According to EUROPE 2020, European strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, for smart growth aims to enhance the performance and international attractiveness of Europe's higher education institutions and raise the overall quality of all levels of education and training in the EU; to step up the modernization agenda of higher education (curricula, governance and financing) including by benchmarking university performance and educational outcomes in a global context. After the accession of Croatia, there are now 24 official languages recognised in the EU. There are also a number of indigenous regional and minority languages (such as Catalan, Galician and Basque in Spain, or Welsh and Scottish Gaelic in the United Kingdom) in the EU. Moreover, there are many other languages that have been brought into the EU by migrant populations, notably Arabic, Turkish, Urdu, Hindi and Chinese. A recent study carried out for the European Commission (2017), called “Preparing Teachers for Diversity: the role of Initial Teacher Education”, shows that teaching staff in European schools lack experience with teaching in multilingual classes where there are immigrant students. Initial and continuous teacher training are vital ways to prepare teachers for teaching in multilingual setting, including through imparting methodological competences, pedagogical content knowledge and experience. This lack of preparation, when coupled with a diversity of levels of competences in the native language of the classroom, makes it ever more challenging for NLTs to teach in an effective manner. Trying to find the least common denominator in the classroom inevitably gives a bad deal both to native language speakers and to immigrant students learning the native language since the formers often have to make do with levels of language that do not meet with their potential and immigrant students are always behind making their school experience more difficult and less rewarding overall. In the context of growing diversity in European classrooms, initial and continuing teacher training can ensure that teaching staff have the skills to teach children who don’t speak the language of schooling and may be multilingual (European Commission 2016, Language teaching and learning in multilingual classrooms). In this context Mapping Teacher Training in Europe (MATT) shall:- create a panorama of the obtaining training offer for native language teachers (NLTs) in HE institutions and other professional training providers especially those teaching the native language of the receiving country as a second language for immigrant students and/or in multilingual classrooms,- find out how teaching practice of NLTs is organised, monitored, mentored and assessed,- map pedagogical innovations, technologies and trends in teaching and learning in language teaching and in general (even outside the language classroom) and to assess how these can be tapped to transform the native language class dynamics in so far as classroom management, teacher-students relationship, delivery, flexibility, personalisation and mobile learning are concerned,- create instruments to keep NLTs up to date and upskill them with the latest pedagogical innovations, technologies and trends,- recommend the best training model for NLTs that caters for the new challenges in the native language classroom,- to promote excellence in NLT training through exchange of good practices,- to enable HEIs to develop and reinforce networks, increase their capacity to operate at transnational level, share and confront ideas, practices and methods in NLT training.- build more inclusive HE systems, connected to surrounding communities, by increasing fairness in access and the participation and completion rates of immigrant students. MATT shall bring benefit to:Academic staff in faculties of education including those responsible for the design of initial or continuing teacher training have the need to learn about different selection, teaching processes of NLTs especially those who will work with immigrant students and teach them native language of the home country in mixed classrooms.Present and future NLTs receiving training in HEIs or in other initial and continuous teacher training providers need to be equipped with skills and input that ensures they are up to the challenges offered by the new ever changing dynamics in the native language classroom and that their teaching career is a rewarding one in spite of these challenges.Local native language speakers and Immigrant students learning the native language of the receiving country are final beneficiaries of the project and they have the need, the right to and deserve a good quality learning environment in the native language class that helps them acquire linguistic skills, communication competences in the native language and personal development and growth in the community.