Sustainable cities is a topic gaining prime importance throughout Europe. A range of environmental action plans and policy instruments are put in place for this aim. Establishing the link between urban population and nature is increasingly considered as an important way towards sustainable cities, as it also contributes to improving life quality and public health of the society. Yet, intense urbanization pressure is acting negatively on natural areas in and around the cities. Similar to many of the developing countries, the pace of urbanization has increased tremendously in Turkey. Ankara, the capital of Turkey, is also following this trend; existing urban life style in Ankara is detached from nature to a great extent. Middle East Technical University (METU), situated at the heart of Ankara, only 5 km to the parliament, covers 4,500 hectares of area made up of mostly natural and pristine ecosystems. The presence of such a big natural reserve in the capital city is a unique commodity and it provides the possibility of experiencing and spending leisure-time in nature. Yet, the importance of such an oasis in the middle of the city is not well recognized and benefited from. In this project, we aim at re-establishing the link between people of Ankara and nature through focusing on the youth of the city. We believe learning about nature around us is an essential component of establishing this link. Dynamism of young people and the access to young people through the campus are valuable opportunities. The project therefore is based on training young people to take a leading role in developing and implementing a nature education program and in establishing an operational centre in the METU Campus, i.e. “Nature for Youth and City Centre (NYC-C)”. We recognize that extensive know-how and experience exist in EU countries on this topic. Thus the project aims at benefiting from this experience via effective exchanges carried out to observe similar programs and activities in Europe. Partners from UK, Greece and Italy are selected in this respect. The project has 4 main activities:1. Mobilisation and capacity building of young people for experience sharing on nature education programs;2. Preparation of education programs;3. Establishment of the “Nature for Youth and City Centre”;4. Dissemination of the developed model in other selected university campuses and in available institutions.Our method is based on training young people through a program developed by professionals on nature conservation, education, sustainability and work with them closely. As a result of these capacity building activities, learning by doing, and peer-to-peer learning experiences, young people will significantly improve their skills and qualifications and will become trainers themselves. They will implement programs which have 5 modules (butterflies, plants, steppe ecosystems, sustainability and climate change). Throughout the 30 months of the project duration, we expect 18,000 people to directly or indirectly benefit from the activities of the project:- At least 60 trainings realized and 3,000 young people participated to nature education programs implemented in the METU Campus,- At least 50 primary and high schools visited and in each visit 100 students followed educations on sustainability, nature conservation and biodiversity of Ankara. - At least 1/3 of the METU students (~ 10,000) made aware of the program and respectively esteem the METU Campus nature.- 5 nature education training programs and related materials prepared and made available;- NYC-C established to support Ankara on sustainability, nature conservation and nature education issues.The project is innovative in many terms, i.e. learning nature in nature and young people becoming trainers and advocates. Yet, the establishment of a centre in METU specialised on nature education is going to be first of its kind in Turkey and it will secure the sustainability of the project’s outcomes. We believe the centre will act as a hub and will attract other initiatives on nature education in Ankara and elsewhere. It will create synergy and as a result, will be amplifying the impact of such programs at local, regional and national scales. The centre will also contribute to conservation of nature conservation. Finally, the project will serve to empowering youth on becoming knowledgeable and skilled on sustainability and nature conservation topics, and becoming active citizens promoting these issues in their life. The project aims at canalising the energy of youth to promoting concepts of sustainable and nature friendly cities and urban ecology in the capital of Turkey. The activities of the project might lead to young people starting professional careers in fields of sustainability, nature conservation, and/or gaining a hobby contributing to healthier and happier life opportunities. In the long term, all these will feed into the establishment of sustainable cities in Turkey.

In the era of Europe 2020 Strategy, for overcoming the socio-economic crisis affecting European countries, of boosting growth and jobs and of fostering social equity and inclusion, this project aims to use the potential of Europe’s human and social capital originating from higher education’s institutes and the industry, in order to exchange and transfer knowledge and know-how in food science and technology education, by the creation and development of a network that will provide opportunities for cooperation among stakeholders. This partnership consists of 4 higher education institutes, namely Technological Educational Institute of Thessaly (Greece), Catholic University of Portugal, Cyprus University of Technology, University of Leon (Spain) and Technological Educational Institute of Athens (Greece). All higher education partners have been previously successfully involved in European Education Projects and it is aimed to blend experience and good practices previously acquired in order to make steps forward for enhancing the quality and relevance of the learning offer in food science and technology education. Additionally this partnership includes an IT Specialist Partner originating from the industry (SystServ), a Dissemination Specialist (ANKA) and also has a series of collaborating partners from Food Industries from the participating countries for developing case studies material for training purposes. Universities, national and regional development and education agencies will also act as collaborating partners in order to facilitate the dissemination of the project’s outcome. The general objectives of this project are:1. enhancing the quality and relevance of the learning offer in education by developing new and innovative education approaches and supporting the dissemination of best practices in food science and technology education2. promoting innovative practices in education by supporting personalised learning approaches, collaborative learning and critical thinking, strategic use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), open educational resources (OER), open and flexible learning, virtual mobility and other new pedagogies 3. increasing labour market relevance of learning provision and qualifications and reinforcing links between education with the world of the food industry4. improving the capacities of the participating universities in the areas of strategic development, quality of learning provision and internationalizationThe project is based in the following key activities dealing with Research and Training needs Analysis to evaluate the training needs in Food Science and Technology Study Programmes in European Higher Education Organizations, in order to ensure that EU labor has the skills and knowledge to face the emerging food sector market related to non conventional foods (namely functional, nano, organic/eco) production, food safety and regulatory affairs, marketing and entrepreneurship. Relevant to the needs training material and case studies will be developed and uploaded on an on line learning platform to be constructed by the partnership, introducing innovative education training materials for EU Universities, by enhancing the potential of the agri-food sector for the production and promotion of functional foods in Europe (including all the ethical and safety aspects).In summary the expected results include:1. Intellectual outputs (training material and case studies) based on exchange of good practices (technology and pedagogical)2. Blended mobility for creating the material and pilot test the proposed teaching method 3. Intensive study/training programmes4. Dissemination of teaching methods/materialsThe impact of the project has to do mainly with the development of an innovative and quality training program in the emerging fields of food science and technology, using entrepreneurial and marketing opportunities simultaneously, as a mean for enhancing competitiveness, pro activeness and extroversion in the participating countries. Thus, the project will give the opportunity to develop the existing intellectual property of the stakeholders and create new knowledge in specific fields, leading to a knowledge intensive business. Furthermore, the project wishes to develop an innovative multimedia based training program that will act as a multipurpose tool for academic purposes, research, merging industry with academia, networking and synergies development from the participating countries and internationally, that will remain active beyond the course of this project.