"<< Objectives >>The ""EU-REKA"" project is a transnational initiative involving five European countries (Italy, Spain, Greece, Austria and the Czech Republic) in the realisation of a learning and guidance pathway for the opening of a start-up or an SME, addressed to adults with fewer opportunities who have been affected by the employment crisis triggered by the Covid-19 epidemic. The aim is to increase their entrepreneurial skills, encouraging them to self-employment.<< Implementation >>The learning sessions will be coordinated by the Austrian partner for a total of five meetings and will take place at the partner's premises or at training centres that have already collaborated with the organisations. At the end of the sessions, a Blended Mobility event will take place in Austria as a follow-up event. The work done will be collected in a Guidebook, launched in June 2023 and promoted through 5 local promotion events in each partner country.<< Results >>All the work will then be collected and transformed into a free online and printed guide, to be disseminated in order to foster the replicability of the activities in wider contexts, from public bodies to private institutions. The transnational dimension of EU-REKA will also lead to an increase in the professional skills of the organisations involved and the creation of a strong European network, the basis for future European cooperation projects."

In recent years the manufacturing sector has been one of the stable pillars of European economic growth and therefore prosperity. Photonics, as one of the advanced technologies for industry identified by the European Union, is a relevant deep technology that plays a key role in supporting and innovating the manufacturing ecosystem. On the European landscape several initiatives exist that facilitate cooperation on Photonics, ranging from the public private partnership Photonics21, to European wide clusters like EPIC association and the Digital innovation hub Photonhub Europe. However, they focus mainly on support for individual organisations and while there is also the S3 platform partnership on Photonics, there is no support available to coordinate interregional cooperation in deeptech with the focus on Photonics for manufacturing. Goal of the project is the establishment of an interregional deeptech innovation support network for manufacturing with the focus on Photonics. Output will be a joint supra-regional strategy with best-practice measures for the use of Deeptech/Photonics to support European missions and company competitiveness. This strategy will be co-developed by relevant regional stakeholders from the government body, research, industry and makers communities and include tangible steps to use the complementarities and cooperation potential of the regions to ensure cross-fertilisation.

"<< Background >>Key background elements are:•The value of fashion and food sectors for the EU economy, based on quality as a strategic lever•The cultural and economic impact on other sectors (tourism, art, cultural services) central for urban economies.•The impact on social, environmental and cultural sustainability of both the supply chains.•Several cases of convergence between practices of food&fashion production, retailing and consumption have emerged in the economies of European cities•The pervasive role of digitalization for supply chains transparency and traceability and for innovating communication strategies toward more sustainability•The wide gap between attitudes/intentions and purchases’ behaviour, alongside the increasing consumers’ interest for the green productsCombining the knowledge about the two sectors is very promising if we want to create new job opportunities in cultural/creative urban industries.The areas of contamination are typically cultural and can be summarized as follows:1. Growing attention to the aesthetic dimension in food; the culture of packaging, decor, the art of plating. The valorization of the chefs’ creativity, considered as celebrities, alike it happens in fashion and social media worlds.2. Growing attention by fashion toward the food sector that is master in communicating values like authenticity, conviviality, identity, traced back to traditionally cultivated raw materials and traditional preparation techniques.4. Both value materials, inspirations, and knowledge that are rooted in the territories.5. Companies and firms in both sectors are increasingly developing circular business models. Moreover, Pandemic is showing the importance of developing specific competencies, due to some emerging trends:-Reduction/conversion of fashion production -Growth of local and 0KM food request-Increase of sustainable oriented consumers, with a new balance between local and global-Increase of digital communication and commercialization.All this given, both sectors require the development of specific communication techniques and strategies, to convey the strong intertwining of business strategies, knowledge, aesthetics, ethical values.In Europe there are just HE courses dedicated to the two sectors separately. For food, more than 200 MA/BA and high-level training courses, mainly focused on Chemistry, Engineering, Biochemistry, issues related to legislation or brand communication. For fashion, more than 400 MA/BA and high-level training courses, focused on Business management, Communication, Marketing and Design of fashion and textiles. No European evidence of university programmes/courses focusing on the common ground of fashion&food has been found (except one UK case for journalists/teachers). UC and JU have recently launched two BA programme to fill the gap, but they still need further experimentation and innovative contents.All in all, we want to take the challenge of teaching in this space, combining a sociological critical approach to cultural industries with innovative ideas and skills for the near future.F&F4Sustainability responds to the target groups’ needs as follow:•HE students, in order to make them learn cutting-edge contents and develop new skills to drive the next joint development of the two sectors.