"EXPLORE+ is a 2 year educational project that will create a new methodology for school educators and cultural pedagogues to jointly develop transdisciplinary and creative learning interventions. These interventions take the form of multimedia exhibitions and participatory cultural programmes. Targeting young students and citizens, the methodology activates inherent curiosity and creativity and makes use of exercises of scientific exploration, collective co-creation and creative expression to develop new skills related to STEAM, creativity, critical thinking, social learning, and learning-to-learn. The main aim is to establish an original and innovative work methodology that equips young people to come up with own creative solutions to societal challenges related to science denial, disinformation or other anti-intellectualism issues that trouble European communities. Fear, isolation, peer pressure, confirmation biases and lack of media literacy among European citizens are wicked problems that pose serious challenges for the social, environmental and economic stability of the European project. Europeans live in a digital, global information-age in which post-truth culture, disinformation and digital infodemics have real life consequences at a global scale - be it about the covid-19 pandemic, climate change, or xenophobia-fueled political polarization. The current and future generations of Europeans citizens must be equipped with skills and tools to make their own reliable and evidence-based decisions, as well as produce new solutions for Europe that are original and adaptive - in their communities, in their professional and private life, or as part of wider political processes. The intersection between school and cultural initiatives is the perfect space to develop those skills and tools. EXPLORE+ consortium gathers a group of educational centres, schools, musea, science centres and municipalities with the objective to pilot mutually-beneficial cooperation models between school, cultural spaces and civil society; to innovate formal learning processes via ""creative exploration"" pedagogies that foster transdisciplinary teaching in cultural and social contexts; to equip students with creativity and STEAM skills that empower them to become innovators; to consolidate pedagogic tools and methods that equip a community of educators and cultural pedagogues across Europe to cooperate with each other and build partnerships between education, culture and wider society for sustainable development and active citizenship purposes; EXPLORE+ engages 150 students and 80 educators/cultural pedagogues as participants an co-creators in the development of its methodology and activities, that include 3 peer-learning sessions and study visits, 3 interdisciplinary exhibitions, and 3 public science fairs including 3 info sessions about the EXPLORE+ methodology, toolkit and MOOC course. The outputs and knowledge of the EXPLORE+ community are shared with the wide European educational and cultural sector in a final conference. The EXPLORE+ outputs are the transdisciplinary/participatory methodology for making multimedia exhibitions, the know-how and working process developed by partners, as well as a comprehensive toolkit that can inspire and guide others on how to replicate and implement the methodology in new situations. These two outputs are then packaged for dissemination and exploitation via an EXPLORE+ MOOC course that freely shares the methodology with European educators and pedagogues, and certifies them as EXPLORE+ practitioners. The long term benefits of the project are the establishment of improved learning processes that equip educators and students to manage transdisciplinary cooperation in a way that also increases creativity and critical thinking skills, as well as achievement in STEAM disciplines, plus media literacy. As such, the project tackles current skills gaps, and equips young citizens to create and implement innovative solutions to promote their desired/sustainable post-covid 19 futures, in cooperation with civil society, education, industry, culture and the wider communities they are part of.Science points towards curiosity playing a decisive role in helping people adapt to uncertain realities, making them think more deeply, come up with more creative solutions, and develop more trusting and more collaborative relationships, as well as leading to more innovation and positive changes in creative and noncreative performance (at school and work). A more knowledgeable and (environmentally, economically and socially) sustainable Europe is possible, if current and future generations find the paths and visions to get there through the uncertain and uncharted times ahead. Curiosity, creativity, critical thinking and transdisciplinary STEAM skills will be the means of discovery of that sustainable Europe. EXPLORE+ is the very beginning of our creative exploration. Let's become EXPLORE+(RS)!"

