The MarTe project aims to facilitate sustainable blue growth in the Baltic region by establishing Estonian and Latvian marine innovation Excellence Hub. This will be achieved through the collaboration of diverse stakeholders including academic institutions (TalTech, University of Tartu, Ventspils University of Applied Sciences, Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology), public sector (Environmental Investment Centre, Kurzeme Planning Region, Saaremaa Development Centre, Latvian Investment and Development Agency), industry (Association of Estonian Marine Industries, Port of Ventspils), and coastal communities (WWF, Baltijas Krasti, Saarte Koostöökogu). By leveraging quadruple-helix collaborations, MarTe will create a cross-border innovation strategy and supportive network for fostering new technologies throughout the marine industry value chain. Project objectives include collaborative R&D, ecosystem empowerment, and policy influence for advancing marine technologies, reinforcing stakeholder linkages, improving ecosystem capacity building, closing the knowledge gaps, supporting SMEs and startups, and elevating the visibility of the regional blue economy innovation ecosystems. In alignment with EU Green Deal and regional smart specialization strategies, the strategic framework focuses on marine technology innovation uptake in areas like offshore energy, smart vessels and ports, sustainable use of marine resources and marine ecosystem protection. Through a comprehensive approach encompassing stakeholder engagement and capacity building, MarTe strives for a significant impact on the sustainable blue economy in Baltics.

Europe has been marked in recent decades by a reduction of participation in social life, above all among young people. According to official data about the 2014 European Parliament elections, what comes out is that young European citizens have lost interest towards society and related issues. Furthermore, the unemployment rate, an important measure of a country or region’s economic health, is still high in the European Union countries, even though it is falling from the 2013 peak. In order to contrast this trend, European Union supports startups, social enterprises and entrepreneurial initiatives as long as they have a social impact and generate profit not only for entrepreneurs, but also for the entire community as well. Youth is the key to making the economy start over.#PlayEurope project aims to contribute to build a new generation of active citizens. The project’s main objective is to use the cooperative enterprise model and the social entrepreneurship education to raise awareness among young people about current social issues and democratic participation, using an alternative approach that combines education and entertainment, in order to be more attractive for the target group (university students & unemployed young people between 18‐30 years). The project – following an edutainment approach - provides young people with an innovative training programme to enhance and promote their competencies in order to become contributing entrepreneurs, responsible and critical citizens.The consortium is composed by 9 partners from Italy, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Romania and Estonia, representing different types of organizations: 3 SMEs, 2 Private Universities, 4 NGOs. All of them have long experience in EU projects and are deeply involved with young people, social issues, active citizenship aspects, EduGames and innovative teaching methodologies. #PlayEurope produces two main resources:- The Manual of Success Stories on Social Entrepreneurship collects 10 success stories of social entrepreneurs to motivate and inspire young people to set their own social business;- The Step-by-Step Guide “Become a Social Entrepreneur in 7 days” represents a smart and user-friendly journey across Social Entrepreneurship, made up of 8 steps including tips, key business elements, infographics, interesting videos and educative games to foster young entrepreneurs' hard & soft skills.In addition, a Workshop is organised in each partner’s country, with the participation of more than 100 young people to practically test and improve even more the resources developed. Through effective actions and tools, partners’ intention is to show young people how and to what extent social entrepreneurship can be a concrete pathway to become better citizens.The results that the partners want to produce are: - improvement of specific soft and hard skills of students and unemployed young people, through their involvement in the online #PlayEurope Step-by-Step Guide; - enhancement of digital integration through non-formal learning; - increased motivation of young people in setting up their business through demonstration of inspirational examples of successful social entrepreneurs; - increased interest in social issues and democratic participation. As the main beneficiaries of the project are young European citizens, the activities aim to impact on them by stimulating their attention towards social issues, showing them how to concretely apply the competencies acquired with #PlayEurope project in everyday life, for example by thinking of starting a social business. The project also engages indirect beneficiaries, above all civil societies, schools, training institutions, public Authorities and NGOs that work closely with young people, through a promotion of an alternative method, by inviting teachers and youth leaders to use #PlayEurope informal learning approach to promote civic participation among their students.

