The European plastic market is not currently aligned with the circular economy. More than 25.8 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced per year in the EU28 being recycled only 29.7%. This represents a clear loose in the plastic market loop (losses of €10.56bn). Moreover, this goes against the EU legislation on waste (high environmental impact; 23.8 Mt of CO2). Low recycling rates of plastic are mainly due to the situation of packaging waste (i.e. main plastic waste fraction), since it is mainly domestic residue and consequently the quality of the material collected depends on the system of segregation available and the environmental awareness of citizens. PlastiCircle aims to develop and implement a holistic process to increase recycling rates of packaging waste in Europe. This will allow to reprocess again plastic waste in the same value chain (i.e. Circular economy; closure of plastic loop). This process is based on four axes: collection (to increase quantity of packaging collected), transport (to reduce costs of recovered plastic), sorting (to increase quality of recovered plastic), and valorization in value-added products (i.e. foam boards, automotive parts like engine covers/bumpers/dashboards, bituminous roofing membranes, garbage bags, asphalt sheets/roofing felts and urban furniture like fences/benches/protection walls). The target is to increase collection from 81.7% to 87% and valorization in a 9.8%. The implementation of PlastiCircle approach in Europe have the potential to increase collected plastic in 861,250t (reaching 14.14 Mt) and valorization in 1.59Mt. The valorization of this new material, represents a market value of €2.86bn-€7.95bn. Taking into account current figures of the plastic sector (turnover €350bn, 62,000 companies, 1.45M employees), this could imply creation of 500-1400 new companies and the generation of 11,900-33,000 new jobs in the medium to long term if PlastiCircle approach is extended in a EU level.

Astropreneurs: turning space-related ideas into viable businesses and promoting opportunities for entrepreneurs coming from space and non-space sectors. We will support entrepreneurs, startups and SMEs, coming from space and non-space sectors, to create viable business cases and have faster markets approaches by mentoring them on businesses and technical needs, helping them to access private and public funding, but also to overcome the financial, administrative and networking barriers that are now preventing them from more success in the commercial phases. Astropreneurs consortium is solid and sustainable, even at its constitution level. All partners, led by Instituto Pedro Nunes – Portugal, are spread across Europe and represent different types of stakeholders: Verhaert (BE), Brimatech Services GmbH (AT), Science and Technology Facilities Council – STFC (UK), Aerospace Valley (FR), Centrum für Satellitennavigation Hessen – CESAH (DE), CzechInvest (UK), and Knowledge Innovation Market – KIM (SP). The complementarity of skills and expertise gathered in the CSA, aligned with the unmatched geographical reach is a powerful differentiating characteristic of the consortium, together with the direct participation of the ESA BIC Network & ESA Brokers Network.

<< Background >>According to “Skills mismatch in Europe”, (2014, International Labour Organization) skills mismatch has been linked to incomplete and asymmetric information, transaction costs and unresponsive education and training systems. A social dialogue should be informed by solid labour market information. The European Commission report of the ET 2020 Working Group on Vocational Education and Training (VET), 2020, suggests that VET has enormous potential for innovation and digitalization but VET systems need to build their capacity to provide more systematic support. It is necessary to change how the learners learn, increase learning outcomes and learning efficiency. VET practitioners need support to develop the skills and knowledge in this regard and at the level of VET systems there needs to be awareness of the potential strengths and weaknesses of different forms of digital learning through realistic assessments of the pros and cons of proposed innovations and digital technologies. Competences related to new technologies are especially significant to consider since, along with entrepreneurial, social and civic competences, they are identified in the Council Recommendation as being of increasing significance. As the result of technological change, digitization, and innovation, developing advanced skills becomes a key factor in people's careers, as less-skilled jobs are gradually being eliminated from the market. Those who have only reached upper secondary education will earn less than a graduate in tertiary education would earn, and they have also poor levels of employability along their live. In addition, there are gaps regarding its quality and relevance, its vertical articulation and horizontal in the educational system and its link with its productive and social environment, which have impacted on its assessment. VET requires improving its relevance, which means that some programs or courses may not be responding to the needs of the productive sectors they need for a good performance in the job, or they do not develop skills that increase the probability of success of entrepreneurs. The effect of the lack of relevance of