"The project ""Pimp up your brain - brain-friendly teaching and learning in integration courses for adults"" was a strategic partner project for the exchange of good practice. The initial situation was that the increased immigration of people from other countries of origin confronts the European Union with numerous challenges. Discussions with EU partners have shown that integration processes are approached differently in all countries and sometimes lead to very different results. The Landesverband der VHS Saxonia-Anhalt e.V. went with the VHS education institute VoG. Eupen - Belgium and the BhW Niederösterreich GmbH St. Pölten, into the active exchange, in order to examine the quality of DaZ and integration courses in the European context.The discussion was based on the following questions, among others: 1) How successful do learners in integration courses judge the welcome culture in the target country or in the institution? How successful do they judge their personal development? What do they feel is missing? 2) Which political and legal requirements influence integration processes in the individual partner countries? (e.g. structures, goals, financing, group sizes, e.g. in Germany 12-25 participants / in Austria 6 participants per group). 3) How is the training and further education of teachers for integration courses organized in the three partner countries (e.g. professional and linguistic requirements, contents, implementation, financing, materials)?Three surveys were conducted, targeting adult education organizations, education staff and participants in integration process courses. An interesting finding was that brain-friendly teaching materials are almost exclusively created by educational staff. Here the actual causes would have to be clarified.There were three learning activities with the following main topics: C1. Intercultural competence as a stress competence - strengthening of teachers' competences C2. Strengthening the joy of learning and motivation of the learners - brain-friendly teaching - developing a variety of methodsC3. Dealing with traumatized participants in integration courses - sensitizing and strengthening the teaching staffThese activities served the exchange and the expansion of competences. In the three learning activities, more than 85 teachers participated in the exchange activities and competence strengthening workshops. They shared their knowledge with their colleagues in regional workshops.Indirect target group were learners in the integration process accompanying courses. They were involved by their teachers in the implementation and reflection of what they have learned. For the implementation of the project a common project management method was chosen - initiation, planning, execution, control and evaluation.In order to ensure the management and evaluation of the project as well as the dissemination of the results, a transnational meeting was held at the beginning, at the end and in the margins of each of the three learning activities. Regular video conferences of the project working group complemented this process and enabled a timely correction and adjustment of intermediate steps. All participants emerged from the project with strengthened competencies. The exchange and the workshops offered led to an increase in course quality. In some cases, concepts were revised and adapted; in others, new concepts were developed. The aim of the cooperation was to improve the quality of the courses by strengthening intercultural competencies among the educational staff and raising awareness for a more brain-friendly preparation of learning material, thus increasing the chances of successful integration work for the European community. In order to achieve this goal at the EU level, local, regional and national providers of German as a foreign language and integration courses as well as corresponding organizations were regularly informed about the progress of the project and the results and invited to further training. At EPALE there are links to reports and to the collection of materials on the project website. The materials can be downloaded free of charge."