"The project “S.E.E.D.S. - Strengthening knowlEdge and compEtences to Develop new Skills ""(2018-1-IT01-KA102-006370) was developed by UNCI Agroalimentare with the help of the national Consortium and its varied foreign partnership. Agri-food and Tourism, Trade and Marketing, represented the reference sectors of the project and its VET actions. The project actions were aimed at 111 young graduates from school curricula related to the sectors above mentioned: Agriculture, Agri-food and Agro-industry; Administration, Finance and Marketing, Tourism, Food and Wine Services, and Hotel Hospitality. The mobility experiences promoted were long-term (4 months - ErasmusPro). In total, 52 male and 59 female candidates, aged between 19 and 22, were selected, coming from different Italian regions: Campania, Veneto, Tuscany, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Liguria, Sicily, Molise and Marche. The training activities developed under the form of an internship in host companies chosen on the VET learners’ specific features (aptitude, as well as professional needs).The objectives and impacts achieved by “S.E.E.D.S.” were the following:- consolidation of an organized and defined VET cooperation made up of the right social actors (VET schools, public authorities, trade associations) capable of supporting young people in their accessing the labor market.- implementation of 111 mobility experiences in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, Malta, and Spain, for the enhancement of technical-scientific skills relating to the professional sectors of reference (100% of internships, in fact, were perfectly in line with the profile of the selected participants).- growth in the employability level of the young graduates who took part in the mobility (15% of beneficiaries entered the labor market following their Erasmus internship by securing a job position either in their host companies or new businesses belonging to the same professional sectors).- enrichment of linguistic and managerial skills for the Consortium members and all the representatives engaged in the project design and implementation; improvement of the language skills of direct participants through the OLS platform (more than 95% of learners declared an improved language knowledge in a second European language).- acquisition of more in-depth knowledge about the European funding mechanisms (many consortium schools, during the months of management of ""S.E.E.D.S."", participated in the Erasmus+ Program for the promotion of initiatives related to Key Action 1 - Mobility for school staff; UNCI Agroalimentare itself has obtained the Accreditation to the new Erasmus 2020-2027 Program under the Key Action 1 to continue supporting the mobility of VET Learners.- greater integration of the operating systems of different organizations related to VET with the aim of increasing the quality of training courses and feeding pedagogical research activities (the foreign receiving organizations were able to better investigate the management dynamics underlying the Learning Outcomes monitoring, evaluation and recognition mechanisms; on the other hand, the companies hosting the internships gave its internal teams a crucial contribution towards their internationalization)."

Rural BioReFarmeries brings together farmers, industries and other partners across Europe, to demonstrate a farmer-centred bioeconomy model aimed at maximizing the potential of Europe’s vast grasslands. The project will demonstrate a novel small-scale, decentralized, rural green biorefinery value chain, which addresses the limitations of existing green biorefineries. This small-scale decentralized model places farmers at the centre of the biomass value creation close to their farms, allowing them to co-produce inputs for their farms, with additional high value-added intermediates and products, which will be further developed in collaboration with centralized facilities and downstream industry partners. The model provides a practical implementation of the bioeconomy among a large farmer cohort and builds on the existing farm enterprises and cooperative structures of our partners, enabling collaboration, scale-up, market access, and building synergies across primary and industrial sectors. The project advances state-of-the-art for green biorefinery in terms of operational model, logistics, processing, product development and assessment methods, which collectively deliver a more sustainable and profitable model for farmers and rural communities. The model will serve as a blueprint for farmers to sustainably diversify into the bioeconomy, reducing their farm emissions while creating new products which displace unsustainable alternatives in a range of agri-food markets. Rural BioReFarmeries model will be replicated to diverse regions of Europe, supported by the development of inclusive business models and hands-on training among multi-actor groups and communities in regions of high potential. The project represents a highly replicable model for Europe’s abundant grasslands, helping farmers to deal with sustainability and profitability challenges while helping rural communities to become more resilient while realizing the potential of their local bioresources.

