Digitalization of Cultural Heritage as Discursive Practice: Mapping the Museums and Citizens-led Initiatives in Graz and Novi Sad (DISCULTHER) examine how the process of digitalization of cultural heritage (DCH), identified on a discursive level, manifests in two kinds of settings: institutional (museums) and activist (citizens-led initiatives). The main objective of the project is to investigate the plurality of discursive practices of DCH within mentioned settings, the innovativeness, discrepancies and tensions in these practices, as well as the capacity of DCH to make accessible, mobilize and critically engage citizens in opening the space for intercultural dialogue. It is a project with comparative dimension on two levels: it compares the institutional with non-institutional practices of DCH, but also the processes in two cities, Novi Sad (Serbia) and Graz (Austria). They share in part the common history, culture and heritage. In contemporary framework, comparison aims to highlight social and cultural experience of the cities of which one belongs to the state member of European Union and one is in the process of Europeanization. It is also interdisciplinary research that transcends the boundaries in Social Sciences between Sociology, Heritage Studies and Digital Humanities and foregrounds hitherto neglected aspects of the process of digitalization of cultural heritage.

The project’s main objective is to build a framework examining how artistic practice can be applied within migration policy contexts. Addressing calls by refugees, asylum seekers and human rights organisations for more humane approaches to policy, this framework will specifically investigate how artworks made in response to the EU migration crisis can raise awareness, build understanding or disrupt usual relationships between refugees, local long-term residents, NGOs and border security personnel. Developed within a comparative study between Greece and Tunisia, the project will reflect the impact of the EU’s current retracting and expanding borders in two key sites on either side of the Mediterranean sea. As the EU enacts ‘buffer zones’ to stem the arrival of asylum seekers on mainland Europe, art practices will be analysed for the ways in which they express and alleviate multiple stresses for those impacted by such policy. Beginning with a review of artistic practices on site in these two locations, the project will map and analyse how art reveals relationships between multiple actors across refugee, resident, NGO and border personnel communities. This review will be contextualised by a wider review of art in global border practices. Interviews with key informants and observations of different practices in Greece and Tunisia will then inform the development of a practice as research methodology, drawing on the ER’s own arts practice to co-create a series of artworks with local actors to test and map possibilities for new and different relationships between those enacting and those impacted by migration policy. This participatory arts practice will iterate through a regular co-evaluation process to a build a framework that reflects the role of art in relation to multi-stakeholder support, partnership building and ethical approaches to inter-personal relationships. The framework and its development will be made available on an interactive website.

With climate and environmental concerns topping the global agenda, industries across all sectors are under tremendous pressure to rapidly change their existing fossil-based practices by shifting toward cleaner, greener, more sustainable (in one word: future fit) solutions in business and production, while maintaining economic competitiveness internationally. Surfactants (17 million t/year market globally) are omnipresent in key industrial segments (detergents, personal care, coatings, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals) and companies are actively looking to shift toward bio-based alternatives while maintaining product performance. Surprisingly, the valorization of renewable waste streams occurring in large quantities for making novel surfactants has not been adequately exploited so far. The reason for this is the lack of fundamentally new technologies in this area. With the credo: Superior performance and clean conscience, PureSurf introduces ground-breaking manufacturing concepts to produce novel high-performance bio-based surfactants from currently underutilized renewable waste streams. In ERC PoC PURE project, novel green surfactants were obtained by green and scalable synthetic pathways, resulting in 2 patent applications. Building on this, the PureSurf validation activities will include: - Upscale at least one gemini anionic and one zwitterionic surfactant structures to 1 kg to validate their properties, using clean starting materials - Upscale (to 5 kg, TRL5-6) at least one selected example using industrial waste streams - Determine properties, ecotoxicity, biodegradability (also anaerobic) as well as performance in industrial applications - Critically compare to existing surfactants, establish a business case and prepare an investor ready technology. The PureSurf team, consisting of leading experts in green chemistry, engineering and business with strong industrial network, aims to establish a spin-off company and become frontrunner in bio-based surfactants.

The University of Graz has participated in the Erasmus programme since its beginning and strives to further strengthen its collaboration as a pro-active partner in the Erasmus+ community.In the academic year 2016/17, the University of Graz carried out all Erasmus+ activities successfully and took advantage of all mobility schemes of the programme. This period also marked the 30th anniversary of the programme and led to a series of PR measures to celebrate the occasion. In the KA103 project period, the University of Graz successfully carried out 493 outgoing mobilities on all levels (SMS, SMT, STA, STT) and in a wide range of disciplines. In return, the University of Graz hosted about 425 incoming Erasmus+ participants (students, trainees and staff). The university strengthened its ties to long-standing partner institutions and established new Erasmus partnerships, especially focusing on the institutions’ profiles, structure, international orientation, support services for students and staff and the compatibility of study programmes and research fields.The University of Graz is particularly satisfied to see a continued growth in the number of outgoing mobilities for training (SMT). This is partly related to the new possibility of shorter periods for traineeships and also to the wider take up of this action line in the faculties due to better promotion. In academic year 2016/17 the number of outgoing and incoming students and trainees was again slightly higher compared to the previous year.The mobility of staff for the purpose of teaching and trainings continues to be a strong instrument for the internationalisation of the University. Staff exchanges contribute to internationalisation at home, strengthen existing links and often lead to new collaboration and establishing new ties.The University of Graz is pleased to have successfully carried out the KA103 project in full compliance with the ECHE and with a slight growth in the mobility numbers.