BACKGROUNDAccording to the European Commission, “social inclusion is at the core of the European Social Model and European values enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty”. However, in the past few years, social exclusion and inequality have emerged as a major concern in European society. European Higher education institutions (HEIs) have a responsibility to address these issues through the promotion of social, civil and transcultural competences, democratic values and fundamental rights, social inclusion, non-discriminating active citizenship and critical thinking. OBJECTIVESThis project addressed cultural, linguistic and religious diversity, and promotes ownership of shared values, equality, non-discrimination and social inclusion through education and training at higher education level. In particular, TC-Nurse aimed to: - Foster the development of social, civic and transcultural competences, and critical thinking, not only amongst participant nursing students and both teaching and clinical staff, but also amongst key stakeholders and decision/policy makers at local and regional level in all the participating countries. - Tackle discrimination, segregation, racism, bullying and violence in healthcare through the undertaking of preliminary research on this area, and subsequent creation of a multinational blended-learning module in transcultural nursing. In line with the above, actions, methodology and outputs have been designed to: 1) Allow the project team to draw a clear and realistic picture of transculturalism and cultural diversity at academic, healthcare and social levels. 2) Test the implementation of CLIL as a teaching methodology in higher education, in a multinational, multicultural, multilingual environment. 3) Pilot the delivery of newly developed content and teaching & learning materials on transcultural nursing. PARTICIPANTS, ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY In order to achieve these goals, three intensive training programmes for higher education learners from the partner HEIs took place during the funding period. Nearly 120 undergraduate student nurses attended these events. In addition, a total of 30 academic staff members from the HEI consortium had the opportunity to take part in three short-term joint staff training events in CLIL methodology for teachers in higher education. These lecturers participated in the design and delivery of content and teaching & learning materials during the intensive training programmes. Each intensive training programme was preceded by a multinational research project in transcultural nursing at three levels, namely higher education, healthcare and society involving target groups and stakeholders. A research team comprising at least one academic member of staff from each partner HEI undertook qualitative research in the following three areas: - Year 1: Evaluation of nursing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills relating to caring for, and working with, people from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. - Year 2: Qualified nurses’ values, beliefs and attitudes towards both colleagues and patients who belong to a different culture, and impact on culturally competent nursing practice. - Year 3: Barriers and facilitators to accessing and using healthcare services, and perceived healthcare needs of people from diverse cultural backgrounds. RESULTS AND IMPACT The aforementioned activities allowed the TC-Nurse project team to develop and produce the following intellectual outputs: 1 A multinational evaluation of transcultural nursing at educational, healthcare and social level. 2 A set of guidelines and teaching materials on teaching & learning in transcultural nursing in higher education. 3 A manual for the implementation of CLIL in higher education. 4 A learning platform. 5 A joint blended-learning undergraduate module on transcultural nursing. 6 A dissemination strategy7 An innovative learning model Evaluations of student learning and impact were conducted, not only on our participants but also on other target groups and audiences. Impact was recorded and measured at local, regional, national and European level based on the following criteria: • Impact on knowledge through before and after evaluations of participants' learning during the training activities. • Impact on emotional and behavioural change. • Impact on opportunity in terms of increased opportunities for student nurses to learn through a second language, and in terms of increased opportunities for training in transcultural nursing not only at HEI level but also at healthcare and professional associations level. • Impact on access to the project’s results and outputs. • Impact on social media and the wider public. • Impact on quality and quantity of contacts with key stakeholders. Despite Covid-19, the project was able to complete all outputs and hold all training events.

"The aim of this project was to deepen the professionalizing dimension of a few students but also lecturers and administrative staff implicated with a communication training among three Higher Education institutions from Belgium, France and Belgium, the whole from an intercultural perspective.The project saw the commitment of 12 students from 3 different European countries, who were joined by four Chinese students during each year of the project. The ""European weeks"" (about two weeks by each european partner) took place in three steps: 1. At Zaragoza (USJ), students had the opportunity to receive theoretical training about interculturality, followed by a practical case. 2. At Brussels (HELB), students received theoretical training about the European Union as an institution and its decision-making mechanisms, followed by a practical case as well 3. At Paris (Lurçat), students, through a communication case that is part of the European decision-making process in Belgium, had to give an appropriate reply to a national advertiser in France in large groups. That ""european dimension"" was attended by two different classes during two academic years in a row. This pilot project has also been used as a laboratory for a research to be prepared for analyzing sino - european interculturality through student stays in China and european countries. In a longer term, a better understanding of European decision-making mechanisms, professionalization of communication training and awareness of training opportunities outside the country of origin is expected to be acquired by the beneficiaries.The pedagogical activities organised during the first year have enabled the european students, differently depending on the partners, to concretize an experience of practical activities or discovery of China during year 2, which constitutes an accomplishment of the european interculturality topic applied to their Bachelor degree."

