UniverCity Action Lab – embedding Europe’s education and knowledge institutions into their urban environment to unlock their innovation potential and address metropolitan challenges.BackgroundToday more than 70% of Europe's citizens live in cities, which makes European Union one of the most urbanised areas in the world. While these areas are considered to be the engines of European economy with extensive job opportunities, and the educated population they attract, they are also places where social and environmental challenges are concentrated, concerning mobility, sustainable land and energy use, inclusion of migrants, digital transformation and poverty. Without doubt, universities hold great potential to act as key actors in fostering dialogue among regional stakeholders to initiate and sustain joint actions towards creation of smart and sustainable cities. However, despite efforts, urban engagement is not an inherent component of HE systems, nor are they a part of ongoing academic programs. HEIs lack relevant strategies, tools, resources, and knowledge to apply to engage in city initiatives. Hence, it is crucial to expand the bottom-up support for the cities to co-develop, test and implement the solutions, and thus consolidate efforts. HEIs can support anchoring innovation by raising interest in the urban areas they are based in, offer resources, and facilitate change. HEIs should also exploit cities as living labs incorporating the open spaces, institutions, and local community in their research and teaching programs. To support this change, UCITYLAB has set the following objectives: 1. increase the knowledge and understanding of HEIs in establishing urban partnerships (IO2) 2. support societal relevance of the HEI curriculum and enhance ties with civic community (IO4) 3. develop relevant skills set among students by exposing them to the real-life societal problems (IO4) 4. strengthen links among the stakeholders of urban community, including HEIs, to facilitate knowledge exchange and better flow of resources for urban development (IO2) 5. widely disseminate results to foster adoption of city engagement practices in European HEIs (IO5)In order to achieve these objectives, the following horizontal activities were undertaken, guiding the whole project:A1. Project Management and CommunicationA2. Dissemination And SustainabilityA3. Further Exploitation – SustainabilityA4. Quality Management and Evaluation.Moreover, specific activities linked to the IOs were performed:IO1: UCITYLAB Status-Quo Report & Collection of Good PracticesIO2: UCITYLAB Network RoadmapIO3: UCITYLAB Challenge Teaching Toolkit IO4: UCITYLAB Challenge Pilot Implementation ReportIO5: UCITYLAB Online PortalRegarding the target reached, UCITYLAB reached Higher Education Institutions, businesses, VET institutions, public institutions, supranational organisations, media and others. In terms of number of participants, we can say that:-5000+ people were reached through email dissemination-600+ people have downloaded project outputs-40+ people engaged in our network-500+ people were achieved on social media (facebook, linkedin, twitter)-200 people have downloaded our newslettersThe project has developed new curriculum in partner HEIs, that can be transferred to other HEIs and countries. City alliances were also established in 4 major cities in Europe (Porto, Ljubljana, Barcelona, and Paris), which might also be replicated in other contexts. UCITYLAB has, therefore, instigated a potential European approach towards fostering solutions towards urban challenges. Particularly, the major results are:-the fostering of social innovation, entrepreneurial and urban development skills development among HEI students, enhancing responsible citizenship-the improvement in entrepreneurship curriculum at HEIs -the development of problem-based programmes in real context, which represent new innovative educational methods-the strength of relationships between HEIs and their urban communities, through meetings, national events, online networks, and e-mail dissemination The impact and long-term benefits are directly linked to the priorities addressed:-Contribution to innovation through the development, implementation and test of the effectiveness of approaches to promote creativity, entrepreneurial thinking and skills -Development of relevant and high-quality skills and competences-Supporting the civic and social responsibility of students and institutionsIn fact, during the project, partners have experienced the establishment of partnerships with the cities they are located through municipalities, public institutions, companies and NGOs, and have reported this in a Network Roadmap to help further institutions in engaging in similar processes. Besides, developing students’ social entrepreneurship skills will result in the economic and social development in the cities where the HEIs are located.

REMARKABLE will support local leaders to deliver a step change in progress towards carbon neutrality by 2050 in 7 regions across Europe. REMARKABLE will establish, by 2024, a network of 320 Current and Emerging Climate Leaders who, through their actions and inspiration, will drive their municipalities, public authorities, communities and regions to transform their approaches from ones focused on energy efficiency/renewables to ones focused on the strategic goal of climate neutrality by 2050. REMARKABLE will build new leadership capacity in 120 actors from 7 countries in Europe though a Climate Leadership Programme (CLP). The CLP will be inspired by ethnographic research and will be designed with and for leaders across public authorities. The REMARKABLE CLP will also facilitate the creation of 60 Roadmaps for public authorities aiming at Climate Neutrality by 2050. These Roadmaps will allow our Climate Leaders to translate strategic aspirations and policy ambitions into concrete and disruptive far reaching measures stimulating €300m investment by 2030. A Climate and Energy Check Tool will be developed and tested along with a Climate Neutrality Roadmap Guide. The 7 Regional Energy Agencies involved in REMARKABLE will develop 14 new services to expand their roles as change agents in the Clean Energy Transition and Climate Neutrality challenges. Climate Neutrality Training, Climate One Stop Shops, Financing Solutions are targeted as potential services. REMARKABLE will exploit its outcomes and results through the creation of an EU Climate Leaders Circle, reaching up to 320 members by 2024 including 30 from 7 Observer Regions/Countries. An innovative Climate Neutrality Challenge will be organised for Young Climate Leaders. The REMARKABLE Circle will create synergies with existing networks and initiatives e.g. COMO, ManagEnergy to support and enhance their impacts with the ambition of mobilising 10,000 stakeholders by 2030 (2,000 by 2024)

