The GI-Pedagogy project supports and equips teachers to bring Geographic Information Systems (GIS) into the classroom in innovative and effective ways. The project has two aims: first, to review existing pedagogies relating to GIS and to develop effective and innovative new approaches; and second, to embed those approaches through a combination of teacher training and resource provision. The focus of the project is on giving teachers the training they need to fully incorporate web-based mapping software into the geography curriculum. The GI-Pedagogy project will produce a toolkit of resources for teachers, available for free on the project website. Once a toolkit for teaching with GIS is developed, this resource will be shared and disseminated via in-person training events and online.GI-Pedagogy responds to teacher and student demand for more digital and web-based approaches to teaching and learning. It also developed in part from the findings of a previous EU-funded project, the School on the Cloud. The project partners include three universities, two secondary schools, and a professional body. Together, the six partners will develop and trial innovative teaching approaches. A new pedagogy for teaching with GIS will be refined in partnership, and through continuous feedback between teacher training and research institutions, front-line educators, and professional geographers. Surveys will be used to monitor the experiences of participating teachers at our two partner schools and at other associate institutions. This stage of the project includes a rigorous survey of existing approaches to teaching with GIS along with a review assessing the effectiveness of new pedagogies.Following this development phase, the project partners will create a toolkit of resources for teachers based on the most effective strategies for teaching with GIS. The toolkit will be available online, along with a MOOC demonstrating how the toolkit can best be applied in the classroom. These online resources will be supplemented by our six multiplier events: a series of face-to-face training sessions for around 140 participants, hosted at the project's partner institutions. At the conclusion of the project, the final results will be made available as part of a digital exhibition. This will also document the experiences of the partners, and particularly of those teachers who were involved in trialling and applying the project's new pedagogy as part of their own teaching practice.The impact of this project will continue even after its completion, as the practices and principles developed will be embedded in the culture of the partner institutions and in the classrooms of those teachers who attended the training or who made use of its online resources. Several partner institutions have pledged funding to ensure that these resources remain freely accessible even after the conclusion of any EU grant. Not only will the project benefit those teachers and students who are direct participants in the development of a new pedagogy, but also those who undertake teacher training at the partner institutions after the life-cycle of the project has ended. By giving teachers the resources and training they need to embed new GIS technologies in their curriculum, GI-Pedagogy is also equipping students with the digital skills they need for the geography of the future.

Europe is the world’s largest provider of development and humanitarian aid and is now also hosting large numbers of refugees. A number of needs regarding evaluation in the humanitarian sector have been identified: increasing concern about the accountability and effectiveness of Humanitarian Action (HA); a need to create a common language and understanding of evaluation of HA; the need for a better adjusted methodology to respond to the specific observed challenges. The existing training offer on HA at European and international level has an insufficient focus on grounded analysis and is not satisfactorily informed by innovative teaching, learning and research methodologies that rely on field practice. HEI’s can bring a particular added value to this field, by offering a set of research methodologies informed by rigorous approaches. The InovHumRe project aims to improve the quality and effectiveness of HA by improving Humanitarian Aid students’ and professionals’ Education through the implementation, in the social sciences second cycle courses, of a humanitarian aid evaluation curricular unit. Such curricular unit will be based on innovative methodological approaches - participatory evaluation in HA -, and will rely on the development of new learning tools that incorporate the contributions of partner HEIs and NGOs directly involved in humanitarian response, thus addressing the skills gaps.The partnership includes HEIs and NGOs directly involved in humanitarian response, from Portugal, Spain and Turkey that will cooperate to develop the curricular unit and the learning tools, and Colombian and Brazilian HEI’s that have developed innovative know how in the field and have specific expertise in evaluation methodologies and participatory processes, thus bringing a useful new perspective to the European countries.To accomplish its objectives, the project will start by an identification of best practices in humanitarian aid evaluation and an update of the needs in evaluation methodologies, in close collaboration between HEIs and NGOs. This phase will result in a comprehensive analysis regarding participatory evaluation (Outlook report), new approaches and directions, which will be a fundamental tool to help to promote the skills match between the demand in HA and those supplied by education and training.In a second phase the project will define the structure, content and methodology of the curricular unit and its modules, based on the Outlook report. The aim in this phase is to develop the Syllabus of the curricular unit, with the essential contribution of of the partners from Brazil e Colombia. The Short-term joint staff training in Turkey will be key to promote the knowledge transfer and consolidate the design of the Syllabus. In parallel the project will also be focusing on the development of all the e-learning tools, designed to enhance the capacities for distance education of the humanitarian aid professionals. These tools will be disseminated among prospective users beyond the project through workshops. The curricular unit will be implemented as a pilot in the course of one semester during the project’s lifetime. It will include an Intensive Study Program where teachers and students will be exposed to the methodologies that will be taught in institutions that help Syrian refugees in Turkey.Finally, the project will develop a Handbook of evaluation methodologies for HA that will be a practical guide on how to plan and conduct participatory evaluation in HA – addressing the evaluation process, methods and tools. It will be used to raise awareness and promote evaluation in HA to a broader audience of professionals.The development of the project will provide: a clear identification of best practices and priority areas in participatory evaluation applied to HA; the development of adapted teaching/learning tools in the area of participatory evaluation and its adaptation to the digital transition; the capacitation of HEIs’ professors, students and NGOs staff to develop and implement participatory evaluation methods; capacitation in distance education; an enhanced joint strategic work among HEIs and between them and NGOs; the awareness raising of stakeholders across Europe through dissemination events.At the end of the project, students and NGOs will be able to incorporate evaluation in their work as a meaningful part of programming and knowledge management. Participatory evaluation will be incorporated in humanitarian aid students’ and professionals’ education and training across Europe. The gaps between the skills in demand in HA and those supplied will be reduced. The project will also enhance international mobility and knowledge exchange between teachers, students and NGO professionals. Ultimately, the project will improve the quality and effectiveness of HA, will increase transparency and accountability in this area, and hence improve the conditions of successful inclusion of HA beneficiaries.

