The overall objective of this project is to get more higher education institutions to implement entrepreneurship education and/or enhance the quality of entrepreneurship education in their initial teacher education for primary teachers.The main outcome of this strategic partnership is a toolbox for higher education institutions with initial primary teacher education. The toolbox will allow combining different items for study modules to be used in or adapted to different contexts. It will be flexible also in the way of delivery. The toolbox will be offered in different languages. It will be produced by researching existing national and European learning resources of all kinds, complementing them and providing new material derived from the partners´ local context and the process that lies within this strategic partnership itself. Experiences made during the project and pilot implementation of the toolbox will lead to a guidance report for future users. This and more intellectual outputs of this project are addressing initial primary teacher training. There are quite a few initiatives offering to teach primary school children the basics of entrepreneurship. Some even offer children the opportunity to learn first-hand how to start and operate their own business. In most European countries the focus for primary entrepreneurship education lies in the entrepreneurial mindsets though: encouraging character building, creativity, solution-oriented thinking, commercial/economic thinking and social skills. Thus, entrepreneurship education is one step ahead of the school curricula in most countries: To teach children to find resources to put their ideas into action. The project´s definition of entrepreneurship is this: “Entrepreneurship is when you act upon opportunities and ideas and transform them into value for others. The value that is created can be financial, cultural, or social”.The interested English speaking primary school teacher in service will find a surprisingly large number of websites offering material and courses. And even though many European countries have entrepreneurship education in their strategies and curricula also for primary schools, only three countries take it for granted that their future primary teachers have competences and skills for entrepreneurship education: Denmark, Estonia, Latvia. The University of Jyväskylä in Finland has implemented entrepreneurship education in several modules of teacher education on a compulsory basis.The EU Commission Report “Entrepreneurship Education: Enabling Teachers as a Critical Success Factor” (2011) states that the core skills linked to entrepreneurship education are seldom a priority in initial teacher education. We can therefore conclude that (compulsory) modules in initial primary teacher education in the EU are still very rare. There is no material for students in initial primary teacher education available.The international constellation of this strategic partnership and its involvement of schools and other external partners in the design of the project will allow closing this gap. The partnership brings the following competences together: experience in teaching entrepreneurship in ITE (University of Deusto, Spain, and University College Sjaelland, Denmark), research on EE and expertise in e-learning (Mid-Sweden University), entrepreneurship education as an interdisciplinary research approach (Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany), informal practical EE (Technichus, Sweden), broad insight in EE from different perspectives as a foundation (The Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Denmark), creativity as part of EE in initial teacher education (Artesis Plantijn, Belgium) and reviewing EE with policy makers (Vilnius Kollegia, Lithuania). On top of each programme organisation´s expertise, each partner will involve 10 students three times throughout the project (three cohorts) and form a network of at least two schools (including pupils, parents, teachers, headmasters) and local businesses (private and/or public). The project follows the methodical approach of a pedagogical action research cycle: the student course will be repeated twice and accompanied by profound observation and evaluation and continuous improvement, finally leading to a sustainable product. All experiences gained will feed into the guidance report for teacher educators.The project focuses on initial primary teacher education, but, given the fact that in some programme countries, entrepreneurship education is still seldom connected to primary education (despite governmental strategies and curricula), an impact can also be expected for the local school communities. Plus, the teacher students being offered entrepreneurship education will become `entrepreneurial´ teachers, teachers who act as a coach to prepare the pupils and create an environment which boosts their courage and knowledge to turn ideas into actions.

