Projects

The overall objective of BIOEASTsUP project is to support the BIOEAST initiative in the implementation of its Vision for 2030 and Action Plan for transition of 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) to bioeconomy. This will be done by engaging the relevant stakeholders, accenting sustainable circular bioeconomy on the CEE governments’ agenda improving macro-regional cooperation formats with downstream and upstream linkages of agri-food sector, and supporting national bioeconomy strategies development. The project will advance the BIOEAST initiative to become a catalyst for a research and innovation, rural development and other policies towards bioeconomy development in the CEE by creation of favourable inter-sectoral framework for sustainable deployment of biomass potential.

SPEAR will focus on supporting implementation of gender equality plans (GEPs) in European universities in accordance with the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE)’s toolkit GEAR. The project will establish communities of learning where supporting partners facilitate sessions as all project partners start to identify both shared and different needs for action in the various institutions. In tandem, SPEAR also establishes communities of practice where focus is on sharing practical experiences and transforming learning points into action and practice as the institutions start their GEP work. SPEAR thus offers supportive structures through its interconnected Community of Learning (CoL) and Community of Practice (CoP). CoL will provide learning platforms while CoP provides an arena for experience exchanges. Both are crucial to successful and sustainable implementation of gender equality plans (GEPs), a key instrument to improving GE. 

SPEAR’s central objective is to support and implement GEPs based on a step-by-step guide to GEP implementation devised by the European Institute for Gender Equality. SPEAR employs this guide with a unique methodological path committed to creative, open, mitigating, processual, accountable, SMART and sustainable changes (SPEAR’s COMPASS). Integral to SPEAR’s project design is an enhanced impartial evaluation scheme to boost the feedback and learning of participants throughout the project. SPEAR also employs strategic dissemination to boost its central sustainability commitment during and after SPEAR. SPEAR aims to foster sustainability in GE-practices in academia through a range of measures and outcomes, including ties to other EU-based GE projects, network and community building within and beyond SPEAR, and formulation of practicable policy recommendations. 

Expected impacts include:

- Increased numbers of RPOs and HEIs implementing gender equality plans

- Increased participation of women in R&I and improvement of their career’s prospects

- Improved gender balance in decision-making bodies in research organizations; and

- Strengthened gender dimension in research content

MY-GATEWAY aims to boost the growth potential of CEE start-ups on a pan-European level by exploiting consortium partners’ Startup Europe experience and by implementing actions aimed at creating new opportunities and synergies within and beyond MY-GATEWAY’s ecosystems. MY-GATEWAY will provide “horizontal” support for the startups and the startup support organizations of its ecosystems (Romania, Slovenia, Czech Republic) and will implement activities providing immediate improvement in four specific areas: Access to networks, Access to finance, Access to talent and Capacity Building, which are common for all targeted countries. Moreover, the project will contribute to the expansion of the Startup Europe Community by opening the GATE of Startup Europe to the Balkans. To achive this MY-GATEWAY has involved the leading start-up support organisations from Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina

INNO-4-AGRIFOOD is set on fostering and stimulating online collaboration for innovation amongst the more than 11 million SMEs active within the European Agri-food ecosystem. To this end, the project will enhance the service portfolio and practices of innovation intermediaries and SME support networks across Europe by providing them with a well-tailored blend of demand-driven value propositions, including:

• A new generation of value added innovation support services aimed at empowering their agri-food SME clients to create and capture value from online collaboration for innovation, access a broader range of suitable innovation partners across sectoral and national borders and timely mobilise them in order to seize opportunities for animating innovation projects.
• A suite of smart and platform-independent ICT tools to support and optimise the delivery of the novel online collaboration for innovation support services, enabling them to take full advantage of the multiple online collaboration and innovation platforms that currently host smaller or larger parts of the Agri-food ecosystem.
• A series of easy-to-follow and flexible e-training courses, conveniently available via a highly interactive e-learning environment, that will equip them with the knowledge and skills required to successfully deliver the innovation support services of INNO-4-AGRIFOOD.

START2ACT aims to reduce residential energy consumption in the EU via changing the behaviour of consumers in their everyday lives by approaching them at their workplace. With a focus on European start-ups and young SMEs, the project aims at triggering action by young entrepreneurs and their emerging enterprises as well as by the owners and staff of young SMEs to introduce energy efficiency measures within their daily routines. Even though each start-up and SME consumes relatively small energy amounts, the collective environmental impact of 20 million SMEs in the EU is massive, contributing to 64% of environmental impact. Active engagement of start-ups and young SMEs is essential in order to reach the 20-20-20 EU goals and there is market potential for almost all enterprises to cost effectively reduce their energy consumption. START2ACT will unleash the potential of energy savings at European start-ups and young SMEs via a set of innovative educational and capacity building measures. A key area of intervention to increase energy efficiency through behavioural change is office equipment, the fastest growing energy user in the business world, consuming 15% of the total electricity used in offices, which is expected to rise to 30% by 2020.

The new BILAT USA 4.0 project continues activities started by the predecessor project BILAT USA 2.0 with the overall aim to enhance, support and further develop the research and innovation cooperation between the European Union and the United States of America. 

