La Comisión Europea ha aprobado la financiación de 202 nuevos proyectos al amparo del programa LIFE+, el fondo de medio ambiente de la Unión Europea. Los proyectos abarcan actuaciones en los ámbitos de la conservación de la naturaleza, la política medioambiental, el cambio climático y la información y la comunicación sobre temas medioambientales. En conjunto, representan una inversión total de 516,5 millones de euros, de los que 268,4 millones de euros serán fondos de la UE. (RAPID, IP/12/812, 20.7.2012) 

Negotiations have begun for the 44 projects that were shortlisted to receive a share of the nearly € 58 million available under the 2010 call for project proposals of the Intelligent Energy - Europe programme. These new projects are set to contribute to the wider use of renewable energy sources and increased levels of energy efficiency across Europe. (RAPID, MEMO/11/27, 18.1.2011)

La importancia clave de los puertos para el desarrollo económico de toda la cuenca mediterránea también conlleva un potencial impacto ambiental negativo dadas sus múltiples fuentes de emisiones. La concurrencia de actividades económicas en las zonas litorales a menudo resulta en conflictos que han de ser gestionados por los agentes institucionales.
APICE - un proyecto financiado por el programa europeo de Cooperación Territorial MED 2007/2013 (www.programmemed.eu ) - pretende desarrollar un enfoque basado en el conocimiento para la mitigación de la contaminación atmosférica y el desarrollo sostenible de las actividades portuarias, gestionándolas a nivel local a través de políticas de planificación espacial que incluyan no sólo el puerto sino también su territorio circundante.
La comparación de los datos recogidos en cinco Zonas Piloto (Venecia, Génova, Barcelona, Marsella y Salónica) permitirá la validación de un modelo común para confeccionar un escenario de intervención cuya practicidad y efectividad será valorada a lo largo del proyecto.
Las medidas de intervención propuestas serán concertadas con los agentes políticos para su integración en los planes urbanísticos y estratégicos existentes y para estimular posibles incentivos de co-financiación de manera que:
• Se unifiquen necesidades medio ambientales y económicas en las políticas puerto-ciudad
• Se apoye la adopción por parte de los puertos implicados de cambios ecológicos en las prácticas de navegación y de iniciativas de reducción compartida de emisiones (Ej. Bandera Azul etc.)
Tomando como base los escenarios y las intervenciones propuestas, económicamente valoradas, APICE promoverá acuerdos que contribuyan a medio plazo a la reducción de emisiones y la mejora del balance medio ambiental puerto-ciudad. [+]

ARROW (acrónimo de Accesible Registries of Rights Information and Orphan Works towards Europeana) tiene como finalidad proporcionar a los usuarios, como por ejemplo las bibliotecas nacionales, herramientas para la digitalización del patrimonio cultural europeo respetando los derechos de autor. Entre estas herramientas incluye la creación de una base de datos de obras huérfanas. Arrow permite agilizar el proceso de identificación de los autores, editores y otros titulares de derechos de una obra, ya sea de obras huérfanas, con o sin derechos de autor, o todavía disponibles en el mercado.
El proyecto, que se presentó en sociedad el 15 de marzo pasado, actualmente está en una segunda fase de desarrollo, la ARROW Plus. Está financiado por la Comisión Europea y está impulsado por un consorcio internacional de 26 miembros, entre ellos CEDRO y IFRRO. En esta segunda fase se han marcado entre otros objetivos la ampliación del número de países involucrados, de cuatro a catorce, y mejorar el sistema ya creado en la fase anterior. [+]

Since the launch of the initiative in 2008, more than 90 projects have been selected, and many more are in the pipeline. A new organic fertiliser, wall panels made from waste wood and paper, recycling cooling water used in the food industry… These are just some of the projects funded by the Eco-innovation initiative so far and there are many more. Take a look at this searchable database to find out what the initiative has achieved so far or to get inspiration if you are thinking about applying for funding. You can search for projects by sector, country or keyword. There is a project brief, summary and overview of the main results for each project. [+]

BlogForever es un proyecto de colaboración financiado por la Unión Europea. Su objetivo principal es el desarrollo de sistemas de preservación digital, la gestión y difusión de estos sistemas para el caso de blogs. Estas configuraciones serán capaces de captar la dinámica y continua evolución de la naturaleza de los blogs, su red y la estructura social, y el intercambio de conceptos e ideas que contiene, información omitida por los métodos y soluciones actuales para archivar webs.
El propósito de esta encuesta es recopilar información sobre el contenido, el uso y el contexto de los blogs que se usan actualmente en la sociedad de la información. Los resultados de la encuesta serán utilizados para ayudar a la conservación a largo plazo, gestión, análisis, acceso y uso de los blogs, y por lo tanto para proporcionar un mejor servicio a la comunidad bloguera. [+]

