The Food Safety Market (TheFSM) aims to deliver an industrial data platform that will significantly boost the way that food certification takes place in Europe. It brings together and builds upon existing innovations from innovative ICT SMEs to deliver a uniquely open and collaborative virtual environment that will facilitate the exchange and connection of data between different food safety actors who are interested in sharing information critical to certification. Extensive piloting is going to take place with subsidiaries of the TÜV AUSTRIA GROUP, a European provider of inspection and certification services that is a pioneer in the digitalization of the inspection business that has a presence in more than 40 countries, an annual turnover of almost 210 MEuros, and over 1,700 employees. In this way, the project is going to accelerate the pace by which this group adopts digital innovation and offers data-driven services to its clients in around the world. Eventually, TheFSM aspires to catalyse the digital evolution of the quite traditional but very data intensive business ecosystem that the global food certification market involves.

The constantly increasing demand of scarce resources and critical raw materials (CRMs), requires efficient usage of resources - reuse and recycling of materials- and responsible waste management and prevention. The circular economy’s model establishes a virtuous cycle where products and resources can be reused, repurposed and recycled to maximize productivity of resources, to reduce waste and by products that can become raw materials (RMs) entering in other industrial processes, thus reducing the depletion of natural resources and the overall environmental effects on climate change. Plooto aims to deliver a Circular and Resilient Information System (CRIS) to support manufacturers in their green, digital and circular transition. CRIS enables waste reduction and end-to-end traceability of Secondary Raw Materials (SRM) through interconnected digital services for real-time decision making, monitoring and certification of materials and products. Plooto delivers: a) a transformation framework based on traceability strategies for materials/products per business case, with reference processes for SRM use from waste deposit to new products, and governance models for circular value chains; b) ICT tools for modelling product, production processes and supply chains, as an aggregation of individual component Digital Twins with cognition capabilities (cognitive Digital Twins – CDTs); c) Data will feed RM-recovery and waste dataspaces allowing the provision of material certification and product passport; and d) A circular sustainability balanced scorecard (framework+toolkit) to assess impact of decision-making at CDT level based on various KPIs. The solution will be piloted in three different circular supply chains demonstrating waste reduction, reusability of scrap and production by-products, operational improvement.

"This project stems from the partners' experience of the need to extend the close link between vocational training, higher education and professional practices to an advanced level and in a European context. With the increasing globalisation and instability of labour markets, as well as the scarcity of employment opportunities for young people, educational and professional bodies need to be able to provide the young generation with useful tools for their professional future. EUROMOB project, consisting of 7 partners from Spain, Greece, France, Finland and Portugal, has developed an online tool to identify, measure and recognise the competences that students acquire during their mobility programme in a European country, with the recognition of companies and educational institutions. This online tool responds to a number of needs, in line with the ""New Skills Agenda for Europe"" adopted by the Commission on 10 June 2016: 10 actions were launched to make training, skills and adequate support available to EU citizens, including: a European Qualifications Framework, to support better recognition of qualifications, the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition, aiming to improve the digital skills of the general population, Blueprint for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills, to improve the recognition and development of skills in specific sectors such as the automotive sector in vocational education and training (VET) studies by supporting the modernisation and internalisation of vocational training and key competences.EUROMOB Tool addresses the transparency and multinational recognition of competences acquired during work placement training activities abroad. Competences adapted to higher education and vocational education and training that are gained after contact with the world of work, in the fields of electrical automation and car mechanics for vocational education and training and business-related studies and the ICT sector for higher education and training. The online tool creates a direct relationship between students, educational institutions and companies, as the validation process and the use of the platform involves these key actors.The advantages of the online tool are aimed at increasing the employability of young people, the recognition of competences acquired in mobility placements, the fostering of a stronger relationship between learners and enterprises and the identification of labour market needs.This online tool is not designed to replace existing and functioning EU transparency tools or validation and credit systems (Europass, Youthpass, ECVET, ECTS, NQF, EQF, Esco, QA system), but to use them in an application programming interface. In accordance with the above-mentioned needs and objectives, the Euromob (IO2) platform has been developed to recognise and validate the skills of students undertaking a mobility, work placement abroad. This platform allows measuring, both by the student and the company, the evolution of the horizontal competences acquired in a mobility. It also allows the educational institution to review and approve the internship agreement online. In order to carry out an internship, the student must register both the internship agreement and the skills to be developed in the internship, in agreement with the company and the educational organisation. After this, the educational organisation must review and approve this information, and if everything is correct, the internship can be carried out. During the internship, company and student can measure the evolution of the specific competences of the educational sector in which the activity is being developed. At the end of the internship, a report is generated where the final assessment of these competences is recorded. This report will be certified according to qualification standards.For the development of the platform, a report has been previously made to identify the specific skills and competences (IO1) of the four sectors addressed (car mechanics or electrical automation for vocational training such as business studies and ICT in higher education), competences that are developed during the internship abroad. The platform is available in the languages of the partner countries (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Finnish and Greek).In order to facilitate the use of this online platform and make it accessible to students, teachers and companies, user guides and multimedia content (IO3) have been developed to allow all actors involved in an internship to integrate this tool during mobilities. These user guides are available on the project website and the multimedia guides on Youtube, all this content is available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Finnish and Greek.At the same time, a qualification validation method and qualification standards have been elaborated where a certification scheme has been developed for each professional category in order to assess and certify the knowledge, skills and competences of each professional. This is a means of guaranteeing that the certified person meets the requirements of the certification scheme, allowing companies to identify the real competences of the candidates, which facilitates the recruitment and selection of personnel and at the same time increases the possibilities of the students who carry out these internships using the Euromob tool.Accompanying this method of validation of qualifications together with the qualification standards, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), a Learning Agreement (LA) and a statement agreeing the details of the internship have been drawn up."