"<< Background >>Climate change is the greatest challenge of our times. Humans are recognized as a major cause of Climate Change (UNESCO, 2009) and hence their active involvement in mitigation and adaptation actions is crucial. The EU has launched the Green Deal initiative to raise awareness on climate change, industry innovation and more, while the European Education Area initiated a special Education for Climate Change Coalition, pledging for concrete actions made by individuals and collective actors at the local, regional and national levels. In this respect, the role of education in addressing climate change is increasingly recognized. Despite the efforts happening on an EU level, it seems that there is no specific behavioral change towards a greener future and not the appropriate attention has been given especially now, where the focus is on the covid-19 health crisis; meanwhile climate education so far has not the desired impact (Anderson 2012, Bancay 2010, Bangkok 2012, Sezen-Barrie 2020, Monroe 2019). It seems increasingly difficult to build meaningful educational experiences able to involve young people in transformative processes and overcome the ingrained ""nihilistic sense”. The teachers need, therefore, to be renewed to better deal with knowledge and skills in an interactive environment, promoting creativity, aesthetics, global and critical thinking and to promote relevant societal change. Unfortunately, the teaching today is more cognitive-based and more theoretical than action-based as part of a problem-solving procedure. Τhe sector needs teachers and role models that take responsibility. To be fully involved and engaged. Critics of environmental education have argued that teachers must have a comprehensive knowledge of environmental concepts to be better environmental teachers. It is also expected that if teachers have a more refined conception of what environmental education entails, they will feel equipped to include it within their existing curriculum. In addition to subject knowledge and skills, there is a need to develop general competencies (critical thinking and problem-solving skills, creativity, communication and collaboration skills, empathy) which enable learners to solve the complex issues they will face (OECD/CERI 2008; Binkley et al., 2014). Given the increasingly active role of the learner in the learning process and the use of inclusive learning methods in schools, learning through play is also gaining popularity. The use of the games in education has become the interest of many practitioners and researchers (Qian & Clark, 2016). Well planned usage of games for learning, enables students to develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills, creativity, communication and teamwork skills while boosting confidence. Teachers are expected to incorporate in their teaching methods 21st century life-skills (critical thinking, flexibility, imagination, problem solving, creative disruptive innovative mind, resilience, meditation-mindfulness), develop emotional intelligence (EQ) like self-control, empathy, self-knowledge, management of emotions. Manuals and learning material often distributed are quite theoretical and scarce practices are being implemented for 1-2 hours during school schedule and most of them are extra-curricular. One of the most impactful ways to learn in an experiential way and memorize content better triggering also intrinsic motivation is Live-Action Role Playing (LARP). It has been confirmed by research, that learners memorize content better when they are actively involved in the learning process, as in the case of dramatizations, simulations and role play. This has lead us to explore within this GreenEduLARP project the potential of EduLARP for Cimate Change Education (CCE).<< Objectives >>Project GreenEduLARP aims at using the tool of EduLARP (Educational Live Action Role Playing) for Climate Change Education (CCE). This way students but also teachers – as involved participants- will be connecting the topics related to Climate Change learned in classroom with real-life situations, therefore more easily relating them to their own life, making connections also on how green their life and attitude is. The aims of the project are: i) to empower teachers with new competences in environmental education using LARP, ii) to enhance students with confidence and agency skills through the LARPing methodology and teamwork while also learning about climate change and building concepts around it, iii) to create accessible online material for further use and capitalization, iv) to build a transnational strategy on how to adapt EduLARP methodology in school curricula.<< Implementation >>To achieve these objectives, the project will bring together stakeholders and target groups (teachers, students, LARPers policy makers, education designers, environmental activists) and engage them in co-design, co-creation, testing, piloting, validation, sharing and promotion activities. Teachers and students will be involved in building stories related to green actions adapted to the ΕduLARP game methodology trying to shift towards greeneer attitudes while developing soft skils. Through the AV Hub tutorials will be widely disseminated on EU level while the designed Strategy will advocate for more experiential learning through EduLARP for more effective Education System. connecting to other schools and projects via the Connecting platform. Teacher training offline and online activities, video tutorials and animations will complement these activities to demonstrate the educational potential and impact of GEL on teachers, students and community and contribute to the development of future oriented curricula that will empower young learners to become agents of change in the environmental transformation, better citizens and great team workers.<< Results >>The GEL expected project results are:1. GEL Curriculum is the learning and teaching material aiming to support teachers and students to develop the necessary soft skills such as agency, creative thinking, environmental literacy and problem solving that will transform them into green changemakers with greener attitudes. Through targeted EduLARP activities this result aspires to empower teachers with new competences for CCE and serve as a good practice for designing and delivering green EduLARPs.2. GEL Teachers´ Toolkit aiming to support teachers on the smooth and effective implementation of the project´s curriculum, on how to introduce EduLARP methodology in class for climate change actions. 3. GEL AV Hub where videos, animated presentations, interviews and tutorials will be produced in cooperation with technicians with practical and useful tips for future applications, ready to use activities and digital resources.4. Strategy on LARPing Adaptation to National School Curricula, the first ever and unique document with transnational power, to highlight the importance of the interdisciplinary approach of EduLARP and open the discussion on future curricula with concrete recommendations for policies and practices."

