"<< Background >>Women shoulder a heavier burden of family work than men in modern society, preventing them from matching male success in the external labour market. So far, the decrease in the employment rate due to the COVID-19 crisis has not seen substantial differences by gender on average in the EU. However, women’s over- representation in lower paid sectors and occupations, as well as in part-time employment, makes them particularly vulnerable in the labour markets struck by the COVID-19 crisis. Gender gaps are larger for women with young children: in 2019, they faced a negative employment gap of 14.3 pps in contrast to women without children, whereas men in the same situation saw a positive gap of 9.6 pps. Employment outcomes are poorer in particular for older, non-EU born and low-skilled women and women with disabilities. Female labour market participation could be strengthened by reforms and investments in work-life balance policies, such as gender balanced parental and care leaves.The position of women in the labour market, either when talking about employed ones or entrepreneurs, is still lagging behind quite considerably in relation to the one of men. For decades already the debate has opened raising awareness on the pronounced pay gap, the limitations of professional growth and the ""invisible ceiling"", low representation in key managerial or decision-making positions and a series of obstacles for women entrepreneurs (from access to funding to lack of governments support for balancing professional and personal life to incentives and programmes to support the development of very small and small enterprises conceptualised and run by women); however the problem still persists without much changing in the conditions and opportunities available for women. The EMPOWERED project will create a training programme for women to achieve a two-fold purpose: on one hand, it will equip women with digital skills which are necessary in the era of digital transformation and are valuable for accessing the labour market with a competitive disadvantage, and on the other it will address a spectrum of psychological obstacles women are facing when they need to claim a better position in the world of work. Therefore, the needs of the target group of the project which will be met relate both to technical skills and emotional/ psychological reinforcement which is equally important for all women who wish to either find a job or change their career path. The former will be achieved through the adaptation of an already existing training course that P3 (Found.ation) has developed and successfully implements for digital upskilling and the latter will be covered through the development of a set of modules specifically for providing emotional and psychological support and fostering increased self-awareness and self-worth.<< Objectives >>The conditions under which women are employed (in terms of schedule, demands, expectations) and them with their professional life form a challenge that they are forced to deal with. If one also considers the existing prejudices in terms of a woman’s position, her knowledge and skills, her ability to undertake certain tasks, it becomes a multifaceted problem which, ultimately, impacts their perception of self and worth.Empower is a multidimensional word including social, physical, spiritual, mental, political and psychological dimensions. Empower means personal growth in decision-making, analysing critical situations, coping with all circumstances and facing challenges. The objective of the project is the empowerment of women through the development of a training course for their digital upskilling, as well as their psychological empowerment to reinforce their position in the labour market. The course will be based on the Found.ation Business Academy (FBA) a tailored professional skills platform developed by the Found.ation, which offers structured and dynamic content on emerging technologies, innovation & digital transformation, which can be delivered with great flexibility. The content of the FBA will be adapted to the needs of unemployed women, as well as women who wish to pursue a career change but are reluctant. In addition to the digital skills that will be enhanced, the partners will also develop a horizontal set of modules, aiming at helping women address the psychological factors that demoralise women for claiming a better employment or even daring to The partners will also develop a handbook to facilitate the delivery of the Empowered course by AE teachers and trainers, career counsellors and CSO representatives aimed at providing the theoretical background, the tools and methodologies of the EMPOWERED training course to facilitate its implementation after the end of the project. The handbook is expected to bring important added value to the sustainability of the results developed. Moreover, a virtual community will be set up, through which the members of the target group will be able to access the training programme and, most importantly, connect with their peers, exchange experiences and thoughts and provide support to one another. Representatives from the stakeholders of the project will also have the opportunity to connect through the platform with the target group and disseminate information on education, training and employment opportunities, as well as initiatives at local, regional and national level aimed at the facilitation of access to employment and balance of professional with personal life.