The project “COMPASS- competencies supporting youth innovative entrepreneurship” collects 4 partners in strategic partnership: FRDL MISTiA Kraków (Poland)- leader of the project, EDUCentrum Zu (Czech Republic)-project partner, Fondatsiya za reforma v mestnoto samoupravlenie (Bulgaria)-project partner, Pedal Consulting (Slovakia)-project partnerThe main aim of the project is to supporting the capacity building of people working with youth in the field of innovative entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and innovative non-profit activities development, through new business youth education model by innovation and exchange practices among 4 partners during 24 months.

The main objective of the project is to contribute to a transition towards a green economy in Europe through organization of the international conference “Transition to a green economy” (T2gE). This international conference will be an event of major strategic nature during the Slovak Presidency of the European Council. Conference will bring together a broad spectrum of stakeholders. Its ambition is to improve understanding of the green economy concept, identify conclusions and pathways for transition as well as to involve and mobilise various actors and stakeholders in the discussions of possible future actions. The conference also aims to strengthen synergy among various recent initiatives and programmes launched by the European Commission (i.e 7EAP, Circular economy package, Energy Union, Juncker Commission’s priorities etc) and by the Member States, to the benefit of the overall coherence. The conference will aim to bring together policymakers from various EU countries, as well as a range of stakeholders from international organizations, academia, business, and civil society and encourage an open debate around key green economy issues. At the end of the conference, draft conclusions, for both the national and the European level, will be approved which will be useful tool for implementation of policy in the field of green economy. Parallel breakout sessions will be devoted to various relevant subjects with the involvement of representatives from civil society, policymakers, business, science and innovations, and regional and local authorities. The participants will present examples of the green economy approaches from successful countries, which will be discussed and reflected in the conclusions to ensure that green economy policy conclusions are relevant to countries’ needs. Part of the conference will be oriented on practical demonstration of Slovak examples of green/circular economy – field trip.

A recent study indicates that women raise funding receive significantly less—a disparity that averages more than $1 million—than men. Corporates are different players compared to Venture Capital firms. Even their investment arms, CVCs do have a different approach to the investment policies. Specifically targeting women-led companies to collaborate with corporates under a “paid-pilot” scheme that can really take women-led startups and corporate collaboration to the next level. Open Horizons proposes a novel approach towards covering the women-led companies funding and corporate network gap, by creating a full programme, from scratch, that relies in the work done by other initiatives (Women TechEU or Empowomen) The consortium aims to invest 1.2M€ in startups and is comprised by an experienced consortium of partners as PEDAL (Reputed consultancy in EU projects also specialised in public procurement), SPLORO (experts on cascade funding) and INNOVX (EIC Partner and leading Accelerator). Corporates are also linked to the proposal as partners like Migros (retail) or associated partners like Siemens Industry Software, Repsol (energy) and Stahl (Manufacturing) and planning to expand up to 10. The project’s structured approach includes identifying and formulating corporate challenges, inclusive talent scouting across Europe, and facilitating the funding and implementation of pilot projects within real-world corporate settings. Post-pilot, the programme focuses on expanding growth opportunities for startups by connecting them with investment channels and helping negotiate commercial agreements for long-term collaborations. This comprehensive strategy not only provides a platform for women-led startups to showcase their innovations within major corporations but also integrates them into a broader corporate and innovation ecosystem, ensuring sustained growth and significant market presence.

