"la Caixa" Banking Foundation (FBLC) is a Spanish private foundation that has as mission to contribute to the advance of people and society. FBLC ranks among the top 10 world foundations considering either endowment or annual budget. Since 1982 FBLC manages prestigious fellowship programmes. FBLC will launch a new doctoral programme, INPhINIT, in October 2016 that will increase the transnational, inter-sectoral and inter-disciplinary mobility of researchers, in line with the European Charter for Researchers, the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers and the EU Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training. With a budget of 19,489,896 EUR (25% EU contribution, 75% FBLC own resources) and a duration of 5 years, the INPhINIT programme will have two calls and recruit 114 Early-Stage Researchers of any nationality willing to join an excellent host organisation in Spain, in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), including Bio and Health Sciences, areas in which Spain excels and has a critical mass to have impact. Researchers will be enrolled in a Doctoral Programme and be hosted by one of the 51 centres that collaborate with the programme. Host organisations hold certificates of excellences issued by the Spanish Government. Selection process will be open, transparent and merit-based and count with independent experts from different countries and sectors, with diverse and relevant expertise, seeking gender balance. ESRs will enjoy 3-year employment contracts with the host organisation of their choice (bottom-up approach), with the corresponding social security provisions. Researchers will establish a personal development career plan including transnational, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary mobility opportunities. COFUND support will allow INPhINIT to recruit a larger number of researchers and reinforce its impact, as well as to further disseminate the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions high standards for research training.

"la Caixa" Foundation (LCF) is a Spanish private foundation with a solid tradition as an innovative institution. LCF ranks among the top 10 world foundations considering either endowment or annual budget. LCF fellowship framework programme has awarded 4,771 fellowships since 1982. Junior Leader is an existing LCF fellowship programme addressed to excellent experienced researchers of all nationalities willing to join one of the outstanding research centres in Spain or Portugal in the STEM areas (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Junior Leader aims to train a new generation of researchers to become independent leaders, oriented towards both academia and industry, that will help to develop the European knowledge economy. LCF now is seeking support from the COFUND action with the aim to strength Junior Leader programme and the professional career development of the fellows. Thanks to the COFUND support, LCF will be able to enlarge the existing programme of 44 fellowships by adding 16 more fellowships, offering fellows an outstanding, more complete training as well as more networking possibilities thanks to a new secondment scheme. Junior Leader will award 60 fellowships divided into two calls. The programme will have a duration of 60 months. Fellows will freely propose a research project to be carried out at one of the 110 Spanish and Portuguese research centres certified as excellent that collaborate with the programme. Researchers will be selected by means of an open, transparent and merit-based three-stages selection process with independent evaluators. Junior Leader fellows will be offered 3-year employment contracts with the host organisation of their choice following a bottom-up approach.

With this project we want to bring the figure of the researcher and his work closer to the entire society. For this reason, we organize events in diferent areas of the country, we carry out actions in educational centers and we will organize activities in rural areas, disadvantaged neighborhoods, activities for people with special needs and specific activities of interest for elderly people. We want to include all areas and audiences of society. To do this, we present this project between 2 coordinators and an associated entity that complement each other. We include an entity with great experience in this project and actions to disseminate and bring science closer to society in general and an entity with a national dimension, which covers the field of culture, research and education throughout the country. All this is complemented by the participation of an associate, the Spanish association against cancer; that combines research and dissemination at the national level.

Our priority is that through this project all project partners will be collaborating with the youth workers and with the youth to engage them in informal education in relation to STEAM and science communication. Moreover, sharing the knowledge and experiences would enhance the projects' outputs; namely the interactive resource including a high quality video of a science show, and public speaking/ debate skills sets. Youth participation strengthens personal and social development, provides expertise for youth programmes and services, and promotes a more democratic society. In the context of complex inter-generational challenges such as climate change and sustainable development, it is increasingly important for scientists and policy-makers to actively engage with and support the meaningful participation of youth in policy and decision-making.Art, theatre and storytelling will be used as media for youth upskilling and engagement. The first phase of the project will involve a triangulation research with youth and the surrounding communities and a training programme by a well established cultural organisation in which together with the youth entity will provide a comprehensive upskilling programme for science communicators on collaborating with youth. Using the research and the training through several matchmaking sessions youth workers, science communicators, artists and the youth will work together to produce the interactive resource. Transnational meetings will be used for the science centres, youth agency and the artistic organisation to monitor progress and plan ahead. Upon its completion the interactive resource will be presented during the three non formal multiplier events named Youth Science Cafes. During these multiplier events youth will be actively involved in their organisation and will also actively participate in the science show and science cafe. These multiplier events will be targeting more youths through the participation from the surrounding communities. Through these cafes, youths are presented with the opportunity to speak about their involvement in informal education; in connection to science communication and STEAM subjects. Furthermore, the interactive resource would be freely available to the public on the Websites of science centres. The innovative aspect of this project is that the science show would be developed on the basis of research conducted as part of this project in collaboration with the Youth Agency, involving the youths. Further more, a concluding conference would be held in Malta bringing together representatives from stakeholders in non formal education, science communication, youth work, youths and the art sectors. The conference will enable sharing of best practices and experiences, dissemination of the project outputs through the active involvement of the youths and specific workshops.