CHARISMA (Cultural Heritage Advanced Research Infrastructures: Synergy for a Multidisciplinary Approach to Conservation/Restoration) is an EU-funded integrating activity project carried out in the FP7 Capacities Specific Programme "Research Infrastructures". The project provides transnational access to most advanced scientific instrumentations and knowledge allowing scientists, conservators-restorers and curators to enhance their research at the field forefront.
Scientific research significant contributes to the conservation of our heritage. Several methods are used to explore the bulk, microscopic and surface properties of artefacts, including both traditional and advanced analytical techniques. The artworks studied include paintings, sculptures, metal works, ceramics, manuscripts, printed books and archaeological items and others.
In a program that covers joint research, transnational access and networking, the planned challenging activities require a combined effort and commitment of an high-level partnership of twenty-one organizations to provide access to advanced facilities and develop research and applications on artwork materials finalised to the conservation of cultural heritage and favoring the opening of larger perspective to the heritage conservation activities in Europe.
The CHARISMA transnational access (TA) programs, offer European scientists a to carry out their experiments utilizing 3 different and complementary groups of facilities (ARCHLAB, MOLAB and FIXLAB) through a service embedded in a multidisciplinary environment involving material science and artwork conservation/restoration.
• FIXLAB provides access to large and medium scale European installations, including the beamlines of one synchrotron radiation, one neutron source and two ion-beam analytical facilities;
• MOLAB offers access to a portable set of advanced analytical equipment, for in-situ non-invasive measurements on artworks, without any movement of the artefacts from their location and any contact with the surface;
• ARCHLAB permits the access to the structured scientific information and analytical data, stored in the archives of the most prestigious European museums and conservation institutions.
The access activities are supported by 3 outreach programs as networking (NA) cooperation activities, with the intent to achieve a permanent interoperability among the European institutions of the CHARISMA consortium and those external to it. The activity fosters the culture of international cooperation, providing harmonisation of methodologies, sharing knowledge and best practices on conservation projects, adopting progressive standard compatibility, and providing education, training, users' awareness events, technology transfer and dissemination of project results.
3 Joint Research activities (JRA), intend to exploit advanced technologies & techniques as well as most promising applications and integrated solutions, to complement the project scheme providing innovative instrumentations and methodologies tailored to the user's needs. [+]

Cities Exchanging on Local Energy Leadership (CASCADE)
The goal of CASCADE is to design and deliver a large-scale networking and capacity building programme among major European cities, in order to:
- Boost implementation and delivery of sustainable energy policies (SEAPS),
- Activate potential transnational capacity-building and transfer good practice between local authorities,
- Make use of potential of cities to act as transfer agents in their countries.
CASCADE focuses on networking and capacity-building among local authorities, in 11 member States. The project also encourages cities to engage local stakeholders in transnational learning activities and benefit from the partner cities’ role as national disseminators. The main expected impacts are: Boost implementation of SEAPs by significant increase of knowledge and skills Increase quality of delivery of municipal action plans/strategies for sustainable energy Better understanding of key challenges related to implementation of sustainable energy projects A sustainable network of municipal experts on offer across 11 Member States with up to 300 local authority staff, politicians, and local stakeholders directly engaged in capacity-building activities.

Coordinator: Ms Jorgina Cuixart. EUROCITIES asbl, Belgium. E-mail: Esta dirección electrónica esta protegida contra spam bots. Necesita activar JavaScript para visualizarla . Tel: +32-2-552-0878.
Partners: Municipality of Burgas (City of Burgas), Bulgaria. City of Tampere, Finland. Nantes Métropole Communauté Urbaine, France. Stadt Mannheim (Mannheim), Germany. Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt und Energie GmbH, Germany. MUNICIPALITY OF AMAROUSSION, Greece. Comune di Genova, Italy. Comune di Milano - Environmental Department, Italy. Comune di Venezia, Italy. City of Amsterdam, Netherlands. City of Eindhoven (Eindhoven), Netherlands. Warsaw City Hall - Infrastructure Department, Poland. Ayuntamiento de Gijón, Spain. Terrassa City Council (TERRASSA), Spain. City of Malmö, Sweden. Koucky & Partners AB, Sweden. Stockholms stad, Miljöförvaltningen, Sweden. Birmingham City Council. (Birmingham), United Kingdom. Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council (Gateshead), United Kingdom. Sunderland City Council (Sunderland), United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council, United Kingdom. [+]

Corallia Clusters Initiative es una iniciativa innovadora y dinámica que proyecta y contribuye al desarrollo de clusters innovadores en sectores de alta tecnología y de conocimientos especializados, los cuales disponen del potencial para fortalecer su competitividad, promover su expansión y finalmente conducir a un modelo de prestación de servicios «de alto valor añadido». Un modelo, por tanto, capaz de allanar el camino para que los clusters griegos puedan competir en igualdad de condiciones en el entorno globalizado de hoy. Corallia sirve de catalizador entre los protagonistas de la innovación, promoviendo la creación de un ecosistema de innovación global y competitivo.
Los Clusters de Innovación constituyen un grupo de empresas competidoras entre sí de todos los tamaños (recién establecidas, muy pequeñas, pequeñas, medias y grandes), vinculadas en la cadena de valor añadido con los proveedores y/o clientes comunes, con las alianzas estratégicas con universidades, centros de investigación, agentes de transferencia de tecnología y conocimientos técnicos, instituciones financieras y capital de riesgo, etc., que revelan una fuerte concentración geográfica y puesta en común del acceso y uso de instalaciones, infraestructura y servicios, operan en áreas temáticas concretas (por ejemplo, microelectrónica, etc.) y se distinguen en cuanto caracteriza al conocimiento especializado, la alta tecnología, la tendencia a la exportación y la ventaja competitiva real a escala internacional.
El mi-Cluster lleva el sello del primer cluster de innovación de Grecia, que desde su creación en 2006 hasta hoy día, sigue incrementando la adhesión de miembros y, además, cuenta con más de 100 organismos (empresas, laboratorios académicos et institutos de investigación) por todas partes de Grecia. [+]

Decisión 2011/161/UE, Euratom de la Comisión, de 28 de febrero de 2011, por la que se modifica la Decisión C(2008) 4617, relativa a las normas para la presentación, evaluación y selección de propuestas y la adjudicación de financiación para acciones indirectas en virtud del Séptimo Programa Marco de la Comunidad Europea de Acciones de Investigación, Desarrollo Tecnológico y Demostración (2007 a 2013) y el Séptimo Programa Marco de la Comunidad Europea de la Energía Atómica (Euratom) de Acciones de Investigación y Formación en Materia Nuclear (2007 a 2011) (DOUE L 75/01, 22.3.2011)

DESCRIPTION: The DESEPA Project aims to improve the professional performance and personal development of staff of public and private entities which provide services to people with disabilities and the employees of companies who want to recruit or keep people with disabilities in their staff. The project will promote the development of skills through two on line training courses, based on useful concepts for hiring people with disabilities.