ThinkBS Context: About EU Higher Education Policy: EU leaders have agreed a target that 40% of those aged 30-34 should have a higher education or equivalent qualification by 2020. While higher education graduates are more likely to find employment than people with lower levels of qualifications, higher education curricula are often slow to respond to changing needs in the wider economy, and fail to anticipate or help shape the careers of tomorrow. Addressing Europe’s high-level skills needs requires action. First, more people need to be attracted to the fields of study that prepare students for jobs where shortages exist or are emerging. In many EU Member States there is unmet demand for graduates in SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, (arts) and MATHS (STE(A)M) fields, medical professions and teaching.ThinkBS objective:The aim of the project is to develop mechanisms for supporting young individuals that are talented in abstract scientific disciplines, in particular in mathematics. The goal is to implement innovative practices for identifying, encouraging, educating and monitoring such individuals in an international setting. The present strategic partnership concentrates on individuals at the college level, with the purpose of developing an educational scheme that would be applicable in future.The 36 month strategic partnership aims to identify non-math major students that are interested in learning mathematics and to provide a training equivalent to a minor program in mathematics via blended learning (face-to-face and on-line). Participating institutions will be involved in identifying non-math majors interested in further studies in mathematics or in using advanced mathematical techniques in engineering applications. The institutions involved in this program will develop dedicated curricula and course materials, build a learning platform and organize summer schools, along a road map designed in project meetings. Although the strategic partnership aims to support young individual interested in basic sciences in all areas and levels, the scope of the present proposal is framed as students in higher education institutes. Profile of participants: In higher education institutions, engineering departments attract students with different talents and interests. Among these, there has always beeen a group that is more suited for basic sciences. But for various reasons, such students are misplaced and they underperform in an environment where fast thinking/computing and social/enterpreunial skills are overemphasized. On the other hand, non-standard and extreme engineering applications require theoretically more sophisticated methods that should be implemented by engineers with a stronger background in basic sciences. The project aims to reach these group of students, to offer them career opportunities ranging from basic sciences to reserch and development engineering.Description of activities and methodologies:In this project we aim to develop a curriculum adapted for blended learning (in class, in the home institution/on-line/self-study/summer schools) leading to a mathematics minor for for engineering students. The 3-year minor program will include the following basic courses to be supplemented by electives courses in various engineering disciplines, to be decided on during the course of the project, via the initiatives of the partner institutions.1st level Advanced Linear Algebra, Advanced Calculus, Engineering Electives (8 courses)2nd levelAbstract Algebra, Partial Differential Equations, Engineering Electives (8 courses)3rd level Topology and Geometry,Introduction to real and complex analysis, Engineering Electives (8 courses)The workload will consist of the following: 1) Tailoring the standard mathematics curriculum for a compact yet complete basic material, following, classical well known, standard textbooks. The design of curricula includes topics covered for a 14 week semester, with detailed description of the content with reference to sections of specific textbooks. 2)Selecting those engineering subjects that would benefit from a treatment more rigorous than current practice, in engineering curricula and deciding on the additional basic science material that has to be added, based on standard textbooks in both disciplines. The design of curricula (O1) includes topics covered for a 14 week semester, with detailed description of the content with reference to sections of specific textbooks. 3) Preparing course material (O2), such as, but not limited to, sample problems, additional reading material, background material for self-study.4) Constructing a learning platform (O3) as an interactive website, to recrute/monitor/coach students and to share good practices5) Organizing summer school (C1n C2 and C3, 96 students from 4 countries) in HU, RO and TK.6) Disseminate project results in multiplier Events, E1 and E2.

