RE-DWELL will train a new generation of professionals with the transdisciplinary skills which are needed to address the urgent need of affordable and sustainable housing, a major challenge for European societies. To date, affordability and sustainability of housing have been addressed separately, from various disciplinary perspectives (e.g. architecture and planning, economics, sociology) and realms (e.g. policy-making, sustainable development, urban planning, green building). However, recent research indicate that it is necessary to consider the affordability and the sustainability of housing as complementary and interrelated aspects which need to be addressed with a transdisciplinary approach, by combining academic disciplines and engaging non-academic sectors in a common production of knowledge. Ten academic beneficiaries and twelve non-academic partner organisations will jointly contribute to creating a transdisciplinary research environment which encompasses the various disciplines, sectors and stakeholders involved in the provision of A&S housing. Fifteen ESRs research works will interlink three key areas underpinning affordable and sustainable housing: 1. Design, planning and building; 2. Community participation; and 3. Policy and financing. ESRs trained in this programme will be able to develop a capacity to operate across fields and sectors, to provide innovative solutions to the growing housing problem affecting our societies.

OptEEmAL aims to develop an Optimised Energy Efficient Design Platform for refurbishment at district level, which will deliver an optimised, integrated and systemic design based on an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) approach for building and district retrofitting projects, reducing time delivery and uncertainties, resulting in improved solutions when compared to business-as-usual practices. This main objective will be deployed through the following key objectives: 1. Development of a holistic and effective services platform for District Energy Efficient Retrofitting Design integrating interoperable modules and tools able to provide services for diagnosis, scenarios generation (according to stakeholders priorities), energy/ cost/ environment/ social evaluation, scenarios optimisation and data export. 2. Reinforcement of the presence of all involved stakeholders through an Integrated Project Delivery approach that will allow them being articulated through a collaborative and value-based process to deliver high-quality outcomes. 3. Development of an integrated ontology-based District Data Model that will contain key information in the fields of energy, comfort, environment (LCA), economic, social wellbeing and urban morphology. 4. Development of an Energy Conservation Measures catalogue (ECM) including technical, operational, maintenance and cost information giving valuable and consistent outputs to the design and district operation and maintenance stages. 5. Development of a bio-inspired optimization module based on Evolutionary computing with the aim to automate the decision making process to obtain the optimal design for an energy efficient retrofitting plan at district level. 6. Development of external connections of the OptEEmAL Platform to external entities (i.e. existing tools enabling the calculation of indicators to generate and optimise the retrofitting scenarios) 7. Strong disseminations, training, exploitation and market deployment strategies.

The use of online collaboration platforms facilitates the access of SMEs to Open Innovation environments where they can collaborate, co-create and co-participate in innovation projects. Despite these benefits, European SMEs have so far failed to embrace the use of online platforms to facilitate open innovation. The Europe Enterprise Network, the most widespread innovation support service in Europe, is successfully addressing this challenge mainly by organising brokerage events or clusters around interested stakeholders. However, EEN support services are very labour intensive, and the resources available are small, meaning many agents are unable to offer the level of support they believe is necessary. This often results in collaborations being set up, but then failing to realise their potential due to the lack of ongoing monitoring, support and management. The NIR-VANA project will tackle these drawbacks through the design of a new service that will be provided by innovation agents. This service will promote the online collaboration for SME during the entire innovation process using an innovative approach based on ICT solutions, training and novel methods to support SMEs. Three members of the EEN a two other innovation organisations will collaborate in the design of the services that will be later tested by other 10 EENs and innovation agencies. The project will develop an ICT-based layer that will facilitate the work of the innovation agents and will also promote a change of mentality of the SME. Some services will be provided online using a novel Networking and Innovation Room (NIR) where the innovation agents and the SMEs interact to develop innovation partnerships. These services will allow direct and ongoing support provided by the innovation agents to the SMEs, links to other platforms/social networks, increased efficiency for the management and monitoring, and services aimed at encouraging SMEs involvement.

This project is based on the development of learning strategies within the framework of Vocation Training (FP – formación profesional), in order to improve learning processes and make them more applicable in the real working world while minimizing the number of student drop-outs. Learning methods are re-conceptualized through the use of immersive worlds and role and project-orientated learning. Scenario Centered Curriculum was applied to promote the acquisition and development of international co-operation skills through the use of ICT tools and systems. Nine partners make up the Consortium of the Project. La Salle Campus Barcelona (FUNITEC-Ramon Llull University, Spain), has the role of coordinating partner and there are three other main partners: FIDAE and ISP in Italy, and ASSEDIL in France, plus the six other associate partners that are the vocational training centers in which the Project is developed (2 in Spain, 2 in Italia and 1 in France). The fundamental objectives of the Project are to:1-Extend the use of practical, motivating, effective and international learning methodologies in the vocational training sectors in Spain, France and Italy2-Increase the success rate of the students through providing experiences which they find highly-motivating and which also require a certain degree of individual commitment3-Create a bank of educational program based in immersive worlds, projects and roles4-Foment international co-operation through joint projects carried out by heterogeneous work groups made up of members from different social and cultural backgrounds5-Pinpoint the degree to which different learning innovations can be applied to a group of students (role, online, international, etc)6-Verify whether these new methodologies manage to meet the objectives set out and compare these results with those of traditional learning techniques used in Vocational Training centers.These objectives are set out in the framework of the EU strategic priorities 2014-2020 in reference to: The development of basic and transversal skills, the development of adapted evaluation systems, an increased and more intensive use of ICTs, more cohesion between the different evaluation systems and the promotion of the transfer of learning strategies and methodologies among the countries of the EU. The Project is divided into five stages which are in turn organized into activities:1) Preparation: The activity program is reviewed2) Content Generation: Teaching materials for the courses, a guide to the SCC teaching methodology and a guide on the evaluation methods used in the learning and laboral insertion process3) Implantation. The teachers are trained. A pilot program with the SEO course is carried out to compare traditional methodologies with the SCC. The results of the learning are analyzed and the second year students are taught the MOBCOM course using SCC methodology in all the centers. Study of the laboral insertion of students.4) Tracking. Collection of data from students performance and employability.5) Results analysis and breakdown at the end of each of these courses.The methodology for the development of the Project is based on a two-phase spiral model. Initially the learning methodologies are implemented in the traditional form in a school in each of the three countries and then the same training is implemented in a different school using the SCC methodology. It is hoped that the impact and results of the project will strengthen pedagogical capabilities in the vocational training sector in the following ways:1) Reduction in school absence and increase motivation and commitment from the student2) Increased satisfaction level of the students3) Creation of the need to learn, from their roles with the immersive world proposed4) Creation of a certain degree of rivalry in the completion of ubiquitous tasks thanks to the use of various ICT systems5) Boost knowledge of students’ mother tongue and the establishment of a lingua franca to carry out international tasks6) Train the students and those already working and ensure that they are fully prepared to carry out the work expected of an officially qualified technician.The breakdown of the results have been published at international congresses on education and/or those related to HCC (Human Computer Interaction), as well as in the most relevant journals of these sectors. The short-term and long-term benefits of this Project are visible at both national and international level. On a global scale, all participating schools (more than 300 students) will benefit from the project as it may well be implemented in the other vocational training centers with which they are already associated (32 countries which make up the European Committee for Catholic Education. It is estimated that some 2,000 students and 300 teachers will either directly benefit from the project in some way.