RESULTS:

Learning Needs Analysis (LNA) process in order to create both training courses according to students’ needs.
Development of a training course on line for the staff of public and private entities which provide services to people with disabilities.
Development of a training course on line for the employees of companies who want to recruit or keep people with disabilities in their staff.

Web page: www.desepa.com

Coordinator: Selcuk Unversity, Ahmet Kelesoglu Education Faculty, Special Education Department – Turkey www.selcuk.edu.tr

Partners:

Vocational Rehabilitation Consultants – UK www.vocationalrehabilitationconsultants.com
Konya Provincial National Education Directorate – Turkey www.konya.meb.gov.tr
Dost Special Education and Rehabilitation Centre – Turkey www.dostegitim.com
Regionális Szociális Forrásközpont Nonprofit KFT – Hungry www.rszfk.hu
Karriere Club – Austria www.karriere-club.at
Instituto de Formación Integral – Spain www.ifi.com.es

El Master E-Urbs es el resultado de un proyecto financiado por la UE que prevé el desarrollo e institucionalización de un currículum de 60 créditos ECTS en Estudios Urbanos Comparativos con extensa utilización de la enseñanza (y tutoría) online. El proyecto - financiado a través del programa «Campus Virtual» - pretende promover y facilitar la movilidad entre los sistemas e instituciones de educación superior de toda Europa.
La organización del Master en Estudios Urbanos Comparativos se beneficia de la participación de las siguientes instituciones colaboradoras:

1 Universidad de Urbino (Italia) (Coordinación)
2 Universidad de Copenhague(Dinamarca)
3 Universidad de Barcelona (España)
4 Universidad Humboldt de Berlín (Alemania)
5 Universidad Católica de Lovaina(Bélgica)
6 Universidad Bicocca de Milán(Italia)
7 Universidad de Birmingham (Reino Unido)
8 Universidad de Ámsterdam(Holanda)
9 Academia de las Ciencias de Polonia(Polonia)

Página web del proyecto: http://www.e-urbs.net/

The richness and value of the European performing arts heritage is unquestionable. Even though these collections are now being digitized and published online, they remain scattered, and coordination is lacking between digital libraries and the performing arts field; however, there is a high demand for access to this content. ECLAP fills this gap by creating a considerable, and hitherto missing, online archive for all the performing arts in Europe, and providing solutions and tools to help performing arts institutions to enter the digital Europe by building a network of important European performing arts institutions and archives and publishing content collections on Europeana, the European Digital Library.
ECLAP is making use of advanced indexing database and delivery tools for the production and dissemination of the rich multilingual European heritage. This will result in cultural enrichment and promotion of European culture, and in improvements in learning and research in the field of performing arts.
ECLAP is presently distributing more than 63000 content objects, coming from more than 20 prestigious European institutions: images, video, documents, audio, slides, playlists, collections, annotations, etc. Within the next 12 months other new 400.000 files will be published.  All interested institutions and stakeholders are invited to register, and to see the Affiliation Agreement web page in which you can get all the needed information. [+]

EU-EIB Project Bond Initiative launched with start of pilot phase
The Europe 2020 Project Bond Initiative, which aims to improve capital market financing of infrastructure, passed its final approval stage today. Following signature of a Cooperation Agreement between the European Commission and European Investment Bank, clarifying risk sharing, the pilot phase of the project bond initiative is ready for roll-out.
“The Project Bond Initiative provides an opportunity for re-opening capital markets as a source of financing for crucial transport, energy and communications infrastructure essential for ensuring growth and competiveness in Europe. Since the adoption of the legal base in July 2012 the EIB has made considerable progress in screening trans-European transport and energy networks and broadband projects and helping them to have access to capital market financing. The pipeline of potential projects looks prominent with first expected project signatures in early 2013", said Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank. (RAPID, IP/12/1183, 7.11.2012) 

This project has recently been approved by the European Commission’s Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) under Erasmus Mundus Action 3: Promotion of European higher education. The project will run from the 1^st September 2011 until the 31^st August 2014.
With this project, we wish to create conditions such that the Erasmus Mundus (EM) community at large can jointly exploit, explain and discuss its involvement in the Erasmus Mundus programme, so as to find ways to strengthen and improve it. The project will target the following categories of persons and actors of international cooperation in higher education. These will benefit from the project directly or indirectly, as mentioned: 

• EM coordinators: academic and administrative staff from the EU and from third-countries (directly)
• Coordinators of international cooperation programmes, from the EU and from third-countries (directly)
• HEI representatives, from the EU and from third-countries (directly)
• Students and doctoral candidates, from around the world (indirectly)
• Policy makers, from the EU and from third-countries (indirectly)

The project's main geographical targets outside Europe are: Africa, Northern and Latin America, and Europe's neighbouring countries. [+]