Education to religious pluralism is a key to achieve civil awareness and social cohesion in the construction of a democratic model of European citizenship. The project faces this need providing teachers of primary schools with specific methodologies, in order to respond to the complexity of multicultural and multi-religious societies, starting from the laboratory of citizenship that school is and must be. In the field of education legislation, most EU Countries highlight the importance of promoting a culture of participation in school which is modeled on democratic values, including respect for others, tolerance, mutual trust, solidarity and cooperation.The main objectives met are related to the implementation of tools addressed to support religion teachers and in general teachers of humanistic areas to develop an attractive, modern and safe learning environment where religion is seen as an added value for promoting tolerance and preventing radicalism. In this sense, all the IO produced are addressed to promote an education to religious pluralism. The project has been focused on an innovative, participatory-based, pedagogical model whose goal is to ensure intercultural and inter-religious mediation. The application and the experimentation of the Model provided teachers with new methodological skills to develop and apply an innovative pedagogical method to teach religion in participatory form. The Life Model, being participatory, has ensured this goal, through a wide experimentation phase in schools and many meetings and focus groups with other teachers and stakeholders. Therefore, the project addresses both the content of religious education and an innovative pedagogical method, applying the participatory approach to religious education in order to promote an intercultural citizenship “from below” triggered by the children. The consortium, composed by 5 project partners (FVM, EDRA, CEI, EGECED and FUSJ) has been built with the aim of having the highest spectrum of competences needed to accomplish all the project aims. Each member of the network has strict relationships with the regional institutional and the local social system and had the task to involve religious associations with a specific program of social and cultural inclusion. The academic background and resources of most of the partners ensured a qualified approach in this specific area of spiritual and religious studies. In fact, different religious approaches are represented in the partnership: the network represents Islamic (TR), orthodox (EL, BG) and catholic expressions (IT, ES). The project has been articulated in the following activities: project management; quality assessment and evaluation; project implementation diffusion and dissemination of the project outcomes; mainstreaming, multiplication and valorization of the project results. In particular, the implementation activities consisted in:•a research phase aiming at providing an in-depth analysis of religion education approaches in the countries involved and the definition of the needs of the stakeholders about the religion plurality in schools;•short-term joint staff training events (C1, C2) for teachers and educators;•elaboration of the Pedagogical Didactic & Participatory Model (PD&P) starting from the knowledge gained by teachers during the training activity C1. This activity developed a pedagogical model of education to religious pluralism, defined trough a participatory method considering also the needs identified by teachers, experts, families and representatives of different religions in the area.•Piloting with EU primary/secondary schools of the educational model developed through the participatory process.Apart from the research work conducted in each partner country, which draws a map of the situation at national level, the main result of the project is the creation of the scientifically based method that allows the connection between participatory educative contents and cultural and religious diversity, reinforcing the competences of teachers and headmasters to be confronted with a multi-confessional approach, social identity and the relevant decrease of social marginalization in groups at risk. The piloting in EU primary schools represented also a big result, considering that 11 schools, about 30 teachers and 1018 students were involved at European level. Concerning the impact, the Pedagogical and Didactic Participatory Model (PD&P), applied to the multi-cultural teaching and learning of religion, was proposed as a didactic reference in primary schools and provoked great interest among teachers and headmasters, who are willing to replicate it, possibly on a larger scale. The LIFE Manual, conceived also for exploitation purposes, represents an important document for the transfer of the methodology to other potential stakeholders.

Learning Schools is addressing a common problem within the educational systems of most European countries – the loss of knowledge and expertise with teacher retirement, attrition and migration. Most schools do not have any mechanisms for knowledge capturing, synthesising and sharing within the organisation or others use only separate tools, which are not organised as an efficient system. The aim of our transnational team of experts is to enhance individual, team and organisational learning in schools. The direct target group of the project is school principals, school leaders and teachers from Bulgaria, Spain, Italy and Turkey. In order to achieve the project’s goals we are creating the first knowledge management system and platform for schools in the participants’ countries, which will contain a set of synchronised tools.The project will be developed in the framework of the learning organisation and schools as learning organisations, which has integrated most of the achievements of the management thought for the last 25 years. The diverse cultural, economic and educational context of all the countries will allow for rich country specific analyses of the characteristics of the learning schools in each country, the best practices they apply and the existing level of knowledge management. All the findings will lead to the development of an integrated model of learning schools (MLS), an elaborate assessment instrument for comparison of the achievements of all the users of the platform and the existing best practices. The country specific analyses will feed examples for the knowledge management system, which we are devising as well. All these tools will be synchronised on a platform, which will make them user-friendly and accessible for school principals and school leadership at large. The platform will lead to the development of learning community of schools network. All the registered users will be able to share best practices and expertise. The expected impact of the project is beyond the borders of the applicants’ countries. The integrated interactive resources will be available in English, Bulgarian, Italian, Spanish and Turkish languages. It is an innovative contribution on national, regional and EU level. All the findings and outcomes of the project will benefit researchers and policy makers with instruments for enhancement of the educational systems reforms.All the instruments integrated in the platform and the platform itself will be tested in several schools in each of the participants’ countries. The schools are selected to have good digital equipment, but incomplete knowledge management set of instruments. The piloting stage will provide significant and contextual feedback from the direct target group in each country. The platform and the instruments integrated it will be fine-tuned and improved afterwards in order to become intuitive and user friendly. The participants in the piloting stage are school leaders and teachers.A series of dissemination events are planned in each country in order to popularise the outcomes among the target group and the relative stakeholders. Two types of events will be conducted – national one in Bulgaria and regional in all other countries. In long term perspective, the project goal is to support the ongoing educational reforms in EU countries as it raises awareness about the need to capture, synthesise, share and asses knowledge on organisational level and will prove the benefits of that.