•University teachers/researchers, providing them with a new vision of the sectors and sustainability challenges.•University teachers/researchers together with public and private sectors operators, who will directly experience the joint design and test of learning modules and materials, to meet labour market’s competence needs.•Professionals and their companies, to keep their competitive power in the fashion & food world sectors, updating them with the latest and new elements of convergence and the sustainable trends.•Public managers and urban policy makers, to help them with a cultural cross approach, updating their ability to analyse urban phenomena and develop urban policies.<< Objectives >>THE OBJECTIVES•Update competencies of BA/MA students to the actual and perspective needs of the fashion &food sectors and to their increasing convergence, concentrating on the key issue of circular economy, sustainability communication, and tools for digital media analysis and visual analysis, with a cultural and interdisciplinary approach.•Adapting university courses and teachers' practices to future trends of fashion&food synergies, with a quick response to skills' needs, including soft and digital skills.•Developing community competencies in the same fields, by transferring content, methods and tools to continuous training for various target (young entrepreneurs and start-uppers, public managers, professionals in local businesses, etc.).<< Implementation >>In 36 months, 8 partners (4 universities, 1 fair trade umbrella organisation, 1 employment and training non-profit organisation, 1 global entrepreneurship and innovation support organization, 1 public regional business promotion agency) from 6 EU countries, will develop the following activities:WP1 - Definition of course module contents. Collection and preparation of contents on sustainability models in the fashion&food cultural industries and their synergies, key issues selection, partners’ experience exchange, territory mapping, case studies, competence framework (including soft and digital skills).WP2 -Course modules design. Identification and choice of the most effective and innovative methods for university teaching about sustainability issues in fashion&food. Preparation of training and in-depth seminars on new modules for teachers and researchers.WP3 - International testing of the course modules taught in English (first phase). Preparation of 2 training modules for students. Intensive testing of modules with students of all partner universities. Observation by other partners. Local training experiments of partner trainers on target groups (teachers, researchers and first groups of students). Analysis of the results, systematisation, validation and results certification.WP4 – Testing of course modules (second phase) and fine-tuning. Preparation of other 4 new modules for testing. Translations of training materials into the partner languages to enable the implementation of modules. Diversified implementation of new modules for students in different courses in all partner universities. Validation and certification.WP5 - Training the community. Design of training seminars/webinars. Adaptation of previous results into training contents for city managers and young professionals or future entrepreneurs. Implementation and testing of new seminars/webinars for entrepreneurs and/or public managers. Validation and fine-tuning of seminars/webinars. Creation of an online group (social media to be defined) to support and consolidate communication with stakeholders.The activities include transnational trainings (one in presence and 3 online - C) supporting the work packages implementation, local testing of course modules and seminars/webinars, 7 Transnational partners’ meeting (TMP) and 10 multiplier events (E).The project will involve (minimum estimated number):1.200 students who will participate in the testing of modules and materials, at international and local level;2.20 teachers, researchers and trainers who will participate in the testing of the modules;3.24 people of partners’ staff who will participate in any of the project activities;4.30 people of partners’ staff who will participate in local activities in their own countries;5.15 people of the staff of associated partner and other stakeholders who will participate in the trainings;6.50 people between personnel of enterprises, public bodies and other organisations who will contribute to the contents collection and modules testing;7.100 young entrepreneurs, public managers and professionals for the testing of the seminars/webinars.<< Results >>The project aims to increase knowledge about the intersection and cross fertilisation of fashion&food as cultural industries. The main concrete RESULTS will be as follows:R1. New contents to communicate sustainability in fashion&food. Collection and comparison of teaching experiences, workshops, research results focused on sustainability, in order to develop a new vocabulary to go beyond the term ""sustainability"" and specify the concrete different processes and dimensions which sustainability is made of. The word “sustainability” is overused and risks losing its meaning. It indicates actions linked to very different fields (environment, working conditions, cultural differences, etc.). It is time to go towards a new vocabulary able to express each of those dimensions and create awareness and advocacy among citizens and consumers.R2. New training guidelines for teachers. Reference tool for teachers and researchers to adopt new training modules in courses for students. The guidelines will collect tested experience, with attention to continuous teaching and learning evaluation.R3 New course modules for University degrees. Creation of tested brand-new contents for HE university students (BA/MA). The learning