On 20 September 2011, the European Commission published the Communication ‘Supporting Growth and Jobs – an Agenda for the Modernisation of Europe’s Higher Education Systems’. The document clearly states what are considered the main challenges that need to be addressed: Increasing the attainment levels to provide the graduates and researchers that Europe needs. Improving the quality and relevance of higher education. Strengthening the quality through mobility and cross-border cooperation. Making the knowledge triangle work: linking higher education, research and business for excellence and regional development. Improving governance and funding.
The EMMA partnership interprets the Communication as an invitation to launch an in-depth debate on those policy issues that need to be tackled in response to the challenges above. A debate that can only result fruitful if the higher education institutions, main stakeholders (employers, students) and authorities (Bologna Follow Up Group, European Commission, national/regional administrations) are all involved.
All through the project implementation, a much needed hands-on approach towards the subject matter will be adopted: What can we undertake?, How can we react in the most appropriate and efficient manner to the current challenges imposed by both the crisis and globalisation?, What can the European Higher Education Area mean for the future of Europe when it comes to supporting growth and jobs?
The EMMA multi-stakeholder partnership is composed of one of the leading university networks (CGU -Compostela Group of Universities), an employer organization (VOKA – Vlaams Economisch Verbond), a student association (EMA – Erasmus Mundus Student and Alumni Association) and an experienced private organization in the promotion of inter-university cooperation and university-society relations (BES – Brussels Education Services) [+]

The ERANET-MUNDUS project aims to establish strong ties and mobility flows between Russian and European universities. The project, coordinated by the University of Barcelona, is integrated by 10 European institutions, 8 Russian institutions and associates partners. Key to this project is the successful cooperation and participation of all partners as a solid and coherent working group.
To ensure smooth organisation of mobility flows and effective management of the partnership, the consortium integrates the following working groups: Plenary Group, Executive Group, Selection and Recognition Group, Quality Group, Communication Group and Sustainability Group. The mobility activities will be implemented maintaining an effective balance between all project partners. The programme will be divided into three cohorts: 1st cohort, 51%; 2nd cohort, 36%; 3rd cohort, 13%.
ERANET-MUNDUS project wishes to promote a flexible mobility scheme focusing primarily on the demand for specific subject areas. As a result, all fields of study are covered: (1) Agriculture Sciences; (2) Architecture, Urban and Regional Planning; (3) Art and Design; (4) Business Studies, Management Science; (5) Education, Teacher Training; (6) Engineering, Technology; (7) Geography, Geology; (8) Humanities; (9) Languages and Philology; (10) Law; (11) Mathematics, Informatics; (12) Medical Sciences; (13) Natural Sciences; (14) Social Sciences; (15) Communication and Information Science; (16) Other areas of study. Apart from that, each institution participates in the project offering a range of courses generally available to their students, not only English language courses. The diversity of languages, areas of study and cultures covered is the cornerstone of this project, as it provides a great degree of added value to the academic involvement of candidates. [+]

European Collaboration Awareness Tool for Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (2008-2012)
País: France, Spain, United Kingdom.
Euro-CAT-CSCL is a Marie Curie IAPP research project aiming to develop an innovative tool to support students in organising their activities in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). This Collaboration Awareness Tool (CAT) was developed by the project consortium to enhance students' abilities by increasing the group awareness information that is available on the shared users interface.
The project also studied the phenomena associated with the use of the tool, such as the impact on learners of information about group organisation, communication and evaluation of collaborative activities. [+]

The new regional project on migration in the Euro-Mediterranean area, EuroMed Migration II with a budget of 5 Million Euro, funded by the European Commission, is part of a wider programme on the Justice and Home Affairs sector, approved in 2006, comprising other two regional projects in the field of Justice and Police cooperation: EuroMed Justice II and EuroMed Police II.
This project is based on the Euro-Mediterranean partnership which started since the Barcelona Declaration (1995) and its subsequent evolution with the Five Year Work Programme of the Barcelona Summit (28 November 2005). This Programme calls for enhanced cooperation in the fields of Migration, Social Integration, Justice and Security through a comprehensive and integrated approach, reiterating the continued support for the objectives set out in paragraphs 11 and 12 of that Programme, while highlighting the need for improved practical cooperation at regional level.
It takes account of the 8th and 9th Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs (Tampere, 27-28 November 2006 and Lisbon, 5-6 November 2007 respectively), which emphasized the need to strengthen the management of migratory flows in a comprehensive, integrated and balanced manner beneficial to the Euro-Mediterranean peoples and the need to increase cooperation in the fields of legal migration, migration and development and illegal migration. [+]

As a follow-up to the Erasmus Mundus sponsored project ‘Access to Success: Fostering Trust and Exchange between Europe and Africa (2008-2010), the European University Association (EUA) and the Association African Universities (AAU) have initiated a two-year pilot project that will further bi-regional discussions on institutional development and quality assurance. 
The basis for this project will revolve around the methodology of the Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP), an independent EUA service that stresses the institutional responsibility in defining quality and the means to achieve it. It has become a distinct European approach to quality enhancement and a flexible tool for strategic development. The project intends to share the IEP approach with five African universities in different regions of sub-Saharan Africa as a trial application. Given the general openness and flexibility of the methodology, the idea is not to impose new QA procedures on universities in Africa, but rather to encourage them to assess their institutional goals and mission in a structured way, and share good European practice in this field. 
This project is being implemented by EUA, AAU, the Irish Universities Quality Board (IUQB), and the University of Aveiro, Portugal. The Africa Chapter of the Erasmus Mundus Alumni Association is an associated partner. [+]

