Diabetes causes a large and unevenly distributed health and economic burden within the population living with diabetes. Improved health behaviours have the potential to avert a large share of morbidity and mortality attributable to diabetes. However, adherence to recommended self-management remains challenging for many patients. This may (at least partly) explain the large overall disease burden in people with diabetes, as well as how that burden is distributed among patients. A better understanding of the patient and community level characteristics that affect behaviour change can inform more personalised, more effective health interventions that stimulate positive health behaviour changes, in turn reducing the overall burden associated with diabetes. CASCARA aims to provide novel and much needed evidence on characteristics predictive of (1) health behaviour change subsequent to a diabetes diagnosis and (2) of the resulting changes in diabetes complication risk factors. To achieve this, I will use causal econometric and epidemiologic methods as well as machine learning (ML) and causal mediation analysis. The commonly recommended behaviour changes I focus on comprise: improving diet, increasing physical activity, reducing smoking and alcohol consumption. In particular, CASCARA will address the following research objectives using longitudinal observational data from continental Europe, the UK and the US: 1. Investigate the effect of a diabetes diagnosis on health behaviours and potential heterogeneities across gender and socioeconomic status 2. Use of ML to identify potentially unanticipated socioeconomic, demographic and clinical characteristics affecting health behaviour change, for a more detailed understanding of its potential drivers 3. Use causal mediation analysis to identify the impact of different health behaviour changes on risk factors for diabetes complications (body mass index, hypertension status and blood glucose levels) post-diabetes diagnosis.

Stress is nearly ubiquitous in everyday life, and imposes a tremendous burden worldwide by acting as a major risk factor of mental disorders, autoimmune, infectious and cardiovascular diseases, and some cancers. The aim of the FragMent project is to evaluate to which extent the spatial and temporal fragmentation of exposures to environments in daily life influences physiological and psychological stress, as well as social inequalities in stress. Some evidence shows that exposures to daily environments may either act as a stress contributor or provide some stress restorative qualities. While the protective effect of greenness has been clearly established, strong uncertainties remain regarding the effects of urban environments. FragMent starts from this premise to investigate the environmental determinants of momentary, daily and chronic stress in relation with immediate, daily and regular environmental exposures. The project uncovers the role of spatiality and temporality in exposure effects on stress. It further builds on the concept of space-time activity fragmentation, to contextualize patterns of exposure within activity patterns. Finally, it analyses how differences in space-time exposures and activity patterns across social groups may lead to social inequalities in stress. An observational cohort study will be used to evaluate momentary, daily and chronic stress in daily life, using a combination of traditional web-survey, map-based questionnaires, smartphone tracking and Geographic Ecological Momentary Assessment. A series of lab-based experiments, combining Immersive Virtual Environments with a walking simulator, will assess the effect of urban environmental characteristics and the temporality of exposures on momentary physiological and psychological stress. Bridging knowledge from epidemiology and time geography, FragMent will provide critical evidence to equitably reduce exposure to environmental stressors in outdoor space in everyday life.

iCHRONOS will investigate the social exclusion of vulnerable population groups with regard to accessing major daily amenities in an increasingly digitized society. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is increasingly shaping travel behaviour by providing access to an umbrella of e-activities (e-working, e-shopping, e-leisure, etc.). However, ICT may trigger the fragmentation of activities, which could lead to a change in the use of places, and travel time and patterns, and thus also to considerable differences in accessibility levels. To address these issues, an innovative modelling-oriented research design is proposed, conceptualized under the framework of the time-geography approach. Luxembourg City, which is firmly committed to rolling out the digital economy, will serve as the case study. First, a data gathering process will be carried out, focusing on integrating three data sources: GPS tracking, everyday mobility diaries and a socio-economic questionnaire. Second, the way in which ICT creates space-time fragmentation of daily activities will be investigated. Third, the impact of this space-time fragmentation on transport accessibility will be modelled. Fourth, practitioners will reflect on the usefulness of space-time fragmentation and accessibility outcomes in practice. The expected output will be three academic papers in top-tier journals, as well as attendance at international conferences across Europe. The project outcomes will provide much-needed reflection on and understanding of the interface between technology, mobility and social inequalities. Both the outcomes and output will build on the synergies of participating institutions, as (i) the proposal is tightly embedded in their main research lines, (ii) all the required infrastructure is already in place and (iii) collaborations with renowned academics already exist. In sum, the project will greatly enhance the capacity of the applicant to achieve an independent research career in academia.

