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The Erasmus+ project “Generation EU: Shaping the future of Europe” focuses on various aspects of the European Union and our own cultures and traditions. The motivation behind our project is to raise the participants' awareness for the history, the making, the values, the challenges and the visions for the future of this great union. Hence, the participants will deal with a range of political as well as economic topics. In addition, they will have the opportunity to meet those people involved in the decision-making process at European level. The project will also explore at regional level how our own history as well as cultural heritage are part of European construction and their importance in shaping a common European identity. In doing so, the participants will be able to (re-)discover the common values we share and how vital they are for the idea of the further development of the European Union.Finally, we aim to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship, encourage the openness of schools to the public in general and also celebrate innovation in education in the 21st century. Thus, the project will encourage the participants to create own their project results, interact with stakeholders, and include the use of new media and innovative working methods. The project will be conducted on a transnational level by establishing a strategic school partnership between two schools in Ireland and Germany, namely The King's Hospital School in Dublin and the Albertus-Magnus-Gymnasium in Ettlingen. Around 40 students are involved in this new endeavour. They are aged between 14 and 16 years and will be working together for a period of 18 months. About 10 staff members (teaching Modern Languages, Irish Language, History, Natural Sciences, Maths, Arts, Music, Physical Education) are part of the project, too. The working language of the project is English, however, the participants will also benefit from German and Irish language classes. The students will meet either in weekly sessions in the Erasmus+ club at the Albertus-Magnus-Gymnasium or in European Studies classes at The King's Hospital school. They will be in constant contact via eTwinning. The Twinspace will be a major asset for the project since the entire project content and results will be uploaded, discussed and edited on the platform. The participants will learn how to work with the essential ICT-based methodologies such as digital media and tools. The project will offer a set of lessons focusing on European topics. Indeed, the students will be taught together in certain subjects such as History, European Studies or Geography. They also will deepen their knowledge thanks to the study trips to various EU-institutions in Brussels and Strasbourg and meetings with political stakeholders at local, official and European institutions. The participants will create a variety of products. First, they will document the entire project content and outcomes, will complete project-related tasks and will have a project diary in their own “European Journal”. Additionally, a booklet will showcase excerpts from the participants' journal at the end of the project. Furthermore, lesson units based on the several topics taught in international classes will be made available to staff and will be available online for the general public. An official project logo, a project flyer and an official project plaque will be produced by the participants and further products will be used to promote the project during official events. The project will include activities reflecting the variety of the project itself and all its participants. The students will organise official and international events for instance project exhibitions and information points. They will record interviews with the stakeholders who will be involved in the project. They will experience full immersion into a new culture, traditions and language by spending time in host families during the learning, teaching and training activities. All the above mentioned activities and products will enhance the students’ transversal skills such as creativity, initiative, decision taking and further basic skills such as entrepreneurship and interculturality. A dissemination and evaluation process will take place during the entire period of the project which will allow a constant visibility and a continuous assessment of the project activities. On the one hand, the project will have an impact on the entire school community which fosters the corporate identity within both schools. On the other hand, the different stakeholders will benefit from the opportunity to work with teaching staff and students from diverse cultural and traditional backgrounds. In the long run, the project aims to increase the European dimension of both schools and to raise awareness of the benefits of intercultural and linguistic exchange by offering all participants an innovative and motivating educational approach.

The automotive industry is being encouraged to cut emissions from cars, with OEMs threatened with penalties if they do not meet targets. One way of achieving this is to make vehicles lighter. Reducing the weight of a small family car by 5% can lead to increased fuel efficiency of 2% . Conventional car seats can weigh up to 35kg each , whereas Gordon Murray Design’s composite iStream® seat weighs only 12kg, potentially a huge weight saving. The manufacture of composite car seats has traditionally been expensive due to their unsuitability for mass production but the revolutionary iStream® manufacturing process overturns this convention, utilising a composite sandwich panel structure and metallic frame combination, which costs no more than a conventional car seat. Reducing the weight is also of benefit to electric vehicles (EVs) as well as internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, lower weight means lower emissions and for EVs it means greater range for a given battery size or a smaller (cheaper) battery for a given range, both of which are very desirable for customers. The principal objective of the The Productionisation of Advanced Modular Passenger Autonomous Seating (PAMPAS) project is to fully understand all aspects of the industrialisation process to ensure the already technically proven seating system can enter into series production with a commercially viable proposition.

Through events, summits, gathering of existing tools for best practice and a digital ecosystem for social entrepreneurs, we will strengthen the ecosystem for social innovation in Europe. We will create a European peer-to-peer academy for social & impact entrepreneurship support. Co-owned by European support organizations, we will endeavor to increase the capacities of social entrepreneurship support organizations in Europe. The academy aims to sustainably boost the impact of the European ecosystem for social & impact-driven entrepreneurship. We will gather and promote tools and facilitate locally based events, and facilitate summits where knowledge, methods, best practices, and tools are disseminated. In addition, we will build on existing digital platforms to create a social innovation ecosystem where best practices, knowledge and tools will be granted free of charge for social entrepreneurs. Key output from the project: - Registration of best practice out before and after intervention. The registration forms from the first registration will be used to select relevant tools to be included in the digital ecosystem. - Two social innovation policy summits and a final conference for actors in the social innovation ecosystem. - Collection of tools from actors working with social innovation. The tools may come from relevant accelerators, investors, incubators and public entities such as universities and government. All activities and tools will be free accessible at the digital ecosystem. The digital ecosystem will be built on existing software systems. The digital ecosystem will be a strong European network with various actors within different branches and knowledge from professionals within the field.

Solar energy conversion will play a key role in our transition to a carbon-neutral society. However, single junction photovoltaic (PV) cells fail to achieve their theoretical efficiency due to an inability to harness all wavelengths of the solar spectrum. Spectral losses may be overcome through the addition of a spectral converter coating to the surface of a finished PV cell, which, through a photoluminescence process, converts solar photons into wavelengths suitable for use. Nonetheless, spectral converters currently fail to deliver their promise to significantly boost PV cell performance due to the difficulties of translating luminescent molecules (lumophores) from solution into efficient solid-state materials. By considering the lumophore-host material as an integrated unit, rather than discrete components, in SPECTRACON, I take a radically new approach to the design of spectral converters. Organic-inorganic hybrid polymer hosts incorporating covalently-grafted lumophores will be rationally engineered to deliver spectral converters with the tailored optical, structural, viscoelastic and mechanical properties needed for high performance solid-state conversion, which has so far been unattainable. Using cheap materials and a solution-based process suitable for scalable manufacturing, these spectral converters will be integrated with PV cells to realise next generation luminescent solar devices which display record levels of efficiency and reduced costs. A scientific breakthrough that demonstrates efficient solar spectral conversion in the solid-state would enable immediate deployment of luminescent solar devices to the commercial market, thus accelerating progress to an all-renewables society and delivering unprecedented impact on the quality of life of future generations. Moreover, the fundamental knowledge gleaned on the design of efficient solid-state emitters will open up new frontiers for application in light-emitting displays, optical storage and sensing.