Application of Solar Thermal Energy to Processes (ASTEP) will create a new innovative Solar Heating for Industrial Processes (SHIP) concept focused on overcoming the current limitations of these systems. This solution is based on modular and flexible integration of two innovative designs for the solar collector (SunDial) and the Thermal Energy Storage (TES, based on Phase Change Materials, PCM) integrated via a control system which will allow flexible operation to maintain continuous service against the unpredictable nature of the solar source and partially during night operation. ASTEP will demonstrate its capability to cover a substantial part of the heat demand of the process industry at temperatures above 150 ºC and for latitudes where current designs are not able to supply it. Its modularity and compactness will also enable easy installation and repair with reduced space requirements, while most of components can be sourced locally. The ASTEP`s process integration will allow full compatibility with the existing systems of potential end-users of SHIP. These aspects will provide a very competitive solution to substitute fossil fuel consumption. The developed solar concept will be tested at two industrial sites to prove the objective’s target of TRL5. Life Cycle Analysis will be included to validate and demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed technologies. The first Industrial Site of the proposal is the world’s leading steel company, ArcelorMittal, with a heating demand above 220 ºC for a factory located at a latitude of 47.1 N (Iasi, Romania). The second site is the dairy company MANDREKAS, located at a latitude of 37.93 N (Corinth, Greece) with a heating demand for steam at 175 ºC and a cooling demand at 5 ºC. These test locations will validate the ASTEP solution for a substantial part of the potential requirements of industrial heating and cooling demand of the European Union (EU28), which is estimated at approximately 72 TWh per year

B-WaterSmart will accelerate the transformation to water-smart economies and societies in coastal Europe and beyond. We will apply a large-scale systemic innovation approach to select, connect and demonstrate a tailored suite of technology, management and smart data solutions for multiple users and sectors, and create new business models based on circular economy and water-smartness. We bring together six cities and regions as living labs with high ambitions to address water-related challenges and opportunities – Alicante (ES), Bodø (NO), Flanders (BE), Lisbon (PT), East Frisia (DE), Venice (IT) – selected for complementarity of scale, users, sectors and challenges, and for opportunities of mutual learning, replication & upscaling through a network of followers already mobilised. We built each case around the actual problem-owner (water utility, municipality), a research partner, innovative solution providers and market-uptake partners (6 are SMEs), complemented by partners with specific crosscutting expertise (social sciences & humanities, IT, business development, water sector outreach). We will apply a participatory approach for co-creation & implementation of solutions through local Communities of Practice and a joint innovation alliance of problem owners, and develop recommendations for suitable governance models, regulation & policy instruments. We will deliver a novel framework to assess gains in water-smartness and sustainability at different scales. Our cases will demonstrate in real systems, at multiple scales, a range of promising technologies for water reuse/nutrient recovery, and smart data applications for more efficient, safe allocation & use of resources (water, energy, nutrients). For the apps, we build on FIWARE technology to enable interoperability and exchange across sectors, which is key for systemic change. All cases have defined criteria and target values to achieve by the project end and by 2040, and can build on synergies with other funding.