“Tinkering EU: Building Science Capital for ALL” uses the innovative pedagogy of ‘Tinkering’ in activities and resources aiming to develop the 21st century skills and the Science Capital of disadvantaged youth and contribute to the development of inclusive science learning in schools.Tinkering is an innovative pedagogy pioneered by the Exploratorium of San Francisco. It supports the construction of knowledge through building personally meaningful artifacts. It designs opportunities for people to “think with their hands” to construct meaning and understanding and develop skills useful for a lifetime. Research shows that Tinkering holds key benefits for learning, especially for those who say “they are not good at science”, or young people with educational or integration difficulties. Science Capital draws from the work of Pierre Bourdieu and encapsulates the various influences that a young person’s life experiences can have on their science identity and participation in science-related activities, that is, the repertoire of knowledge, attitudes, actions, relations with science. Science Capital offers a different way to look at science learning and is a powerful tool to develop active citizenship, employability and social inclusion. The project emerges from: - the demands of contemporary societal challenges for citizens equipped with 21st century skills and competences, therefore the urging need for approaches and resources capable of building the knowledge and skills necessary to stand up to these demands.- the increasing need to foster learners from vulnerable groups and disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, thus the need for action towards social inclusion and equity that fights xenophobia and economic disparity. - the increasing importance of science as a tool for active citizenship.- the difficulty of schools, despite the efforts, to build a positive relationship between youth and science, especially those from disadvantaged communities. The project takes into account that science museums and schools together can play a key role in the development of 21st C. skills, Science Capital and social justice fostering science literacy amongst all individuals. In the project, museum and education institutions cooperated with the aim to:- develop young people's 21st C. skills and Science Capital.- improve school practice through an innovative pedagogy (Tinkering) and a new science education approach (Science Capital).- encourage exchange of expertise and practice between formal and informal learning institutions. - create a Europe-wide community of practice. Tinkering EU addressed teachers of primary and junior high schools and students of 8 to 14 years. It reached 195 teachers and 3450 students for a total of 3645 participants through:- the development of a methodology on the role of Tinkering for Science Capital.- the design of Tinkering activities.- training workshops for teachers and museum staff building knowledge and skills in Tinkering and Science Capital.- the organization of multiplier events for schools, some of them participating for the first time to similar initiatives. - an evaluation and self-reflection process for participating teachers.- dissemination actions at local, national and European level.Resultsa) Tinkering activities experienced by 3450 students, tested by 16 teacher ambassadors and evaluated by 179 more teachers.b) A methodological framework on using Tinkering to develop the Science Capital of young people.c) Training events for teachers and museum staff.d) Multiplier events for the wide implementation of the activities across disadvantaged schools.e) Evaluation tools that can be used to foster a self-reflection approach to teaching and learning.f) A website with resources and activities available to everybody and a dissemination reaching about 1000 more formal and about 500 informal education professionals, both inside and outside the consortium.The results from teachers’ evaluation of the Tinkering experience of the students indicated that impact was in terms of an experience highly beneficial for students developing broad-ranging skills and knowledge in STEM, and of support to students with lower science capital because of the way Tinkering deeply values their existing skills, interests and talents, provides multiple pathways for success and boosts motivation and confidence. The project also impacted on teachers supporting them to reflect on their practice as a way to see how they could utilise more learner-centred pedagogies into teaching and how to initiate different ways to approach science teaching. Long-term benefits regard the work of educational institutions towards social inclusion and Science Capital. The use of innovative and concrete resources and methodologies helped enrich practice and strengthen their mission towards a society founded on scientific citizenship, equity and democracy.