Emerging industries, as high-potential growth sectors in early stage development, can be effectively supported by cross-sectoral cluster-facilitated innovation towards the creation of new value chains and the opening up of new markets. Earth Observation-derived information has been widely proven to improve productivity (e.g. reduced fertiliser, pesticide, water, labour inputs in precision agriculture), outputs (e.g. solar farm yield), and eco-friendliness (e.g. carbon footprint monitoring of industrial activities) in the emerging food, energy and environment industries. In designing, developing and delivering sustainable services that meet the needs of these industries, European SMEs need to be supported in accessing knowledge, capital, technology and markets. Recognising this need, PARSEC aspires to build a cross-sectoral/cross-border ecosystem whereby SMEs and innovative start-ups will gain: Access to knowledge (provision of a holistic portfolio of support services, including market, technology and investment training/ information as well as tailored coaching support); Access to technology (through three large scale demonstrators, acting as enablers for the development of new EO-based products/services); Access to capital (an innovative selection and funding scheme to ensure selection of high-potential ideas); Access to market (incl. cross-border and cross-sectoral matchmaking, investment readiness, export promotion). By providing access to these resources, PARSEC will concretely contribute to the establishment of new value chains bustling with innovative SMEs that can translate the large public investments in the Copernicus programme and numerous sector specific initiatives (related to food, water, energy, climate change, biodiversity, etc.) into applications and services meeting user needs and market demands, for the benefit of European economy and society.

Background :Regional development policy included in the Europe 2020 Strategy and in the Agreement Partnership proposed to Romania for the period 2014-2010 , aimed at reducing economic and social disparities between regions in the next six years .In the global competition for markets , the chances of economic success of a country or a region is based on specialization and focus development efforts offer the key areas where it has comparative advantages , resources and skills , i.e. the clusters. But in Romania , the concept of cluster is new and difficult to digest , and staff of already established clusters were still not prepared to face the challenges of the labor market created by this new field of work, requiring appropriate training , certification and qualification.The project responds to the need for adult education in a specific discipline: management and internationalization of clusters , but it also brings value-added to quality training programs through training of trainers , curricula and training materials meeting European quality standards on topics as: Internationalization of Education , Top Level Management, Clusters Internationalization and Training Management.Goal:Providing excellence in training and development of human resources involved in regional development in Romania and Europe through highly professional adult education programs incorporating European dimension and featuring internationally multiplication .Specific objectives:- Improving key skills and competences of 36 Regional Centre for Studies trainers in the use of innovative methods for planning, organizing and teaching adult education progammes for regional development in the international context ;- Reduce the number of adults with low skills , competencies and knowledge in a new field of the regional development disciplines (management and internationalization of clusters , by expanding CRS training portfolio with 4 new courses for re-skilling or up-skilling, by offering tailored training customized to the needs of these people.- Increasing the European dimension, internationalization and modernization of adult education organizations by improving their management staff in order to access new educational markets in other countries and by influencing the quality of their educational offer (the results of the project will include 2 new and innovative curriculum and training courses on Internationalization of Education and Training Management).- Promoting a degree of consistency between the various systems of recognition and validation of competences by European certification instruments and transfer , as ECVET and Europass Mobility documents , developing and disseminating the project as a model for the application of these tools within the educational sector .The number and profile of participants:The target group will consist of 36 recipients working in the field of adult education . They will be selected from the nearly 140 people employed in the North- East ( trainers currently working in the Regional Centre for Studies of North East Regional Development Agency or trainers with potential for teaching the 4 types of new courses developed as result of Teach for Future project ).Description of activities and expected results :A. Project and beneficiaries preparation (needs analysis; partner approval of a plan of joint action; training agreement and ECVET Memorandum of Understanding; participants selection; general, pedagogical, linguistic and inter-cultural training of participants before leaving in mobility flows).B. Implementation of the actual mobility activities by carrying out 6 mobility flows in Spain, in total 36 re-skilled and up-skilled trainers ( five flows in Extremadura Business School, one flow in AVAESEN )C. Follow-up activities:1. Evaluation of activities conducted on the participants and flow mobilities;2.. Recognition of acquired competences ( Europass Mobility certificate , graduating diplomas for participants);3. Dissemination of project results : Good Practices Handbook, working workshop ( for beneficiaries), dissemination seminar (for stakeholders).The results and targeted impact:Based on the skills of beneficiaries and Teach for the Future project results mentioned above, CRS will prepare curricula and course materials for four new training programs : Training Management, Internationalization of Education , Top Level Management and Internationalization Cluster that will be launched in the first 6 months after project completion.Potential long-term benefits:Regional Centre of Studies will use the skills acquired by the participants within the four types of courses, in order to apply for a financing within Erasmus Plus K2 Progam for grounding strategic cooperation relationships with project partners.

SEED – Sustainable Energy EDucation realizes impact to global climate change prevention with excellent and innovative vocational education on solutions to become a fossil free energy continent. Challenges on transition develop rapidly, with a high demand for digital and green. Solutions are not yet clear, and technologies are constantly evolving. Well-equipped students, professionals and suitable labor capacity are needed for the tasks and challenges. Vocational education, as a driver for innovation and growth and agile in adapting to the labor market, has a heavy responsibility. In addition, the shortage in labor capacity forces us to develop new ways of working and educating. SEEDs partners (14) and associate partners (23) are VET providers EQF level 2-7, representatives from regional skills ecosystems and national agenda-setting stakeholders. With the objectives to prepare learners, students and professionals with skills and competences for the future, to empower regional innovation based on regional needs and to scale up and promote work-based education, they will establish an international learning community and COVES in five regions. Defined are 33 deliverables, benefiting educational staff, learners and stakeholders in workshops, good practices, international conferences and a learning platform that benefits the VET sector and regional stakeholders in Europe. The result is regional growing cooperation on vocational excellence in five regions, a shared implemented vision on regional learning, transnational learning and adapting to the labor market, development and exchange of good practices and tools, innovative approaches for learning with impact and an international community on vocational excellence dedicated to sustainable energy. Educational providers, working professionals, policymakers, from different professions and disciplines, will experience how to find answers while co-creating on the challenges ahead. Therefore, the SEED community is needed.

The objective of the proposed project is to create a Design Options Paper (DOP) for the implementation of a cross-sector innovation collaboration programme benefitting start-up SMEs in the cleantech sector. A twinning partnership between three partners of the Climate-KIC initiative in three different EU countries will be established. This partnership will execute peer learning of a model (Climate Innovation Exchange), which uses expertise from different sectors to improve the business support given to start-up SMEs to wishing to successfully enter low carbon innovations to the market. This will be achieved by the implementation of the Twinning Advanced methodology for the development of the Design Option Paper in order to facilitate the mutual learning between innovation agencies in a structured way. The best practice model – Climate Innovation Exchange - developed within the Climate-KIC Accelerator programme from the Climate-KIC UK will be transferred to the innovation agencies from Spain and Italy involved in the programme. The key driving forces for successful implementation of the programme in UK will be analysed, together with the transfer conditions, obstacles and possibilities concerning, in particular, the target groups for the programme and the process by which the programme operates. The practices developed with Accelerator programme in Spain and Italy will also be studied informing the design of even better practices for the SMEs support in UK. The core group of 6 peer-learners (2 from each innovation agency) will be established to observe transferred practices, analyse local conditions, create the strategy (DOP), provide peer-to-peer support for the implementation as well as draft deployment driven amendments to the DOP and execute dissemination of the results.