<< Background >>The VINCI multi-disciplinary partners applied for this project as they have an interested in contributing in the fight against climate change by focusing on the tourism sector. There are many human activities that are contributing to the generation of CO2 emissions and thus to the climate change problem. The European Commission has as a matter of fact launched the 'Green Deal' action plan with the intent of making the EU's economy more sustainable by turning climate and environmental challenges into opportunities and making the transition just and inclusive for all. As clearly outlined in this action plan, the main economic actors i.e. EU businesses, consumers and citizens, are expected to be the driving force behind this transition towards a low-carbon and climate resilient continent. One of the EU's economic sectors that contributes to CO2 emissions and that thus needs to take action to help reach the ambitious EU's 2030 Green Deal target of reducing gas emissions by at least 55% is the tourism sector. The behavior and decision making of tourism stakeholders such as passengers, travel agents, hotels, tour operators etc. involved in the three main phases of travel tourism i.e. (i) preparing to travel (ii) mobility/travelling phase and (iii) activities at the destination phase, need to be increasingly re-aligned with low carbon activities. The transition towards the 2030 goals also provide an opportunities to individuals that want to be entrepreneurial in this sector. Such an entrepreneurial drive needs to be amplified to help unlock the jobs potential vested within a low carbon tourism economy.There is thus an urgent need to address these issues by making these tourism stakeholders aware that they are implicitly contributing to climate change challenges and to thus train them with 'basic skills that help foster low carbon tourism’ activities as well as with best practices and other actions that can be executed to help control and offset CO2 emissions. Tourism stakeholders need to understand the link between Climate Change, Tourism & Transport, Low Carbon Footprint Energy Sources and concepts of how to designing Low Carbon Tourism Travel Paths and Options. At the same time, many of these tourism sector stakeholders are too busy to attend training courses to help them learn the fundamentals of 'low carbon tourism'. To compound the issue more, VET trainers/tourism mentors lack relevant training resources on ''basic skills of low carbon tourism (LCT)'' that can help them explicitly target and reach out to tourism learners and stakeholders. In addition, EU citizens travelling as tourists need guidance on decisions they can make to help them follow a 'green travel path'. There is thus a need to provide VET trainers/tourism mentors with a set of innovative training resources they can use with such tourism stakeholders/learners to help them learn at their own pace, time and location.<< Objectives >>The VINCI project thus aims to foster a shift towards low carbon tourism (LCT) and foster related entrepreneurship across a number of EU Member States. To do so, the VINCI project brings together a number of partners from across Europe, purposely chosen in such a way to ensure a good mix and balance between experts in Climate Change/Sustainability, Tourism, Entrepreneurship, work-based training, VET Curriculum development/pedagogy and digital technologies (AR/VR and m- / e-Learning). In addition, given tourism and related economic activities vary across Europe’s Geographic spread, the VINCI consortium brings together partners from Northern Europe down to the very South. Together, these VINCI partners have thus set the following objectives to help reach the overall project aim:OB1: development of an innovative curriculum to help fosters low carbon tourism activities and amplify related entrepreneurship;OB2: raising awareness through 'best practice' case-studies of how tourism stakeholders can generate less CO2 emissions in all three phases of travel tourism;OB3: develop a set of modular training resources on low carbon tourism activities and related entrepreneurship, some of which will be Augmented and/or Virtual Reality based to better engage learners;OB4: development of the VINCI Toolbox consisting of a repository of digital training resources on LCT, including an m-/e-Learning platform to help stakeholders acquire skills on LCT even at their place of work & home;OB5: development of a Trainer's Guide e-book intended to recommend to VET trainers, specific training units and/or training styles relevant to different tourism sector stakeholders;OB6: to disseminate in both the partner countries and other EU Member States, awareness on the concept of LCT as well as the VINCI project results that can exploited by the project's target groups that includes VET trainers/tourism mentors, VET learners as well as tourism sector stakeholders including entrepreneurs.<< Implementation >>As detailed in the VINCI proposal, to reach the set objectives, the project will, through a three-phase implementation methodology, execute a number of activities summarised below:(a) It will pool the multi-disciplinary expertise of the members of the partnership by organising regular virtual meetings (ZOOM/SKYPE) and also 4 transnational F2F project meetings. These meetings will collectively help decision making regarding the design, implementation and review of the set project results with respects to quality and knowledge transfer effectiveness;(b) It will take a number of actions such as consulting associate partners, VET training stakeholders etc. that will help shape the development of the individual project results;(c) Partners will collectively work through a division of tasks, to use their expertise to develop the project’s three (4) main results.