<< Implementation >>The EMPOWERED project has been designed with 4 results and 4 project phases which have been structured in such a way as to deliver high quality outputs tailored to the identified needs. Moreover, apart from the phases of the project which will be described below the following horizontal processes will support its implementation: Project Management, Quality Assurance and evaluation, dissemination and exploitation.Τhe 4 phases of the project are:Phase 1-Preparation: in the first part of the project the partners will undertake a state-of-the-art research to document the challenges that women need to face when trying to achieve employment or change their career, especially following the changes brought about from the pandemic and in the era of digital transformation. The parteners will focus on women 30-50 years old and from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. (months 1-4)Phase 2-Development: during the development phase, the partners will focus on the development of the EMPOWERED training programme, the corresponding handbook for AE trainers, career counsellors and CSOs, and the digital community for peer-support and encouragement, as well as dissemination of information related to opportunities for training, employment, etc. The basis for the development will be the FBA training programme developed by P3, the expertise of P4 and P2 on addressing emotional and psychological obstacles for (re) entering the labour market and the findings of R1. In this context, two LTAs are foreseen, aimed at bring together the partners for the coordinated development and finalisation of the outputs prior to the pilot phase. (months 5-14)Phase 3–Pilot phase: this phase will aim at the pilot implementation of all outputs aforementioned with a selected number of target group members. The aim of this phase will be to collect grassroots level feedback on the results, if necessary undertake some updates/ revisions and draw conclusions for the final stage of the project (months 15-21)Phase 4–Finalisation: the last phase of the project relates to the drafting of a report which will summarise the progress of the pilot phase and the feedback collected, resulting in recommendations for policy makers, national and local institutions, as well as labour market representatives on how they can effectively address the issue of gender inequality in the workplace. (months 22-24)<< Results >>The project implementation will lead to outcomes both tangible and intangible. In particularTangible Results:1) A state-of-the-art report presenting the challenges that women have to face when in need of changing their employment status (either accessing employment or changing career paths)2) The EMPOWERED training programme for women, including the adaptation of the FBA (provided by P3) and a horizontal set of modules for the psychological empowerment of the target group3) A handbook for AE trainers and providers, career counsellors and CSOs to ensure the sustainability of the projectIntangible Results:1) Development of the EMPOWERED virtual (digital) community among women and project stakeholders2) Increased visibility on the challenges women face in terms of their employment status, especially if they have been long-term unemployed for a number of reasons3) Increased sensitivity on how policymakers, institutions and the civil society as a whole contribute to the resolution of these challenges4) Promotion and exchange of good practice examples in the field of facilitating access to employment for women5) Networking among all stakeholders involved in the partner countries, through both the focus groups organised in the context of the project, the multiplier events and the virtual community"

"<< Objectives >>The objectives of the SociallyAgile project and its partnership are to:- contribute to youth unemployment through the promotion of entrepreneurial mindset- assist youth in contributing to social change, through social entrepreneurship- develop a learning and acceleration hub for youth, youth workers/ organisations and education & training representatives to connect through interactive, comprehensive and open-access learning opportunities.<< Implementation >>The SociallyAgile consortium will proceed to the following activities to achieve the project's objectives:-Research on social entrepreneurship-Training material development-Training pilot implementation-Accelerator program design and delivery-Development of the SociallyAgile platform-Policy recommendations development-Digital presence development and dissemination activities<< Results >>- ""Youth social entrepreneurship and social enterprise development"" report in each country- An innovative methodological framework for the development of business ideas using Agile in the context of social entrepreneurship- Youth training course and toolkit applied to Social Entrepreneurship- Acceleration of 8-12 business ideas in the participating countries for six months-Interactive Innovation Hub, the SociallyAgile platform-Policy recommendations"

