We live in an increasingly fragmented and unequal society. Democracy is in crisis, and mistrust in science is on the rise, yet the unprecedented challenges we face, such as the climate and biodiversity crises, require greater scientific literacy and engagement across society. Education needs to provide the scientific knowledge to engender engaged and informed societies, but also to equip learners with the holistic competences to support and motivate them to become courageous thinkers and doers, actively shaping their own futures. We urgently need connected, system-wide responses that incorporate varied perspectives, are empathetic to different stakeholders’ needs and centre social justice and care. To achieve this, we need models for education that are more flexible and inclusive and advance lifelong learning to empower all citizens. LEVERS delivers Learning Ventures, a replicable model for expansive science learning through multi-stakeholder regional partnerships that collaboratively explore challenges and design science learning experiences to address local issues. In 9 Learning Venture demonstrator regions, stakeholders from formal, non-formal and informal education across education levels, community organisations, research and innovation, industry, and government, will be supported to adopt a systemic design approach to create climate justice projects offering meaningful real-world learning experiences. Capacity building and a mentoring programme will offer role models and guidance within and between regional Learning Ventures, linking R&I with education. The LEVERS Learning Framework and Field Guide will enable the partnership model to be adapted for other regions and challenges. Professional learning programmes and Open Schooling resources will enable widespread uptake from youth and adult educators. Guides for industry engagement, business models and policy recommendations will ensure transformative impact on science education in Europe into the future.

The creative sector is an important actor for the development of societies, economy and emerging futures. Important components of this growth have been advertising, visual communications and design. According to an independent study by Deloitte (Value of Advertising, 2017), every Euro spent on advertising approximately adds seven euro to the GDP. The EUR 92 billion spent on advertising in 2014 in the EU contributed EUR 643 billion to the GDP, representing 4.6% of the overall EU GDP. Additionally, there are as many as six million jobs in advertising in the EU, equivalent to 2.6% of all EU employment.Creativity is also becoming increasingly valued by people across commercial sectors, with research led businesses such as McKinsey finding strong correlation between creativity and financial performance (Mckinsey: Creativity's Bottom Line, 2017). With digital and mobile technologies becoming an increasingly important facet of modern life, it is necessary to ensure that the skills taught in education match the pace of innovation. Among various European stakeholders, there is great concern on the need to address the gap between the changing needs of the industry and the availability of a highly skilled workforce at the EU level. This challenge is widely described in policy documents such as the Digital Education Action Plan, the report on a coherent EU policy for cultural and creative industries, A new skills agenda for Europe, the Council Recommendations on key competences for lifelong learning or A new European Agenda for Culture, among many others.On the industry's side, each year D&AD uses the insight that it gets from the 20,000 pieces of work entered into its professional awards along with the thousands of student award entries to identify the gap between what is taught in universities and colleges and the skills required by the creative industry.Drawn on a detailed analysis of needs from D&AD and Art Directors Club of Europe (ADCE), Bridging the Creativity Gap will focus on skills such as Storytelling, Ideation & Critical thought, Prototyping, Craft, Digital (UX, UI) for the following targeted audiences:The student: those studying - advertising, branding, visual communications, graphic design, service design, product design, interactive design, UX and UI - and the emerging creatives entering the market, with and without professional experience.The tutor: those teaching the above-stated subjects both in VET and Higher Education as well as in-company tutors for the creative industry.In Bridging the Creativity Gap, D&AD, ADCE, Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia | Fab Lab Barcelona (IAAC), KERSNIKOVA Institute | Rampa and University of Oulu will partner to attain the following objectives:(1) To produce a Learning Curriculum encompassing those skills demanded by the creative industry to enable the prosperous incorporation into the industry and career development. (2) To explore a global-local framework for shifting the content of learning and the mechanisms by which it is delivered to more closely mirror the challenges of the creative industry. (3) To design, create and validate interactive OERs (videos, podcasts, tutorials) to properly address the skills gaps among BCG target groups. (4) To promote creative industry VET tutors’ professional development, adapting their key competences to the new challenges (eg. digital and technological innovations) (5) To showcase, disseminate and replicate proven methodologies, tools and practices for the EU creative VET ecosystem. Bridging the Creativity Gap will produce:- Five Intellectual Outputs (i) Learning Curriculum. Competence Matrix (skills and indicators including a paper/study).(ii) methodological toolkit(iii) set of OERs (videos, podcasts, articles, tutors guides) (iv) Teachers’ guidelines. Tutors guidelines, a comprehensive approach for building capacity skills for creative students (facilitation and evaluation handbook (v) Quality Assurance Framework- Two Short-term joint staff training events in London and Barcelona- One blended mobility of VET learners activity in Ljubljana- Two multiplier events in London (D&AD's New Blood Festival) and Barcelona (ADCE's High Potential) addressing an overall audience of at least 200 professionals, students, tutors and stakeholders from the EU creative sector.BCG's activities and results will contribute to reaching a wide impact at the local, regional, national and European levels among the project's participating organisations as well as BCG's targeted groups