Eve is the single information point on European education, training, culture and youth projects. It showcases thousand of projects and their results, from the Culture, Youth and Lifelong Learning Programmes (Erasmus, Leonardo Da Vinci, Comenius, Grundtvig, …). Eve is a tool for the dissemination and exploitation of results  of projects supported by programmes managed by the European Commission. Through Eve you can access a wide range of learning materials, handbooks, websites, policy papers, photos … and much more! Eve has something for everyone!
Eve is a new tool available to project beneficiaries. Eve will acquire much information through the introduction of results by the project coordinators and the progress of its recently launched projects belonging to the current Education and Culture programmes (Culture, Youth in Action, Citizenship, Lifelong Learning, ...). Eve is not only a tool for the future: from its inception, projects funded in the past have been introduced in the platform. Thus, Eve already contains hundreds of projects funded under the 2000-2006 Education and Culture Programmes: Leonardo da Vinci, Culture 2000, European Active Citizenship, Youth and Socrates (including Comenius, Grundtvig, Erasmus, ...). [+]

FIN-EN project, implementing financial instruments in the framework of EU Structural Funds 
FIN-EN project aims at enhancing co-operation between regional and national authorities across Europe on the methodologies and instruments used for implementing Financial Engineering operations without the European Investment Fund in the framework of EU Structural Funds. The main goal of FIN-EN is to set up a wide and stable network where to discuss each phase of financial engineering  operations’ implementation and the underlying financial instruments in order to find concrete solutions to similar problems. 
13 project partners, each representing a different Region and Member State, discuss the obstacles and challenges in implementing such financial instruments without the European Investment Fund, in order to learn from each other and formulate simplification proposals for future implementation in the next programming period. [+]

Foredta. ICT research cooperation between Europe and Latin America
Knowledge is the key factor for a dynamic competitive knowledge-based economy in the contemporary world; also, information and communication technologies (ICTs) play a major role by facilitating the systematic and strategic use of information in order to support and facilitate knowledge capture, storage and dissemination. Moreover ICT is an enabler for development and a tool used to fight against poverty. Nonetheless, in order to have a real positive impact on society everyone should have access to ICTs to generate equal opportunities for all the people regardless of their origins. Thus, it is imperative that ICTs become a policy priority for governments.
ICTs in Latin America every day are increasingly growing since they are being used in various fields within governments, in state and private companies, and, very strongly, in education. As a result, it is said that Latin America has developed several the areas of ICT; however, there is still a long way to go. Several projects have been launched with support from various inter-governmental agencies, promoting the public sectors to encourage convergence of national ICT policies. For Europe, Latin America constitutes an important partner to face its future development challenges. International research cooperation between both regions will promote further development and establish Europe as a place for excellence in international research.
Indeed, international cooperative research plans and projects have been defined, yet they still lack precise identification of concrete R&D themes in which European and the Latin American target countries can agree to join efforts and resources for mutual benefit. A successful strategic planning of research dimension of ICT cooperation and policy dialogue between the EU and the Latin American region should be developed in order to achieve this goal.
FORESTA promotes policy dialogue for ICT research cooperation between Europe and Latin America through activities such as the organization of conferences, policy dialogue forums, networking sessions,  and the dissemination  of information through the project website. A consortium of partners from Latin America and Europe has been established to achieve those objectives. Organizations from Belgium (TESEO), Spain (ROSE), and UK (EFB) from Europe and from Latin America Colombia (Cintel) and countries that have signed Science & Technology (S&T) Agreements with the European Union:  Argentina (UP), Brazil (USP), Chile (UTEM) and Mexico (ITESM)  are participating in this initiative. ALETI a regional organization, present in most of Central and South American countries participate to give the visibility of FORESTA project even in countries that are not directly involved. [+]

EU-wide harmonization of immigration policies is a long standing and challenging issue, given the need to compromise numerous national immigration policy proposals, practices and procedures towards common, balanced, harmonized and effective EU policies. The challenge stems primarily from the legal, political, technological and societal differences in the various Member States, as well as from the isolation of legal immigrants from the policy making processes and the formulation of balanced migration proposals. Collaboration between various stakeholders including politicians and decision makers, but also citizens and the civil society, is deemed essential to alleviate the heterogeneity of the various policies, regulations and viewpoints. Despite this need, nowadays there are no proven and easy ways to ensure the participation and collaboration of all stakeholders, while current policy making processes take barely this need into account.
Latest ICT developments, such as Web2.0, collaborative knowledge management, provide numerous opportunities for participatory governance and citizen-generated policy making. Furthermore, they can boost innovation in terms of both policy making models and decision support tools. In view of these developments, ImmigrationPolicy2.0 will pilot tools, techniques, solutions and overall services for collaborative development of immigration policies, as well as for supporting related decisions. The project will pay emphasis in the provision and piloting of ICT infrastructures enabling identification, modelling, analysis, visualization, monitoring and harmonization of diverse policies and viewpoints in a secure and reliable fashion. Overall, ImmigrationPolicy2.0 will effectively integrate ICT tools in existing policy making and decision support processes, while at the same time focusing on reshaping these processes in order to ensure active participation from all stakeholders. [+]