SOCIA has brought together five experienced partners from Luxembourg, Greece, Poland, Slovenia and Spain to develop and test the Social Innovation Academy concept. The Academy is the first European, fully online VET training programme focusing exclusively on social innovation. It targets directly the managers at NGOs/civil society organisations and intermediaries (hubs, incubators, labs etc.) as well as aspiring social entrepreneurs willing to learn how to set up and run social innovation initiatives to solve the most pressing societal challenges of our times. Concrete project objectives were to: - Develop the social innovation skills and competence framework, based on research involving both successful and aspiring social innovators > DONE - Analyse the current social innovation VET supply and compare it with user learning preferences, identifying gaps > DONE - Develop and test the Academy’ content and learning environment concept > DONE - Draw broader recommendations for various stakeholder groups relevant for social innovation VET (aspiring innovators themselves, trainers/experts, intermediaries, policymakers and impact investors) > DONE - Build a community of stakeholders around the Academy concept to ensure wide engagement and sustainability beyond the project duration > DONE In effect, we aimed to increase access to and level of the practical social innovation skills and competences of our target audience, raise awareness about the importance of practice-oriented social innovation training in Europe and ingrain it in the activities of various stakeholder groups. The project has reached all objectives and outperformed many initially set KPIs in doing so. The project has produced six Intellectual Outputs using a variety of robust methodologies in related activities: IO1 Social innovation skill-set and competence framework (mapping; semi-structured interviews; self-assessments; coding and comparative analysis) IO2 Social innovation training handbook (network & desktop research; mapping; expert group; gap analysis) IO3 Social Innovation Academy concept & learning environment (User-Centered Design; Robert Mager’s framework for learning objectives; assessment methodology; contents classification and knowledge management through taxonomies, semantics, ontology, descriptors for search and retrieval; prototyping of learning modules and paths using Pelz‘s principles of engagement, presence, and interaction; rapid prototyping of learning environment based on the ‘Checklist for Online Interactive Learning’ and ‘The Components Of A Successful Online Learning Environment’) IO4 Social Innovation Academy validation & testing (focus group or living lab methodologies and individual monitored testing protocols, quantitative (survey) and qualitative (debriefing sessions) feedback collection) IO5 Social Innovation Academy guides (desktop ‘digital storytelling’, ‘pyramid thinking’, professional editing & layout) IO6 Online Social Innovation Academy community (stakeholder mapping & salience model, stakeholder engagement, online community, sustainability strategy) Nine multiplier events have been organised in five partner countries (5 events have been removed by the National​ Agency) at the project acceptance stage. In addition to the Intellectual Outputs and Multiplier Events, our project has also resulted in:1) the very first research- and evidence-based understanding of ‘what’, ‘why’, and ‘how’ of social innovation training (results of this approach published By LSE Business Blog)2) a well-grounded, focused but comprehensive and flexible curriculum on social innovation for VET purposes3) increased awareness of and accessibility to social innovation know-how in Europe.4) different stakeholders besides the learners themselves increasing their understanding of how they can benefit from and better support practice-oriented social innovation training in Europe5) some parts of the IOs as stand-alone results transferrable to other projects6) extended cooperation among project partners leading to further synergies and opportunities (some already in progress) We are proud to have achieved all project objectives and surpassed many KPIs, some of them many-fold. The Academy's website has reached 4,564 people from 187 countries, 33,988 unique pageviews and 390 unique downloads. Our project has gained 80+ official project Friends and organisational supporters. We have received 104 applications to join our Advisory Board and official Friends communities. 9 global Advisors have supported the project. 746 people have subscribed to our newsletter. 50 co-creators contributed to content creation. Besides, we have reached 5,355 followers on Twitter, 432 followers on Facebook and 264 followers on LinkedIn. Our social media posts (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn combined) had a reach of more than a million (1,122,221 by Limitless alone).

