According to the World Meteorological Organization, the frequency of severe weather incidents has quintupled over the last five decades, causing more than 100 000 fatalities and 1.5 trillion euros of economic losses in Europe (EU). Consequently, disaster management capabilities need to be enhanced in this fast-evolving context. Robotics can play a crucial role to improve first responders’ safety and effectiveness in their operations. HURRICANE is a 15 partners multidisciplinary consortium aiming to overcome limitations that are still holding back these cutting-edge innovations from becoming a disaster management standard. HURRICANE will unlock the potential of UGV operation in hazardous environment, relying on enhanced vision capabilities and smart integration over a holistic, resilient and real-time situational awareness infrastructure that includes innovative UAV-UGV cooperation pathways (laser-based charging, UAV supporting UGV regarding route planning) and multi-technology communication infrastructure (5G, RF, optical wireless). Data-driven optimization models will provide recommendations through a user-friendly API to support FR’s tactics. Three complementary pilots will be implemented to demonstrate the benefits brought by HURRICANE solutions, in several challenging environments: peri-urban areas (Corsica), mountains (Alps) and wildfires (Andalusia). Last, but not least, EU-wide advanced training modules will be implemented to raise awareness among FR about these innovative technologies, integrating new operational procedures. At the end of the project, HURRICANE will show improved hazard management efficiency (60% operation time reduction, 95% false positive readout reduction), with reduced FR exposure to harmful situations, strengthened EU robotics industry leadership (5M€ of revenues and 50 jobs). In 2028, training will be provided for 100 FRs across 15 EU countries, aiming to achieve a total of 10,000 trained FRs by the year 2035.

"The visually impaired constitute a community at risk of social exclusion. Beyond the strict definition of visual impairment, or the percentage of vision loss of each individual, adequate training is crucial for the full social integration of this community. In addition, raising the awareness of the rest of the population towards the special needs of disadvantaged groups in general and visually impaired people in particular requires educational interventions in this regard. On the other hand, the emergence of new technologies, such as 3D printing, has opened a range of educational possibilities and services that can alleviate the aforementioned inequalities and collaborate in inclusive actions. The main objective of this project is to attend to the inclusion of students with visual impairment. This objective is addressed from a number of points, including service-learning methodologies that promote awareness of the needs of this group and the educational development of 3D printing skills. The 3D products can facilitate routines and empower the visually impaired students involved in their design, production and evaluation. It is strongly recommended that the visually impaired attend a specific training, but also it should be complemented by inclusive training in conventional schools. Students entering the school for the first time always receive the pertinent documentation that includes, generally: schedules, rules, staff of the centre, facilities plans (blueprint), etc. All these data are usually translated into Braille when a visually impaired student enters. Everything except plans. Around this last ""lack"" and necessity this project is structured. To this end, it is proposed: - Design a specific training of teachers that includes: a) technical and didactic aspects of 3D design and printing; B) knowledge about the service-learning methodology centered on visual impairment. - Develop and edit a didactic unit related to 3D printing linked to the learning service, including a teacher's guide and an associated student mini textbook. - Train teachers in this regard to implement both ideas in the classroom. - To implement in the classroom the learning of 3D printing, with the aim of generating useful objects for the visually impaired, in particular school plans, as well as plans of outpatient clinics, hospitals, metro stations, urban routes maps, etc. - Involve students with visual impairment in the process of learning competencies in 3D printing, including the design, preparation and / or evaluation of the ""3D objects"" produced. - Make available to the community of people with visual impairment such objects. Depending on the number and quality of ""manufactured"" objects, they will be donated to the ""mapped"" places (hospitals, museums, etc.). The expected impact is clearly visible. There will be effects, both in awareness-raising about the visual impairment (among the participating students), and in improving the life conditions of the final users of the 3D objects. All the necessary means of diffusion will be used to guarantee its visibility. Likewise, the sustainability of the project is ensured both by the long ""useful life"" of the objects generated (permanent regarding their designs), as well as by the didactic methodology used. It will be easily replicable in successive years and surely, will leave a mark (in values) in the participating students. In order to guarantee the success of the project, we have tried to ensure that the partnership covers the maximum aspects. The partners are: two governmental and one non-governmental organizations dedicated to the inclusion (education and rehabilitation) of the visually impaired; A company that produces 3D printing equipment; An educational regional institution; Several educational centres where there are visually impaired students enrolled. In addition, the geographic location of the partners (Greece, Latvia, Spain and Iceland) ensures sufficient variety to generate the corresponding synergies, providing very different visions of the project approach, thus ensuring an adequate European dimension."

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an umbrella term used to group a range of brain development disorders. According to the DSM-5 (APA, 2013) a dyad of impairments must be present for an ASD diagnosis: (1) persistent social communication and interaction deficits in multiple contexts, and (2) restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, or activities. It is accepted that at least 1% of the population have ASD (Atlanta Centre for Disease Control). No medical treatment is available for the core symptoms of Autism, but children with autism progress much better when specific educational supports are provided. After diagnosis, early intervention for autism is essential for the child’s development and education and his/her future inclusion. Several early intervention programs have been developed in recent decades with some of them having strong scientific evidence of their effectiveness (Wong et al, 2014). A subgroup of those methods focuses on parent training as a means of obtaining the best results in child development. Parent training research on early intervention with autism has proven effective because parents can learn to implement strategies with a high degree of fidelity, helping their children to generalize and maintain skills. Research suggests that parent training is a cost-effective and efficient method of providing early intervention for young children with ASD (Ingersoll and Dvortcsak, 2010) and it is appropriate for low-income regions (WHO). Families should be provided with the opportunity to learn those strategies, and these opportunities should include not only didactic sessions but also ongoing consultation looking at individualized problem-solving, including in-home observations or training for a family, as needed, to support improvements both at home and at school (NRC, 2001). The STAY-IN project brought cost-effective and evidence-based early educational intervention programs for ASD to low-income regions of the EU through schools working with young children with autism. To achieve this, participant organisations shared their best practices in this field and participated in three intensive training actions around three specific parent-mediated intervention programmes for ASD: PACT (University of Manchester), ImPACT (University of Michigan) and ESDM (MIND Institute in California). 17 participants attended all the training actions with all of them acquiring basic accreditation of the three programmes and 8 of them acquiring advanced (full) accreditation on one of the three programmes. All partners interchange good practices among them and worked together in analysing the applicability of those models in their region, producing a final public report that is available at the Erasmus+ Result platform and on the project website: https://bit.ly/3boKvglA very high impact was obtained in all participant partners. They reformulated their early intervention services including the good practices and techniques learnt in the STAY-IN project, obtaining full participation of most families in early intervention programmes for young children with autism, and they extended the new knowledge they acquired to their broader community, thus having multiple positive effects on children and families participating in early intervention programmes in the involved EU regions.