Context: Material science is being developed, and major industries such as aerospace and automotive take advantage of cutting-edge technologies in their applications. As light-weight materials along with superior strength are demanded by the market, composite materials have come to the fore as the substituent of metal alloys. Although the technical side of industrial applications is compensated by the rise of composites, sustainability and eco-friendly properties of materials, which have important places within the EU policy areas, still require efforts by institutes and companies. At this juncture, composites produced from natural materials such as cork become more of an issue due to their environmentally friendly properties. There are about 2,200,000 hectares of cork forest; 34% in Portugal and 27% in Spain. Cork production is sustainable because the cork tree is not cut down to obtain cork; only the bark is stripped to harvest the cork. The tree continues to live and grow. The sustainability of production and the easy recycling of cork products and by-products are two of its most distinctive aspects. Cork oak forests also prevent desertification and the refuge of various endangered species. Leading companies especially in aerospace sector make investments on cork. However, there is a lack of human resources in the field since syllabuses in engineering programs focus on technical sides rather than including environmental effects of engineering materials. Objective:ECOCORK aims to develop educational tools for gaining environmental awareness in the manufacturing of cork composites as well as understanding the importance of eco-friendly natural composites in sustainability. Within this scope, partners will develop an educational scheme and project will be concentrated on individuals at the college level. The institutions will develop curricula, course materials, learning platforms, as well as organizing summer schools for the students. Moreover, staff skills will be enhanced in a particular and promising field by the interactions between the pacemaker partners. The industrial partner, ACC will contribute to the preparation of training programs on sustainability and carbon footprint of cork products since this company is a leader cork producer in the world. Within this scope of strategic partnership, there will be an established bridge from the homeland of cork (Portugal and Spain) to Eastern Europe, where vast amounts of investments have been paid for aerospace applications. Hence, there will be a chance to have a good educational partnership in the development of sustainable cork composites for the aerospace industry. Number and profile of participants:ESOGU has a background in aerospace industry since there are several projects conducted in collaboration with major aerospace companies. Moreover, National Aviation Cluster has members from ESOGU staff who take active roles in this sector. In 2019, TAI demanded a prospective human source from ESOGU and thus, ESOGU applied for the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) and a new engineering department, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, was founded in 2019.UA is one of the biggest universities in cork science. It makes broad researches on cork related applications. It has strong relationships with ACC and the other cork focused institutes from all over the world. ACC is one of the largest and dynamic multinationals of Portuguese origin. Its origins were back in 1870 and today it is the world leader in the sector. It is also willing to serve for aerospace industry since cork products have been recognized in aerospace due to their properties. ICSURO is dedicated to cork science researches. The explicit name of ICSURO is Catalan Institute of Cork, which proves that this institutes has strong experience on cork for many years. The Cork Center, the laboratory of the Catalan Cork Institute was created in 2001 to provide services to the different components of the value chain in the cork sector.WUST is notable for cork composites and has joint studied with UA in a long-term collaboration. WUST and UA have applied for several grants and so far, this partnership brought approx. 325,000 Euro to the organizations in grants. VGTU has experience in projects under the Erasmus+, Horizon2020, Marie-Curie and other EU funded programs. It has strong experience that the Dean of Aviation Institute has been awarded Quality of the Year award by National Agency of Lithuania. VGTU has also Erasmus+ projects in contribution with Turkish universities such as Ege University.

KATCH_e is a knowledge alliance between Higher Education (HE), companies and research centres to promote the building of competences in the field of product, product-service systems and business models design and development for the circular economy and sustainability, in the construction and furniture sectors.KATCH_e is contributing to the efforts, at national and EU levels, of fostering the transition from a take-make-use-dispose model that depletes natural resources and destroys ecosystems, to a circular model where the value of products, materials and resources is maintained in the economy for as long as possible and the generation of waste is minimized.The project focuses on the development of innovative and multidisciplinary training materials targeting HE academic fields of Design, Engineering, Sustainability Sciences and Business Management. Complementary to the KATCH_e theoretical resources (eight modules and an online course), seven tools that support the academic approach but are also suited to the implementation by businesses have been developed.The implementation of the projects' results in academic and company contexts created several case studies that can be used as teaching elements and as inspiration by other companies engaged in circularity and sustainability.The objectives of KATCH_e are:• To develop training materials to encourage cross-curricular learning, connecting mainly with designers and engineers and other relevant stakeholders;• To develop a new educational focus through a cross-sectoral real problem-based learning approach, involving university students, professors, researchers, companies and other stakeholders to integrate circular economy and sustainability thinking in design education, defining as well didactic recommendations for teaching;• To encourage multidisciplinary relationships and to support the exchange of information, experiences and materials between the partners and stakeholders, through the creation of structures (a knowledge platform and a hub) and activities to engage stakeholders from different areas in a systematic and efficient;• To foster the entrepreneurial skills and motivations to students and simultaneously, providing companies and professionals of the target sectors the knowledge to analyse and to define new competitive market strategies in a more circular society, thus favouring the recruitment of future employees and the creation of new companies and business models;• To set the foundation for a strong and lasting knowledge alliance between HE and business: joint development of curricula, development of training materials and suitable tools, co-creation of innovative solutions, etc. for continuing the cooperation after the end of the project period.The KATCH_e consortium is led by LNEG, I.P., Portugal, and is composed of 11 partners from four EU countries: Portugal, Spain, Austria and Denmark. The project's duration was 36 monthes (January 2017-December 2019).