<< Background >>The main objective of this project is to use the highly motivating features of videogames to promote interest in coding in young people, and especially in girls. Videogames have a set of characteristics such as proposing challenging goals in scenarios where players need to discover the rules with high interactivity, and immediate feedback that achieve a great player engagement. We believe that these characteristics can be effectively used to increase the interest in coding and the computational thinking skills of young people. By using an alternative language that is very close to them such as videogames, we can change the perception that young people have breaking the stereotype that coding is only for male nerds and attract a wider audience. In Europe it is critical to use new approaches to attract more younger students to coding and especially girls before they accept the biased gender stereotype avoiding to choose ICT related studies. The number of ICT specialists in the EU grew by 40.0 % from 2011 to 2019, over 6 times as high as the increase (6.9 %) for total employment. In 2019, 82.1 % of men were employed as ICT specialists in the EU against 17.9 % of women. This statistics will be updated in july 2021 but no improvement in the women participation in ICT is expected (obtained from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/ICT_specialists_in_employment. Bringing more women into EU digital sector would benefit the EU economy and we consider that early attraction to coding could be a way to increase that number , and to fight the gender divide in Europe's ICT education and labour market.<< Objectives >>The three-folded project objective is: 1) To design, develop and evaluate a game-based learning analytic tool for formative assessment in programming courses, 2) To create and evaluate an online model for collaborative learning based on the concepts of Communities of Practice and Pair programming, and 3) To assess existing solutions for visualisation of programming concepts. This project should be carried out with a Design science approach, in a collaboration between the Mid Sweden University in Sweden, The Complutense University of Madrid in Spain and the Ingenious Knowledge GmbH in Germany.<< Implementation >>The central main activity in the project is the development of the game-based learning analytic tool for formative assessment. This design, development and evaluation process should be conducted in a collaboration between the three partners with the Mid Sweden University in the coordination role and responsible for distribution and evaluation of the tool in various educational contexts. Ingenious Knowledge in Germany should carry out the design and development of an educational game named 'EuroCoder', where players solve programming assignments in different European real-world contexts. For the formative assessment in online introductory courses the Complutense University of Madrid will extend the game with a learning analytic unit that can assess each player's activities and individual progress. Considering the model for collaborative online learning (2) and the assessment of visualisation tools (3), the Mid Sweden University should have the main responsibility for analysis, development, and assessment of existing tools.<< Results >>Finally, the project outputs, the educational game, the didactic model and the visualisation tools should be deployed online and made available for use in Corona adapted programming education. An important delivery from the project is the earlier mentioned website, where the results from the three sub-objectives will be presented and aligned. The educational game and the project website are both artefacts that should act as a resource for programming educators also after the project period. Finally, the artefacts should be disseminated to a wider audience through the project partners networks, and through international events for game-based learning and software engineering.

Imaging is an undisputed driver of progress in science and technology. New insights into the world are provided every day by the revolutionised imaging science, leading ultimately to a great impact on all aspects of life. Imaging is also a motor for developing and renewing other fields such as biomedicine, robotics, astronomy, security, and defence. To continue this incredible pace of growth, there is strong demand for knowledgeable and skillful experts to advance imaging in many essential aspects, from image sensing principles and models to computational image formation and processing. The programme covers imaging as a transdisciplinary endeavour based on diverse disciplines: signal processing, machine learning, optics and physics of light, computing, computer graphics and visualisation. The partners are educational and research leaders in some of these areas and their complementarity and integration into an EMJM would ensure the sought synergy and added value.The programme is organised in the specialisation tracks of ‘Visual AI’ and ‘Image Modelling and Data-Intensive Imaging’ that share a common first year of fundamental studies in imaging. Seminars and seasonal schools complement the regular courses, whereas an extensive network of academic and industrial Associated Partners provides a wide range of opportunities for internships and theses in co-supervision. 80 students will be funded under the programme, which will be open also to self-financed students, for an expected total of 120 students.The programme provides students with skills and competencies that meet the expectations of the most demanding and competitive engineering jobs in imaging, giving them a chance to contribute and advance fields that are societally important.Ultimately, the programme will strengthen the position of Europe as an imaging powerhouse and increase its competitiveness across the many sectors where imaging plays a critical role.

