AB4Rail aims to identify and select alternative communication bearers (ABs) and selection of proper communication protocols for the Adaptable Communication System (ACS) of the Shift2Rail technical demonstrator TD2.1. The project will review the state-of-the-art technologies assessing their suitability for the ACS in terms of expected performance, economic sustainability, and status of maturity. A wide spectrum of potential technologies have been identified including existing optical technologies for visible light communications (VLC), powerline communications (PLC) and short/long range technologies for the Internet of Things (IoT). Yet, breakthrough technologies under development and available in the next 3-5 years will be evaluated such as High-Altitude Platforms (HAPS) and high throughput Low Earth Orbit Satellites (LEO). The selected ABs will be tested in the lab (TRL 4) and on field (TRL 5) using the laboratories and on-field test bed of Radiolabs. A liaison with technology providers will be established leveraging on the network of Radiolabs, being the first in Europe having introduced, in 2015, a multi-bearer telecom architecture with public and satellite operators for ERTMS. The selection criteria for application/transport communication protocols will be assessed by theoretical results and simulations using an ad hoc software platform for network emulation/simulation at IP level to be developed in AB4Rail. Furthermore, AB4Rail is synergic with other projects funded by ESA, Shift2Rail, and Italian Ministry of Economic Development addressing multi-bearer telecom solutions for the ERTMS evolution. Special effort is allocated to the dissemination activities with the goal to involve the rail, telecom, satellite stake-holders and the standardization bodies. The project coordinator will be Radiolabs, a no-profit research consortium already involved in two Shift2Rail projects, with Guglielmo Marconi University as a partner.

Context/Backround :eVET is an online vocational education and training platform on which VET providers (VET schools, governmental organizations etc.) can connect and collaboratively develop KA1 VET projects. The VET providers will specify their criteria to find the most suitable VET providers to arrange vocational education and training opportunities for the learners and staff.Erasmus+ is making a major contribution to helping address these key challenges that Europeans are facing. Under the Key Action 1, it provides educational opportunities for organizations to send VET learners to benefit from training, and for staff to receive or give trainings. These trainings lead to boosting their skills and employability. Organizations wanting to take part in these opportunities can apply as an individual vocational education organization. In addition to that, it can also apply as part of a national mobility consortium. A learning mobility activity of individuals (VET learners and staff) involves minimum two participating organizations: one sending and one receiving organization. The receiving organization must be either a workplace or a VET school. Mobility activity projects consist of three stages: Preparation, implementation and follow-up. At the first stage, the sending organizations must find an appropriate workplace or a VET school where the training will take place and set up agreements with them beforehand. With the interviews we have done with VET school administrations, VET students , VET staff and workplaces we have noticed that developing VET mobility projects,especially finding an appropriate partner is a big problem for them. eVET platform presents solution for these problems.Objectives :The main objectives of eVET was the online platform on which VET schools and workplaces could develop VET mobility projects. And the need for an online platform for VET organizations has been met faster with less expenditure and more benefits. eVET, online Vocational Education and Training platform is now available as an online platform for VET providers (VET schools, workplaces etc.) in one of the Erasmus+ Programme countries, on which VET providers communicate, collaborate and develop KA1 VET projects, eliminating the barriers in VET mobility activities through providing an environment in which VET schools and workplaces can develop VET mobility projects in a more effective and efficient way has a great deal of impact on the entire Programme Countries in the field of vocational education and training.Undertaken Activities:To reach the objectives above, eVET completed the activites as follows ;WP1 Project management:Project management took 27 months and aimed at obtaining the highest possible results within the project deadline and budget.WP2 Analysis:This work package was consisted of identifying the inputs, outputs and processes, identifying problems. WP3 Design:This work package composed of designing the system inputs, designing user interfaces of the system, designing the system processes, and designing the system outputs. WP4: DevelopmentDevelopment was the work package where the eVET itself was created. At this time, the Project staff used the individual graphic elements generated in Design work package to create the onlive vocational education and training platform aimed. WP5 Test and Delivery:In this work package, the project staff took care of final details and test web site. The website was tested for functionality and compatibility issues. After eVET was ready for publishing, the website was online. WP6 Maintenance:In this work package, the project staff ensured that the website remain running at peak performance levels. The duration was three months.They solved any website bugs and customized the website to users needs as user’s needs may change with time.WP7 Multiplier Events:In this work package,481 from VET schools and workplaces in Turkey, Germany and Italy were trained. These people learnt how to use effectively and efficiently the online platform developed.The duration of this work package was three months.WP8 Project Dissemination:The duration of this work package was 27 months. In this work package a website was created to publish the results and findings of the project. On the semi-annual basis, 4 newsletters were prepared. Audiovisual materials such as YouTube videos were created to make the project more efficient , effective and attractive. Social media was not a choice anymore in being in contacts with stakeholders. The project had a Twitter account on for the purpose of sharing information on the project.The number of participants involved in actvities ;1. Multiplier Events : 4812. Registered to the platform :2743. Stakeholder meetings :454. Dissemination workshops :2655. Evaluation Activities : 40Results and Impacts were mentioned in related parts in details.