The Critical ChangeLab project aims to reinvigorate the relationship between youth and democracy and consequently the future of 21st Century European democracy. This is achieved by spearheading the reach and impact of Critical ChangeLab Model of Democratic Pedagogy, fostering youth's active democratic citizenship at a time where polarisation, deep political divisions and declining trust in democracy are spreading across Europe. The Critical ChangeLab Model for Democratic Pedagogy fosters learners' transformative agency and strengthens democratic processes in education through collaborations across formal and non-formal education and local actors around global/local challenges relevant for youth. The Model promotes creative and narrative practices to explore the historical roots of local and EU-wide challenges, understanding the value-systems and worldviews underlying distinct types of relations (human-human, human-nature, human-technology). At the Critical ChangeLabs, young people are introduced to approaches such as theatre of the oppressed, transmedia storytelling, as well as speculative and critical design to rethink European democracy and envision justice oriented democracy futures. Throughout the lifespan of the project, Critical ChangeLab aims to examine the current state of democracy within education institutions identifying youth’s perspectives on everyday democracy; design a scalable and tailorable model of democratic pedagogy in formal and non-formal learning environments; co-create and implement the model with youth and stakeholders, evaluate the model generating recommendations for policy and practice, and develop strategies to sustain the model and its outcomes overtime. Through various research actions combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, Critical ChangeLab will generate a robust evidence base to support democratic curriculum development using participatory, and creative and critical approaches.

DOIT contributes to youth employment and to create new jobs in the social economy by nurturing in young pupils seeds for active social innovation: entrepreneurial mind-sets, knowhow and skills. The project empowers primary and secondary school pupils (6-16 years) alongside educators to apply open innovation methods, digital maker tools and collaboration skills to tackle societal problems. It will develop ground-breaking DOIT toolboxes for children as well facilitators, which provide complementary knowhow and support. They are designed for experiencing being a social innovator in mobile and fixed child-friendly makerspaces and are easily accessible at the interactive DOIT webplatform. Co-created with help of the Children’s Advisory Committee, DOIT novel resources cover inspirational experimentation, design, prototyping and basic business modelling knowhow needed for sustainable product and service innovation. The DOIT children’s social innovation and entrepreneurship programme is piloted and evaluated across 10 European countries (AT, BE, DE, DK, ES, FI, HR, NL, RS und SI), reaching 42.000 children and 20.000 facilitators in schools, innovation labs, maker spaces and social enterprises. It offers intergenerational workshops and training events targeted at different learner needs and learning settings. DOIT showcases how its child-friendly, intergenerational maker approach enables young people to acquire the manual, technological, intellectual and social skills they need to be active and initiate social good. DOIT’s online idea competition, open to all children in Europe, will inspire them to pursue an entrepreneurial career path. The project consortium comprises experienced actors across the social innovation value chain with links to related European initiatives fostering young entrepreneurship education. DOIT’s ambassador Network (currently more than 80 supporting institutions) and open educational resources will drive DOIT’s long-term sustainability and impact.