"Soft skills, according to ESCO’s (European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations) definition, are the cornerstone for the personal development of a person; the building blocks for the development of the ""hard"" skills and competences required to succeed in the labour market. Success in the labour market is seen to be more and more dependent upon possessing the hybrid skills – technical and soft skills – that employers increasingly value.Soft skills can be distinguished into personal and interpersonal skills or interpersonal qualities and personal attributes that one possesses. This conceptualises soft skills in somewhat abstract terms and characterises them as innate. The idea on which this project is based sees soft skills as having “hard” component, which makes it possible to develop them by learning using appropriate tools, procedures and methods.The human resource functions within companies often use soft-skills as a catch-all term without ever really defining them. But when placed in context – e.g. problem solving in relation to a systems failure on a production line – this might be regarded as a “not-so-soft-skill” (NSSS). This because there are tools, procedures and methods for learning how to solve problems. Of course, this needs to take into consideration the attitude of the person (their fortitude, determination, etc.), but there are other elements to problem solving too that can be learnt.This lack of clarity has many consequences, not least that it is likely to lead to a poor match between applicants for a job and the content of that job, thereby wasting the time of the applicants and the recruiters. ULISSE project aimed to unveil the true meaning of soft skills by developing the concept of “NSSS” and creating a common language with respect to soft skills among the key actors involved (intermediaries, job seekers and employers). Based on this, the project partners designed specific training paths for addressing the company’s NSSS needs, to increase the students employability and the job match-making. The training courses were focused on tools, procedures and methods, specifically designed to address this goal, ensuring effective and Pareto efficient results. or designing the course, the partners first created a common lexicon of soft skills, through a data mining process: different databases, scientific papers and job vacancies provided by all the partners will be processed in a semi-automatic way using the Technimeter®. Soft skills have then be unveiled, i.e. broken down (or “decomposed”) into more detailed and specific skills - representing their “hard side” - to be addressed efficaciously with tools, procedures and methodologies. The result was synthesized in a mind-map, expressing the “unveiled” soft skills and their relations. To select the topics to address in the training course, the partnership conducted a gap analysis overlapping the skills in students’ CVs and the already existing University training with the results achieved in IO2. The workshops designed and then piloted in all the project countries involved 63 students and blended theory, methods and tools, exercises, practical work. The partnership has given open-access to all the learning materials, ppts, exercises and methodologies adopted during the course, now available on the project website ""www.ulisseproject.eu"". Partners also elaborated an innovative evaluation methodology, keeping into account two elements learned by their experience: i) the bias due to the common misunderstanding on the true meaning of them and ii) that the real outcome is the actual implementation of the tools, procedures and methodologies in every-day working-life. This methodology was based on a three-step procedure, assessing the students before the training course, at the end of it and one month later.Finally, the partners developed an IT tool called Soft Skills Detector (http://ulisseapp.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/home) aimed at helping companies to describe their job vacancies in a more effective way, thus facilitating the matching of job supply and demand. The toolkit has been designed and then piloted with a limited number of companies, before releasing the final version in English and all partner languages.The key target groups for the project were employers, employment intermediaries (headhunters, recruiters, other Career Services (CS), etc) and job seekers, in our case University students/graduates. Employers benefited from the Soft Skills detector developed by the partners for supporting them write job vacancies in a more effective way. Universities benefitted from all the research activities carried out on soft skills and the training materials and assessment methodologies. CS increased their effectiveness in their intermediary role to help students design their career path; while students benefitted from the courses and materials delivered in increasing their employability."

In the last years, different pedagogical approaches have been developed by pedagogists and experts in distance learning. The most advanced approach is called “action-based learning” and refers to “all learning that is orchestrated by some activity on the part of learners” (Naidu & Bedgood, 2012). These actions may vary from real participation by learners (in building or creating something), to learners watching a video clip that is later examined, reflected on and then subject to a decision-making process. This approach can be divided into different streams and it is generally based on reversing the traditional learning process. In fact, it proposes to “start from the end”, by starting from questions, case studies, real problems, datasets and then returning to the theory behind. The four approaches referring to action-based learning that will be addressed in the project are the following: 1) inquiry-based learning, 2) problem-based learning,3) scenario-based learning, 4) dataset-based learning. The objectives of the project are: (i) enhancing the pedagogical digital skills of the educators, offering them a set of toolboxes for easily putting these methodologies into practice; (ii) developing innovative online tools (SuperFastLearning Machines) that through data-mining extract relevant information from which developing digital contents (one for each methodology); iii) enabling lecturers and trainers to better understand the pedagogical methodologies that are behind training approaches.The project will be carried out by four Universities (University of Pisa, that will coordinate the project, Bordeaux University, University of Zaragoza, University of Bremen and Koszalin University of Technology) and one technology provider for data mining and Natural Language Processing (Erre Quadro).In order to reach the above-mentioned objectives, a structured methodology has been developed. The project members, organized in 4 groups composed of one Leader, one Fellow and three peer-reviewers will develop several tools that will be included in 4 Toolboxes, one for each action-based methodology addressed. Working in such groups should ensure the full involvement of all the partners in the preparation of the contents and allow an internal/external cross-fertilization process, considering also the opinion of less expert organizations. The partners will then make available the following tools: (i) SFL Machine: an IT tool adopting NLP methodologies and data-mining techniques hosted on the project website allowing to gather data and extract information using different document sources selected by the educators; (ii) theoretical background of the methodology in two versions: a) methodology in a nut-shell, for information/dissemination purposes and b) full scientific description, further researches); (iii) practical pedagogical guidelines: how to make an action-based learning lesson complying with pedagogical requirements, (iv) 9 presentations/good practices (1 prepared by IO Leader, 4 prepared by the other partners and 4 prepared by educators from other HEIs) and (v) an e-learning course to explain the use of the mentioned tools. During the project implementation the first version of the Toolboxes will be tested by the partners and also by at least 20 external testers, thus ensuring an external validation of their contents. After the release of the final version of the toolboxes on the project website, the partners will organize in presence and online training events (webinars) in order to train as many educators from STEM faculties as possible. When the Toolboxes will be available and an intense dissemination and exploitation phase will take place, the partners will develop an interactive tool to help researchers, lecturers and trainers to understand which is the best pedagogical strategy, among the four addressed in the project, that fits better with the features of the subject and topic they want to teach through e-learning courses. The tool consists in a number of questions on the kind of topic and subject the lecturers want to teach and his/her scopes and aims for the lecture. The impacts on the main target group (STEM Professors, Researchers, Lecturers of STEM faculties) are: In the short-term: - increasing digital and pedagogical skills - increasing knowledge on the 4 action-based methodologies - Practicing increased digital and pedagogical skills for developing contents that will be used as a reference by other educators - being able to select the most appropriate methodology according to the topic and subject In the long-term: - providing practical and handy tools to teachers more reluctant to online training - increasing the number of students enrolling to STEM faculties, thanks to the renewal of training content- Including the new skills for producing contents also for other purposes (frontal lessons, blended learning, ..) - adopting NPL and data-mining techniques for solving other education problem

