The EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters’ (Mission Ocean) aims at protecting and restoring the health of our ocean and waters through research and innovation, citizen engagement, and blue investments by 2030. The creation of the European Digital Twin Ocean (EU DTO) supports this mission as well as the key initiative of the European Commission, Destination Earth (DestinE), aiming at developing a highly accurate digital model of the Earth on a global scale to be able to monitor, simulate, and predict the interaction between natural phenomena and human activities. Addressing the Horizon Europe call HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-8, SEADITO focuses on the need for a targeted set of analytical methods and tools to support the development of the EU DTO including integrating social-ecological models in order to establish a comprehensive decision support platform. SEADITO aims at increasing transdisciplinary abilities of social-ecological models by updating and integrating them for improved Ecosystem-based Management, and a set of case studies in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Mediterranean as well a Pan-European case study will provide the contexts for the multi-actor processes identifying user needs, as well as co-designing and testing components and services in the targeted user communities. The results will include sets of interoperable, spatial explicit, and DTO compliant social-ecological decision-support components based on FAIR principles (e.g. to be integrated with EDITO-Model Lab), as well as scalable and multi-level social-ecological models, integrated quantitative and qualitative social-ecological indicators, and workflows quantifying and integrating cultural and behavioural aspects. The components will be tested through an interactive spatial platform, the SEADITO Explorer equipped with visual demonstrators of social-ecological models and a Scenario Toolkit (WIST). Learning materials will target young researchers, decision-makers, and the public.

PERCEIVE aims at improving the perception, preservation, curation, exhibition, understanding and access of colored Cultural Heritage collections. It aims at developing a reliable way to Study, Reconstruct, Render, Remap, Exhibit and Re-appropriate them. These collections are, in fact, a priority because of their high fragility that requires shared methods to preserve and exhibit them (i.e. textiles start fading in only 10 years, while only small traces of the original polychromy on classical statues is left today), because of the complexity of their study (especially with the attempts of reconstructing their original appearance), and because of the importance of their communication to future generations and of the shaping of European common identity around the concepts of “care” and diversity/variety” (i.e. the different shades of skin colors that were common in the Greek and Roman times). PERCEIVE starts from the twofold needs of better preserving and communicating colored artworks, improving and speeding up scientific process results, that could better be used to maximize visitors' experience with the physical and the digital colored collections. Following the coronavirus emergency, in fact, museums have proved to lack of a digital policy that could guarantee a sustainable remote access for visitors. PERCEIVE aims at advancing the digital capability of scientists and cultural institutions, through a service based AI architecture and tool-kit; and by developing a new design theory for on site and remote VR/AR/MR experiences, based on “Care” “Accessibility” and “Authenticity” concepts, with and for the creative industries. Our expected outcomes include services and tools including: a PERCEIVE Tool Kit connected to an on line easy-to-use Service, PERCEIVE Experience Prototypes for the visitors, PERCEIVE Design Tool Kit for designers and educators.

UPPER aims at spearheading a Public Transport revolution that will strengthen the role of PT as the flagship of sustainability and innovation of mobility in cities, leading the transition towards a zero emission mobility which will become the cornerstone of climate neutrality by 2030, in line with the goal of Cities Mission and the priorities of the Green Deal. UPPER will put the Public Transport at the centre of the mobility ecosystem and will implement a combination of 84 push and pull measures, acting on the 5 innovation axes that condition user’s choices: mindset and culture, urban mobility planning, mobility services ecosystem, road network management and democratic governance. These measures will act in 4 different timescales (from shorter to longer-term): communication, operations, infrastructure and urban fabric. The UPPER measures will be supported by the UPPER Toolkit (U-TWIN, U-SIM, U-NEED, U-GOV, U-KNOW, U-TRANSFER and U-SUMP), 7 IT tools combining social and technological innovation that will be demonstrated within the measures in the 5+5 UPPER living labs and twinning sites, with the overall target of increasing the use of public transport by >30% and the user satisfaction by >25%, leaving nobody behind in the process. This integrated and holistic approach will ease the cooperation among authorities and operators, offer a physical and digital environment to test the measures, update the existing SUMPs, optimise the PT offer in line with user needs and patterns, involve the users in the overall mobility decision chain, trigger the behavioural change in favour of Public Transport and achieve an attractive, efficient, reliable, safe, inclusive and affordable Public Transport system in line with the concept of Mobility as a Right (MaaR)