People’s understanding of the concept of biodiversity varies greatly. The situation of biodiversity in the EU 27 is not very positive. Even countries like Germany regarded as “pioneers” in promoting biodiversity are making hardly any tangible progress. According to the survey conducted by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, the consciousness of the concept of biodiversity did not change since 2005, oscillating around 25%. The TEEB-studies (http://www.teebweb.org) for different European countries show, that governments in Europe start to understand (and measure) different biodiversity aspects, as its value for people, but common understanding is generally weak and the fulfillment of EU strategies and regulations for biodiversity is extremely poor. These observations indicate a lack in the educational system on biodiversity, both in methodology and implementation. Therefore, in order to push changes, an important goal is to teach citizens about the meaning of biodiversity loss and the important issues related to it.How to raise awareness for biodiversity in European countries? One of the answers is to put in action more comprehensive pedagogical practices on biodiversity. Citizens need to find themselves at the heart of the debate, to become actors of change and be emotionally linked to the issue. They need to understand how the behavior of a single individual in the everyday life is strictly connected to biodiversity loss; this process will help to show options for acting. Education is a long-term project, and of course, this project can be based on decades of experience in many EU MS. What we want to provide is a synthesis of experiences from experts in several EU MS to produce comprehensive educational material on biodiversity. The developed tools will support educators to “Inspire People for Biodiversity”. Within the project, the following activities will be implemented: - State of the art & training analyses: Assessment of the training needs of citizens, their understanding of the topic biodiversity; the assessment of the pedagogical offer of available initiatives/tools on biodiversity. - Pedagogical programme setting & best practice exchange: Development of a programme covering 6 educational “focus areas” on biodiversity with regard to implementation in the everyday life.- Development of innovative pedagogical material and accompanying guide: Creation of a set of pedagogical materials taking into account current needs and developments in education on biodiversity: 30 tools in 5 “focus areas”. An accompanying guide will be provided to facilitate the use of the material. All tools will be tested within the frame of special events to collect feedback from both trainers and citizens.- Development of a set of pedagogical communication tools: It will include interactive educational posters, thematic video, webinar structure etc. for separate presentations of the theme as well as pedagogical materials, in particular for trainers and stakeholders working/planning to work on biodiversity education. This output will be complemented by dissemination activities throughout the project.- 12 Multiplier events for dissemination of project results in addition to general dissemination.The aim of this project is to develop a strategic partnership at European level in order to assess practices concerning the education of adults on biodiversity and to improve the quality and offer of such. The project aims to develop a set of innovative and successful pedagogical material on biodiversity and a specific guide to the attention of European CSOs and other stakeholders. The project will provide a tool kit for educators working on this topic, helping people to better understand the concept of biodiversity, the connection with daily life, and to increase the general level of consciousness on biodiversity. The materials developed will be available for broad public.The project contributes both to strengthening the educational work of individual organisations in respective countries and finding common solutions at European level. Cooperation is an opportunity to fundamentally change the situation. Launching a European project helps to improve and increase the means of action for stakeholders on this particular topic Europe wide.Humans highly depend on biodiversity: ecosystems and related services provide us with food, medicines and raw materials, deliver many other services. According to the European Commission, biological diversity is one of the main topics on EU-working agenda. The global biodiversity loss is stated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): 12,259 species are threatened with extinction, 75% of genetic diversity of agricultural crops has been lost, 75% of the world’s fisheries are fully or over exploited. In this context, it is urgent to implement effective measures and learn to deal with biodiversity, so that future generations can enjoy living in a diverse world.