(d) Organize an online training session to help project partner staff learn how to develop AR and VR educational content;(e) Organize internal peer reviews of project results to ensure the necessary quality is reached;(f) Seek external reviews of project results mainly through demos to associate partners and feedback obtained from participants in multiplier events;(g) Organize project management activities such as setting up internal reporting templates to report on status of project deliverables, financial spending etc to ensure timely corrective action can be taken where necessary. These will be enshrined in bilateral agreements to be endorsed between the partners and the coordinator.(h) Partners will setup various dissemination channels in the form of a project webpage, digital newsletter, social media channels and even organise six multiplier events (one in each partner country) to spread awareness of both the VINCI project and more importantly, the openly available project results that include the VINCI Digital Toolbox with the set of resources by which knowledge on Low Carbon Tourism and related Entrepreneurship can be spread by VET Trainers/tourism mentors and acquired by VET Learners/tourism stakeholders;<< Results >>On completion, the VINCI project will deliver the following key results (R):R1: An Innovative Curriculum To Foster knowledge on Low Carbon Tourism concepts and amplify related Entrepreneurship;R2: A Set of Twelve AR/VR Enhanced Case-studies of how stakeholders can generate less CO2 emissions in all three travel phases involved in the tourism sector;R3: The VINCI 'Low Carbon Tourism and related Entrepreneurship' Digital VET Toolbox;R4: The VINCI Trainers Guide e-Book on Low Carbon Tourism and related Entrepreneurship;Thus by the end of the project, VET Trainers of tourism stakeholders will have a set of modular resources they can use to effectively train learners (staff members of tourism related organisations) according to their own learning style and needs. These will include augmented and/or virtual reality (AR/VR) enhanced training resources, that are intended to engage learners with a more visual and interactive way to learning on LCT. In addition, the VINCI Toolbox will provide travelling tourists with resources they can use to help them make 'green travel path' decisions during their travel phases. Needless to say, during the initial stages of the project, the VINCI partners will generate a Project Management Plan, a Quality Assurance Plan and also a Dissemination and Exploitation Plan to ensure both quality of results as well as project impact/knowledge sharing effectiveness.The project will also result in at least one multiplier event in each partner country targeting VET trainers and in particular tourism sector stakeholders including relevant associations and staff members, to make them aware of the VINCI project and its openly available training resources and m-Learning Toolbox. The project will also result in a number of dissemination outputs including a project webpage, social media presence, digital newsletters and articles in local media of partner organisations all aimed at raising knowledge on the concept of 'low carbon tourism' and of course the resources being made available by the VINCI project.

SchoolFood4Change (SF4C) will create a shift to both sustainable and healthy diets on a broad societal scale by directly impacting over 3,000 schools and 600,000 school children in 12 EU countries, providing a replicable good practice across the EU and beyond. The SF4C specific objectives (SO) are: SO1: To innovate and roll out sustainable healthy food procurement, sourced from land, inland water and sea, in line with the EU Farm to Fork Strategy and the SDGs. SO2: Through innovative "planetary health diets & cooking", linked to the identity of the territory, train and empower cooks and urban food enablers in the cities. SO3: To ensure an enabling educational environment through the innovative "whole school food approach" which is a method about achieving a healthy food culture in and around schools, contributing to community-wide whole systems change, and impacting on education, sustainability, inequalities, communities and health. SO4: To assess the SF4C impact, demonstrate real life delivery ("business case"), particularly on health and behavioural change of vulnerable children, and prove that it can be cost-effective. SO5: To seek impact for all EU citizens, demonstrate swift EU replicability, also beyond schools, and engage with EC Services and projects on increased Farm to Fork impact toward 2030. All children go to school and are vulnerable to diet-related conditions and disadvantaged environments. SF4C views schools and children and young people (0-18 years of age) as catalysts for systemic change for the shift to sustainable and healthy diets of all EU citizens. The SF4C triple impact approach (SO1-3) will be implemented by 33 partners, mostly governmental partners that have the mandate over sustainable healthy school meals, including many pioneers from across the EU. SF4C has received official support from 10 EU Members States.

