Digital transformation (DX) is a technology-driven continuous change process of companies and the entire society, it is about adopting disruptive technologies to increase productivity, value creation, and social welfare (Ebert 2018): it entails transformation of business, organisational activities, processes, required competences, and it impacts across society at several levels, from the individual to the collective perspective. Clearly, DX has huge effects on the labour market, which have been largely debated in the past few years. The OECD (2016) has documented that technological change has been a key driver behind the de-industrialisation in OECD’s countries, having resulted in slower job creation. Frey and Osborne (2013) argued that particularly automation had and has greatly impacted on the labour market in terms of labour savings: although this phenomenon has so far affected in particular low skilled workers, new business processes also necessarily affect middle management, management and highly skilled professionals/consultants, which are typical graduate jobs. Being an entrepreneur in the technological era requires a greater level of digital skills and a sound understanding of the digital transformation trends over time, in business and society. The DiTEMP project therefore proposes an action aimed at embedding Digital Transformation elements, with reference to its impact on field-specific labour markets, in curricular education by providing:-A methodological reference framework listing learning outcomes for the purpose, and pedagogical approaches suitable to reach educational goals;-A step-by-step guide on how to integrate in practice the framework in university settings;-A training course, and related learning materials, for teachers and career counsellors; -Four modules related to field-specific disciplines (Psychology, Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Business and Economics; and Education) related to the impact of digital transformation in reference labour markets, and how to equip students in positively dealing with that;-Guidelines, both online and offline, to easily take advantage of the project results, and transfer them to other disciplinary fields.Two levels of intervention will be pursued:- Towards teachers and career counsellors, to make them aware of the impact of digital transformation in their own reference field markets;- Towards students, in order to increase their capability to act and manage the complexity and the rapid changes of the market as a result of digital transformation. The action would contribute at the same time to the evolution of internal processes at higher education institutions to support graduates’ employability, as: increased integration among academic body and support services; improved interdisciplinarity; enhanced capacity to embed the world of work into academic curricula.

Health is crucial to keep the world wheels spinning. It is outlined by the United Nations 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and validated by the current global disturbing and disrupting pandemic crisis. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and still a major problem for society and a major challenge for scientific community. 20 years ago, with the discovery of imatinib (Gleevec®), targeted therapy come up to change the state of the art of cancer therapeutics, and the beginning of a new era in drug discovery. A new generation of small molecule inhibitors were synthesized targeting specific proteins involved in tumorigenesis, triggering an increase quality in the therapy of several cancer types, like lung, colorectal and breast cancers, lymphoma, and leukemia. Drugs for some specific targets are hard to develop due to therapeutic target’s structure and physiological role. Considering the properties exhibited by imatinib and sunitinib, with this multi-disciplinary proposal, we conceive a new strategy to design and synthesized new libraries of oxindole-type small molecules with tyrosine kinase (TK) inhibitor activity, focusing on BCR-ABL and VEGFR TK proteins.Despite the development of therapeutics, TK inhibitors (TKIs) represents a therapeutical breakthrough and a hot topic in drug discovery, but several difficulties remain in their discovery, like the financial burden. The challenges in modern medicinal/synthetic chemistry go beyond the creation of new molecules. Nowadays, the environmental concerns displayed by society and regulatory authorities automatically promote the creation of sustainable and eco-friendly methods in lab and industry scales. Therefore, the central synthetic strategy of this application will be the use of new (and not so new) multicomponent reactions (MCRs), in one-pot or sequential tactic, and procedures with high economic and low environmental footprints, focused on the use of greener methodologies to access the desired oxindole-type derivatives. The aim is to take benefit of the massive advantages of MCRs on developing elegant and sustainable atom economical synthetic routes, decreasing the production of by-products and the use of other expensive consumables, like solvents. The overall strategy of this proposal is to extend the chemical space around the oxindole core, introducing previously selected key units to obtain libraries of new hybrid molecules that will be evaluated in in vitro assays regarding cancer cell lines. Assessment of appropriate physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties and in silico studies regarding small-molecule TK target will be conducted. Since this is an exploratory application (individual submission) all the tasks involved in the preparation of the TK inhibitors will be performed by the PI (Carolina Marques, University of Évora), who has great