In the past ten years, diplomatic and economic relations between the EU and a number of post-USSR republics have steadily improved. Initially concerned primarily with internal political stability, countries like Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan have since come to realize that availability of oil, gas and minerals is not a guarantee for a stable and shock-resistant economic environment. Efforts to diversify domestic economies and to attract foreign investments have multiplied in the past years in the region, through initiates that include visa liberalization and economic and fiscal reforms aimed at reducing barriers to entry for foreign business seeking access to domestic markets. The response from the international business community to these efforts have been modest to date. While a number of corporate entities have tried to enter new markets, the attractiveness of such newly opened republics remain limited, in large part due to informal barriers to foreign investment. Such informal obstacles and hindrances remain largely under-reported and under-studied, contributing to a more general lack of understanding of local business environments that is exacerbated by a dearth of regional specialists who can understand and navigate the micro and macro socio-political economies of post-USSR markets. MARKETS responds to novel opportunities emerging in post-Soviet spaces by conducting a study on the influence of both formal and informal factors impacting on access to markets in eight countries in the post-USSR, including two countries per sub-region (Baltics, Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia) to 1) construct a map of business environments in the region based; 2) create, develop and improve the sustainability of training programmes for future analysts to equip them with deep practical understandings of the region, embedded in the newest theoretical and methodological approaches

Extending from Eastern Europe to Eastern Asia, from the Caucasus to Central Asia, the post-USSR region, occupying almost one sixth of the world’s territory, has an immense potential for the EU as source of natural resources and potential market for EU companies. In spite of this, the region is often seen as a highly hazardous one to deal with, given its “uncertain business and investment climate with widespread opportunism and corruption, misuse and misappropriation of state assets and conflicting information flow” SHADOW is a research and training programme with the goal of producing strategic intelligence on the region and train a generation of specialists on informality in post-Soviet spaces. Our goals are two-fold: 1) we intend to construct an index to provide an accurate measurement of the level of shadow activities in our target countries; 2) we aim to conceptualise a taxonomy of shadow practices in the post-USSR region in a cross-country and cross-regional perspective. Both goals are intended to contribute to a much better understanding of the threats and opportunities that the former USSR region, of fundamental importance for the EU, offers.

The DISCE (Developing Inclusive & Sustainable Creative Economies) project is set to improve and enhance the growth, inclusivity and sustainability of the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in the EU. Overall, the ambitious objectives of DISCE are: i) to support the development patterns of CCIs within the EU through research on new business models and inclusive growth; and ii) to re-shape understanding of what ‘inclusive and sustainable growth’ consists of in this context, shifting the CCIs (and CCIs policy) towards strategic goals of ‘cultural development’ that encompass both GDP and human flourishing. DISCE is an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods project that builds on three pillars: 1) Robust statistical analyses, mapping and development of new statistical indices for a better understanding of the inclusive and sustainable development of CCIs in Europe; 2) In-depth case studies developing rich findings and nuanced understanding of the Creative Economies and their ecologies; and 3) Active co-creation and interaction with stakeholders to validate the policy relevance of the project, as well as the policy outcomes and achieve long-term impact and sustainability. DISCE serves all the beneficiaries relevant research results, which will help and support stakeholders to fill existing information gaps in daily policy and decision-making processes. DISCE will bring out recommendations for actors how to react, function and decide in specific situations to promote inclusive growth and progress on the sustainable development in the field of CCIs. The DISCE Consortium has six partners: University of Turku (UTU) as the Coordinator, Kings College London (KCL), Social Science Area of the Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI), Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (SSE) as ‘Research Partners’ and two ‘Stakeholder Partners’ Culture & Media Agency aisbl (CUMEDIAE) and Trans European Halles (TEH) both with wide networks in the field of CCIs.