IMPACT is a project funded by the European Commission. It aims to significantly improve access to historical text and to take away the barriers that stand in the way of the mass digitisation of the European cultural heritage.
The IMPACT project will remove many of these barriers. The project will push innovation in OCR technology and language technology for historical document processing and retrieval, and share expertise to build capacity in digitisation across Europe. During the project a Centre of Competence will be set up in order to provide a central service entry point for all libraries, archives and museums involved in the digitisation of textual material.
The consortium brings together twenty-six national and regional libraries, research institutions and commercial suppliers who will share their know-how and best practices, develop innovative tools to enhance the capabilities of OCR engines and the accessibility of digitised text and lay down the foundations for the mass-digitisation programmes that will take place over the next decade. [+]

Para su información acabamos de publicar un informe con el análisis de los resultados provisionales de la participación española en los cuatro primeros años del VII PM (2007- 2010). Pueden encontrarlo en "Documentación relacionada" del apartado "Programa Marco de la UE" de la web de CDTI.
Según habíamos publicado anteriormente, la subvención obtenida por las entidades españolas en el periodo 2007-2010 asciende provisionalmente a 1.325,7 M? lo que supone un retorno del 7,6% del total de la financiación adjudicada a los países de la UE-27 (6,7% del total) y una inversión en nuestro país de más 1.925 M? en actividades de I+D. Si comparamos los resultados de estos cuatro primeros años del VII PM con los logrados en el VI PM, considerando así periodos equivalentes, la mejora en la subvención obtenida ha sido de 383,7 M?, lo que supone un incremento en la captación de fondos del 41%. Cualitativamente los resultados del VII PM también superan los la edición anterior, ya que el liderazgo español de proyectos ha aumentado del 6,3% al 8,1%.
Según los datos provisionales disponibles a fecha de cierre del informe, y computado cerca del 70 % de las convocatorias correspondientes a 2011, la subvención obtenida por España en el conjunto del VII Programa Marco (2007-2011) superaría actualmente los 1.700 M? de retorno. En el informe encontrarán un resumen de los principales resultados por tipo de actividad (funding schme), por tipos de entidad,  CCAA, así como por temáticas/ áreas. 

Public innovation intermediaries (such as business parks, innovation centers and innovation policy units) play a crucial role in providing innovation support measures, creating partnerships, finding innovative solutions and in raising the rate of innovation. The lack of external links and limited co-operation of innovation intermediaries are an important drawback factor for a higher rate of innovation and therefore for generating growth and employment at regional level. This is often accompanied by low performance targets set by the funding authorities.
The Interregional Partnership Platform (IPP) is an INTERREG IV C project aiming to improve the capacity of regions for innovation by increasing the performance of innovation intermediaries at local and regional level in the partner regions in European co-operation and EU innovation programmes. The project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund with 1 million Euro and will run for a period of 36 months.
During the project the participating regions will identify and exchange successful access models to increase the outward orientation of innovation intermediaries and to develop a long-term framework of interregional know-how transfer among the local and regional actors. The partners will jointly implement successful practices in two pilot actions, and will develop a joint benchmark; monitoring and IT tool to regularly assess the participation rate of organizations. After all the results of the co-operation would be used to give policy recommendations to improve innovation policies and in particular the structural funds mainstream programmes of the regions. [+]

The European Union budget is relatively small (around 1% of EU GNI), but it can make a big difference. Around 94% of the European Union budget supports researchers, businesses, farmers, regions, young people and many others.
Too little is known about the concrete projects on the ground and how they bring about concrete results and benefits for citizens and businesses as well as for the wider European economy. This non-exhaustive list of good EU projects gives you an idea. Did you know for example that the EU supports solutions to traffic and environmental problems in European cities, that it helps to preserve our environment, allows for energy savings and makes our economy more sustainable? That it supports reconciliation in Northern Ireland? That it brings together universities and researchers or helps local farmers? It spurs economic and social development in poorer regions and supports the unemployed. Progress in cancer research helps patients and creates new treatments. Top-class researchers are enabled to pool knowledge and save money in transnational research projects that benefit European competitiveness. Small and medium sized enterprises receive support to innovate. Risks stemming from climate change and natural disasters are mitigated. Young people get a chance to study, train and volunteer abroad. Children in conflict zones are supported, humanitarian aid is delivered and global food security is improved. (RAPID, MEMO/13/74, 7.2.2013) 

IT-CLEX es una iniciativa europea que pretende responder a la necesidad de reducir las tasas de abandono escolar y mejorar la calidad de la educación y la formación en Europa. A través de este proyecto se identificarán y transferirán buenas prácticas y se proporcionarán herramientas, mecanismos y metodologías, especialmente centradas en la cooperación activa entre los actores educativos y no educativos. El objetivo principal es el de proporcionar una plataforma TIC que facilite a los profesionales de la educación y otros agentes compartir buenas prácticas, experiencias, métodos, recursos y herramientas para trabajar con los estudiantes en riesgo de abandono escolar.
IT-CLEX desarrollará las siguientes actividades: Búsqueda documental y de buenas prácticas. Análisis de las buenas prácticas de acuerdo a su potencial transferibilidad. Creación de una plataforma TIC para integrar estas buenas prácticas y proporcionar un marco colaborativo para agentes educativos y no educativos que trabajen en este ámbito. Adaptación y pilotaje de un sistema flexible de prevención y apoyo para trabajar con estudiantes en riesgo de abandono escolar. Redacción y publicación de una guía para usuarios.
Todos estos resultados, a corto plazo, tendrán un impacto importante en las instituciones participantes y permitirá que los resultados del proyecto sean transferidos, a largo plazo, a otros centros educativos u otros contextos potencialmente interesados. Para ello se desarrollarán diferentes actividades tales como talleres de valorización en cada país socio y una conferencia final que optimizará el impacto de este proyecto a nivel europeo.
Lista de socios: Florida Centre de Formació, CV (ES), Centro de Secundaria “Vytautas Magnus” de Trakai (LT), Centro Nacional de Formación en Arte “Octav Bancila” (RO), Centro de Educación Secundaria de Vennesla (NO), Universidad de Reykjavik (IS), Universidad de Islandia (IS), Fundación Comunidad Valenciana - Región Europea (FCVRE) (ES) y TISSAT , S.A. (ES). [+]