Geography and Environmental Sciences (G&ES) programmes have diverse skill and method requirements needing specialized training ranging from spatial methods such as computer cartography and GIS via field and laboratory methods to qualitative and quantitative data analysis. Methods training often involves time intensive practical elements which have been particularly impacted by the COVID-19 restrictions highlighting the need for digital materials to complement, supplement and where necessary replace face to face discipline specific methods. Responding to the COVID-19 crisis has led to unnecessary duplication of effort and shown the skills gap experienced by many higher education (HE) academics facing the need to increase use of digital materials. This is a Europe-wide challenge which is not restricted to the current context but relates to a broader need to improve skills and use of digital technologies in HE.The project aims to support the HE community in G&ES by enhancing capacity of HE teachers through training in digital and blended methods delivery as well as co-creation of high-quality, highly shareable open educational resources (OERs) for discipline-specific methods training, along with training resources on content creation and digital pedagogies, and disseminating these approaches through a participatory web platform. The platform will include a peer-reviewed participatory tool to support sharing of OERs beyond the partnership. Individual universities offer unique programmes in G&ES, built around local needs and staff expertise, therefore a key element of this project is to ensure that all materials produced are highly flexible, offering HE lecturers a toolkit of OERs and skills that they can use to build custom modules appropriate to local needs in less time, and allowing them to focus on relationship-building and individual student support rather than content creation. It is aimed at HE staff involved in teaching and programme development. The project will also largely benefit students in G&ES through enhanced methods training.The project involves three universities from Germany, the UK and Ireland as well as one national research institute from Luxembourg that will provide expertise in digitization and platform development. Established networks through discipline specific associations and university partnerships will be used for testing and validation of OERs to ensure their quality and transferability. Each partner has identified a core group of staff based on expertise who will train others, develop their own skills and take leading roles in the creation of OERs and the web platform. Key decision makers at partner institutions (e.g. quality control and programme development) will be targeted to embed the project more widely across the university partners. The project partners will untertake scoping studies of best practices, competencies and needs in G&ES methods training. They will create and build a range of OERs for G&ES methods teaching including self-learning manuals on how to create online resources, templates, sample material and packages of teaching units. They will also build a participative web platform for dissemination. All OERs and the web platform will be tested using internal and external audiences. A number of methods specific training events focused on digital technology will enhance digital capacities and build competencies across partner institutions.The project will employ a design-based methodology to provide solutions for online and blended methods teaching through design and development of OERs informed by expertise in pedagogy and research methods across partner institutions. Design, development, testing and implementation of outputs will be evaluated using standardized and semi-standardized approaches.With completion of the project, partners will have significantly enhanced the capacity of their staff regarding the creation and adoption of OERs for G&ES methods training beyond digital and blended learning as a constraint, diversifying experiences for added understanding, experience, perspectives and skills. Beyond the current health crisis, the planned resources and toolkits will hence contribute to better teaching quality and long-term enrichment of the field through more inclusive, active and authentic methods training for diverse student bodies. The project will result in tangible outputs: a participative web platform providing a range of created OERs which will be open to the larger G&ES community.The project aims to act as a catalyst for longer term benefits through: (1) the circulation of expertise and adoption of digital methods teaching tools across the HE partner institutions within G&ES as well as other disciplines and (2) the longer term viability of the web platform based on a peer-reviewed system supporting submission of OERs meeting established quality standards.