Context:According to the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs the knowledge economy is expected to drive economic growth in Europe in the near future. Over 90% of jobs are expected to require digital skills. Shortage of as much as 900.000 professionals is expected in the ICT sector or ICT using sectors. According to ICT industry insiders, for every job that is created in innovation driven sectors another 5 are expected to open in the broader economy. On the other hand, over 16M low skilled jobs are expected to be lost in an economy that increasingly requires high competencies. European initiatives such as the New Skills for New Jobs Agenda and ET2020 highlight the necessity of connecting skills built in formal and informal education to work requirements, emphasizing in this context the importance of digital competencies.According to Europe 2020 targets 23% of EU’s population is at risk of poverty or social exclusion as a result of a complex process that involves lack of basic competencies, including digital skills, and poor access to basic services such as lifelong learning. This includes individuals who drop out of school early, may have limited access to educational opportunities as a result of socio-economic challenges, or are unemployed and not being properly retrained to reenter work. At the same time more than 100m individuals in Europe are at risk of digital exclusion.Based on the above, young learners with inadequate digital skills may be at increased risk of becoming professionally marginalized in the future due to competencies misaligned to market needs, foregoing opportunities to become socially included and civically active. Low skilled individuals, who may in the present be attracted by jobs with limited entry level requirements, may face increased professional challenges in the future as the demand for highly skilled workers rises. Objectives:The above point to the urgent need for interventions in education and training practices towards strengthening the digital skill profiles of individuals at risk of exclusion with an emphasis on the next generation. EMPLOY aimed at developing advanced digital literacy in line with industry needs for learners in primary and lower secondary education with a focus on individuals at risk of exclusion, including learners at risk of ESL, migrants, or individuals facing socio-economic adversity. By building digital skills forecast to be in demand in the coming years the project promotes employability, fosters social equity and inclusion, and facilitates economic growth based on human capital, i.e. effectively trained future professionals. Methodology:EMPLOY deployed and evaluated active, game-based learning for exposing learners to work-inspired activities that require digital competencies, problem-solving capacity, and analytical thinking. The advantages of the proposed learning approach included increased knowledge retention through serious gaming (FAS), capacity to transfer knowledge to the real-world, learning linked to educational objectives through effective feedback, and a supportive, inclusive learning environment based peer collaboration and entrepreneurial thinking.Results:EMPLOY developed and evaluated an active learning framework with the objective of building early on digital skills in demand in the ICT sector and ICT using sectors. The proposed active learning methodology was validated in practice through the implementation of a proof-of-concept serious game with content linked to both school curricula and professional requirements. Instructional support will empower teachers to integrate the proposed methodologies and tools into their already well developed educational practices. Outcomes were evaluated through deployment in real-life contexts in Turkey, Greece, France, Estonia, and Italy. Findings were made publicly available to the European primary and secondary education community and life long learning sector.Impact:EMPLOY made strategic use of ICT in education deploying it as a facilitator for linking learning practices to work needs. It evaluated learning benefits of serious games in specific contexts. It contributed to innovation-driven sustainable growth by promoting digital literacy that is necessary for sustaining business development of SMEs and larger companies. It broadened work options for young learners by raising awareness on professional profiles that will be in demand in the coming years and by building the skills that are necessary for entering the knowledge economy. It aimed empowering local communities to fight unemployment and to retain talent, contributing to social cohesion and active citizenship. It tried to promote positive attitudes towards education through the publication of good practice paradigms on the integration of ICT into learning processes. It also supported broader availability of ICT tools for educational purposes. And it enriched teacher skills sets for promoting the adoption of outcomes.