"Centered on transnational mobility for learning, Formamentis S.r.l. promoted the project ""V.A.L.L.E.Y. - Vocational Alliance: from Learning to Labor for European Young” with the support of its national Consortium, made up of Campania local public authority, associations such as Federturismo, Federalimentare, Rete Destinazione Sud, Distretto Turistico Sele Picentini and 18 local schools from the regions involved within the project. The project initiative allowed 150 young graduates from southern Italian regions (Campania, Calabria, Puglia and Basilicata) to live a 122 – day professional training experience within foreign companies operating in tourism and agribusiness located in 5 different European Countries: United Kingdom, France, Malta, Spain and Ireland.The project achieved the following objectives and numerical impacts:- improvement of (technical) Language Learning in regards to Spanish, English and French. With the support provided by the Erasmus + platform of the Online Linguistic Support, more than 75 participants out of 150 achieved a linguistic level ranging from B2 (upper intermediate) to C2 (advanced);- enhancement of soft skills such as problem solving, team working, time management, planning, creative resolution, responsibility, maturity, flexibility, adaptation and intercultural dialogue as well as empowerment of hard skills acquired in reference to the traineeship economic sectors, fact that allowed 40% of participants to be employed in Italian and / or foreign companies;For the accuracy of statistical data, it is reported that:•the remaining 30% of participants enrolled at university where they applied for another Erasmus+ grant as college students;•10% of all participants found work in a different professional field where they still got to use what they learnt during their experience with VALLEY in terms of linguistic and soft skills;•10% followed other professional training courses;•the last 10% is currently looking for a placement, supported by the initiatives developed by the project Consortium for their work inclusion;- renewal of post-diploma training courses corresponding to the regional (and national) Qualifications Framework where the project main job profiles were actually taken from and that represented both the starting point and the final outcome: “Operator of catering and bar services”; “Operator of tourism promotion and hospitality”; “Operator of food and wine industry”;- recognition of professional skills in line with ECVET provisions and based on the use of European recognition tools and on the application of experimental certification systems at regional level aimed at facilitating the most rapid application of ECVET when it will develop equally, even in the most remote regions of EU."

The EMBEDED project aims to demonstrate alternative business models in 36 months by transforming waste from Europe traditional agrifood industries into biochar and construction boards, with a long-term carbon sink effect and short resilient value chains. The validation of the km.0 application of biochar on primary producer plantations and the regional market characterization will be conducted. Valorisation streams aim to combine marginal revenues from mainstream residues (olive pomace, olive stones, grape mark) with overlooked or underutilised ones (cork bark left on field, press-cake from fresh grass, grape stems), with five demonstration pilots planned in Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and Czech Republic. Four of the pilots will have pyrolysis for the manufacture of biochar, using a modular method that fits pre- and post-conditioning phases into a single-maned portable unit. In two of the pilots, extractive methods aimed at bio-active chemicals will be evaluated to determine the added benefit of a cascade valorisation. Using a modular but stationary pilot, the Board production plant will capitalize on the cork outputs geographical. The consortium comprises 14 participants, comprising 5 SMEs and 1 LE that includes 2 technological developers and many influential figures in the agri-food industry of each designated region. In order to implement technology replications and technical transfer using the multi-actor strategy, the EMBEDED project will use 15% of the requested grant (750 k€) as financial support.

"The project ""MOB.Y.D.I.C.K.- MOBilitY for Development of International Competences and Knowledge"" was born from the analysis of the needs of the partnership’s members and from the examination of the potential economic growth of which Calabria region could be the protagonist of through a more efficient training of its human resources and a better marketing placement of its agri-food products: that is also due to a high rate of unemployment in the region, existing despite the cultural and artistic heritage.The “MOB.Y.D.I.C.K.” project has therefore intervened by creating appropriate resources able to face the challenges and the opportunities of the global market and to manage agricultural, agri-food and touristic companies.The achieved objectives are:1.promoting a better knowledge of the agri-food and touristic sectors’ potential for the Calabrian territory development;2.training human resources able to embody the needs that will come from the European and Global market;3.operating a progressive adaptation of the training systems in line with the real business needs, also operating a comparison with other receiving countries realities, keeping in mind the European certification system ECVET;4.acquiring good practices within business and marketing management through the cooperation with foreign partners;5.Promoting a better dialogue among Calabrian stakeholders involved in order to deal with the link between practicing and working;“MOB.Y.D.I.C.K.” fostered mobility paths of 4 months in Spain, United Kingdom, Belgium and Ireland addressed to 100 young new-graduates in the following fields of studies: Agriculture and the Rural Development, Administration and Finance, Marketing and Communication, Tourism.Before leaving, the learners received a training articulated on the following points:•support on the usage of the linguistic training platform - OLS;•individual drafting of a development plan of professional skills;•pedagogical and cultural Erasmus+ Training.Those who took part in the program improved their technical and linguistic skills, with a more concrete possibility to be employed.Meeting with foreign realities and different working methodologies compared to the original ones, they had the chance to develop international skills to fit the foreign labor market. Their curriculum has been enriched by the Europass Mobility and both European and national certifications.The impact in the region has been significant since here, unlike others from other regions, young people suffered the lack of proper training opportunities or where to use the obtained professional knowledge.Moreover, the Project also promoted the cooperation between the various stakeholders who found a new synergy to promote and develop the regional agri-food products. The learners also had the chance to understand how companies and regions operate on their own brand promotion, realizing the importance of creating a system to cooperate for a proper development of the region.About the 20% of the trainees received a job offer once returned. The 30% received a job offer from the abroad hosting companies or other similar companies. The 3% started a business while a further 20% went to a university or attended a professional training course. The 5% went to foreign universities. The rest of the attendee are still active on the business market to search for their first employment in line with the activities done within the project."