CONTEXT Found in the Executive Summary of the report 'The Missing Entrepreneurs 2017 - Policies for Inclusive Entrepreneurship'; only 4.1% of the 30.6M self employed within the European Union in 2016 were youth. This is a significant under-representation relative to their share in employment. The Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan requires training to support business growth and actions reigniting the culture of entrepreneurship to nurture the new generation of entrepreneurs. This project seeks to do this using an existing enterprise education initiative 'YouNG' as a template. This targets young people in secondary education, it aims to embed 'Enterprise Education' into mainstream delivery, be more inclusive to cater for those with a disability and/or facing educational difficulties. PROJECT AIMS a) To embed the ‘YouNG Market’ (Enterprise Skills Development Activity) into mainstream curriculum delivery and deliver ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION for youth in schools; b) Make the ‘YouNG Market’ accessible to students of DISADVANTAGE with the capability of taking part successfully but who face barriers in doing so, improving their SOCIAL INCLUSION; c) Involve crucial STAKEHOLDERS (Teachers/Trainers and Employers) in delivery of the programme so they play a part in entrepreneurship education and creating a pathway for social inclusion. No. and PROFILE of PARTICIPANTS ➢We will work with 460 young people in secondary education between the ages of 15 - 19 years, 211 will be working at EQF Level 2, 144 at EQF Level 3, 85 are facing educational difficulties and 20 will be attending Special Educational Needs Schools; ➢A further 60 young people will be recruited to work with us in an informal educational setting; ➢We will work with 65 Teacher/Trainers, 15 will be based in Special Educational Needs Schools, 20 are predominantly working with those facing educational difficulties, 20 are mainly teaching at EQF Level 2, the final 10 at Level 3; ➢The final group of participants will be 40 employees, who are volunteering to mentor student participants involved in a 'YouNG Market' or similar enterprise education initiative. ACTIVITIES This project will focus on enabling the delivery of entrepreneurship education by creating new resources for teaching and learning, staff training, employer volunteering and generating work experience that seeks to develop skills within participants that business wants. We will innovate by creating new ways of working that will develop enterprise skills. A wide variety of activity is intended including the piloting of new resources so that the targeted beneficiaries will have a say in the final project outputs. We'll listen to the learner and take their feedback. METHODOLOGY EMPLOYED The project team have been involved in developing a comprehensive plan base on critical path analysis principles. So the process has been identified as has the key tasks which others are reliant upon. RESULTS and IMPACT ➢Embedded into mainstream curriculum enterprise education to raise awareness of business start-ups and the skills needed to be a successful employee; ➢A model which allows secondary school teacher/trainers to engage with enterprise education, increasing their skills and understanding of employer need from new job entrants; ➢More inclusive a model which engages those learners with disabilities, but with the capability to successfully participate in enterprise education; ➢Increased social mobility with a model which facilitates learners facing educational difficulties, to successfully participate in enterprise education; ➢Increased stakeholder engagement with school improving career guidance and aspirations.

Smart agriculture is determined to play a major role to foster water and energy conservation solutions, and innovation technologies should be aimed at overcoming current technical, economic, and sustainable barriers. The SOIL2POWER project focuses on developing a breakthrough power sourcing technology based in Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs), that leverage the natural microbial metabolism processes using organic matter present at the soil to generate electrical energy. The consortium will build a controlled electrogenic biofilm formation by immobilization techniques to increase overall biobattery performance, creating a continuous, clean, safe, and maintenance-free energy supply solution. By facing relevant challenges throughout the project, such as bacterial behavior, startup time conditions or electrode architecture an innovative biological battery of rapid start-up and stable high-power supply will be conducted to control irrigation valves without maintenance and replacement. Feasibility and validation of separate components have been already conducted through lab studies and will be the starting point to perform a continuous improvement development during the first stages of the project. Afterwards, a prototype will be tested in simulated environment by the end of year 2. If solution is validated with the whole functions up and running, during year 3 (2024-2025) a complete deployment of marketing and investment strategies will be performed, alongside operational environment validation to rate real performance based on real feedback from end-users. SOIL2POWER will contribute and ease the transition to develop novel technological solutions by boosting the innovation in clean energy solutions industry, strengthening human capital, biotechnological research innovatinos and eventually enabling the adoption of sustainable energy solutions in agricultural industry, paving the way to a sustainable precise irrigation systems for smart agriculture.