CRESCINE’s mission is to increase the competitiveness of the film industry across small countries in Europe and improve the circulation of films and AV content coming from small markets internationally. CRESCINE’s aims to enhance the competitiveness and the cultural diversity of the European film industry. This will be achieved by understanding, engaging with, empowering, and ultimately transform European small markets setting out from research and piloting in 7 markets. In their “smallness", these markets underline the challenges and drivers one must consider to increase the competitiveness of the EU film industry as all. CRESCINE will address, systematically, the whole film production, distribution and consumption ecosystem. The aim is to innovate at all levels of the value chain, from policies to ways of data management and analytics, production business models and modes of distribution. CRESCINE will develop novel tools, methods, and strategic approaches that all build on the concept of smallness and the positive affordances it entails for the overall competitiveness of the European film industry. CRESCINE will address all expected outcomes of the call through the lens of exemplary European Small Film Markets which stand for the majority of film markets in the European Union. CRESCINE will establish an innovative model of analysis and evidence collection across the value chain that is framed by cutting edge data analytical models, comparative benchmarks promulgated in light of best available evidence including unprecedented data sources. The findings will lead to work on innovative solutions and testing of new tools, policies, business models or financing schemes, and green strategies. These activities feed the overall impact of the project and its ability to produce new tools, recommendations, guidelines, and exploit results that nurture the transformation of the film industry in small European markets and beyond.

WIRE is promoted by all eight HEIs currently members or soon to be members in the FilmEU Alliance. FilmEU fully represents Europe’s geographical, cultural, and linguistic differences, combined with the diversity and richness of its European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and its Research Area (ERA). WIRE integrates five out of eight academic partners each coming from widening countries, a majority of less research-intensive institutions and is led by an institution from a widening country. All WIRE activities are centered in widening countries, and it is these countries and less research-intensive HEIs that are beneficiaries of the of the project. WIRE’s main objective is to catalyse a step change in the excellence and innovation of the science and value creation activities carried out by and across the FilmEU Alliance via its capacity building and the promotion of several reforms across the HEIs in widening countries participating in the Alliance. WIRE will capacitate the FilmEU Alliance Research and Innovation R&I dimensions, notably by focusing on management and administrative competencies, for the benefit of its members in widening countries, and through that increase the overall competitiveness of the Alliance. WIRE will achieve this through deeper and more geographically inclusive cooperation between all members of the Alliance. WIRE will contribute significantly to the expected outcomes of the call via the consolidation of an inclusive Alliance of HEIs which mostly (5 of 8) come from widening countries. Through collaboration between themselves and with other actors in local ecosystems, they will promote institutional and country-level reforms and upgrades, facilitate an embedded culture of excellence and value creation driven by artistic research, and focus on the cultural and creative industries, in view of increased competitiveness and accelerated institutional reforms in their R&I dimension.

Within SoPHIA, the consortium aims at creating a Social Platform, a vast and diverse community of stakeholders from different fields and disciplines interested in interventions in historical environment and cultural heritage sites in Europe, that will work together towards the definition of quality standards and of guidelines for future policies and programmes. With the constant active participation of the social platform, our work on the research and policies developed in this field will be organized around four main analytical dimensions – social, cultural, economic and environmental impact - which constitute perspectives to identify the most important challenges and opportunities linked to cultural heritage interventions in Europe. We will structure the analysis through a targeting process in two stages: a first exploration of the general topic and the current situation as regards policies, assessment and quality of interventions, including best practices, and the creation of a draft holistic impact assessment model; and a second moment that involves going into specific topics in depth by analysing specific case studies selected during the first phase to confirm or adjust the first phase findings. The second stage will analyse case studies with the model based on 3 axes: people, domains and time. The final step of the project will consist in synthetizing the findings against the results of the analyses performed and drafting recommendations for both practitioners and policy makers for the future of good quality interventions in cultural heritage. The analysis and policy papers will focus on European heritage, however, the final aim is to propose models and standards that can potentially be applied internationally.

FILMEU_RIT brings together four European Higher Education Institutions: UL - Lusófona University from Lisbon, Portugal; SZFE – University of Theatre and Film Arts, from Budapest, Hungary; LUCA School of Arts from Brussels, Belgium; and IADT - Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology, from Dublin, Ireland. Together, these institutions collaborate around the common objective of jointly promoting high-level research, innovation and educational activities in the multidisciplinary field of Film and Media Arts and, through this collaboration, consolidate the central role of Europe as a world leader in the creative fields. FILMEU_RIT will increase the Alliance’s competitiveness and reinforce its ability to develop activities that span all the areas of the knowledge square: education, research, innovation, and service to society, while helping the creative sector to affirm its potential for innovation and resilience in a post COVID-19 context. FILMEU_RIT will develop a common R&I agenda for artistic research supported by common resources and joint structures that will increase talent attraction and the impact of the research developed amidst the alliance. Such impact seeks to promote greater engagement of society and business with art and creativity in order to increase European competitiveness and its artistic R&I profile. FILMEU_RIT’s main objective is the capacitation, in Research and Innovation terms, of the individual HEIs that integrate the Alliance via the joint design of strategies and action plans that ensure the transformation of the future European University into an Institution that puts Research and Innovation in the fields of Film and Media Arts at the centre of its activities and operates as a highly valuable critical cultural intermediary.

Disablist bullying is a complex and layered issue that crosses from child to adult level, often because ID/SEN individuals have not been sufficiently prepared to cope with such issues as marginalisation, exclusion and bullying behaviours. Disablist bullying research and the widespread adoption of practical approaches is scarce. What research exists, tends to come from the medical rather than social model of disability, and fails to think about the negative representations of disability as ‘difference’ and the possible role of school practices in facilitating conditions within which bullying disabled children is more likely to occur. Within this project then, the partners operating at higher education level, aim to combine research, best practice and cross-disciplinary (educational, psychological, sociological) modern pedagogical approaches (eLearning, partner learning, and peer learning) with widely used technological means (Internet, apps, multi-media,) in order to provide comprehensive cross-national insight into research, policy and practice in regards to disablist bullying that will form the basis of a report with policy recommendations but also, and most pertinently, create an online repository sharing research, best practice and host partner developed training course materials, including multi-media material, that will form a cross-partner trialled and evaluated course for the prevention and intervention of disablist bullying aimed at and piloted cross-nationally with 100 participants across both those with SEN, and student teachers/teachers/and professional trainers, who will work and learn together. In creating this course, and supplying online the materials (written & multimedia) required to implement it elsewhere, alongside access to the partner networks/expertise in an on going basis, this project will provide timely, innovative and continuing support to both learners with disabilities/special needs and those who seek to educate/work with them in order to tackle bullying issues, improve socialisation, reduce marginalisation and ease both their lives in school and their migration into adulthood and the working world, to allow them to enjoy fully rounded lives and contribute more widely to society. It will also provide support to and educate, educators and trainers in promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in learning through educational institutions and wider society, via more in-depth understanding and work with SEN individuals, and the provision of training/educational materials. At the local level the impact of this project will be felt most directly in schools and workplaces and in changing/enhancing the personal/professional lives of those that undertake the coursework/training. At a regional and national level the advertising, recruitment and dissemination process for the project will alert, educate and involve schools, workplaces and stakeholder institutions (e.g. SEN advocacy groups, Teacher Unions, Work Unions, Parent Organisations) to the work being done, encouraging them to utilise their networks in turn to further advertise the project and educate its members as to the outcomes. In addition, the report with associated policy recommendations will be disseminated to all stakeholders including regional and national governmental authorities. This will ensure a promotion and dissemination of the project and project results across decision makers at different levels.