know-how in the field, supported by the Co-PI (António Teixeira, University of Évora) with noteworthy knowledge in heterocyclic chemistry and medicinal chemistry. A master student will be involved in the team, having a 6-month scholarship to develop the work concerning the synthesis of these interesting scaffolds within the scope of his/her master’s thesis. External collaborators will provide, in a regularly basis, crucial information regarding in silico and in vitro studies. The overall data from all the tasks involved will assess the potential of the devised strategy regarding the activity on BCR-ABL and VEGFR TK proteins, leading to good tumor cell anti-proliferation inhibitors, encouraging a future hit to lead development. Other TK targeted proteins involved in cancer therapy could be evaluated. Oxindole-type scaffolds are well known for its extensive biological profile, and other properties like cholinesterase inhibition (in which the PI have know-how), antibacterial or antiviral activities should be considered in the future as part of a back-up plan concerning the faith of these new scaffolds. It is expected that the results of these investigations could be an important step in drug discovery of TKIs and, in a prosperous future, patients who might benefit from protein TK-antagonist drug development process. De acordo com a Agenda 2030 das Nações Unidas para um desenvolvimento sustentável e tendo em conta a realidade caótica que se tem vivido atualmente no mundo inteiro, é confiante declarar, sem sombra de dúvida, que a Saúde é um ponto central do nosso quotidiano. O cancro é uma das principais causas de morte a nível mundial e ainda um problema inquietante para a sociedade e um desafio para a comunidade científica. Há cerca de 20 anos atrás, com a descoberta do imatinib (Gleevec®), a chamada terapia-alvo apareceu para modificar as terapêuticas existentes para tratamento do cancro, e deu-se início a uma nova era na descoberta de fármacos. Uma nova geração de pequenas moléculas foi sintetizada com o intuito de inibir determinadas proteínas envolvidas na produção de células tumorais, despoletando tratamentos menos violentos em vários tipos de cancro como cancro de pulmão, colon rectal e de mama, linfomas e leucemias. Fármacos pensados para alvos específicos são muito difíceis de obter devido à estrutura terapêutica do alvo em si e ao seu comportamento dentro da célula. Tendo em conta as peculiaridades exibidas pelo imatinib e o sunitinib, pretende-se, com este projeto multidisciplinar, apresentar uma nova estratégia de síntese de novas bibliotecas de pequenas moléculas do tipo oxindole que possuam atividade inibitória para as proteínas tirosina-quinase (TQ), nomeadamente nas BCR-ABL e VEGFR. Apesar do crescente desenvolvimento e do aparecimento inerente de certas dificuldades, como encargos financeiros, os inibidores de TQ (ITQ) representam ainda hoje um avanço terapêutico e uma área muito desafiante na descoberta de novos fármacos. Hoje em dia os desafios na química medicinal/sintética vão muito além da criação de novas moléculas. As preocupações ambientais geradas pela sociedade e pelas entidades reguladoras forçam à criação de métodos de síntese sustentáveis e amigos do ambiente, tanto no meio académico como na indústria. Como tal, a estratégia planeada para o desenvolvimento deste projeto será a utilização de novas (e não só) reações multicomponente (RMC), de um modo one-pot ou sequencial, e procedimentos mais verdes, económicos e de baixo impacto ambiental para a obtenção dos compostos do tipo oxindole pretendidos. O objetivo é beneficiar da enorme vantagem das RMC para desenvolver novas vias de síntese sustentáveis e económicas, diminuindo a produção de produtos secundários e a utilização de outros consumíveis dispendiosos e tóxicos como solventes. A estratégia geral deste projeto é a diversificação do espaço químico em redor do núcleo oxindole, pela introdução de unidades chave previamente pensadas para obter famílias de moléculas híbridas que serão depois testadas em ensaios in vitro em linhas celulares de cancro. Serão realizados estudos teóricos in silico com o intuito de avaliar as propriedades físico-químicas e farmacocinéticas das pequenas moléculas ITQ. Como esta candidatura é exploratória (do foro individual) todas as tarefas envolvidas na preparação dos ITQ serão realizadas pelo IR (Carolina Marques, Universidade de Évora), que possui um grande conhecimento na área, e pelo Co-IR (António Teixeira, Universidade de Évora) com conhecimento notável na síntese de compostos do tipo heterocíclicos e em química medicinal. Um estudante de mestrado será envolvido na equipa, tendo à sua disposição uma bolsa de investigação de 6 meses para desenvolver trabalho de síntese no âmbito deste projeto e da sua tese de mestrado. Colaborações com grupos externos irão proporcionar informação e dados cruciais sobre os estudos in vitro e in silico. A compilação de todos os resultados obtidos nas várias tarefas irá mostrar o potencial destas novas moléculas nas proteínas TQ BCR-ABL e VEGFR, levando à criação de bons inibidores de células tumorais e encorajando o desenvolvimento de novas famílias. Como plano alternativo serão estudadas outras proteínas TQ envolvidas na terapia-alvo em cancro e, como os derivados de oxindole são bastante conhecidos pelas suas extensas aplicações biológicas, poderão ser testadas outras propriedades destas novas moléculas, como inibição de colinesterases (na qual o IP tem experiência), atividades antibacterianas ou antivirais, etc. Espera-se que os resultados desta investigação sejam um passo importante na descoberta de novos ITQ e que, num futuro próspero, os pacientes possas beneficiar deste processo de desenvolvimento de um fármaco inibidor de uma proteína TQ.