<< Background >>ENDORSE addresses universities in locations affected by brain drain and aims at providing a concept to boost entrepreneurial activities of students. It offers guidance on how to optimize the university-firms-municipality link that is essential for the creation of regional innovation networks. In other words, university locations that are affected by brain need to ensure the cooperation between university and local stakeholders in order to create a business-friendly environment for student entrepreneurs and graduates that can compensate for the lack of other opportunities at these locations. Universities prepare students for different careers that are related to the requirements of the labor market and the opportunities it offers. The high degree of labor mobility in Europe and around the world has increased the competition for skill between countries and regions. Locations lacking economic and industrial diversity often experience brain drain that adds to the structural problems of regions. However, many of them contribute significantly to human capital formation due to their local universities but fail to link the human capital to local productivity and growth. Also, universities and policy makers often miss the opportunity to use the universities’ potential for generating local growth by concentrating solely on the increased local demand generated by incoming students and the universities’ role as a local employer and losing focus from graduates, that could also contribute to local development if staying in the region. Since many European university locations are not able to compete with the variety of available jobs in metropolitan areas, they need to find alternative ways of increasing attractiveness of their location and to avoid brain drain. Universities and policy makers therefore need to engage in joint efforts to help their locations carry out the shift towards innovation-driven activities and modern business-oriented services by setting place-based priorities instead of promoting generic activities and creating opportunities and incentives for young entrepreneurs. While universities have to act as incubators of innovative ideas and contribute to improving entrepreneurial skills of students, local policymakers need to provide incentives for students to start their business venture. Furthermore, universities should act as a link between students, local policymakers and local firms. While the mutual exchange between universities and policymakers ensures that regional development strategies are in line with the local characteristics and resources, the cooperation with local firms ensures that young entrepreneurs have access to local suppliers and consumers. This enhances location-related entrepreneurial activities that use local resources and comparative advantages by offering a customized entrepreneurial education and access to innovation network that lowers the risk for entrepreneurs and increases their sense of belonging to the local community. The ENDORSE team addresses the needs mentioned above by suggesting a modularized teaching concept that includes multiple stakeholders (students, teaching staff, policymakers, local firms, incubators) and provides teaching material, guidelines and policy suggestions for customizing entrepreneurial activities and business incentives to the needs and resources of the university locations affected by brain drain. The ENDORSE team brings together the expertise in multiple disciplines such as business, economics, regional science and geography. It was build-up to capture the economic and geographic diversity of locations affected by brain drain in Europe. The team has an innovative approach to knowledge creation and transfer and capacity building. All partners are members of international networks and can ensure an effective dissemination, as well as cross-border cooperation between higher education institutions in the area of entrepreneurship.<< Objectives >>The ENDORSE concept is an innovative approach that links student entrepreneurs with the universities’ locations by a) facilitating customized entrepreneurial education and founder support during studies, by b) enhancing access to local resources and by c) building up a local community of entrepreneurs and constantly integrating potential founders.ENDORSE aims at enhancing the participation of universities located in municipalities affected by brain drain, in activities that shape the local business environment to become more attractive for student entrepreneurs. By implementing the ENDORSE concept consisting of teaching, consulting and networking activities universities should be able to improve their role as a strategic partner for the local business community and for regional policymakers and efficiently contribute to the local innovation potential. By acquiring a strategic role in the local business and political environment these universities will be able to design entrepreneurship programs for students that consider local characteristics and business opportunities in order to a) decrease information cost and the risk of starting up a business by offering informed guidance to students and to b) increase the incentives for student entrepreneurs and graduates to start up their business in the region. Universities implementing the ENDORSE approach will be able to improve knowledge transfer in the area of entrepreneurship and build up a reputation that will help to attract more students with entrepreneurial endeavors allowing to build up a community of entrepreneurs that could shape the local labor market in the medium run. In addition, universities will be able to participate in R&D projects initiated by alumni that started up a business and improve their research output. As a consequence, these universities will act as growth poles for their regions and contribute to a sustainable local development while at the same time improving their international reputation.ENODROSE follows an integrated approach with respect to inclusivity, academic disciplines, and participation of stakeholders: Youth from peripheric areas close to the university locations with limited access to higher education, but with good knowledge of local resources, traditions and needs will be invited to participate in the project activities in order to enhance (business) partnerships with students and use synergies beneficial in the founding process. Furthermore, the concept is applicable for participants (students) with different academic backgrounds so that the founding activities can reflect the universities’ diversity of academic disciplines. As for the participation of stakeholder, all relevant agents shaping the local business environment (such as policymaker, incubators, venture capitalists, firms) play an active role in determining challenges, opportunities, requirements and strategies for an attractive business location as well as in supporting young entrepreneurs on their business venture.