"<< Objectives >>The main reason that we decided to implement this project was the fact that this generation of young Europeans has been hit hard by the economic and social crisis. The transition from education into the labour market has become more difficult as about one out of five young job seekers under 25 cannot find work (Empowering young people to participate in society, EU 2015). Many young people believe that their concerns are not taken up by politicians. More than half of them feel that in their country young people have been marginalized and excluded from economic and social life (Eurobarometer, 2017). A re-analysis of data from several large European surveys pointed out that active citizenship of young Europeans between 14-30 years is affected by several types of inequality (e.g., socioeconomic, gender, or age). Young people coming from less affluent and educated backgrounds such as NEETs are less politically active, less likely to vote, less involved in various civil associations and groups, less communicating about European issues, less involved in European or international projects, or less psychologically connected to Europe in terms of their European identity and trust in European institutions (Youth Participation in Democratic Life, Eurobarometer, 2015).There is a growing pattern of young people feeling disillusioned and discouraged, which leads them to abstain from active participation in local, national or EU level. This is shaping up to be a big challenge because a society with an inactive youth is condemned as young people are the future of a healthy and strong society. Under these circumstances we formed the idea of “Active Youth Challenge” an 8-day youth exchange, that took place in Larissa during 28/9 - 5/10/2019 and involved 40 young people and 10 team leaders from 5 countries (Greece, Italy, Germany, Norway, Hungary) in which we exchanged views and ideas on how to activated young people and especially NEETs on local, online and EU level and magnified their impact and level of participation in their community.Our project’s objectives were to:- connect and involve active Europeans from the 5 countries and increase their awareness and understanding of other cultures and countries and explore ways for boosting active youth participation especially in a local level where the impact of young people was magnified-give the opportunity to young Europeans to explore the challenges and obstacles of youth participation in the different levels (local, national, EU) and how we could overcome them-support them in the acquisition of learning outcomes (knowledge, skills, competences) regarding active citizenship in EU level, evaluation and discussion of the EU Elections of 2019-foster exchange of views of participants in exploring ways of e-participation and online activism in connection with local youth participation: how young people chose to be active, in what level, how was it different in each local community- learn more about the situation of NEETs in other countries, exchange of knowledge and good practices, methods & tools for boosting their participation by creating a social media campaign and ahandbook of the youth exchange that was focused on active citizenship and youth participation- increase participants’ knowledge on volunteerism and peer support of young people with fewer opportunities (NEETs, young people from rural areas) through non formal education activities, field trip and study visits to local associations-increase participants knowledge on Erasmus+ programme and especially the newfound European Solidarity Corps.<< Implementation >>The main activity of the “Active Youth Challenge” project was a youth exchange that took place in Larissa, Greece during 28/9/2019 -5/10/2019 (6 days of activity, two travel days) and tried to deal with youth participation and active citizenship in a local, national, EU and exploring new ways of participation such as e-participation. The participating countries were Greece, Germany, Norway, Hungary and Italy. Preparatory activities: Youth workers/team leaders: online meeting before and after the youth exchange. The planning and preparatory visit took place online via Skype, aiming to organize and prepare the YE in Greece. Also, the 10 team leaders used emails and social media for their communication. Young participants: The objectives of the project, the activities to be undertaken and the resolution of any questions concerning the preparation, implementation and evaluation of the project were analyzed and clarified by the team leaders of each national team at a meeting they organized organize online (Greece, Hungary) or offline (Germany, Norway, Italy) with participants, before the YE in Greece in fall of 2019. The goal of this meeting was the team to agree on the details of the YE, as well as the trip to Greece. Activities that we implemented during the YE in Greece:-Getting to know each other and team building activities-Role playing and intercultural learning-Brain storming activities-Study and field visits in Karditsa and Volos-Online activities (#BeActiveChallenge) and creation of handbook of participation Methods that we used:-Non formal education and experiential learning: the so-called ""learning from experience” i.e.: role games, physical activities and so on;-Cooperative learning: participants working together but divided into small groups to reach common goals;-Open Space Technology: an interactive method of development of ideas to follow up projects and actions;-Peer learningDissemination activities: Each partner used its own channel for dissemination, aiming to maximize the visibility and social effects of the activities undertaken during the project duration. A logo of the project was created, as well as social media pages and a blog. The project's blog and social media pages were updated by young participants. Number and profile of the participants:40 young people (8 per country) and 10 team leaders (2 per country) from 5 countries (Greece, Italy, Germany, Norway, Hungary) took part in this project. Regarding the profile of participants:-young people 18-30 years old, some of them were young people with fewer opportunities such as NEETs and young people coming from rural areas, or with migrant background-were interested in youth active citizenship and to know more about the different levels of youth participation and were committed to work and contribute to the objectives of the project-were eager to know more about non formal learning methods and lead/participate in activities/creative workshops during the main activity-were willing to participate in the next phases of the project (experts meeting in Norway) and continue the ideas of Active Youth Challenge through follow up activities in their local community-were able to work and communicate in English.<< Results >>The final results of this exchange were:-a social media ""challenge"" that young participants created and shared with their friends and peers in order to make it viral and raised the visibility and dissemination of the ""Active Youth Challenge"". Young participants used social media that were very popular among youth such as Snapchat, Instagram, and created videos, insta stories, snaps, and created a viral ""challenge"" related with the themes of the project. Each participant challenged their peers to make a statement or an action of youth participation and put the hashtag of the project #BeActiveChallenge and uploaded their video/story on their social media thus multiplying the effect of our project.-a handbook that had as central themes the active citizenship of young people and the youth participation and described the youth exchange, visualising the methods discussed during the youth exchange, and shared the pictures produced by participants during the campaign.The impact that our project had both to participants and partner organizations was regarding:-to help the young participants to increase a sense of international community and solidarity, -to understand active youth participation and e-participation,-to boost participants' competences (e.g. cultural awareness, communication skills, personal development, networking),-to increase their Erasmus+ knowledge especially on the new European Solidarity Corps opportunities,-to increase their project designing skills: some of the youngsters formed the idea of this project and helped in the development of this application and the daily programme of the activities. That resulted in the enhancement of project designing skills and they have known more on how to transform an idea to a concrete proposal (finding partners, collaborating with each other etc.)Finally, we believe that our project through the dissemination of its results, and through participants' sharing of experiences had an EU added value and enabled active youth participation and foster civil society empowerment at a local, online, and EU level."