<< Background >>According to UNESCO (2017), in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), quality education (promoting the development of skills and knowledges to find solutions to economic, social, and environmental problems) is the cornerstone of all the other SDG. The COVID-19 pandemic has evicted and accelerated the need for our educational systems address the digital transformation promoting, among other aspects, the use of digital tools among students and teachers, creating more attractive and innovative learning and teaching approaches, and find a way of how to work transnationally without traveling to stay in tune with surrounding societal changes.Additionally, building entrepreneurial competence is a key EU policy. It is a feature of the Strategic Framework for Education and Training and an element of many recent policy documents. The Council Recommendation on Key Competences (EC, 2018), states the importance of “promoting entrepreneurial mindsets” and encourages Member States to think about “nurturing entrepreneurship competence, creativity and the sense of initiative especially among young people”. Despite these policy imperatives, the traditional model of university teaching is starting to be perceived as being less relevant for the future. Young people are questioning whether attending university delivers the benefits they anticipate. Employers doubt whether universities remain the best source of talent and ideas and some politicians doubt the value of increased funding for HE, given its impact on social and economic development. In this sense, Challenge-based learning (CBL), as an innovative learning methodology, based on experiential learning and focused on applying students’ knowledge (acquired during their regular courses at university) to solve real-world challenges, is an excellent approach not just to develop creativity and entrepreneurial competences, but also to answer current societal challenges (e.g. UN SDG) by combining self-direct learning, interdisciplinary and cross-national teamwork, and an intensive use of technology.<< Objectives >>Based on the developments of previous projects focused on on-site Entrepreneurship Education and considering the need to promote online or digital co-creation and entrepreneurial systems and dynamics due to the challenges evidenced by COVID-19 pandemic, the main aim of D-EMIND is to design, develop and test a digital challenge-based learning methodology, strategies, and tools for promoting entrepreneurial mindset in Higher Education. This focus on developing entrepreneurial mindsets is aligned with the Commission communication on the EU Agenda on Higher Education (2017), a Danish survey (Boyd et al, 2015) and two reports by the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS) on the Netherlands (2013-14) and Great Britain (2016). The specific goals are: (1) developing and promoting the use of a trans-European platform for CBL, innovation and peer to peer learning amongst students and teachers; (2) facilitating real world challenges where students as part of their formal education co-operate with external organisations to help them solve these challenges; (3) merging challenged-based learning and entrepreneurship teaching and hence taking both to the next level, (4) preparing students for a work life that physically and/or digitally transgress borders, thereby increasing their capacity to work at EU/international level, and (5) reinforcing the link among higher education institutions and external institutions and organisations (companies, public administration, NGOs, etc.) in order to co-create projects to foster entrepreneurship.These goals are contributing to two horizontal priorities of the Erasmus+ programme (i.e., “addressing digital transformation of Higher Education” and “Inclusion and diversity in all fields of education” ) and two sectorial priorities for Higher Education (i.e., “rewarding excellence in learning, teaching and skills development” and “Stimulating innovative learning and teaching practices”).<< Implementation >>HE can play an active part establishing educational settings for students to create and co-create solutions while still being students. Solving what you could call “real life problems” has a high potential in building “real life capacity” in students. This takes us to the core of D-EMIND and will allow us to meet the needs of our target groups (i.e., students, teachers, external organizations): developing an online methodology and providing a toolbox that facilitates real life projects in HE across curricula, borders, and disciplines. Internships and Students’ final projects in both, bachelors’ degree and masters’ degree are clear spaces where D-EMIND could become a key success factor.To achieve D-EMIND goals, five types of activities will be developed:Project Management: different types of activities will be developed before, during and after the completion of the project to ensure compliance with the commitments acquired. Thus, a budget control and task and time management system will be established to ensure coordination, effectiveness, orientation, transparency, and ethics. These principles, and the distribution of tasks, will be reflected in the Project Management Handbook. This handbook will be complemented with a Quality Plan and with a Dissemination and Communication Plan. An important part of project management will be based on external evaluation and control. For this a Project Advisory Group (PAG) will be established.Project Results related activities: they are the most visible activities of the project. As we will see, D-EMIND contemplates four closely related types of PR that will allow us to achieve the planned objectives. These PRs will be led or, in some cases, co-led by the partners and will always have PAG’s supervision to ensure its quality and suitability. The PR3 (Digital Toolbox and Platform), due to its technical complexity, implies the subcontracting of a company specialized in the design and development of technological platforms.Transnational Project Meetings (TPM): TPM are very important elements of team building, so for the project planning and during its implementation virtual (monthly) and face to face meetings have been and will be conducted. During the project lifetime, and based on distributed leadership, cooperation and knowledge management, five TPM will be developed, each one connected to key milestones and activities in the project. Each meeting will take place in one of the partner institutions.Dissemination activities: social media, the project’s website, academic conferences, and papers, as well as, multiplier events, will be used to present D-EMIND Project Results and communicate the progress. Additionally, these ME will seek to obtain stakeholders’ feedback and engagement through a direct interaction with partner institutions and PR. This will facilitate the transference and the project sustainable impact.Learning and teaching activities: The specific objective of training activity planned is to allow teachers from the participating institutions (five per HEI) to come together, to collectively review and appraise the D-EMIND Methodology (PR1) and Digital Toolbox (PR2), engaging in discourse on how each of these might influence change and improvement in existing teaching practice and providing feedback on areas for possible improvement. All participants will be provided with a certificate of participation from the host partner (UCN), confirming the course title, dates, duration and learning outcomes. Additionally, PR4 include a pilot test of the MOOC, which is in fact another learning and teaching activity where students, teachers and mentors will have the opportunity not only to gain a deeper understanding of the D-EMIND methodology, but also to co-create with other students, teachers and mentors for solving real-world challenges.<< Results >>To meet the project aim, four related project results have been planned:PR1 – D-EMIND Methodology and Self-assessment tool: this project result will focus on further development of the digital sphere of the on-site Atom model that fosters an entrepreneurial mindset (creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving) among students on online environments. Additionally, based on the conceptual approach of the Atom model a self-assessment tool will be created to measure creativity and entrepreneurial culture among HE students.PR2 – D-EMIND Toolbox and Platform : building on an existing platform (URL), assuring its sustainability and durability, an open a free section with a description of the ATOM Model, a digital repository with open resources for promoting entrepreneurial mindsets and an intranet for easing interactions among students, teachers, mentors and external organisations will be created.PR3 – D-EMIND Training Pack: students, teacher and mentor training is an essential part for promoting the use of the online CBL and entrepreneurial methodology developed. This Project Result (PR3) will contribute to build the capacity of teachers, students, and mentors to autonomously implement D-EMIND methodology in HEIs. This PR will be the based for building up the training program C1, and PR4.PR4 – D-EMIND MOOCs: the consortium will develop three Massive Open Courses for students, teachers and mentors. The MOOCS for students and teachers will be structured in 6 main units, one for each component of the Atom Model. An additional MOOC focused on mentoring will be also developed for teachers, experienced entrepreneurs or any other key agent interested who want to give back their own entrepreneurial or experts experiences through productive dialogues between mentor and mentee.