EU HEIs have to cope with the Digital transformation and the challenges created by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many universities have suddenly moved their lessons online leaving aside other activities usually performed in presence, such as laboratories. Practical experiences are crucial for STEM and engineering subjects for the students further employability and to acquire pivotal technical and social skills, and experimental skills (set up an experiment, use real equipment, elaborate acquired data). Virtual labs and simulations allow to mimic the lab setting but, for how realistic they are, they cannot include every real situation. Remote labs could be a solution allowing students to access remotely to the physical labs to perform practical experiences.Several EU universities have already developed their own remote labs, but by developing its own solution, so it is very difficult to reuse programming code and share the experiment results. The project objective is to design, test and validate an innovative standard educational model and ICT solution for the Augmented Reality-AR remote labs setting up on renewable energies topics in EU universities.Project target groups and participants are university professors, technical staff and students of STEM and engineering subjects, actors of the renewable energy sector. Especially, during the project at least 15 professors, 25 students, 5 technical staff for each partner university will be interviewed for the mapping phase and 10 students each partner university for the testing and validation phase.The main project activities are: mapping of the hands-on/remote labs in EU universities, designing of the standard ICT-based learning solution and pedagogical model of AR remote laboratories, remote lab ICT system and learning management system (LMS) setting up, developing of experimental modules/projects on renewable energy, testing and validation in each partner university.In order to map the currents labs at EU university a bottom up approach will be applied integrating a literature review with a field work research. The AR remote lab model developing and testing follows the Project Based Learning-PBL method based on the constructivism approach. It engages students in complex tasks by developing the ability to use facts (knowledge) to solve problems. This is particularly important for practical learning contents where the theoretical knowledge is based on the practical experience. The Virtual PBL allows to promote the students practical/active learning into an online environment in which students can learn by doing, receive feedback and continually refine their knowledge.The project main results to be achieved will impact on target groups as follow:- empowerment of universities capacities to develop innovative educational learning paths with the support of ICT-based and automatic control systems to allow students a flexible access to integrated theoretical and practical learning contents. - enrichment of the university staff and professors opportunity of learning and teaching with creative and more innovative training methods based on ICT solutions; - improvement of students experimental skills, working groups and critical-thinking, ICT skills in using remote control and IT tools;- promotion of the access to practical activities to the students with disabilities. The project main tangible results are:1.Report on best practices and standard model for remote labs setting up in EU universities (IO1) designed based on the mapping of both remote and physical labs on renewable energy at EU partners universities;2.ICT system for the connection at distance of the physical laboratories (IO2) with the support of the Augmented Reality (AR) technique. The system includes a LMS platform (SCORM) (IO4) as users interface to host the experimentation projects, collect and analyse the experiment data and students’ reporting/self-assessment results;3.remote experimentation modules/projects on renewable energy topic for the performing of remote practical activities (IO3);4.testing and validation report on remote Laboratories setting up in EU partners universities (IO5).Potential longer term benefits of the project will be the adoption by the universities of the ICT-based solution for AR remote labs setting up to be applied/transferred to other preexisting laboratories and subjects of study. Universities and students can benefit for an easy and creative distance access to the learning contents both theoretical and practical. Besides, the solution will be designed for the developing of complex experiments applicable to research activities creating synergies between learning and research, thus promoting access to scientific research. The experimental modules could be further adapted to overcome obstacles of making hands-on laboratories usable for learning disabled students, who experience difficulties in following the instructions to perform remote experiments

"Problem & Needs:(1) Egypt (over 90 million) has the largest epidemic of Liver Hepatitis Virus C (HCV prevalence = 14.7%) in the world. This is 10 times greater than any other country. In Upper Egypt, the HCV prevalence is 16%. (2) More than 10% of the total population are infected and are infectious to others & Transmission of HCV is continuing each year (165,000). (3) There is NO justification for Egyptians to be tested for liver diseases. The HCV awareness programs in Egypt do not work. (5) Assiut University Hospital is the core referral center for Upper Egypt that serves 10 Governorates (25 million). (6) The present post-graduate curricula in faculties of Medicine and Nursing, in Assiut University suffer from: A complete absence of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary(HPB) Diseases & Liver Transplant education & training programs.(7) Assiut University Liver Hospital: 1) needs its own professional medical & nursing staff whom are specialist in managing “Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary (HPB) Diseases & Liver Transplant”, 2) needs a Capacity building of its health care providers (Medical, Nursing & Administrative staff), 3) needs to cooperation with Ministry of Health to face the Egyptian Liver Problem. Project Outputs:[1] Modernize of Teach/Learn & Train Resources. [2] Network & Video Conferences & Web Site design.[3] Capacity building of health care providers (Medical, Nursing & Administ. staff) in the field of “Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary(HPB)Diseases & Liver Transplant""(TOT), [4]Networking of Egyptian & EU and international medical centers specialized in Medical and Nursing Sciences. [5]Develop New: (1) Professional Diploma Courses in Medicine & Surgery of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary(HPB)Diseases & Liver Transplant (2) Joint Master & Joint Professional Diploma Courses in Nursing care of Patients of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary(HPB)Diseases & Liver Transplant, Compatible to EU Standards. [6] Develop a Concept of University-Ministry of Health Partnership to “Justify Egyptian Liver Problem""."