Recent global movements indicate a rapidly growing awareness and eagerness of the European youth to actively engage with securing a sustainable future for all. Even though the need for a holistic, interdisciplinary and cross-sector approach to sustainability has been increasingly recognised on research and policy levels, the trickle-down to higher education has been slow. Active8-Planet builds a knowledge alliance jointly developing, implementing and assessing the impact of a new Active8-Planet learning model based on 4 principles of planet-centred development: (1) Interdisciplinary & Intergenerational Co-creation, (2) People-centred Design, (3) University-Business Collaboration, (4) Environmental Ambition and Action. In “7+1 Team Projects”, students, teachers/researchers, and company professionals will be applying and refining the collaborative approach to co-create practice-based interventions in the areas of sustainable mobility, circularity in built environment, and health & wellbeing. Bridging between sectors, disciplines and generations, the project will provide a platform for transforming the isolated and discipline-specific knowledge into collaborative climate and sustainability actions. As a result of learning activities, the project will raise the first cohorts of dedicated, risk-taking young individuals (the “Planeteers”) becoming ambassadors of the Active8-Planet principles and active co-creators of their sustainable future. By adopting a robust and elaborate dissemination and exploitation strategy, the impact of the project’s activities, results and partnership will be sustained beyond its lifetime, in particular by: institutionalising the learning model in existing courses using ECTS system; developing an agenda to cultivate new 7+1 Team Projects; and transferring the collaborative approach into research, development, and innovation projects.

The composite manufacturing industry is characterised by high added value and complexity of manual work processes. The future of the composite market is expected to be highly competitive, and companies with innovative capabilities and skilled labour force can thrive and gain market share. The key aim of the Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership Project “Skilled Hand for High Tech Production” – CompoHUB project was to use the current potentials offered by the labour market (e.g. unemployed joiners, wood cabinet makers, textile workers etc.) as a baseline and furthermore involve additional education and training activities to re-qualify the labour force to be able to work effectively in the high-tech area of composite manufacturing.CompoHUB project has achieved 5 key objectives: 1) Identification and analysis of industry requirements and missing skills gaps in the area of composite manufacturing.2) Structuring the relevant working areas, key tasks and knowledge/skills and development of the occupational standard/national occupational qualification “composite laminator”.3) Development of the training programme in the field of composite manufacturing responsive to industry and labour market needs.4) Integration of the learning material into an on-line open-source learning platform in 3 different European languages (accessible at www.compohub.eu).5) Integration of the developed training programme into institution based Vocational Education and Training in Slovenia and Estonia.To successfully realise the objectives, CompoHUB project connected 6 different European partners, i.e.: 1) organizations that carry out research and development on composites and/or manufacture composite materials (company CompoTech, Czech Republic), 2) organizations that use the composite materials to manufacture composite parts for different industries (companies Aereform, Slovenia and MAC Motoplatika, Croatia) and 3) training organizations and VET providers (Zasavska ljudska univerza, Slovenia and Kuressaare Ametikool, Estonia). In addition, the Institute for Innovation and Development of University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) represented the overall project manager to connect and enhance cooperation between the three groups and also acting as liaison facilitating the codification of tacit knowledge and bridging the gap between vocational education and higher education. The Compo-HUB project produced a special impact on VET trainers and in-company trainers since it contributed towards the development of their training and subject-specific skills in the field of composite manufacturing, involving strong work-based teaching/learning component. It furthermore equipped the target training group with the new knowledge and skills in the respective field, which are required by the labour market. The developed on-line learning platform provides the access to the most recent and up-to-date knowledge and developments that can be effectively customized to specific requirements of individual customer (companies, VET institutions, higher education). The new developed training programme in the field of composite manufacturing presents an important competitive advantage for VET providers, as up to date, no similar training programme was offered neither in Slovenia nor Estonia.The long-term sustainability of project results is based on 4 main exploitation mechanisms: 1. The developed results, namely the training programme and platform are further used by the consortium partners as supplement to their existing education and training activities and in-company specific trainings;2. Commercial exploitation and customization of training programme to specific needs of customer (composite manufacturing industry and VET providers);3. Mainstreaming and accreditation of the occupational standard and catalogue “the composite laminator”. This assures that skills and qualification are more easily recognized, within and across national borders, as well as in the labour market;4. The Composite HUB as the source of new research, development and training initiatives connecting different composite industry segments and education & training organizations, namely VET and higher education. The driving principle is the exchange of technology and good practices, also contributing to the development of innovative practices in the field of education and training.