"The Facility Management (FM) as defined by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and ratified by 31 European countries is ""integration of processes within an organization to maintain and develop the agreed services which support and improve the effectiveness of its primary activities"". The main aim of the FM sector is to provide a safe and healthy place for living and work. In 2009 the International FM Association identified 11 core FM competencies - communication; emergency preparedness and business continuity; environmental stewardship and sustainability; finance and business; human factors; leadership and strategy; operations and maintenance; project management; quality; real estate and property management; and technology.Nowadays FM is subject to continuous innovation and development. Additional advantage but also challenge is that FM is both integrated and interdisciplinary. Different competences and skills from diverse professions could be directed to particular FM courses and trainings. At the same time FM has to operate at both levels - strategic-tactical and operational. These give great opportunity for many people to qualify or re-qualify but FM’s interdisciplinary nature sets a constant challenge before the organisations involved in FM education and training - to answer the persistent development of all areas of knowledge constituting the FM discipline.Based on a good Austrian practice, our project aimed at developing and piloting an innovative, multilingual platform for online distance training in FM - WIFI Facility Management Academy (WIFI-FMA). It lead to the creation of a set of comprehensive online training materials in English, Bulgarian, German, Hungarian and Serbian. Our approach is focused on applying a trainee-friendly learning method and delivery, which allows addressing the needs of various target groups.The project impacts many sectors, among which are VET, the adult education and youth. It also gives incitement for enhancement of the facility management-related subjects delivered at higher education level.The project adds value to the Erasmus+ objectives. WIFI-FMA contributes for achieving the five ambitious objectives defined by Europe 2020 on employment, innovation, education, social inclusion and climate/energy. The project corresponds to the third strategic objective of the strategic framework for EU Cooperation in Education and Training 2020 (ET 2020), namely “enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training – the acquisition of transversal competences by all citizens should be promoted and the functioning of the knowledge triangle (education-research-innovation) should be ensured. Partnerships between enterprises and educational institutions as well as broader learning communities with civil society and other stakeholders should be promoted”. A market survey was commissioned and conducted in March 2014. It showed that the FM professional training in Bulgaria was in early stage, with limited supply and growing demand. There is no online training or education responding the needs of both the individual trainees and private/public sector. There was no training available which was introducing the European standards in FM which was flexible, affordable and holistic.Our project considered good practices of applying transparent and efficient project management, as well as addressed key EU horizontal priorities. Our experts applied a methodology which combines innovative distance training delivery methods, trainees’ evaluation and internal monitoring.The project represented a first attempt to develop an EU-wide open model of continuous professional development in FM. Among the main project results are WIFI-FMA - developed and tested innovative, multilingual platform for online and distance training and self-education in Facility Management; developed training materials in 5 languages - 4 EU and Serbian; successfully tested training platform; 544 registered trainees; successful partnership among 6 partners from 4 countries; launched online forum allowing exchange of ideas, knowledge and experience.Across Europe the impact which already occurs is:1) A more aligned relationship between training provision and the needs of people employed in the FM sector.2) A more standardised European framework for distance, online training of those working in the FM sector.3) Shedding light on of the gaps/challenges for FM workers seeking to update their knowledge and skills both locally and across Europe."

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.

150 trucks from three European truck OEMs, the Volvo Group, Daimler AG and IVECO will be deployed across eight EU member states. Each company, will develop and deploy 41-44 tonne articulated trucks which are specified for the longest haul operation (ranges over 600km). The trucks will be deployed with over 20 truck operators and operate in a wide range conditions and day-to-day operations across 8 European member states. The trucks will operate on a new network of high throughput hydrogen refuelling stations, designed specifically for trucks (installed by Shell, OMV, TOTAL, Everfuel and Linde). These will be installed to cover the major TEN-T transport corridors from North to South Europe, with an initial focus on the regions where the vehicles are manufactured (to enable the high level of on-road support that the OEMs’ customers rely on). The stations will be supplied using green hydrogen from a network of 8 new large electrolysers producing green hydrogen consistent with RED II requirements, with associated Guarantees of Origin. The project will create an extensive technical, economic and attitudinal dataset which proves the viability of hydrogen as a solution to decarbonising road freight. This will be analysed by research partners, SINTEF, VTT and Element Energy to create easily interpreted public report on the performance of the fleet. The results will be disseminated to an audience of: policy makers (to encourage policy change to favour hydrogen truck deployment), truck operators (to enable future uptake) and the wider hydrogen industry (to underpin supply chain investment). These activities will contribute to accelerating the rate and scale of uptake of hydrogen fuelled vehicles in Europe, preparing the policy, fuelling network and end user acceptance for the first series production of these OEM vehicles (at the scale of 1,000’s per year per OEM) from as early as 2026 and full industrialisation (10,000’s per year per OEM) around 2030.