beFORE took on the challenge to transform university entrepreneurship education, company training and business practice. The project consortium developed and released the original educational offer, which would nurture Futures Literate Individuals with improved capacity for analysing and dealing with the unknown future challenges when pursuing a professional career, managing an organisation or developing innovations. The project contributed to building a methodological and theoretical framework for future-oriented entrepreneurship coupled with the development of e-learning based educational solutions, in order to facilitate achieving a desired foresight awareness and maturity levels among entrepreneurs, students and educators.The specific needs of the target groups were analysed in a pan-European survey and effectively addressed in the educational offer composed of: one main and the three auxiliary e-learning courses for students, entrepreneurs and academics. Futures Literacy e-learning courses were tested among target groups in national pilots in: Poland, Italy, Germany and Spain. The European-targeted results of the project provide an effortless starting point for wide implementation across other countries, to which the associated partners (i.e. ISPIM, FEN, EPPM) will contribute to. The project outputs are instrumental in acquiring knowledge and skills: (i) by university teachers and company training providers allowing them to educate Futures Literate Individuals (ii) by entrepreneurs enabling them to take advantage of market and technological opportunities leading to innovations (iii) by students helping them to capture and develop business ideas. The project creates long-term impacts through: (iv) increasing synergies between educational offer of academia and business (v) increasing interdisciplinarity and flexibility of higher educational offer (vi) laying foundations to transform organisations into anticipatory and adaptive systems.

IPR4SC - Developing Skills in Intellectual Property Rights Open Data for Sustainability and Circularity targets the lack of intellectual property informatics and management skills, i.e. ‘IP for business’ skills, that are enriched with green, digital and entrepreneurial skills. Their lack can present a barrier to successfully engage in the new (digitally enabled) transitions towards more sustainability and circularity, whilst achieving economic growth. The general aim of the project is to increase the innovation capacity of EU inventors, trained in HE and VET organizations, in designing and implementing sustainable and circular economy businesses by boosting IP for business skills. IPR4SC is focused, but not limited, on the following target groups: HEIs, where the focus is on technology transfer offices, spin-outs, and students from technical, natural and business sciences; VETs and their learners, as well as SMEs, especially start-ups. Other stakeholders, such as patent offices, IP lawyers, large companies and policymakers will also be involved.The project will develop educational offerings to be delivered by the HEI and VET providers that are adapted to the various target groups, include the use of open resources, and support putting IP for business into practice. The partners will deliver a detailed IP for business skills needs analysis, develop an IT tool (IPR Monitor) as a navigation (decision tree-based) online tool, design and deliver the I2P for Green course and modules (IP for green skills), the Simulation lab (IP for digital skills), and the innovative format of an IP Co-design Jam (strengthening entrepreneurial skills). The project is co-developed and co-delivered by a partnership of 4 universities, 2 technology & innovation providers, 2 VET providers, and 2 partners supporting the partnership, providing professional services in project management and dissemination. Associated partners are involved, including patent offices, and other organisations.

The transition towards a Circular Economy is estimated to represent a $4.5 trillion global growth opportunity by 2030. Digital Twins availability is largely recognized as an accelerator and an enabler of Circular Economy in business and in production, but significant challenges are still standing in relation to its development within the present technological framework, the needed skill sets, and the implementation costs. AUTO-TWIN addresses the technological shortcoming and economic liability of the current system-engineering model by 1) introducing a breakthrough method for automated process-aware discovery towards autonomous Digital Twins generation, to support trustworthy business processes in circular economies; 2) adopting an (International Data Space) IDS-based common data space, to promote and facilitate the secure and seamless exchange of manufacturing/product/business data within value-networks in a circular-economy ecosystem; 3) integrating novel hardware technologies into the digital thread, to create smart Green Gateways, empowering companies to perform data and digital twin enabled green decisions, and to unleash their full potential for actual zero-waste Circular Economy and reduced dependency from raw materials.