Public art is a very visible and acknowledged way to experience art and culture in everyday life. It is also accessible to everyone, not only the traditional art audiences. Public art is a way to make a living for many artists and the money spent on it is comparatively large. Therefore it should be included in the curricula of all art colleges in a versatile manner because making public art can be profitable and rewarding for both the artist and the public. The professional methods of co-operation and public engagement process are important development factors in making public art meaningful to all parties. The European HEIs that educate professional artists are in very different levels in the teaching of public art and including it in their curricula. PARTGO improves the state and position of public art in the art college context. The project partners are European HEIs from Finland, Estonia, Hungary and Ireland who offer approximately 200 art and media students and 30 teachers and professors a possibility to develop their professional skills in the field of public art. The participants can represent the field of visual arts (painting, drawing, photography etc.) or media (tv, film, animation, media production or journalism). PARTGO project objectives are:1) Increasing knowledge and skills of public art among the project partnership and art education institutions around Europe, especially in public engagement and public relations2) Developing new study modules and integrating public art into the curricula of the participating HEIs3) Mutual learning and sharing the results among the multinational partner consortium and beyond. These objectives will be achieved by1) studying the ways public art is taught in art colleges across Europe and finding out the big picture and best practices of European curricula in public art 2) sharing experiences and learning about the international practices of teaching public art 3) planning and executing new international pilot courses/modules in interesting public art locations in all partner countries 4) publishing a toolkit publication of teaching public art based on the project experiences and pilot modules 5) restructuring the curricula of participating HEIs to foster public art During the project the partners plan and execute public art works in various sites, learn new techniques and ways of collaboration with the public. The artworks, either permanent or temporary, will be the very concrete results of the project. Transnational collaboration enriches the co-operation on local sites within the pilot course modules. As a concrete result of the pilot modules the materials and documentation from four different pilot course modules taught in Turku, Finland, Tallinn, Estonia, Dublin, Ireland and Budapest, Hungary will be collected into four public art concepts. The concepts and will be collected to a digital public art toolkit publication that will also include concrete and detailed instructions for working with different clients, countries and techniques. After the project the publication will be available online and work as teaching material for public art teachers everywhere. It can also be used as an introduction to public art processes in the fields of architecture, real estate development, building and construction or institutions who are interested in public art investment. The participating students and teachers learn new methods and approaches on public art, which is a lasting impact as they will then be able to use in their work as artists and artist teachers. Their international working skills and contacts also improve when they work together with the international project team. The employability of graduating art students improves when their public art skills are better and they have courage and knowledge on working with different clients. The quality of the curricula and teaching of the participating art colleges improve as they collaborate, create and carry out the pilot study modules and adapt them to their curricula. This impact will also affect the next student generations. The organisations gain new connections to stakeholders and get more publicity to their work in the field of public art.

The main objective of the RETEX MSCA SE project is to form a world class international and inter-sectoral network of organizations, working on a joint research programme in the field of novel Sustainable Electronic Textile Materials, by replacing conventional textile materials with sustainable, environmentally friendly, and advanced materials such as; regenerated fibres from cotton fabrics. This can only be achieved by bringing together world-class experts in materials, polmers, environmentalists, chemists, software engineers, and designers with state-of-the-art innovations and processes in their respective fields of expertise. The participants will exchange skills and knowledge to create sustainable textile materials, strengthening collaborative research between different countries and sectors. RETEX will also refine and produce potential commercial market opportunities for non-academic participants in the project .Our goal is to train next generation of researchers and innovators in sustainable textiles through cross-sectoral and training modules. The staff members will develop new skills, be exposed tonew research and innovation environments, international networks, new industrial processes and techniques whilst widening and enriching career development through cross-sectoral knowledge transfer and international mobility.

Over the past half century, urbanism has become the cornerstone of global environmental action. Yet the term “environment” is ambiguous, multi-layered and contested. This is especially so when it is linked with the urban question, expressing a sense of collective urgency, but also demands for urban environmental justice that are irreducible to the greening of cities. This research project explores the urbanism-environment nexus historically and today. Building on a premise that “environment” is at once an ecological condition, a technological interface and a political metaphor, I examine how professional urbanists understood, designed and governed the environment. This transdisciplinary project focuses on three areas of urbanism—policy, design and research—and examines the genealogy of three interconnected fields, in which the environmental problematic has been central: urban regeneration, landscape urbanism, and urban science. This research spans the period between the 1960s and today, and analyzes the circulation of ideas, policies and practices among institutions, projects and individuals situated in the US, Europe and the former Eastern Bloc. What could environmental urbanism mean in the future? My research is underpinned by a sense of contemporary socio-environmental challenges, and aims to build bridges between historical, critical and strategic approaches in urban studies. By developing and departing from Michel Foucault’s concept of “environmentality,” this research draws attention to affinities and tensions in the urban arena between solution-focused ecological urbanism, demands for environmental equity and forms of environmental governmentality. While the concept throws into relief power relations associated with environmental action, it needs to be updated with respect to concrete ecological, technological and political dilemmas that the field of urbanism faced in the past and faces today. Could “environment” transform the urban question in ways that exceed technological solution, and become a signpost for more democratic urbanism?

