original consortium includes 10 full partners, including 8 HEI, one association operating in the field of Geographical Information Systems, grouping organizations from more than 20 European countries, and the European Association of Erasmus Coordinators, a reputable partner in the European Higher Education Area, with nearly 200 associates.During the last 3 years, the Blended-AIM concept attracted several stakeholders in Europe and abroad. We have enlarged the partnership with four companies, coming from Germany, Italy and Belgium and three universities, coming from Portugal, Slovenia and Iraq.The core activities of Blended-AIM are related to the three pilot course editions that were held in the academic years between 2015/16 and 2017/18 (IO4 to IO6). These pilot editions provided inputs to improve the initial drafts of the blended mobility student kit (IO1) and a course guide (IO3) specifying a set of rules and guidelines for the implementation of project course units following the Blended-AIM paradigm. Another key activity with regards to raising awareness to blended mobility was the development of a Wikipedia entry on blended mobility in the partners’ languages (IO7). All these, built on top of a preliminary analysis of the current state of the art of blended mobility in Europe (IO2).Each pilot course edition includes two training sessions were the students are introduced to multicultural teamwork, work organization, online groupware tools, agile methodologies for system development and pitching ideas.A significant number of dissemination activities were promoted by all partners. As a direct consequence of the dissemination efforts taken during the project, in the last edition of the pilot course funded by the project we had more offers from companies than those we could cope with. There are several companies supporting the continuation of the Blended-AIM course. We are running the 2018/19 edition with 18 students and two companies that we had to select from nearly 10 offers. Also the universities are interested in the continuation of this course unit at their own expenses. In the 2018/19 course edition we have 19 students from 8 universities organized in two teams to develop two solutions for two companies. This is the most significant and rewarding impact we have achieved. The Blended-AIM proved to be a valuable approach for all direct stakeholders (students, companies, universities) and the sustainability is assured due to its intrinsic added value.Companies see Blended-AIM as an innovative, effective and valuable approach, particularly in developing and testing proof of concept. We are driving Blended-AIM to be recognized in the long term as an option to develop proof of concept, mainly for SME; a way for SME to have access to R&D through the cooperation with a multidisciplinary team of higher education students and their supervisors.