Creative and cultural entrepreneurship (CCE) is deemed to innovate the traditional outdated startups with new models, new practices and new governance structures in which the role of society will be enhanced in order to boost social cohesion, mitigate groups at risk and create new job opportunities. On top of this, CCE brings direct added value to promoting culture, cities, places and thus tourism, with an imminent impact on active citizenship and inclusive societies (Abbing, 2016). Nevertheless, there is limited evidence of emphasis being put on CCE in Europe overall (EC, 2018). Training and education are crucial determinants of inappropriately competitive advantage and profitability concerning entrepreneurship and innovation in creative and cultural industry in European and developing countries. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are playing a key role in shaping the next generation of CCE by providing the necessary training aimed at building the proper skills of potential cultural & creative entrepreneurs to achieve a proper startup & scaleup with their idea (and not be limited only to the startup stage). This is of critical importance within the European Union as the majority of startups do not achieve a proper scale-up stage and this is widely due to lack of proper training to access the required resources and networks that would ensure the scaleup. As entrepreneurship is a very dynamic field, HEI teachers & trainers are required to always co-create (transnationally) with entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, policy makers and society in order to ensure that their curricula are infused with the proper knowledge that would ensure the success of their graduates (Chesbrough, 2016). At this stage, in the field of CCE, such co-creation is widely absent – justifying thus, firstly, the limited CCE course offerings within European HEIs, and secondly, the lack of effectiveness of the existing (few) courses in terms of yielding successful CCE. Therefore, TraCCE adopts a transnational & multi-stakeholder approach in order to build a think-tank in CCE through a cross-country blending of complementary expertise towards developing (through open innovation & quadruple/quintuple helix co-creation): a higher education CCE Curriculum and a CCE Train the Trainers Toolkit that will be offered to academia & the CCE community (open access) through a virtual learning environment and piloted through two international workshops.TraCCE will build upon the following CCE skills in order to mitigate the confirmed skill-gap: CCE Opportunities & Idea Identification, including: CCE market opportunities identification, CCE pre-seed development, CCE business models for start-ups, developing partnerships / networks among creative and cultural entrepreneurs, sustainability & responsibility of creative and cultural entrepreneurs, CCE Scale-up and globalisation strategies (the notion of scaleup is of top priority for the EU startup scene), next-generation trends for creative and cultural entrepreneurs, CCE Case studies, including real life CCE examples, good and best practices. Such skills will include also advanced digitalisation abilities. Overall, these skills comply with the EU recommendations of skill-provisions from: SKILL GAP INDEX 2019, CEDEFOP’s report on Responsible Skill Promotion (2016); OECD’s report on Digital Entrepreneurship Skills for Young Entrepreneurs (2015); EU Commission’s JRC Report on 2035 Sustainable Economy (2015); EU’s EPALE platform report on Sustainable Business Skills (2017); EU Commissions New Skill Agenda for Europe (2016); WEF Report on Graduate Skills for Enterprise (2016).Additionally, TraCCE is aligned with the goals of Strategic Partnerships for academia-market-society collaboration and the promotion of innovation and best practices, of providing open education and innovative practices in a digital era, with the Headline Education Target and with the EU Higher Education Modernisation Agenda by providing incentives for higher education internationalization, market-oriented curriculum development, and co-creation with business through integrated features that will lead on the long term of better involvement and support from the market side to academia. On top of this, TraCCE contributes to the social & economic development of the EU by promoting the EU heritage and fostering social inclusion through cultural & creative entrepreneurship. Key numbers include: 80 EU-wide academic staff (different institutions) that will incorporate the CCE curriculum & train the trainers toolkit; 100 CCE stakeholders to be trained during the four international workshops; 35 EU & beyond CCE associations that will gain an open-innovation & quadruple/quintuple helix co-creation best practices; 700 registrants of the virtual learning environment, 300 CCE stakeholders/participants in the multiplier evens, 500 participants with fewer opportunities involved in the project, 48 000 people reached through dissemination.