El multilingüismo se integra profundamente en el concepto de la unión europea. Los rápidos y espectaculares avances en las Tecnologías de la Información y de la Comunicación (particularmente de la comunicación móvil e Internet) han generado una cantidad sin precedentes de contenidos accesibles en línea, los cuales cada vez son más multilingües. Esto ha aumentado la necesidad de abordar el problema de eliminar barreras lingüísticas para hacer el contenido Web multilingüe extensamente accesible. Una tecnología clave que juega un papel vital en este objetivo es la traducción automática (TA).
El desarrollo de software de traducción automática de calidad constituye un gran esfuerzo científico y financiero, principalmente debido a la cantidad de recursos lingüísticos necesarios; por lo tanto la mayoría de las compañías de TA se centran únicamente en algunos idiomas relevantes para sus mercados objetivo. Como consecuencia, actualmente no existe una solución fácilmente accesible de TA que ofrezca cobertura total para todos los idiomas de la UE. Google ha lanzado recientemente su propio servicio de traducción automática, que proporciona traducción entre cualquier combinación de idiomas europeos, todo ello en un mismo lugar y gratuitamente, lo que le proporciona una posición competitiva enorme. Sin embargo, la calidad final de su traducción es, a menudo, inferior a la de otras soluciones de TA para muchos idiomas europeos. [+]

A European Network of Local Partnerships for the Advancement of Youth Employment and Opportunity.
The project seeks to ensure that today’s youth become effective and successful members of tomorrow’s workforce, thereby making our economies more dynamic, innovative and competitive, and ensuring the sustainability of our way of life.
Youth unemployment and inactivity is an enormous structural problem across Europe; moreover, too much of what employment there is for youth is of low quality, precarious and leads nowhere. These problems have been drastically worsened by the current economic crisis, which has disproportionately affected young people; in some parts of Europe youth unemployment has reached catastrophic levels. This project seeks to address structural youth unemployment and poor employment, by establishing Local Partnerships for the advancement of Youth Employment and Opportunities, driven by city administrations, of local stakeholders, to advance youth employment and opportunities, as an approach to the development and maintaining of a competitive and sustainable local economy and social model. [+]

MEDESS-4MS service is dedicated to the maritime risks prevention and strengthening of maritime safety related to oil spill pollution in the Mediterranean.
The main goal of MEDESS-4MS is to deliver an integrated operational multi model oil spill prediction service in the Mediterranean, connected to existing oil spill monitoring platforms (EMSA-CSN, REMPEC and AIS data), using well established oil spill modeling systems, the environmental data from the GMES European Marine Service and the MS national ocean forecasting systems.
MEDESS4MS will set up an integrated real time operational oil spill forecasting service for the Mediterranean for national response agencies, REMPEC and EMSA. The multi-model oil spill forecasting system is composed of environmental information from the GMES Marine Service and the national ocean forecasting systems interfaced with oil slick data from existing monitoring platforms from EMSA CSN, as well with AIS data. It will use the real time information about position of the oil slick, interface it with oil spill models capable to forecast the movement of the pollution providing tailored products to oil spill crisis management users, contributing substantially to maritime risks prevention and maritime safety. [+]

MobiCloud is an EU funded project to develop a European Corporate Appstore

Many of us use 'cloud computing' every day without even realising it. Web-based e mail and social media sites such as Facebook and Spotify all use the technology to store data such as pictures, videos and text files. But what exactly is 'the cloud'? Even many people who have heard of the concept aren't always sure about what it involves.
Cloud computing relies on sharing computing resources rather than having local servers or personal devices to handle applications. In cloud computing, the word cloud (also phrased as "the cloud") is used as a metaphor for "the Internet," so the phrase cloud computing actually means "a type of Internet-based computing," where different services - such as servers, storage and applications - are delivered to an organisation's computers and devices through the Internet. The files are stored in massive data centres containing hundreds of servers and storage systems that are compatible with nearly all computer software. When you wish to access your information, you simply connect to the 'cloud' from your PC, smartphone or tablet.
The advantages are numerous. Users for example don't have to buy or maintain expensive servers and data-storage systems. For corporations, the technology helps them lower their costs by reducing the need for in-house IT support and extra office space.
The European Commission's Digital Agenda is the EU's strategy to help digital technologies, including the internet, to deliver sustainable economic growth. The reduction in the cost and complexity of mobile application development using cloud technologies is one of the objectives of the European Commission. The €4.45M Mobicloud project, co-funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (PSP) Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), aims to do just that.
The project's objective is to stimulate the provision of new mobile services in the cloud and help support the emergence of a European ecosystem of mobile cloud application developers. With MobiCloud, it will become feasible for smaller companies, and not only global enterprise resource planning vendors, to quickly develop and market mobile extensions of their existing business applications. The Commission therefore aims to enable and facilitate faster adoption of cloud computing throughout all sectors of the economy. This will have the knock-on effect of cutting ICT costs, and boosting productivity, growth and jobs when combined with new digital business practices.
MobiCloud will become an online technology marketplace where end-users, mobile developers, application vendors, system integrators and cloud service providers can collaborate to develop end-to-end solutions with high return on investment (ROI). This collaborative platform will develop, deploy and manage mobile cloud applications for business-critical scenarios such as public transport, field service or construction. Its initial demonstration scenarios focus on industries where collaborative mobile applications can support a more efficient, greener organisation. It provides a composite screen (mobile mash-up) that aggregates data from various corporate IT systems. Depending on context (location, role, skill set, available colleagues, etc.) the application displays different services which react in real-time to changes (work orders, fault reports, alerts). [+]