training affects a low private and social profitability of investment in human capital formation. The frustration of expectations must also count among the consequences.Along with the above, according to the OECD, Technical Education plays a key role in promoting the connection, complementarity and updating of the training offered by the educational system with the demands of the labor market and demographic trends.Vocational technical education can help meet a double challenge. It can improve the functioning of the labor market, connecting and bringing the supply and demand of skills together. The evidence of countries that have been successful in betting on the accumulation of human capital as a channel for growth - linking it to productive development and thus achieving discrete jumps in labor productivity - shows that a professional technical education of quality and relevant constitutes a relevant part of job training systems. VET can early and quickly link young people students with productive sectors in a cost-effective way through the learning of specialized skills and abilities, demanded by the productive sectors, and promoting in turn the future job performance of people with preferences, aptitudes and/or manual or technical skills.The proximity between the training and productive sectors is, in fact, the element that allows Technical-Professional Training to function dynamically, better facing the demands imposed by social changes on the educational system.That is why the EU must face this challenge to generate mechanisms that facilitate the relationship between education entities, with the productive sector; strengthen the relationship with other training spaces and improve its relevance to the needs of the productive and social sector in its environment in the different territories of the country.<< Objectives >>The project's general objective is to improve the quality and relevance of Technical VTE, strengthening them through the incorporation of tools and knowledge of innovation and technology transfer in their strategic work, so that participants can improve their relationship with the productive and social sectors and, with this, contribute to the development of human capital with the necessary training to face the challenges of the European economy.As specific objectives, IVET project will:• Train Technical VTE teachers, administrative-academics or managers in innovation and technology transfer. • Develop strategies for the transferring of the acquired knowledge, in the work environment of participating teachers and professionals whose final beneficiary is students.• Generate links between the participants, with professionals specialized in Innovation and Technology Transfer, which allow them to develop (or continue to develop) personal and institutional networks over time.iVET project will contribute to addressing the needs of both teachers, administrative-academic or managers dependent on the Professional Institutes and Technical Training Centers (as direct target group) and other VET ecosystem's stakeholders such as students, economic an labour sectors, increasing quality of their work and curricula and opening up to the labor market, boosting their capacities to work accross sectors and enabling transformation at sectoral, organisational and individual level to adopt a new approach in the use and implementation of skills. Furthermore, iVET project will include principles of environmental sustainability adopting the environmental-friendly approach in all its activities. The main driver for successful implementation of the project will be virtual cooperation and bringing closer blended learning opportunities especially in the area of boosting capacities in the environment of skills development and utilization. Finally, iVET project will promote equal opportunities and access to the labor market, not only in the context of the overall direct and indirect target groups, but also of the gender equality and individuals with fewer opportunities. iVET project aims to develop approach and solution that will bring skills improvement on both individual, sectoral and organizational levels.<< Implementation >>Consortium will implement the following project activities:- develop the market mapping report content in order to explore business and educational environments and opportunities - develop technology transfer roadmap content to improve VET skills utilization and incorporation on the labor market- develop new approach to match VET skills to jobs- create, mantain and sustain exchange of good practices throughout OER open access network- develop content and conduct 1x local ME and 1x international ME- develop content and conduct 1x LTT activity of e-training programme - engage at least 50 VET practicioners and at least 250 participants of direct and indirect target groups in project events<< Results >>iVET project will develop the following outcomes:•6x iVET market mapping reports in 6 partner countries (Spain, France, Cyprus, Italy, Greece, Portugal)•1x technology transfer roadmap content for VET institutions in English language•1x iVET skills matching jobs toolin these events:• 1x local ME event• 1x international ME event• 1x LTT event: e- training for VET professionals and staffand will produce these project results:•1x IVET training programme for VET practicioners•1x iVET exchange of good practices OER open access network