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most frequent neuroinflammatory disease. Despite new treatments that slow the progression of the disease, patients with MS (PwMS) frequently evolve towards major disability. The pathogenesis of MS is controversially debated, but the recent discovery that infection with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a major risk factor will radically change research avenues. The BEHIND-MS consortium ambitions to understand how EBV promotes MS development. To this end, we have established a multidisciplinary team that will for the first time draw a comprehensive map of the interactions between the virus and all arms of the immune system in the blood and brain of PwMS and how they ultimately lead to neural damage, in the context of genetic risk factors. We will also develop an in vitro model of MS that integrates the virus, the immune system and brain cells reprogrammed from the blood of the same PwMS. Thus, for the first time, we will study in the laboratory the complex molecular mechanisms that give rise to MS. Finally, we will develop an animal model of prodromal MS that would be a ‘game changer’ for our understanding of MS pathogenesis and allow testing of promising new treatments. The pivotal knowledge developed in this project will empower the entire healthcare value chain to work towards better clinical management of MS. A detailed understanding of EBV-MS interactions, combined with newly identified biomarkers, and study models will open the doors for researchers, clinicians and industry to capitalize on the mechanisms underlying EBV-MS interactions, and develop new diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic tools and guidelines. Throughout the project, an open dialogue with the main stakeholder representatives will ensure a mutual understanding of patient needs and project results. Ultimately, by contributing to improved risk analysis, stratification and treatment strategies, BEHIND-MS has the potential to reduce the burden of MS on society.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) has a debilitating effect on patients and their caregivers and leads to substantial economic costs. 15-30% of patients have familial FTD caused by known pathogenetic mutations. For the other 70-85% of patients, termed sporadic FTD, diagnosis is slow (~3.6 years) with frequent misdiagnosis due to clinical, genetic and molecular heterogeneity. Thus, there is great need for biomarkers for early diagnosis of sporadic FTD and its pathological subtypes. In PREDICTFTD, we will validate a set of biomarkers and create a diagnostic tool for early diagnosis of familial and sporadic FTD, which will facilitate tailored support and symptomatic treatments and care. We will apply several new approaches to achieve this: 1) we combine 11 geographically diverse cohorts of sporadic and familial FTD with retrospective and prospective longitudinal liquid biopsy samples and extensive clinical and behavioural data; 2) we are the first to use multimodal clinical and liquid biomarker data to train an AI-algorithm as a diagnostic tool for quick and early clinical FTD diagnosis; and 3) we implement a novel robust two-stage strategy for biomarker and AI algorithm validation, where phase I validates biomarkers and algorithms on a cohort of genetic and autopsied cases and phase II assesses biomarker value for diagnosis of sporadic FTD and at-risk pre-symptomatic mutation carriers. We will apply this two-stage validation strategy to address three critical clinical challenges: i) To distinguish sporadic FTD from (non-) neurodegenerative disorders that show significant clinical/symptomatic overlap, ii) To robustly detect FTD pathological subtypes in sporadic FTD and iii) pre-symptomatic identification of FTD onset. Thus, PREDICTFTD will transform FTD diagnosis, offering potential for early disease confirmation, guiding treatment decisions, facilitating patient recruitment for clinical trials, guidance of patients and caregivers, and enabling preventive measures.

Recent pandemics showed Europe how serious health threats can be to society. Proactive approaches are needed to ensure that medical countermeasures are available during pandemics. PROACT EU-Response’s overarching objective is to prepare Europe for future pandemics by strengthening upon existing networks of experts and civil society focused on clinical therapeutic platform trials within hospital inpatient settings across Europe. In case of an outbreak, this network will provide capacity to pivot rapidly to implement large, multi-country platform trials studying therapeutics and diagnostic-tool performance. Underpinned by strong community involvement and further strengthened by the inclusion of social and implementation scientists, PROACT EU-Response centres on six objectives: expand a solid network of clinical centres across Europe that will implement a clinical trial assessing a syndromic approach for respiratory viral infections; strengthen a laboratory network to identify pathogens and biomarkers of disease monitoring for routine surveillance; support a network of methodologists and trialists who will ensure the trials’ logistical and methodological aspects; initiate a network of professionals to work on preparedness tools to ensure a smooth pivot from inter-pandemic to the pandemic period in case of an outbreak; build a network of social science researchers who will provide nuanced understanding of the social contexts; and establish a community group to work on activities that will empower patients and citizens in Europe regarding their own health and educate them about science and health issues. By bringing together scientists, social science researchers, and civil society members, PROACT EU-Response will benefit the entire European population and beyond through decreased mortality and morbidity associated with emerging diseases, lower societal economic costs of morbidity, strengthened research and innovation expertise, human capacities, and know-how for combatting communicable diseases.