Mediterranean climate and soils impose drastic constraints to agriculture. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is one of the best adapted species to Mediterranean conditions. Climate change and growing Mediterranean population will further increase environmental and anthropic constraints on barley culture in a near future. An urgent objective is therefore to obtain barley varieties with high yield under stress conditions, while maintaining high nutritional quality of edible parts, associating high protein, mineral and fiber content with low contamination. In this context, the use of biostimulants of plant growth may help improving stress tolerance as well as nutritional quality, while limiting the use of classical chemical fertilizers that contribute to soil pollution. Our proposal is based on exploring the genetic diversity of a collection of Mediterranean barley accessions subjected to combined environmental constraints: heavy metals (HM), salinity, drought and pathogens. A collection of representative H. vulgare cultivars from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt as well as wild barley accessions (H. spontaneum) will be screened in the frame of this project. The project will therefore make use of local biodiversity to identify ideotypes maintaining high nutritional quality and low contaminant content even when grown under combinations of biotic and abiotic stresses. Nutritional quality and mineral content of grain and straw of these accessions will be analyzed under combinations of different abiotic (drought, salinity, Cd) and biotic (the fungal pathogen Rynchosporium commune) stresses. Physiological and molecular characterization of genotypes with contrasting phenotypes will shed light on the mechanisms underlying their adaptation to multiple stresses. Biostimulants provided by the private partner Roullier will be tested to evaluate their ability to increase stress tolerance and nutritional quality. This project will bring together the expertise of 9 partners from 5 European and North African Mediterranean countries. It is expected to provide key information on the resilience and quality traits of Mediterranean barley germplasm under stress conditions, which can be used by breeders and farmers to choose their variety depending on a particular agricultural environment. We will identify potential ideotypes for entering breeding programs to reach resilience objectives while preserving nutritional quality. An important scientific output of this project will be a better understanding of the molecular and physiological mechanisms involved in barley nutritional quality and tolerance to combined stresses that will be of great relevance for agronomical and scientific communities.

The labour market in the Maghreb is characterised by high youth unemployment and a low level of integration of women. The integration of young people is hampered by an economic development model that does not create enough jobs, combined with training that is not adapted to market needs and the lack of attractive jobs in the formal sector. To address these issues, higher education institutions in the region must improve future self-employment prospects for graduates, especially women. WEMag aims to help reduce the obstacles to entrepreneurship for young educated women in Tunisia and Morocco by providing them with entrepreneurial knowledge, experience and access to networks for business purposes. Using a design-thinking approach, it will create a new, common University Course on entrepreneurship designed for women, including project-oriented action learning, online learning and an internship allowing them to discover the first steps of budding companies. This course will improve the knowledge, skills and competences of female students and recent graduates in Tunisia and Morocco for employability and business creation after formal education. It will foster the entrepreneurial spirit of female students and help them build professional networks for business creation with key actors in their local startup ecosystems. Following the one-year course, students wishing to pursue will benefit from a personal coaching to launch their own companies. The project will also improve entrepreneurial pedagogy through a Teacher’s Training. This Teacher’s Training Component will be co-created with partner universities in the Maghreb and inspired by the service design methodology, in order to best respond to their context and needs. Given the appropriate tools and support, more female graduates will launch their own companies in Tunisia and Morocco, with a beneficial impact both on their employment prospects and the economy at large.

The conditions in Morocco, Tunisia, and Ukraine are ripe for the successful modernisation with gender studies different Master's programs in the different field of Social and Behaviour Sciences. The consortium is formed on the basis of professionalism, mutual complement and quality sufficient experience of project implementation. It consists of HEIs from the Lithuania, Greece, Hungary, 2 Moroccan, 2 Tunisian, and 3 Ukrainian HEIs and three NGO as associative partners.There are analysis of existing curricula, concept of updated curriculum; cross-regional contacts as results of the Preparation WP.The main results of the Development WP: - Modernised curricula in gender issues (updated curricula; syllabi for updated and new courses);- Core resources (teaching, learning and training materials for teachers and students; staff skills in Partner countries HEIs improved at short internships at Program countries);- E-resources (OER; E-test system).Dissemination activities carry out publications, press, posters, printed promotion material etc. International multiplier events will be organised: three Schools, two Conference, Seminar of Young Teachers & Scientists, and Forum.An effective system of project management and quality control is developed.The main results are published in hard & in e-version and posted on the project website in French, Arab, English and Ukrainian. The project creates the new competences and new thinking in gender equality and improve education in gender studios of students of modernised MA Programs in Social and Behavioral Sciences; disseminate the updated curricula into the universities of other regions; promote the convergence of the education system in EU-neighboring countries with European state education systems; promote increasing of level of digital competence in all target groups; promote strengthening of ties between Europeans and their neighbours; realize positive changes in gender equality in the world community