The only lands on Earth that have not been explored in any depth by science are those that have been lost to the oceans. Global warming at the end of the last Ice Age led to the inundation of vast landscapes that had once been home to thousands of people. These lost lands hold a unique and largely unexplored record of settlement and colonisation linked to climate change over millennia. Amongst the most significant is Doggerland. Occupying much of the North Sea basin between continental Europe and Britain it would have been a heartland of human occupation and central to the process of re-settlement and colonisation of north Western Europe during the Mesolithic and the Neolithic. Within this submerged landscape lies fragmentary yet valuable evidence for the lifestyles of its inhabitants including the changes resulting from both the encroaching sea and the introduction of Neolithic technologies. This inundated landscape cannot be explored conventionally, however pioneering work by the applicant’s research group has led to the rediscovery of Doggerland through the creation of the first detailed topographic maps relating to human occupation in the Early Holocene. Within this project world-leading innovators in the fields of archaeo-geophysics, molecular biology and computer simulation will develop a ground-breaking new paradigm for the study of past environments, ecological change and the transition between hunter gathering societies and farming in north west Europe. It will: 1) use the latest seismic reflectance data available to generate topographical maps of the whole of early Holocene Doggerland that are as accurate and complete as possible. 2) reconstruct and simulate the palaeo-environments of Doggerland using ancient DNA extracted directly from sediment cores. 3) explore the Mesolithic landscapes and also identify incipient Neolithic signals indicating early contact and development within the region of Doggerland.

This project addresses the need for intercultural learning in Chinese higher education (HE) in view of an enhanced intercultural awareness in interacting with people from diverse backgrounds. Despite the increased attention for interculturality, a recent nation-wide survey revealed that teaching staff still largely treats culture as a static body of knowledge (Gu, 2016). By building on the IEREST-project (527373-LLP-1-2012-1-IT-ERASMUS-ESMO), RICH-Ed aims at supporting the Chinese partner HEIs in creating a learning environment that empowers students and staff for global engagement. To this end, the partnership will define a pedagogical approach for intercultural learning in Chinese HE; develop, test and adapt instructional materials; and organize trainings for teaching and support staff.The project will produce the following results with respect to intercultural learning in Chinese HE:- a description of the current situation and stakeholder analysis;- a tested pedagogical approach & methodology;- tested and adapted learning materials and teacher support tools for intercultural learning in English courses, and for administrative and management staff;- a minimum of 15 trained trainers, 50 teachers, 50 support staff, and 1000 students at the Chinese partner HEIs; and an additional 100 teachers and 1000 students at other HEIs in the Yangtze River Delta and North-East China.The developed approach will be sustained in various courses at the partner HEIs and elsewhere in these target regions. Through a continuing engagement with stakeholders at various levels, the project aims to raise a deeper understanding in the country of a non-essentialist approach to interculturality. By making the developed materials freely available on an e-repository, new end-users will be able to benefit after project completion. The partnership will also investigate opportunities for sustainability in the form of for-a-fee products and services, and reaching additional target groups.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

"The project aims to improve quality of higher education in the Field of Journalism Reporting and develop life-long learning skills for high-quality media reporting on SDGs and ICT-based data analysis of journalism and media students,journalists and analysts in Cambodia, Malaysia and China through the development of new curricula. It also enhances relevance of acquisition of better qualifications in the labour market by developing new and innovative journalism reporting courses for journalism students and active journalists and analysts. It aims to enrich the innovation capacities as well as the internationalisation of HEIs by promoting transnational cooperation in the field of media reporting on SDGs. It also promotes voluntary convergence with EU developments of curriculum development in the field of journalism and reporting in the higher education system through the sharing of best practices and know-how of the EU-HEIs. The outputs include a state-of-the-art report on needs analysis of Asian HEIs, ""Journalism Reporting on SDGs"" course program that will be incorporated in the HEIs relevant program, capacity building programs for academic staff, Online learning platform and creation of SDGs Research Units. Impact will be achieved in institution, national and transnational level through the proper dissemination and exploitation of the project's results and the participation of relevant stakeholders in the networking events."