Social economy encompasses a variety of businesses, organizations and different legal entities sharing as their main objective to systematically put people first, aiming to create products and services that have a positive impact in all society’s respect (societal, financial, environmental, etc.). In addition, social entrepreneurship comprises the activities and processes undertaken to discover, define and exploit opportunities to enhance social wealth by creating new ventures or managing existing organizations in an innovative manner (Zehra et al.,2009, p519) – is a widely growing idea all across Europe, giving the opportunity EU citizens to civic engagement through addressing various social issues that may directly or indirectly affect citizens.There are 2.8 million social economy enterprises, representing 10% of all businesses in the EU. Almost 13.6 million people – about 6.2% of the EU’s employees – work for social economy enterprises. On top of the paid workforce, social economy mobilises volunteers, equivalent to 5.5 million full-time workers.Additionally, Vocational Education and Training in Europe depends on high-quality and timely insights on job market dynamics and new skills demands, yet often social characteristics on those educational schemes are left behind. The concept of social entrepreneurship is fully in line with Armenia’s aim to become an “entrepreneurial heaven” aiming to combat unemployment issues that have been plaguing the country for years. Azerbaijan a country rich with activities with a sustainable impact. Lastly, Moldova wrecked by the peril repercussions of COVID-19 has encountered difficulties on rebounding back both at a social and financial level.The project SEVET aims to create socialpreneurs through the development and establishment of training schemes in VET institutions focusing on underlining the social characteristics and features of students into the engineering career sector.

Urban Shift is creating a Living Ecosystem where Higher Education Institutions (IAAC, HdM and WU), a Vocational Education Institution (WIFI) and business partners (CF, GIG, MCA, TERRA) implement two batches of Living Labs for in total 80 learners of different backgrounds (urban design, environmental engineering, media and business). With the support of the trainers (staff from HEI, VET and business partners of the consortium, representing five European cities: Barcelona, Bolzano, Copenhagen, Stuttgart and Vienna ), the learners of two batch create solutions for pressing urban challenges by forming in total 10 transdisciplinary startup teams (consisting of 2 learners of each HEI and VET) and closely working with a network of Urban Experts. The tackled Urban Challenges are: Batch 1: Urban Heat Islands and Cooling & Food Waste/CircularityBatch 2: Climate/Extreme Weather Predictability & Mobility/CircularityThe LIVING ECOSYSTEM of Urban Shift will deliver the following components:equip learners (from HEI and VET) with relevant GREEN LABOUR MARKET SKILLS (digital, green, business and transdisciplinary/resilient skills) that support them in becoming green entrepreneurs and/or future employees of green jobs an easily adaptable LIVING CURRICULUM template to inspire future transdisciplinary collaboration among HEIs and VETs during and beyond project lifetime2 sets of LIVING EXHIBITIONS to promote the established solutions, the ambitions of the EU Green Deal and the Living Curriculum via EU GREEN DEAL AMBASSADORSthe SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS developed by the transdisciplinary startup teams an URBAN SHIFT ALUMNI NETWORK of learners and trainers to foster collaboration and co-creation during and after the official project endan OPEN ONLINE TRAINING for external trainers on how to implement the Living Curriculum in other European and also international contexts2 Cities Network Engagement Roundtable will be carried out throughout the project duration