2016-1-ES01-KA103-023996 Erasmus+ project has helped to design, develop and implement a strategy for mobility at a European level for the entire academic community, students, staff and faculty. The objectives of this project have been achieved and consisted in a total of 154 study mobilities for students, 9 traineeship mobilties for students, 9 training mobilities for staff and 12 teaching mobilities.Each of the activities and actions developed during this project Erasmus + have been designed, convened, approved and disseminated based on the type of mobility and type of user.The aim of promoting European mobility among students and staff in the ULL seeks to improve their skills and knowledge by offering a cross international training, to impact the future employability of graduates through the internationalization of their curriculums, and to improve the international relations of our academic community creating European networks positively affecting the internationalization of research and teaching.Studenst participanting have obtained the academic recognition of credits taken and passed in the European host institution and also could meet other educational systems, other teaching methods, other cultures and European values and improve their linguistic knowledge. The distribution of students between one semester mobilities and a whole academic course has been fairly equitable. With regard to ECTS credits exceeded, it is also worth mentioning the high average obtained by ULL students which is estimated at 41.9. Regarding global satisfaction indexes, reaching a rate of 96.10% of satisfaction in outgoing students by studies, 88.89% in outgoing students by practices and of 94.01% in incoming students is a real success. The figures for staff are even better, achieving 100% satisfaction.International mobility affects the future employability of our students and is considered an added value to the formation offered by this public university in an environment like the Canary Islands, EU outermost region, where tourism and logistics are the main drivers of the economy.In the case of staff mobility, the University of La Laguna has promoted actions to improve relations with European universities ULL. Our staff has been able to understand the functioning of other universities and their curricula and allwith the aim of improving the management of mobility and the amount in the future. Mobility for teaching staff allows the ULL incorporate international experience to their CV and establish relationships that impact their research and teaching within the educational programs of the ULL. Staff training mobility has allowed ULL participation in other actions of the Erasmus +program such as the Key Actions 2 where the grow has been remarkable.

This is a higher education student and staff mobility project, please consult the website of the organisation to obtain additional details.

<< Background >>Skills such as taking the first step, smiling for the first time, and waving “bye bye” are called developmental milestones. According to the Center for Disease Control (2018) children reach milestones in how they play, learn, speak, act, and move (crawling, walking, etc.). Early identification of developmental delays is at the utmost importance in a child’s development. In order to have an efficient Early Identification and Early Intervention, certain practices must be set in place such as standardized instruments for screening and assessments as well as strategies for work with children with delays. In these modern times, we need to utilize all the available technology and create tools that are free and accessible to all. In that direction, this project will focus on creation of an e-learning OER that will contain various screening methods for identification of children with disabilities as well as early intervention working strategies. These instruments stem from the project results.The content from the web-based OER (enriched with developmental checklists and video/audio materials with exercises) will be the basis on which a development tracker mobile application will be created. Through this app, students in the early education field but also parents, caregivers, educators and special educators can monitor the development of each child and work with the children in home and/or professional settings.Ultimately, the content developed in the first part of the project will lead to the Update of University curricula in the area of Early Intervention for children with developmental delay in all HEIs participating in this project with a possibility of further dissemination with other universities, schools, preschool institutions and so on.The needs assessments indicate that such a web-based OER combined with a mobile app for easy access has not been made in Europe. Subsequently via the update of university curricula university staff and students in the relevant fields and practitioners and various experts in the relevant fields can benefit from such user-friendly OERs and apps which enable the use of high-education tools. The development and use of such a web-based OER will improve the digital skills of all, in alignment with the challenges set in the new century. Several HEIs are jointly working on different aspects of this web-based OER and updating their own University curricula in the process. In this way, the HEI professors will also acquire digital skills and improve the manner in which they teach special education and early intervention and they conduct practice. Several target groups will directly benefit from this project: pre-service early childhood and early intervention specialists (these are the future professionals in the field) but also in-service teachers and special educators that currently work with children in pre-schools or early intervention centers. Parents will also have the opportunity to track their children’s developmental progress with this application and find creative and innovative ways to boost their child’s development through the OER possibilities. Also, academic staff and students from other closely related fields will benefit from the final products envisioned within this project. Finally, the biggest benefit is for the children with developmental delays and their families, who will get to work with highly skilled and well trained professionals introduced to all the novelties in the special education area. In this manner we can achieve the goal of early intervention for children with developmental delay, and that is to give these children an equal opportunity in life.Addressing digital transformation through the development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity is the most relevant horizontal priority for the UPDEIT project. This project supports evidence-based practices and fosters innovative and creative IT solutions in the area of early childhood development and early intervention<< Objectives >>The following objectives are set within the frames of this project proposal:- Creating evidence-based practices in the area of Early Intervention for children with developmental delays.