content will be organized in modular units that can be implemented in a flexible waySome ideas have been preliminary discussed with partners and will be developed, integrated and selected in WP1, such as:•MediaDataLab for collaborative development, refinement and use of data-driven tools for media analysis, with a focus on the analysis of visual data;•""Wardrobes and Cupboards”, to empirically study the role of material culture of f&f in everyday life;•Transparency and traceability of processes and products in the fashion and food supply chains;•Cultural sustainability (e.g. appropriation, inclusion, diversity etc.);•…R4. Training modules for the community. Training modules for professionals and adults for their lifelong learning, based on the university ones (R3). The learning materials will be suitable for e-learning and or blended learning. The foreseen activities develop further qualitative results:-University programmes (and their e-learning platforms) enriched with sharable international modules.-Students and professionals trained in new competences during the testing.-A group teachers of the partners HEI able to use the new contents and training materials, both on site and online.-The partnership staff trained as a team in the content collection/selection and technically and methodologically trained to produce learning materials, with attention to multimedia.-A 1st nucleus of a network of public and private organisations interested in the convergent development of the two sectors.The OUTCOMES will be:1. Improvement of the HE offer through:a.The development of competencies coherent with the latest trend in f&f and their synergiesb.The development of competencies that embed the digital turn as a facilitating condition for a sustainable transition.c.Experiential and participated learning methods2. The deepening of a humanities approach to the study of the cross-fertilization between fashion&food.3. Thanks to the type of partnership, where the University approach is faced with other learning approaches (adult education and continuous training AM, AL, SFG, EE), the outputs will be suitable for a number of potential targets, preserving a high-level standard, and available for partners and any other organisation interested in using them.4. An increase in the knowledge and skills of teachers, researchers, tutors, and students involved in the project.5. Strengthening of collaboration between universities dedicated teaching and research about sustainability.6. New connections among project partners and stakeholders’ organizations, at the private as well as at the public level.7. Promoting the transfer of the obtained results to other countries in which our partners’ networks operate, thus valorsing them."

The Horizon 2020 work programme names the lack of innovation management capacity as “…an important barrier to creating economic impact…” and accordingly as a significant challenge for innovative SMEs. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that consulting services to address these gaps are either not sufficiently available in certain regions, not affordable or not sufficiently tailored to the specific needs of SMEs. In the course of this action, the Austrian consortium will support SMEs in addressing these factors hindering successful innovation cycles. Activities will be targeted at enhancing the innovation management capacity (EIMC) of SMEs and at providing substantial consulting and support services in the form of key account management (KAM) to beneficiaries of the Horizon 2020 SME instrument. The support will be delivered by experts well experienced in innovation related issues, working for the major innovation and research promotion agencies in Austria. Services will be provided in close cooperation and coordination with the National Contact Points and major regional and national stakeholders, guaranteeing a holistic approach and a high quality of services promoting the successful introduction of Austrian innovations to the European and international market.

A lack of innovation management capacity represents an important barrier to creating economic impact from innovation activities in SMEs. The H2020 Work Programme “Innovation in SMEs” foresees support services via the Enterprise Europe Network dealing with this issue. The Austrian consortium will support SMEs in addressing factors hindering successful innovation cycles. Activities will aim at (1) providing substantial consulting and support services in the form of Key Account Management (KAM) to beneficiaries of the SME instrument, Fast Track to Innovation and FET Open and at (2) enhancing the innovation management capacity (EIMC) of SMEs. Services will be provided in close cooperation and coordination with the National Contact Points and regional and national stakeholders. KAM and EIMC services will be carried out by experienced innovation experts that are all also involved in/closely connected to the provision of EEN services. This guarantees a seamless support via the services provided under H2020 and COSME, using synergies but avoiding the duplication of services. (1) Within the frame of the Key Account Management, partners will conduct company assessments, identify weaknesses in the SMEs’ innovation strategies and subsequently help SMEs to assign professional coaches. Coaches and SMEs will then develop a coaching plan and address these weaknesses. The process will be facilitated and accompanied by the EEN expert. Further support (e.g. the link to additional financial resources) will be provided and so the SME receives a vital service throughout the project. (2) EEN experts will also directly support a selected number of SMEs in improving their innovation management. This will be achieved through targeted innovation management consulting. SMEs in need of this specific type of consulting will be reached which show a high potential for successful market introduction of innovations and international growth.