<< Background >>Our project has been designed to support the European Union by addressing two priorities. The first priority is “Addressing digital transformation through the development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity”. All of the partner institutions are members of the European Network for Regional Labour Market Monitoring (ENRLMM) and as a network, we have lobbied for many years for more nuanced use of labour market intelligence (LMI) within regions and within educational institutions in the current digitalized context. Our Network has over 400 members from all countries of the European Union and is financially self-sustaining. It is the expert European network on the use of Labour Market Intelligence in regional and local geographies and it will fully support this project. Our lead partner, the West University of Timisoara is a very active member of the Network and the host of ENRLMM Big Data Knowledge Hub. This is a collaborative platform for mutual exchange and learning where all the members of the EN RLMM can look for guidance when aiming to use big data in their labour market.LMI is critical for understanding the new challenges on the labour market and to help HEI to increase the capacity and readiness to manage an effective shift towards digital education. Additionally, it helps to develop the appropriate digital skills and competencies through better matching of education supply to demand and for forecasting and fore-sighting skills needs. Within this priority we will seek to support digital transformation through the development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity in three areas that the Network has identified are a priority for Universities and Higher Education institutions: a. Matching education/skills supply to local and regional labour market demand (covering topics such as ecosystems, partnerships, forecasting, real-time Labour Market Intelligence); b. Fitting curriculum content to a rapidly evolving world of work (employer-input, fore-sighting etc.) and the provision of new types of course (higher VET, 2-year degrees, etc.); c. Evidencing impact and outcomes for policymakers (such as employability, graduate tracking, internships and placement provision).Up-to-date labour market intelligence is also critical to the HEI Priority “Stimulating innovative learning and teaching practices”. This is our second priority and within the project, we will explore how Universities can develop student-centred curricula and ensure that their offer tackles the skills needs of the current and predicted European workforce and what lessons around this can be disseminated across the sector.<< Objectives >>The long term benefits and outcomes we seek can be summarised as:1. Greater and more nuanced use of LMI within European Universities with this more evidence-based provision leading to benefits for learners, the Universities themselves and the economy and societies that benefit from the future efforts of the learners/graduates;2. Policymakers and key stakeholders who are better able to positively influence university provision (boosting the impact of the demand side) leading to a virtuous circle where both see the benefits from more closely aligned, better-evidenced, provision;3. Widening the appreciation of how LMI can be used both within Universities and by those looking to understand the importance and potential impacts and benefits from Universities.The primary audiences for our project will be European Universities which we will reach through partner networks, such as ENRLMM, EUniverCities; careers guidance networks; Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals. We will also strengthen the links with those seeking to influence university education delivery (such as the demand-side - including regional development agencies and employer groups), reached through networks such as EURispes, EESC, and OECD, all of whom work with the ENRLMM.<< Implementation >>Within our project, we are going to map the essential LMI sources at the national level and explore how HEI in Europe are using them (to match the education/courses; to inform the content of the taught curriculum, and to evidence new and emerging requirements from policymakers). We will cover the largest 7 EU countries: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Romania, Netherlands; plus, Belgium, Estonia, Austria, Sweden, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Czech Republic, and Greece. This will ensure good representativeness, as all parts of the EU will be covered (Western / Eastern / Nordic / Mediterranean countries). We will explore the state-of-the-art in each of these themes through a mixed methodological approach embracing: A major European Higher Education survey; a series of literature reviews; interviews with university practitioners and policy makers/leaders; building good practice case studies and testing our findings through a series of major final conferences and events. These findings will be combined into a Training Course mainstreamed through Europe’s expert network of labour market observatories (ENRLMM) and offered to those seeking to use efficiently LMI. To support the decision-makers from HEI in using labour market information, an LMI Hub will be developed to aggregate LMI sources useful for HEI and a guide will be made available to help HEI to use LMI in planning their activity.<< Results >>We envisage a number of major outputs, including a report with LMI sources at the European level, desk research, and survey-based research (and associated Report) exploring evidence-building through LMI within Universities (how do they use it, what for, and to what end); a training course (on how European Universities use the LMI, promoted through ENRLMM International Conference 2022 and a series of smaller National Conferences); and three dedicated parallel publications on 1-3 above made freely available through the ENRLMM, each with accompanying good practices, case studies and an Executive Summary to help identify lessons for policymakers.Our HUB (Intellectual Output 3) will host all of these major outputs.We are anticipating Outcomes that will focus initially on Universities (and HEIs) but will have lasting impacts on the individuals learning within these institutions and on the labour markets into which they enter. Our project is seeking to ensure that Universities are making the most appropriate best practice use of labour market intelligence to help with curriculum design; career advice and guidance; and extra-curricular support for students to ensure that their skills match those currently in-demand in the workplace. We therefore also anticipate new curricula, closer links with employers and the development of new extra-curricular support within European Universities. To help achieve this we will seek to proactively link with the Networks recently established as part of the European Universities Programme, which are seeking similar objectives and can learn from interaction with the LMI experts within this.