The DiamonDT (Development of Innovative AcadeMy ON the basis of DT teaching) aimed at fostering independent, open-minded and innovation-oriented thinking of future higher education graduates based on Design Thinking (DT) methodology. The project was coordinated by Lodz University of Technology (TUL), together with its partners in the field of the higher education from Spain (UV - University of Vigo), Norway (UiT - University of Tromsø) and Poland (UTP - University of Science and Technology in Bydgoszcz). This project is a dedicated response to the current and anticipated future requirements of the European labour market. The institutions with different but harmonizing and strong backgrounds and educational experience formed the project’s consortium, as it helped to achieve a broad complementarity of educational and research practice. DiamonDT project offered a development of an educational path based on Design Thinking methodology addressed to three target groups: students, academic teachers and implicitly business environment as well. An educational path based on Design Thinking will lead to an improvement of the human resources potential on the labour market and it will definitely influence the development of the economy innovativeness both at the local, global and the European level. Nowadays Europe needs higher education not only to pass relevant knowledge and help students to prepare for professional life and work, but also to equip them with a set of transversal skills and team work experience. In order to meet these requirements DiamonDT offered ways to upgrade the educational systems improving the way of teaching in the field of enhancing the creativity and focusing students attention on development of innovative solutions tailored to the real needs of local communities as well as global society.The main goal of the DiamonDT project was to provide an innovative tool into the methods of teaching and learning. It was realized by creating an education path implementing the Design Thinking methodology as well as conducting interdisciplinary projects based on that method from the different disciplines of science and various areas of everyday life. The strength of the project consortium lied both in the infrastructure as well as in the strong background for proficient education of DT methodology. The project results, which were achieved, include: the development of teaching materials for study courses: course programme for first-cycle studies including proper course sheet, the development of materials used for training of tutors in DT methodology, multilingual course materials and DT handouts. The most important result are: TEXTBOOK, TOOLBOX and a handbook of good DT practices, which includes practical guidelines on the DT educational process for both teachers and students. Apart from these, also the sample documents and as well as description of case studies, projects, examples used during the project realization and remarks collected from students and DT mentors working with the national and international groups were worked out. The handbook is a universal tool for European HEIs that will help them use DT in the classroom. Tens of tutors were trained during professional courses held locally and in foreign partner country. A number of departments of each HEI participating in the project implemented the DT course that was developed within the project into their curricula. Dozens of students took part in national and international Good Practice Academies. The numerous business contacts with industry were established thanks to the common project. In addition, the project also involved the implementation of the soft type results: equalization or increase of knowledge among students as well as tutors, development of competence of both.

"The advent of the Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) is revolutionising research on Food Safety and Public Health protection (EC, DG SANTE, 2017, 1901701), gradually substituting traditional genotyping used in surveillance, outbreak investigation and microbial risk assessment. Moreover, the new “omics” –Genomics, Proteomics, Transcriptomics, Nutrigenomics, and Metabolomics– have deeply transformed biological sciences.The decrease in costs and the increase in the analytical and procedural speed of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) for WGS in the field of food safety is leading to new genomic analyses in the public health microbiology for surveillance, control and research activities. Data analysis through the most recent genome-engineering technologies is the challenge of the present as well as of the near future. Conversely, knowledge and competence of scientists, bioinformaticians and recent graduates are not growing at the same speed.The missing of specific, transversal and multidisciplinary university programmes merging classical food microbiology education with advance training in Statistics, Epidemiology and Bioinformatics is hampering the establishment of a professional profile able to meet the new challenges. Given this background and need analysis, LEGO aims at reaching the following specific objectives:To design and develop an ad hoc profile – the Food Microbial Bioinformatician – that meets the learning needs of post-graduates students that are relevant to the labour market and societal needs, including through new assessment models and an open and online multi-disciplinary learning course enriched by the possibility of a work-based experience;To provide a system to assess competence and promote transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications through “Open Badges”;To provide an innovative and attractive OER based course, equipping post-graduates students with the necessary relevant and high-quality competencies to analyse WGS data for investigating food-borne outbreaks, identifying strains of food-borne bacteria with high virulence potential or resistance to antimicrobials and satisfying the needs of and opportunities offered by labour markets;To increase synergies and share innovative practices - also through collaborative platforms - between HEIs, research institutes, VET providers and private companies adopting trans-disciplinary approaches and ensuring that education and research are mutually reinforcing;To encourage learning, professional development, employability, entrepreneurship, mobility, innovation, research, competitiveness, and synergies among public and private sectors;To support the transfer of latest research outputs back into education as input for teaching, to enhance Master and PhD students working opportunities and to help them exploring contemporary research problems. Four Intellectual outputs will concretely realise the project objectives:IO01: The ""Food Microbial Bioinformatician"" (FMB) - A new Professional/Research ProfileIO02: Elearning pathways for Food Microbial BioinformaticiansIO03: Startupper' bricksIO04: LEGO IT PLATFORMProject participants and beneficiaries will be engaged by exploiting innovative methodologies, such as gamification and role playing (IO02) and project platform (IO04). Direct participants/beneficiaries will be:- Enrolled HEI’s students with a I level degree (Bachelor) in one of the following disciplines: Veterinary Sciences, Bioinformatics, Molecular Biology, (Micro)Biology or Biotechnologies;- Enrolled HEI’s students with a I level degree (Bachelor) in one of the following discipline: Biomedical Engineering, Statistics, Informatics,Mathematics, Medicine plus 3 or more year research or work experience in the field of Microbiology in either private or public institutions.- Personnel working in Genomics labs (Microbiologists, Bioinformaticians, Epidemiologists, Veterinarians, Statisticians, etc), aiming at entering the circuit of formal education. LEGO will directly produce an impact in the 4 geographical areas represented by the partnership: Italy, Finland, Poland and Spain. A solid Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation plan will be drafted, stating activities, targets/audiences/stakeholders, means and channels, messages and strategies, resources, objectives, expected results, timeline of the foreseen activities, success indicators, monitoring and evaluation. The project will also exploit the e-Pale and the Erasmus+ result platforms to maximise its communication effort. Project partners are:Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e Molise (IZSAM, IT, project leader), University of Helsinki (FIN), University of Life Science and Technology (PL), AINIA (ES), University of L’Aquila (IT) and Remedia IT (IT). The partnership was established identifying complementary organisations within the solid network that IZSAM - National Reference Center for Whole Genome Sequencing of Microbial Pathogens - has in the EU."