A particular focus of the project activities will be put among others on an intensification of interactions between EU and US researchers and innovators, the support for the improvement of research and innovation framework conditions, the provision of analyses delivering a sound base for decision making and an enhanced coordination and synergies between different EU MS/AC and US policies and programmes.

BILAT USA 4.0 has 16 partners, six from the USA and ten from Europe. They represent a well-balanced mix of competencies, expertise and access to relevant stakeholder networks across the EU and USA. Partners are national funding organisations, research management agencies, multipliers, think tanks, research institutions and research and innovation consultancies.

MY-WAY aims at enhancing and improving the collaboration and efforts of web entrepreneurship initiatives(hubs, projects, accelerator networks, contests, etc.), web/business experts (accelerators, mentors, etc.), educational actors (business teachers and trainers) and the young adults as the final beneficiaries (through student networks, their alumni and student entrepreneurship centres, the student support centres). This coordination willcreate synergies and find ways to embed flexible services based on the existing best practices to be sustained by the student support centres in any European country at low cost. The social network of young adults across Europe will enable a wide spread of information, discovery of synergies and linkages between the actors and their services.

The active engagement of student support centres and connecting them with business networks within the web entrepreneurship ecosystem and its activities, e.g. the development of the support services (training, mentoring, access to funding, regulation, policy, etc.) will strengthen the ecosystem and will also increase the visibility and impact of the web entrepreneurship initiatives and services. A network of student support centres will act asmultipliers and successfully represent the targeted young adults boosting web entrepreneurship in the long term. Primary, secondary as well as emerging web entrepreneurship hubs will be involved across Europe into the project activities. The project partnership contains representatives from across the support chain for web entrepreneurs with adequate expertise and network infrastructure to successfully engage the critical mass of stakeholders. The project will implement support actions boosting the entrepreneurial spirit, especially changing the mindset, confidence and readiness of young people for starting their own business. Special attention will be paid to femaleweb entrepreneurship and social web entrepreneurship support.

The LIFEinFORESTS project aims at improving the conservation status of the Natura 2000 forest sites in Hungary, by identifying, developing and implementing a set of tools that support skills development, active communication and cooperation of the key stakeholders in the management and conservation of Natura 2000 forests.

LinkTADs brings together world-class research institutes and experts in cross-border cooperation with the aim to coordinate research between the EU and China, thus improving scientific excellence in animal health (epidemiology and laboratory).

Health-2-Market is a 3-year long project funded by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission. It aims at providing Health researchers with the necessary knowledge and skills for more viable IPR management as well as market exploitation of their results through setting up of new business ventures in health/life science sectors or in a more broad sense through their more active involvement in interdisciplinary cooperation actions.

The project will provide the EC with a feasibility study of the opening of an EU-India STI House aimed at boosting the STI collaboration in a sustainable manner. The specific aims are to explore EU-In STI House project's partners, and beyond when possible: 1/ the political commitment; 2/ the legal frameworks; 3/ the scientific priorities. The results will be synthesized in a Forward Look that will provide recommendations.

(ILN) will provide an integrated forum to support the dialogue among the main stakeholders involved in the FP7 INCO activities and initiatives. The overall objective is to create a cross feeding mechanism that allows information exchange inside the FP7 INCO community as a whole. The ILN support service aims to: allow the exchange of experiences, align cooperation project s on common methodologies, draft useful conclusions and recommendations.

The main goal of the project is to innovatively implement ICT-based learning materials, remote experiments, and e-didactic methods into formal and non-formal lifelong learning settings. It will enhance and modernize science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) curricula, foster student creativity and motivation, and develop professional skills and insights about the impact of evolving technologies.

INDIA GATE is an ACCESS4EU project. These projects aim to increase awareness among researchers in the EU Member States and Associated Countries of opportunities in research and/or innovation programmes managed by Third Countries with an S&T agreement. The INDIA GATE project will identify Indian research and innovation funding programmes, the obstacles that inhibit EU researchers and organizations from taking part in the identified opportunities and make the information available in a userfriendly manner to stimulate, encourage and facilitate participation.

The overall objective of the EUINEC project is to improve the S&T cooperation between Europe and India by establishing the EU-India Research Co-op based on a multifunctional portal allowing for the exchange of information and partner search, serve as the base for the practical and user-orientated training package and be the frame for policy development and the identification of areas of cooperation. EUINEC especially aims to increase awareness among Indian stakeholders about the EU, research priorities, cooperation and funding opportunities as well as to increase awareness among EU stakeholders about India and cooperation opportunities.

The aim of this project is to answer the current major questions in sandwich panel construction and to develop technical guidelines ready for implementation. The second goal of the project is to implement the new information in the use in practice, which will be carried out through seminars and practical guidelines as well as e-learning modules.

The particular project aimed at promoting the concept and practice of urban sustainable development through training local authorities' officers and policy makers of the New Member States on basic environmental issues, thus, encouraging them to get involved and create their own Local Action Plans. It achieved its aim by creating a Training e-Tool, which includes information, examples and case studies on the priority themes set in the "Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - Towards a Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment" [COM(2004)60].