The overall objective of the GSS-VET project is to address the gap in the continuing education of plumbers and electricians in geothermal, solar thermal and solar photovoltaic installation skills by creating and implementing a demand driven training:• To meet the growing demand for new skills from the above-mentioned professionals in today’s building industry.• To enable unemployed people with appropriate technical training, as well as active workers, to develop and improve their skills in the fields of geothermal and solar installations.• To strengthen the exchange of knowledge and practice between education and training institutions and the labor market.• To develop three European core curricula programs on EQF level 4 & 5 in the fields of solar-thermal, photovoltaic, and geothermal systems.• To set an evaluation and certification framework for each curriculum according to ECVET recommendations and to the ISO 17024 norm.• To disseminate information throughout the Europe about the GSS-VET project and the importance of the green and renewable energy professions for the development of the sectors concerned in a general framework of energy sustainability at national and EU level.The specific objectives of the project per partner’s country (Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, and Germany) are:• To train technicians / installers working in the green industry / renewable energy companies and sectors to cover the personnel shortages they are experiencing in skilled workforce.• To apply new methods and advanced training material in the continuous training of the above-mentioned professionals, specialists in the installation, repair, refurbishment, and maintenance of geothermal, photovoltaic, solar thermal systems.• To disseminate among users and VET providers of continuous training the benefits of the e-learning platform developed in the framework of the project and which makes possible the self-training as well as its evaluation. Furthermore, to enable them to implement the platform and the curricular in their portfolio in future. Actions and results of GSS-VET project were based on the following facts: • According to the European Green New Deal carbon emissions should be lowered by at least 50% by 2030 compared to the levels of 1990. Renewable Energy Sources (RES) can assist to succeed this effort. • Employment trends and patterns are shaped in a wide range of technical, economic, and policy-driven factors that include robust EU policy on the promotion of renewables and sustainable growth.• RES can offer new employment opportunities, while careers in non-renewable energy fields seem to be fading away. As RES technologies are developed and become more complex new job opportunities arise for technicians with no extended expertise on the field if they are offered appropriate training.Main results that emerged from the implementation of GSS-VET project were:Creation of training material in 3 curricula: • Curriculum 1 for Photovoltaic Installers: EQF Level 4&5. ECVET points: 6,0. Learning hours: 100• Curriculum 2 for Geothermal Installers: EQF Level 4&5. ECVET points 6,6. Learning hours: 120• Curriculum 3 for Solar-Thermal Installers: EQF Level 4&5. ECVET points 6,6. Learning hours: 110Design and creation of a training platform where the training material for all curricula is placed in 5 languages (English, German, Bulgarian, Spanish, and Greek). To maximize the effectiveness of the training process a serious game was created per training curriculum and also self-assessment questions are included for the trainees to check their level of competencies before their final examination which also takes place in the end of the training process through the same platform. Finally, in the same platform, additional helpful material and references are included to assist trainees in their studying process.