CLIVE aims to provide a response to a set of needs directly related to needs of the participating VET colleges and the demands for modernisation of the educational systems in Europe. NEED FOR CHANGE IN COLLEGES & TEACHERSVET colleges have a responsibility to provide their students with education that will enable them to acclimate to an increasingly globalised, competitive and complex environment. In such an environment, creativity, the ability to innovate, a sense of initiative, entrepreneurship and a commitment to continue learning are just as important as the specific knowledge of a given subject. Current training and education does not meet the demands of organisations and companies for employees with innovative, problemsolvingand entrepreneurial capacities. Policies that embed creativity and innovation in VET college curricula is lacking. OBJECTIVESThe project aims to address these needs by providing VET school teachers, with the skills and competences to embed innovation and creativity in their teaching activities, and thus enable them to prepare their students better for the labour market.Specific objectives are:- Define the skills and competence framework needed for embedding creativity and innovation in VET education.- Develop an accessible and user-friendly support platform based upon the needs of teachers and schools, for access to creativity techniques, their related digital tools, best practices, examples and testimonies.- Enhance the take up of creativity techniques and the related digital tools by giving the VET teachers, their institutions and relevant stakeholders guidelines on mainstream this in a coherent and comprehensive manner;- Promote community where teachers and other interested parties can share knowledge and experiences, and which sustains the project results beyond the project duration. PARTICIPANTSCLIVE outputs are directly aimed at: VET education teachers and teaching staff and VET colleges management and board. Indirect target groups of the project are VET students (final beneficiaries) and policy makers, educational and creativity experts. ACTIVITIES & RESULTSDuring the lifespan if the project, the consortium will undertake several activities, ensuring that VET school teachers gain skills and competences to embed innovation and creativity in their teaching. CLIVE will develop the following tangible products:- IO1 CLIVE curriculum: learning objectives for teachers with regards to skills, competences and knowledge about creativity techniques and related digital tools and their practical application in the classroom, and on different subjects or courses.- IO2 CLIVE training: learning content and evaluation methodology for the training of the VET teachers. - IO3 CLIVE Online Environment: an Open Educational Repository which is a recollection of materials, such as digital resources, exercises, worksheets, description of learning activities, case studies, etc., which the teachers, once they have successfully completedthe IO2 training programme, can use in their teaching activities.- IO4 CLIVE Ecosystem Toolkit: Handbooks, guidelines, policy brief, roadmap, etc. for the different target and stakeholder groups of the ecosystem of VET educational systems in the participating countries and in Europe. To ensure full take-up and mainstreaming of the project results, the stakeholders belonging the VET educational ecosystem need to acquirespecific knowledge to be able to understand and take the results further and actually mainstream them into their regular activities and practices. METHODOLOGYIn line with the essence of CLIVE approach itself, we aim to fully engage all project partners and create a positive and mutual spirit within the consortium. The project is a true Strategic Partnership meaning all partners provide their key input that contributes to the realisation of the project goals and concrete deliverables. IMPACT & LONG TERM BENEFITSThe fundamental change that the project wants to contribute to is the strengthening of VET teachers so they can provide better education to students and thus equip students better for the future working live. In addition, the Impact that CLIVE desires to create is the achievement of local communities of enthusiastic VET teachers and VET board around the topic of creativity techniques.

CO-INVESTIN focuses on creating cross-border co-investment opportunities for modest and moderate EU ecosystems by leveraging promising startups in the portfolio of local investors to attract foreign investors from more advanced ecosystems in their new rounds. To achieve that, the partners will pilot the approach in 4 emerging ecosystems (EL, BG, RO, PT) where the consortium partners have a strong footprint and progressively integrate at least 10 additional emerging/ moderate ecosystems by the end of the project. The project focuses on the funding gap around the Series A, very acute in these ecosystems both from the lack of capital and investors perspective, as well as in terms of deal size with respect to more advanced ecosystems. As demonstrated by the recent experience with the EIC Fund, identifying a lead investor and co-investors is a challenging task for DeepTech start-ups, in particular the ones from emerging ecosystems. The CO-INVESTIN approach relies on 4 main dimensions, that cover in a complete manner both the analytic and the action oriented dimensions of the approach: 1. Investment gap analysis, 2. Development of Market Orientation Programmes, 3. Stimulating cross-border investments and 4. Upscaling the framework and enhancing its impacts. The main project results include: • At least 5 working groups to foster the creation of structured and coordinated networks • At least 20 peer investor match-making sessions • Establishment of local CPI and activation of the Assistance Service for foreign investors • Market orientation programmes for European investors, with emphasis on women for at least 10 ecosystems • 5 networking review sessions & VC syndication to encourage joint ventures & Cooperation with innovation agencies • 2 International business forums & conferences to attract and connect investors Particular focus will be placed on fostering the increased participation of women in both the entrepreneurial endeavours, as well as investment landscape.