The diversity of the European societies have posed both opportunities and challenges to education and training systems, calling for a greater emphasis to be placed on promoting inclusion and common values to facilitate the coexistence of different cultural identities in a peaceful and democratic Europe. Civic education (CE) was set at the top of the European agenda. In spite of any efforts accomplished till now, the general level of knowledge of the European Union, its policies and its institutions remains less than optimal, with a large part of the population having little knowledge or information about the history, culture and values of the EU. This is particularly valid for adults in disadvantaged situations, as from migrant or ethnic minority background, refugees and newly arrived and/or settled migrants.Citizenship education entails learning objectives which are more likely to be met through experiential learning or learning by doing. Improving educators’ knowledge and skills for teaching citizenship had been identified as one of the significant challenges in recent Eurydice study. The “Civic dimensions for social inclusion” project (CivicAL) addressed the gap in civic education for adults in disadvantaged situation in 6 European countries, reflecting on the importance of extra-curricular aspects of CE within the frames of a multicultural European environment. It replied to the needs of adult educators to provide appropriate training sessions in Civic education for disadvantaged learners. The partnership proved that developing the adult educators’ competences, providing them with pedagogical tools in a multicultural environment, has achieved to empower and support teachers/trainers to facilitate discussions on perceived injustice, radical ideas and even extreme opinions. CivicAL produced a Trainer’s Manual: “Civic Education for Disadvantaged Learners” in 7 European languages, consisting of 6 units. Each unit contains a lesson plan, enriched with games, web quests, as well as recommendations for additional resources to be used. A suggested scope and sequence for the use of the material is also analysed for each unit.Experiential learning through reflection on doing and participatory learning approaches were applied. Non-formal educational techniques for adult learners were adopted. Good practices and interactive methods such as problem-solving activities were utilised to motivate them and facilitate change in thinking on delivering the civic education values. Main objectives were: • Support disadvantaged learners by providing civic training and guidance as a way of preventing social exclusion; • Support civic education that focus on different cultures, religions and beliefs, to enhance knowledge and understanding of common values and to create a democratic learning environment; • Empower and strengthen the role of adult educators in developing innovative pedagogical approaches, making them able to deal with diversity in non-formal learning environment; • Build close cooperation between civil society, education and cultural organisations, local authorities and the private sector to ensure active participation of all members of the learning community in acquiring civic competences; • Involve the wider community in the promotion of EU values, culture and social inclusion of disadvantaged adult learners. CivicAL has also provided vulnerable adults with educational serious game, where the player is able to step into different roles while learning about the concepts of civic education. The impact on users was the raised awareness on basic EU citizenship terms and the development of concrete skills needed for their effective civil participation. Total of 556 direct beneficiaries were involved in the project activities (142 adult education providers in pilot tests of the Manual, 126 disadvantaged learners in tests of the Game, 247 stakeholders in Multiplier Events, celebrated in the 6 partner countries, 41 staff members and associated partners in transnational meetings and implementation tasks). Approximately 4800 people were indirectly reached through the planned dissemination channels.The partnership, formed by entities from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Romania and Spain was continuously monitoring and evaluating the project results, ensuring their broad exploitation by running co-development and exchange activities with institutions, communities and networks. In times of rising nationalism and questioning the future of the European Union, the knowledge of its history, culture and values is of a vital necessity. The goal of the project was to make a long-term change in the attitude of the involved participants towards mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue, community involvement and active European citizenship, respect of equal opportunities and non-discrimination.

The informed consent (IC) process allows the subject to voluntarily decide whether or not his/her participation in research. Generally, ICs are difficult to read documents that do not include all stakeholders’ perceptions. Therefore, informative IC should be a process that include needed information under a gender and age perspective, more importantly if these are vulnerable populations. The relationship between science and society should favour the engagement inclusion of citizens in the informed consent process, and this must be done with especial attention to gender and ethics considerations. The IC process should also improve health literacy in the citizens. The I-CONSENT project presents a simple work plan structure with a WP1 aimed to analyze baseline knowledge of IC, WP2 presenting innovative solutions and WP3 proposing new guidelines, disseminated in WP4. For this i-CONSENT consortium presents a multi-stakeholder community of partners from academia, public health, patient organizations, clinicians and private sector, including pharma and SMEs, and a set of activities that will maximize the collection (workshops) and dissemination (communication plan) of information. Specifically, and to ensure alignment with the Topic scope, the project will use a selection of 3 different vaccines as study frame to improve guidelines for informed consents. These do focus on vulnerable age populations with very special emphasis on gender: Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccines (preadolescent and adolescents), Meningitis (adults) and Respiratory Syncitial Virus (pregnant women). Besides Gender and Ethic issues as centre of the proposal, the project will consider the interaction of age and gender, with its specifics as comprehension of medical information, oral and written language, and availability and use of new technologies will also be considered.