<< Implementation >>For improving universities’ role as a strategic partner for local development and enhancing student entrepreneurship ENODRSE will carry out a mix of research, teaching and networking activities. Research activities will concentrate on identifying push and pull factors for student entrepreneurs and will identify and design business models that are meant to consider local resources, innovation potential and benefit from local synergies. These research activities will allow to customize the capacity building and knowledge transfer activities based on local characteristics instead of offering “one-size-fits-all” approaches to entrepreneurial education. Teaching activities refer to the creation of a modularized integrated teaching concept that aims at transferring knowledge, building skill and connecting student entrepreneurs. The ENDORSE concept creates a framework that helps accompany students on their entrepreneurial venture. The teaching material will be accompanied by teaching guidelines that ensure that the project results can be accessed beyond the project. Networking activities aim at improving the access of universities and implicitly of young student entrepreneurs to local decision-makers, venture capitalists, other entrepreneurs and including them in the business community in order to reduce information cost, to create a local support system and reduce risks but also to build trust and improve the sense of belonging at the university location. All planned activities are designed to be replicable by many universities in locations affected by brain drain while at the same time allowing the flexibility necessary for adapting to local requirements. In addition, the suggested ENDORSE concept can be adapted to changes that occur over time, ensuring that the suggested activities can be carried out after the funding period ends.<< Results >>ENDORSE is an integrated modularized teaching concept that involves multiple stakeholders and assigns universities an active and strategic role in regional development activities. The project will deliver five main results. The first result consists of a classification of locations and of business model prototypes for each type of location. The classification of university locations considers socio-economic and cultural characteristics that will contribute to recognizing and designing location-related innovation-driven local strategies and incentives for young entrepreneurs. The set of business models prototypes will be based on the suggested classification of locations. Business model archetypes are “entrepreneurial recipes” meant to show what kind of business ventures can succeed in each of the identified location types. Very often, entrepreneurial activities fail due to generic strategies (such as “becoming a technology hub”) that don’t consider many locations’ (such as for example agricultural locations) inability to provide the required resources. The suggested business model prototypes offer guidance for using the business model that fits the characteristics of the location best while also enhancing innovative business ideas (for example by acknowledging that agriculture is the dominant sector in a region, identifying trends and requirements related with this sector but also with other local characteristics such as low population density, a certain way of life, a stronger focus on traditions etc. as well as understanding the existing markets will help guide student entrepreneurs towards business activities that provide innovations in the area of fertilizer, organic food production, supply chain, machinery, etc.). These results will serve as main input for all following results and will allow the design of customized approaches to enhancing the students’ entrepreneurial skill. The second main result refers to the modularized blended learning teaching material consisting of a combination of courses that enhance the entrepreneurial potential of students, improve their entrepreneurial literacy and skill, teach the handling of business models prototypes, reveal the location related potential and offer guidance throughout the start-up process. The teaching material will be designed to offer the necessary flexibility to enhancing creativity and to allow business ideas from different disciplines. (Linking to the example mentioned above, the suggested learning activities at the agricultural location could include students majoring in physics, chemistry, IT, mechanical engineering, nutrition, business, tourism, etc.) The third result refers to teaching guidelines to instruct how to use and add to the ENDORSE concept as well as to suggest options of integrating ENDORSE in curricular or extra-curricular activities and to include participants with different academic backgrounds. The guidelines will support academic staff in choosing the appropriate business models prototype but also in creating hybrids (mixing prototypes for locations without dominant features of a certain location type). In addition, the guidelines will address to create or join existing regional innovation networks that facilitate exchange between stakeholders. A fourth result will consist of a set of policy recommendations for policy maker that will contribute to reducing brain drain, enhancing entrepreneurship and improving the cooperation of universities with different local stakeholder such as the municipalities, local/regional development agencies, etc. These policy recommendations will address strategies to increase universities participation and strategic role in shaping the local business environment. The fifth result is a transnational network including all relevant stakeholder enhancing international collaboration, information exchange, promoting best practice cases as well as the ENDORSE concept.

Among many communities in the EU and beyond, disasters pose significant concerns and challenges, and are an issue that requires international cooperation and solutions. In the last three decades, records of natural disasters show that Asia experiences the most disasters. A major contributory factor to disaster risk is capacity. Capacity development is a widely recognised priority in the disaster resilience field, and research cooperation can provide significant opportunities for realising its benefits. Strengthening the capacity of countries in Asia to do and use research is widely viewed as vital for meeting long term innovation in creating disaster resilience societies. ASCENT (Advancing Skill Creation to ENhance Transformation) aims to ensure that the targeted HEIs in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand have the research and innovative capacities to tackle the challenges associated with developing societal resilience to disasters. ASCENT will: 1) identify research and innovative capacity needs across partner country HEIs to tackle the development of societal resilience to disasters; 2) develop research infrastructure to support implementation of the project and provide sustainable capacity development within the partner HEIs ; 3) prepare researchers in the identified Asian countries to undertake advanced, world-class and innovative, multi- and inter-disciplinary research that will contribute to increased societal resilience to disasters; 4) Increase international cooperation by partner HEIs on research programmes that tackle ways to increase societal resilience to disasters; 5) explore, promote and initiate opportunities for fruitful university / industry partnerships to increase societal resilience to disasters; and 6) publicise the project progress, successes and outcomes as far as possible, and raise awareness across the field of HE about capacity building for disaster resilience research.