“emPOWERing the informal” is a project that has as main objectives:1.To increase the capacity and professionalism of youth workers in managing informal groups byunderstanding, adapting and implementing of existing EU tools for assessment and development of youth work competence and management competences.2.Mapping existing legal framework and practices that focus on informal groups through research and analysis of the evolution of informal groups as a social movement, aiming to making suggestions at national and international level on how policies can be improved to favor the growth of informal groups and the impact they have upon youngsters and the community they are based in.3.To promote to the public and private sector the missions of informal groups in the youth field and their skills and knowledge acquired by the young people in informal and nonformal contexts, and to favor their implication in the support of youth towards their first and/or stable employment.4.To create working synergies in the process of promoting a more active participation in societybased on collaboration, accepting and encouraging diversity and equal opportunities of youngpeople, promoting active citizenship and a non-discriminatory behavior.In order to reach the objectives mentioned the project proposes several activities among which we mention a few:1. Creating tool that has as a starting point the Council of Europe Youth Work Portfolio and comes insupport of youth workers to manage and involve informal groups in the youth field2. Creating a tool with examples of activities and non formal education and social intervention methods that help youth workers and informal groups to implement activities in their communities3. Developing a Good Practice guide of practices in managing informal groups of people andempowering them to become active citizens4. Developing www.theinformals.com -an online platform for informal groups from all the countries involved.5. Conducting one Research done on defining the informal groups of young people and also inidentifying the existing legal framework that focuses on informal groups.6. Involving 70 young people in activities planned in each partner community with the aim ofpromotion active citizenship, social inclusion, equal rights and non-discrimination 7. Organizing 11 multiplier events in order to promote and disseminate the results and resources build inside the project.8. Organizing 1 Youth Mobility for informal groups and 1 Mobility for Youth WorkersThe expected impact is: (1) a better acknowledgement and recognition of informal groups and the role of youth workers in managing them, (2) a better interaction with local authorities responsible with youth policies, (3) promoting EU good practices in the youth field towards local relevant actors and facilitate a cross-sector collaboration at a national and international level, (4) to improve the efficacy of youth worker’s support tools, and, finally, (5) to enhance the importance of the learning processes and learning outcomes that occur in informal and non formal contexts and have an impact upon the professional development of young people and, therefore, an impact upon the insertion of youth on the labor market.

Cities across Europe are facing the challenge of regenerating abandoned or decaying public or private urban spaces. Public administrations, businesses and non-profit organizations are all engaged with the transformation of these spaces and a professional profile stands out: the Urban Innovator (UI), able to use social innovation tools to develop urban regeneration processes. Urban innovators are in high demand in the job market, however they still lack a clear recognition in terms of professional role and training at EU level.EUREKA is a Knowledge Alliance that addresses this need by promoting and formalizing the UI profile for the public and private sector through the creation on a multidisciplinary curriculum, designed by universities, enterprises, PA cooperating jointly.The main steps are:• Research on the needs of enterprises, PA and community-based groups, reaching a shared definition of the skills of the profile at the EU level;• The co-design of a training curriculum involving HEIs, enterprises, public and private organizations and former students;• A pilot action to deliver the training programme in the 4 local clusters of the Alliance (IT, ES, NL, RO) with the support of the transnational partner Trans Europe Halles (SE).• International learning motilities for students and enterprises• Four living-labs as spaces to study and work facing real life issues.The main expected results are:1. A new joint multidisciplinary curriculum with a mentoring scheme to manage the transformation of urban spaces, leading to the definition of UI profile2. A mutually supportive network and learning community of academics, practitioners and students in urban regeneration fieldsThe Alliance's impact:• HEIs capacity to update current urban planning training courses • Enterprises, PA and community-based groups to improve their answer to the needs for sustainable and participatory regeneration of urban spaces • Students’ employability and entrepreneurial skills

There is an untapped potential for private investments in energy efficiency, especially in the residential private sector, due to non-technical barriers. Some EU countries have more developed markets and have shown significant good practices (ie. France), while others are lacking behind, especially in Central East Europe (energy service markets still sub-optimal but great opportunities for ambitious investments in deep refurbishment) and in South Europe (where energy consumption for heating in the housing sector is lower than it is in the North, making deep refurbishment investments based on EU policies less beneficiary). PadovaFIT EXPANDED starts from the recent experience of the IEE-funded PadovaFIT project (lead by CPD with SOGESCA as technical partner), focused on the the energy refurbishment of condominiums in the Padova metropolitan area, via an ESCO (selected with a public tender) and the use of standardized EPCs. The project builds on the experience (good and bad) generated in the Padova area (engagement actions, trained condominium facilitators, market players involvement, template contracts to be improved, financing products to be better elaborated) and aims at planning, creating and piloting a one-stop-shop dedicated to private residential buildings with an improved and financially sustainable business model, result of specific mapping of needs and SWOT analysis. The project aims at expanding the business model to the metropolitan area of Timisoara (RO) who will will adapt the model to the Romanian conditions, launching and piloting a one-stop-shop as well. The Bulgarian Energy Agency of Plovdiv will support the metropolitan areas of Vidin and Smolyan to prepare the ground, for the launching of sound one-stop-shops in Bulgaria. The consortium is integrated by an internationally renowned research centre (Bocconi University) expert in business modeling, 2 finance experts and Climate Alliance, a European network of local authorities for sustainability.