Environmental preservation has become one of Europe’s firm commitments for the 2020 Agenda. In addition, it is also deemed a cross-cutting objective concerning the quality of life of European citizens. Not only does Europe value the fact that forests and their habitats constitute a significant part of our landscape, but there is also the awareness of their harbouring of thousands of animal and plant species. It is important to stress that this natural wealth provides a costless process for air and water purification, it helps to sustain the economy by acting as a source of food and raw materials and, at the same time, it serves as an unquestionable tourist attraction. Furthermore, forests act as the major element in the fight against climate change by means of CO2 fixation and they are a key factor in the production of oxygen for life preservation.In this context, this project focuses on two key objectives: a) Raising awareness regarding the need of care and protection of the forests and enhance the capacity of European citizens to face this current challenge of forest, which are nowadays threatened not only by environmental and water pollution, but also, very particularly, by frequent major fires throughout Europe, especially in the Mediterranean basin. b) The protection of citizens against the risk of human losses in forest fire catastrophes. We can saw dozens of dead people in the big fires across Europe (Greece, Spain, Italy…), which means generally a lack of knowledge. CAREFOREST will also enhance important key abilities, such as leadership, teamwork and IT and communication skills, while, at the same time, providing scientific training that will enable a more thorough and profound understanding of important matters concerning the forests. This will be decisive in reinforcing their environmental awareness as well as increasing their employability. With these main objectives in mind the expected results for the project will be:1) The production of an E-BOOK on: LIFE IN FOREST AND IMPACT OF FIRES The e-book will include visual graphic and multimedia materials: 3D and 2D animations, videos, pictures, drawings, etc, in order to better communicate the contents and to, complementary, foster ICT based communication in students. It will include 10 didactic units aimed at educating children in secondary education in different aspects of the forest. 2) The production of the Web Platform www.careforest.com This online platform, in addition to the e-Book, will include different sections devoted to promote raising awareness regarding the need of preserving life in forest and taking measure to prevent fires. 3) Organizing an international video competition 4) Carrying out field activities.5) Organizing workshops and seminars. 6) Publishing an electronic magazine to disseminate the project and its actions and results. Regarding the short term impact, it will work in a different way in the different organizations. a) For the students in pre-university level involved in the project, whether as partner, associated partner or just collaborating in particular activities, the project will widely contribute to the enhancing of their key skills, meanly communication skills due to the involvement of the students in developing video clips, posters, panels and other graphic material to foster awareness-raising regarding the sustainable management of the forest. Competitions, seminars, congresses and other events will be organized with this purpose. By the end of the project they will have also a wide knowledge regarding the life in the forest (flora and fauna), its current challenges and possible measures to be taken in order to mitigate the impact of climate change, pollutions and human hand in the forest. Then, they are expected to work as transmitters to the society of such knowledge, which finally would be the only way of ensuring the sustainable development of the forest. b) For the teachers involved in the project, The involvement in the project activities, and specially their participation in the learning activities, will give them the necessary skills to pass this knowledge and competences to his/her students and to also serves as multiplier agents for the cascade impact of the project..3.- For the municipalities, the project will bring the possibility of working together with the Northway university for the Portuguese (as partner) and Spanish (as associated partner) municipalities involved in the project will be important due the high level of awareness and knowledge of this society/university. 4.- For the NGOs working in climate change and environment protection. CONSORTIUM PARTNERS : ES: General Directorate of Education, Vocational Training and Innovation in Education and AtinServices; PT: ASPEA and Lousada Municipality; RO: Metropolitan Agency for Sustainable Development and NO: Norwegian University College of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Water has always been key for the development of human societies. Water is vital for life, to support human societies and well-being. Most of the oldest and larger cities around the world are settled around a river. Fresh water is vital for human life and has also proved to be crucial for the settlement of most economic activities such as farming, transporting, industries or quarries. Unfortunately these activities are in the basis of two big problems: firstly, the reduction of water flow level promoted by the needs of consumption of a growing population with an important impact on the streams’ life balance, and secondly, the degradation of water’s quality due to human usage. Such decrease in quantity and quality has important impacts in the biodiversity of rivers and streams, their riparian areas and catchments. These impacts have been particularly intense in the 19th century, during the industrial revolution, which waste waters , has been thrown into rivers or the sea. Despite the treatment performed in wasted waters nowadays, the rates of contamination are still much higher than those bared by the rivers ecosystems. Actually, rivers and other waterways are currently among the most degraded ecosystems on the planet, suffering higher biodiversity reduction rates than those occurring in terrestrial ecosystems. As water needs increase, in line with population density pressure and economic development activities, river ecosystems will continue to deteriorate if they are not managed in a sustainable way. This requires not only the involvement of authorities and other public agents, but also the active participation of citizens and all social and