The urgency of the climate crisis requires accelerating the transfer and adoption of climate change mitigation skills and tools to workers, businesses, policy makers, and the public. Around 40% of GHG emissions come from building operations and an additional 10-20% from embodied emissions, making the construction ecosystem a major contributor to the climate crisis and a necessary sector to transform. One of the main obstacles to transformation is the massive need for skilled workers and educated professionals on all levels. More than three quarters of companies in the EU report difficulties in finding workers with the necessary skills. The twin green and digital transformation of the construction ecosystem is an enormous opportunity to create sustainable employment in urban and rural areas and is central to decarbonising Europe’s economy and fighting climate change. Our objective is to establish an international network, the New European Bauhaus Academy Alliance (NEBA Alliance), which will ensure high quality training for higher education, VET, and life-long learning is available and delivered to as many workers as possible across Europe and the surrounding regions. The project will establish Hubs that have regional coverage and/or expertise in specific topics, create a joint business plan and operational models, then link them through a digital platform that will serve as a matchmaker between learners and trainers, as well as an open directory and repository for NEBA certified training contents addressing bio-based, circular, regenerative, and long-life processes, concepts, and solutions with microcredentials available. The project will also provide Skills Agenda and Policy Roadmap, guiding implementation of the Green Deal, Renovation Wave, Circular Bioeconomy and related policy initiatives. The NEBA Alliance will be the first and most dynamic entry in a massive push for skills/education across all levels of the construction sector and the society.

The EU has defined smart and sustainable growth as one of the priorities (EU Strategy 2020). An essential part for reaching these priorities is innovation. Innovation structures and support measures are being established and provided at the EU and at various levels in its member states. However, recently there is more attention to bottom-up rather than top-down innovation: for example, innovative, new business and project development which is based upon ventures from creative and business class: students from universities, technical, art and business schools. This approach has been employed in several places and has a good innovation potential. The project is based on the knowledge transfer idea from countries where there are established efficient, bottom up innovation structures and platforms, such as in the Netherlands and Denmark. The partners who represent countries with lower innovation capacities (Latvia, Estonia and Cyprus) wanted to learn from this experience, test the approaches and establish similar labs in their countries.Project objective was to raise bottom-up innovation capacity for the benefit of sustainable and socially responsible growth in Estonia, Latvia and Cyprus, based on the experiences from Denmark and the Netherlands. To reach the project aim, the project defined the following sub-objectives:1) To learn about student based innovation labs in the Netherlands and Denmark;2) To transfer, mutually learn and disseminate knowledge about student based innovation labs;3) To establish cross sectoral, student-based innovation platforms (Innovation labs) linking universities, intermediaries (innovation and sustainability agents), local industries and stakeholders; 4) To link education with practical innovation projects by engaging university students and teachers to work on practical, multidisciplinary sustainability and social issues on the selected practical issues, creating together new innovative projects or ventures which benefit the issues of sustainability or social challenges, as a part of their bachelor or master education;5) To develop and carry out 4-5 student projects for Innovation labs in each partner university;6) To disseminate project results.Regarding number and profile of participants, there were 8 organizations in the partnership: Foundation for Society (FS, NGO, Latvia); SEI Tallinn (SEIT, NGO, Estonia), Interfusion Services Ltd (IFSS, SME, Cyprus); Vidzeme University (VA, university, Latvia); Sticthing NHL (NHL,university, the Netherlands); Aalborg University (AAU, university, Denmark), Cyprus University of Technology (CUT,university, Cyprus) and Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA, university, Estonia).Description of activitiesThe project carried out preparatory, implementation and dissemination activities: feasibility studies, prepared innovation lab (further – innolabs) development plans for universities; run staff training and study visits to the NL and DK; established innolabs in operation and tested them by running student projects in LV, EE and CY universities; run various dissemination and engagement activities, such as workshops, presentations; conference; website, student project contests and others). Each innolab in partner universities in EE, LV and CY run its first round of student innovation projects. Two methodological materials for establishment of innolabs and running them in universities have been produced.Results and impact attained- The innovation capacity has been raised in LV, EE and CY by establishment of innolabs in these universities, raising the competitiveness of the participant universities of their staff and students, the local regions, and the clients and stakeholders of these innolabs;- New knowledge generated during staff training events;- New business opportunities and creativity has been promoted and new links and relationships with clients of innolabs established;- The students have increased their skills of working together, producing results, presenting their results which shall help them into their working lives; - Sustainable innovations - emergence of innovative products, services, initiatives have been generated, for example, a product for Sports Ident company was produced by the VA student team,- Methodological materials produced will help other innolabs to be established and to be improved.Potential longer term benefits are achieved through ensuring the continuation of the innovation labs operation in future. This has been achieved by the top-management approved innolab development plans in the universities of LV, CY and EE. Therefore it is a well-grounded expectation that established innolabs will continue to work in future and will result in new, innovative activities, products, services, spin-offs and start-ups, thus raising innovation capacities, economic attractiveness and sustainable development of local regions and stimulating bottom-up innovation for the EU organisations at international level.