The ESSENCE project intends to improve employability opportunities for HE students by stimulating soft skills development. Project objective is to maximize their engagement in the labor market through offering professional development paths that go beyond formal HE trainings. In order to meet the expectations of entrepreneurs and recruiters connected with the most desirable soft skills, the courses will be based on the demand-driven employers’ perspective. According to a ground-breaking research published by World Economic Forum around 2016; in the era of digital automation and AI, career success factors are facing times of significant changes especially in industry sectors at high technological coefficient (but not exclusively!). From 2020, at the very edge of the forth industrial revolution, strategic competitiveness relies more and more on intellectual capital assets – hence the needs to cultivate new managerial talents that are strongly empowered not only on technical knowledge but mostly on soft and intangible capabilities. ESSENCE aims to nurture a complete set of new soft skills on HE students and fresh graduates to complete, enhance and enrich their education and employability competitiveness beside the formal University training. During the project, partners will develop trainings, courses, educational modules and content that is in line with the CEDEFOP guidelines for Learning Outcome and fully aligned with the EQF from levels 3 to 5. In addition, the project will develop operational tools (i.e. self-assessment means) that systematically engage multiple organisational studies field and functions - communication, people management, HR, etc.ESSENCE brings together an extensive sample of experiences, knowledge and practices represented by each partner involved. Partners’ unique backgrounds mean an exceptional opportunity to leverage on a system of values grounded on diversity, heterogeneity and variegation. The project will be implemented by 8 partners from Poland, Croatia, Italy, Belgium, Latvia, Bulgaria and Spain representing different backgrounds (business/ICT field, HE Institutions and social partners/NGO) over a period of 24 months.Project aims to reach its major target groups, which include HE students and recent graduates, HE teachers, HE schools/institutions, business trainers/mentors, entrepreneurs and SMEs. Among the project results, a few can be distinguished as the major ones:1) An online interactive platform (OER Platform) at the service of each target group addressed by the ESSENCE project (HE students, business consultants, entrepreneurship facilitators, HR specialists, and so on): the platform will be fully available to all interested parties even after the formal conclusion of the project in order to better exploit and valorise ESSENCE planned results.2) A vast catalogue of training tools to support HE students on soft skills for employability.3) An online business glossary to be used as a concepts-map as well as a reference to orientate oneself through the universe of soft skills models and studies. 4) Custom-made training courses related to self-empowerment and career development solutions.In order to reach the project’s goals, the development of four innovative and transferrable Intellectual Outputs is foreseen:IO1 - Development and Maintenance of Open Educational Resource Platform,IO2 - Identification and Mapping of Soft Skills for Enhanced Employability,IO3 - Development of Toolkit and Training Content + Conduction of Training,IO4 - Soft Skills Manifesto for Universities + Operational Guidelines.The project management and methodology will be tailor-made, involving development of personalized project management, quality assurance and dissemination plans, monitoring/evaluation tools. Thanks to the presence of partners with a high level of experience and multiplication potential, the project will benefit from increased visibility and impact at national and European level. To widen the impact of the project, a number of 7 multiplier events, including national and international participants is foreseen.The XXI century is characterized by a high level of volatility when it comes to the labor market. At a time when new professions and positions in companies are created more frequently, employers are paying more and more attention to the unique features of each candidate willing to work in their enterprise.Through its activities and outputs, ESSENCE proposes an innovative approach to the development of factors influencing employability and professional performance of young workforce - soft skills.

CONTEXT: Service design is a way of thinking and a methodology that is based on the product / service development processes of companies and organizations centred on the customer / target group. It improves the customer experience, which in turn increases the sustainable development of the organization. In today's society, a human-centered approach to the development of services and organizations is crucial, but teaching this knowledge is not yet systematically linked to the teaching of entrepreneurship at universities. Also, the awareness of companies and organizations about the development of a customer-oriented product service is still low and there is a need to raise awareness. The development of service design module would contribute to the development of different learning and training formats to raise awareness and competences.OBJECTIVES: - to upgrade the open education in a digital era by mixing digital and face-to-face learning approaches to promote innovative pedagogies and methods for teaching and learning;- to develop a service design study module together with the supportive digital platform that aggregates different service design tools and organizes them in sensible and user-friendly manner;- to enhance the competitiveness and customer- / citizen centered service / product development in private and public sector organizationsPARTICIPANTS: (1) the students / attendees who participate in the pilot training programme. Their profile is twofold: (a) executives / managers of business organisations, (b) executives / managers of public sector organisations. 6 participants from each partner country (altogether 18): half from businesses and half from public sector institutions; (2) the lecturers / trainers who are responsible for carrying out the workshops and should have practical experience in service design or related fields and / or practical experience as being an educator of adult learners. At least 2 trainers per partner organisation (altogether at least 8).ACTIVITIES: The core activities are:1. Development of service design study module – that can be implemented independently (e.g. as an Executive education module) or integrated into a formal curriculum. 2. Development of digital platform (web-page) – to gather different types of tools and methods used in teaching and learning processes of service design during the study course. 3. Piloting the developed module through international adult learners course in all partner countries.The core activities will be supported by development of a general framework for teaching service design, various dissemination activities, engagement of relevant stakeholders, and project management activities.METHODOLOGY: The project follows accepted hands-on learning methodologies that help students learn by doing and through experience. Thus, the project will further promote collaborative and explorative learning approaches. The keywords in module design are internationality, interdisciplinarity, co-creation and interactive learning-teaching activities. The learners will have the opportunity to learn from each other and from the teacher through peer evaluation.In developing the digital platform, special emphasis will be put on UX and UI. Constant feedback will be used to improve the customer experience. RESULTS AND IMPACT:The main foreseen results include: -A general framework of principles how service design could be taught;-A generic prototype of a study model of service design for business and for public sector leaders and managers-Tested and feedbacked service design module (approx. 30 credit points) that is ready to be carried out as an independent complementary training course, executive program or integrated into formal studies;-digital / web-based platform that aggregates different type of tools and methods of service design;-raised awareness of service design education.The project will consistently contribute to the innovation capacity of participating organisations and participants of the piloting process. The new knowledge and tools will help people to innovate their businesses and organisations according to human-centered approach to services' development. LONGER TERM BENEFITSIt is envisioned that the project and its co-design process will be able to achieve first a higher awareness by a varied range of stakeholders, and implementing the service design module into different curricula as a result, affect the sustainability and competitiveness European businesses as well as increase the access and effectiveness of public services on a local, regional, national and European level. Among the main benefits, the project will:- increase the dialogue between the business and academic community on the importance of collaboration to solve real life problems;- promote interdisciplinarity and international mind-set in education to support keeping up with the requirements of societal and business need