"The European Commission, within the framework of the Europe 2020 strategy, is encouraging educational measures fighting youth unemployment. Special emphasis has been put on vocational education, thus recognizing its potential to provide specific knowledge and skills, which contribute to raising youth employability.The Green Ideas For Tourism for Europe project (GIFT) is aimed at improving the management skillset of students from tourism vocational schools by introducing them to the newest practices in environmentally sustainable tourism management. Environmental responsibility has been recognized as a key factor for the competitiveness of the European tourism industry, as cultural and natural resources are the main assets of the tourism. Therefore the ability to make environmentally sustainable decisions will not only raise the employability chances for tourism students, but will also contribute to the modernization of the sector in the future. GIFT for Europe proposes an innovative and interactive method of learning based on the use of an online educational tool. The online tool content is supported by graphics and videos, and the tool includes two interactive sections, thus presenting the information in a way, suitable for students with varied learning styles.The project consortium consists of organizations with rich experience in the fields of sustainable tourism management (Ecosystem Europe), environmental policies (SEI Tallinn), global education (Center for Inclusive Education), e-learning (Context Learning) and a tourism vocational high school (PGT ""Mihalaki Georgiev"", Vidin).The project implementation went through several phases. First research activities were carried out in order to provide information needed for the content of the website and the online tool. This requires a research of existing best managerial practices, governmental policies, educational needs, tourism SMEs case studies, as well as the drafting and analysis of student questionnaires to determine the level of awareness about the environmental impact of the tourism industry. The second consisted of the development of the website itself, as well as the production of supporting literature (user’s manual, manual for teachers). The development of the functionalities of the online tool has to match the needs of the target group in order to achieve a user-friendly product. After the completion of the online tool it is to be popularized among professionals and key stakeholders. A teacher’s manual will be produced and sixty teachers from Bulgaria, Estonia and Finland will undergo a training course and receive certification. They will then introduce the online tool in their respective schools, thus starting the first communities of users. Meanwhile wider recognition and use of the online tool will be sought through the familiarization of tourism SMEs with the tool and the advantages it can bring for them and meeting with key stakeholders (schools, representatives of professional organisations of the tourism industry, government officials, centres for professional education).The project is expected to raise the awareness of future tourism professionals about the environmental impact of the industry and familiarize them with the existing best practices. As a result of the use of the interactive online tool, the students will be able to make competent managerial decisions, specific to the particular case that they are being applied to. The involvement of real SMEs in the educational process, through the provision of case studies will strengthen the links between vocational education and the industry. By being able to reflect upon and find solutions to existing issues in the tourism industry, the students will gain valuable skills. The use of innovative technological solutions for educational purposes and the strengthening of the relations between vocational schools and businesses will modernize educational practices and make them more relevant to the actual needs of the labour market. In the long term, the existence of tourism professionals familiar both with the operational challenges of tourism SMEs and the best environmentally sustainable managerial practices will contribute to the development of a more sustainable, and therefore more competitive, European tourism industry."

Increasingly frequent extreme weather conditions due to climate change concomitant with unsustainable historical resource use and management practices create the perfect storm - threatening our livelihoods, well-being and environment. A transition towards resilience requires that we simultaneously address social inequalities and implement cross-sectoral innovations to build social, economic and environmental resilience to extreme events. Together, Regions4Climate partners commit to addressing current and forecasted climate change-related challenges and building more resilient European communities within an innovative socially engaged, citizen-driven paradigm. We aim to develop smarter, more inclusive, more resilient regional ecosystems through cross-sectoral innovation jointly created with stakeholders, by and for people. The development and implementation of cross-sectoral strategies that incorporate combinations of social, technological, digital, business, governance and environmental solutions to common climate resilience challenges is at present constrained by knowledge deficits and uncertainties, as well as science-policy-stakeholder gaps. Regions4Climate will bridge these gaps and address existing uncertainties by further developing, adapting and integrating state-of-the-art technical know-how, innovative tools and collaborative practices to support transparent, evidence-based risk and vulnerability analyses and robust decision-making processes. We will utilise system dynamic modelling to understand relationships among and trade-offs between different resilience innovations, providing tools for informed decision-making tailored to engage stakeholders and support European regions and communities exposed to significant climate change impacts. New scientific insights, along with a framework of interoperable tools, methodologies and demonstrated solutions will enable European regions to develop their own resilience plans and transformative adaptation pathways.

Co-design and co-production processes are promising horizontal governance tools to innovate public administrations and the public sector in general. In particular, co-design processes aim at improving policy effectiveness by including a wide range of viewpoints in the formulation of public policies and in the design of public services, while co-production processes are designed and managed to involve ‘responsible citizens-users’ in the implementation of the policies and in public service delivery, and aim not only at improving policy effectiveness, but also at sustaining public sector intervention in the recent austerity era, during which governments (especially local governments) must face new social needs and complex problems with decreasing public resources. Notwithstanding the high potential of these processes as innovative and effective governance tools, practical evidence about their usefulness and sustainability for local administrators is still lacking, and local governments proceed mostly incrementally and unaware of potentials and pitfalls. ENLARGE project aims to shed some light on the ‘how and why’ issues of co-design and co-production processes through an intense policy dialogue between policy makers, experts in participatory governance and civil society actors. The specific focus is on sustainable energy and more in general all the solutions aiming at generating more efficiency and effectiveness in public services and public endowments. In detail, the project intends to: EXPLORE the existing models of co-design and co-production of public policies and services; EVALUATE – measures for the assessment of the outcomes; mechanisms and intervening factors favouring the effectiveness of participatory processes; PRODUCE - Raising awareness among public administrators about the options at their disposal and the potential consequences of these choices; COMMUNICATE and DISSEMINATE the project results.