economic agents. In response to this, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) has established public participation as a requirement in the process of preparation and implementation of River Basin Management Plans. Raising public awareness and improving knowledge on the impacts of human activities in riparian ecosystems while defining efficient measures to change the course of its degradation is crucial. This project is developed in close collaboration with different political, social and economic agents who work together in mitigating the negative impact in rivers and contributing to improve life quality in Europe. It involves students from different learning levels (high schools and universities), local populations, authorities, NGOs working in environment and researchers from different subject areas. The Project follows three fundamental pillars: • Improving ecoliteracy through research and disseminating knowledge on aquatic ecosystems thus promoting positive and responsible habits • Promoting environmental volunteering through responsible research and innovation, engaging students, teachers and staff from higher education institutions • Fostering citizens engagement in the protection of water ecosystems by promoting awareness and knowledge. The LIVINGRIVER project aims at raising awareness, improving skills and competences and fostering initiatives to achieve more sustainable and healthy rivers by developing and disseminating resources and tools which resort on scientific research towards a well informed and consequent global action. The project will be structured around two main Outputs: O1 - E-book: Life in streams and their riparia The e-book will resort on visual graphic and multimedia materials: 3D and 2D animations, videos, pictures, drawings, etc, in order to better communicate the contents related to biology, ecology, specifically ecosystems and the water cycle and regarding the history of scientific research, river and water usage by men and civilisations, industrial, cultural and economic activities related to the river across time, making its use more attractive and at the same time, raising awareness of the natural beauty and richness of the rivers environment. O2 – Web Platform www.livingriver.eu The www.livingriver.eu platform will gather information related to the whole of the project, give access to pedagogical and other resources and provide a space for all stakeholders interested in the topic of the project — schools, universities, authorities, NGO’s, professionals and others — to share information, resources and ideas. It will also be the main tool for the project’s dissemination.

ITHACA project aims to better understand the complexities and controversies for applying AI into the field of civic participation and stimulate new and responsible practices of research and innovation that anchor AI technologies design in human rights, values and principles, and moral and ethical reflection.The project vision is to contribute to the maximisation of the possible positive impact of AI on the functioning of democratic institutions and processes by developing and testing of a human centric Artificially Intelligent and Ethics by Design online discussion platform for civic participation in local governance, which incorporates human and social interpretations into the design process to ensure that AI decision-making processes are explainable, transparent and fair. ITHACA will pay particular attention to the needs and voices of citizens from vulnerable groups, with a view to ensuring that human rights impacts stemming from the design, development and ongoing deployment of algorithmic systems are comprehensively monitored, debated and addressed. Through its pilot activities in two different EU countries, ITHACA plans to assess the ability of AI to enhance citizens participation in the local governance while preventing or minimizing possible adverse effects stemming from unregulated use of AI and empowering citizens with knowledge about the AI model involved. ITHACA will also provide scalable tools for the identification of security risks and threats and for conformity with the Fairness principle and Privacy principle in AI-based systems and big data for civic engagement applications. Based on its implementation experiences, the project will define a data governance framework with relevant ethical principles and practices to be implemented in the design, development, deployment process for AI civic engagement platforms as well as policy recommendations on philosophical, legal and ethical values that should be embedded in the development of such platforms.

To meet the global and European challenges of reducing the GHG emissions from the construction sector, Build-in-Wood will develop a sustainable and innovative wood value chain for the construction of multi-storey wood buildings. The potential estimated impact from Build-in-Wood is a reduction of GHG emissions of 12.1 MT/year by 2030. Build-in-Wood will, based on experiences from the stakeholders involved in construction of some of the worlds largest wooden multi-storey buildings, take building with wood beyond state of the art. The consortium has identified a strong need for improving the whole value chain and intent to make wood a competitive building material by delivering a fully documented, demonstrated, sustainable and cost effective building system. Build-in-Wood will address this challenge by innovative development of materials and components as well as structural systems and façade elements for multi-storey wood buildings fit for both new construction and retrofitting. Developments will be delivered by means of a dynamic co-created web-based building configurator – the Design Guide – and a complimentary web-based toolbox of documented materials and components. Build-in-Wood will demonstrate full-scale digital case projects for real projects and test system prototypes in operational environments. Active engagement of cities and their building ecosystems through technical and thematic co-creation workshops will strengthen the urban-rural connections. All developed materials, components and system prototypes will be tested, piloted and fully documented for immediate market uptake. Based on developments, recommendations for new or updated European harmonised technical specifications and Eurocodes will be provided. To meet consumer acceptance, regulatory and sustainability requirements, Build-in-Wood includes life-cycle, socio-economic and safety assessments that will guide policy and decision-making at industry and EU level.