- Digitization of the early intervention (video) practices by the creation of web-based OER for Early Intervention.- Creation of a milestone tracker app for tracking the children’s development.- Updating University curricula in the area of Early Intervention for children with developmental delay (with which we will ensure the sustainability of the project results).- Enabling access (through dissemination) to the web-based OER and milestone tracker to parents, caregivers, and professionals in the area of disability.- Improving the level of key competencies and skills in professionals and future professionals in the disability area.- Foster quality improvements and excellence in innovation at the high education institution level through enhanced transnational cooperation between education and training providers and other stakeholders.- Promote and strengthen knowledge and acceptance of diversity in society.<< Implementation >>I. Three transnational meetings are planned within the frame of this project:- First kick-off meeting with the purpose of fine-tuning of different aspects of the project activities, explanation of financial rules and procedures, as well as sharing ideas about the methodology for the research. - Second transnational meeting closely related to the second and third project results - Implementation and testing of the web-based OER and preparations for creation of the mobile application. - Third transnational meeting after the web-based OER and mobile application have been created and the University curricula updated and tested. Final remarks will be given and further project ideas and possibilities for cooperation between the partners will be discussed.II. Four results will stem from the project’s activities:1. The production of the first project result will be oriented towards exploring the best early intervention practices in Europe and worldwide. The research will entail desk-top and field studies for evidence-based practices, as well as strategies and exercises on how to improve the developmental outcome of every child. 2. The second project result is the creation of a web-based OER with screening instruments (development screening instruments) and early intervention exercises for children with developmental delay. They will be placed on a web-based open-source web-based OER for early interventions in children. Different types of screening instruments for different ages from birth-to-six will be created, adequate for the European region. The early intervention exercises for different developmental milestones will be created, they will be recorded and placed on the web-based OER. 3. The third project result will be the creation of an innovative solution - a mobile application for easy access of the web-based OER for early intervention. Photos and videos in this app will illustrate every milestone and make tracking easy. In this manner, students in special education, pedagogy, psychology, medicine, etc. then every parent, caregiver or professional in the disability area will be able to monitor the progress of every child and they will have information on what to do if there is a concern that the child is not developing at a certain pace. This information will be given through video tutorials.4. The fourth project results will be a well-designed curriculum that contains innovative elements (such as the created web-based OER and mobile app within this project) that nurtures both student learning and student retention. New and updated curriculums can improve the quality of e-learning as well. This updated curriculum will emphasize the learning outcomes or knowledge/attitudes/skills that should be attained by the students. In this way, the curriculum that will originate from this project will be a competency-based curriculum. All project countries that have special needs departments (N. Macedonia, Russia, and Spain) will update their University curriculums. The web-based OER and mobile app will be used as segments for e-learning. All project results will be developed and published in Macedonian, Greek, Spanish, Russian and English.III. Four multiplier events will be organized:1. The future of early intervention: Roundtable debate in N. Macedonia2. Conference in Cyprus: Novelties in mobile tracker apps for children with developmental delay3. Congress in Russia: Family-oriented early intervention4. Course development in early intervention in higher education: An assembly in Spain.IV. One LTTA will be organized in Cyprus: Training of trainers for OER use, app on-boarding and contextual learning,<< Results >>Tangible results:- Manual for development monitoring and strategies for work with children with developmental delays;- Web-based OER with child development-related content;- Web-based OER with strategies for enhancing children’s developmental pathways;- Developmental milestones tracker content;- A mobile app developed for easy access to the OER;- Updated University curricula in the area of early intervention for children with special needs;- More integrated use of ICT and open resources in University institutions;- New teaching methods and open pedagogy approaches;- Increased access to online materials to pre-service educators;- Increased access to online materials for in-service preschool teachers and special educators;- Increased access to online child-development content for parents;- Increased transnational cooperation and exchange of good practices in the field of special preschool education.Intangible results:- Increased IT and media literacy skills in HEI staff and students;- Improved connection between different types of formal and non-formal learning;- Increased motivation;- Increased satisfaction in everyday work;- Increased opportunities for the business sector;- Increased competition on the labor market;- Increased quality of education.