The Project seeks to provide general and innovative answers based on territorial governance to the changes and threats faced by Mediterranean rural landscapes through the cooperation of participating territories. Landscape planning models and tools will be developed within the framework of the Project, and such models and tools will be transferable to other Mediterranean territories sharing the same characteristics, to ultimately build a European network of territories adhering to a “Mediterranean Rural Landscape Chart” defined under the Project.
The idea was proposed by Matarraña, a rural territory with immense landscape resources threatened by transformations taking place in rural areas. These rural territories have been isolated for years, but trade, tourism and European policies have favored a prompt opening with resulting new needs: communication, exchange of knowledge, experiences and strategies for the future. The partnership of the project is composed of 5 rural territories from 5 countries in the Mediterranean basin: Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and France. [+]

The project MY PLACE was a training course on Media production (Photos and Videos) and editing. Three Trainers and a Coordinator from AMISnet, the Italian Non-Profit Organization partner, trained 20 Participants and 7 Observers at Yafa Culture Center in Balata Camp of Nablus, a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank. Among the 27 participants and observers there were 19 Palestinians and 8 European participants. The action began with preparation activities between YCC (Yafa Culture Center) and Amisnet starting from 30th of January, 2012 to the 5th of February, 2012. The training Course started on Monday 6th. The participants were divided into three groups: photos, video and researchers group. Each group had one or two coordinator or trainer, working on the selected heritage places to produce a final documentary product. At the same time the participants were involved in a practical training on media production by the trainers.
At the end of the training course three kinds of final products were issued. The photography group selected twenty-four pictures among all the pictures taken during the fieldwork documentation. Each of the eight participants selected three pictures and added to them a note in a form of text, poetry or report describing her/his experience. These pictures have been printed and an exhibition has been organized in the Yafa Cultural Center in March 2012. This exhibition will be shown in Rome when a delegation from the YCC will be hosted by the partner organization for a dissemination activity. The exhibition has been created also with the aim of bringing these pictures around Europe as a result of an intense activity of the photography group and the meeting of young photographers from Palestine with a young professional.
The Video Group, from its side, has issued a short documentary movie with interviews of local people. This product will also constitute an important tool to disseminate the work done, and the meaning of documenting the old city of Nablus. It will be shown first in Rome, but also in other European cities where it will be possible to enhance the importance of the cultural past of Palestine and the importance of inclusion of young generation in this process of documentation. A third product was the result of the researchers’ group: a 24 pages booklet with pictures, text and photogrammetric surveys of five historical sites chosen among the old buildings of Nablus. The booklet - which has been printed in seven hundred copies - will be distributed in the tourism offices of Palestine to serve the local tourism development; some will also be distributed in Italy and other cities of Europe. All this material will travel with the exhibition in the future.
The project MY PLACE has been inspired by the need of study and research about the past of the city to encourage local population to valorize their cultural heritage. The project was a starting point of a wider strategy aiming to support their initiatives in media production to highlight their cultural heritage and to increase its visibility in their society. The spread of the new media among younger generations along with the freedom of information are amid the fundamental pillars of democracy processes in contemporary world. The knowledge of the historical past and the enhancement of cultural heritage are important elements to develop multiculturalism and cultural openness together with the construction of a national identity. [+]

Next in Line is a journalism project bringing candidate and potential candidate countries for EU membership closer to audiences in Central Europe and other member states.
The 2011-2 project, which is co-funded by the European Union, is aimed at highlighting the potentials and challenges of current EU enlargement toward the Western Balkans, Turkey, and Iceland by involving some of Central Europe’s leading publications in reporting on a wide range of issues in candidate countries and potential candidates.
For this project, TOL has partnered with some of the best and most popular serious publications in the Visegrad countries: Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland), Respekt (the Czech Republic),  Tyzden  (Slovakia), as well as the Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ) in Budapest which will work with journalists from Hungary’s most important magazines and newspapers. Together, these publications and TOL reach hundreds of thousands of citizens in Central Europe and elsewhere. [+]

PROFORBIOMED promotes renewable energies (RE) in MED areas by developing an integrated strategy for the use of the forest biomass as a RE source, recovering the forest biomass potential, developing technical and legal aspects and promoting the use of forestry biomass for energy. The strategy relies on the involvement of key stakeholders in a forestry biomass production chain that takes into account sustainability and compatibility with other uses and provides new economic opportunities. It has a multi-sectorial dimension, working with public and private stakeholders related to forestry biomass chains at all levels (from European to local) and affecting 5 key policies: industry, energy, forests, agriculture and environment. It works on the valorisation of the forests as active sources of income that need proper management. The innovative aspects of the Project are related to the involvement of the diverse public and private stakeholders in the development of forestry biomass sector policies and actions. The PROFORBIOMED project is a strategic project under objective 2.2. "Promotion and renewable energy and improvement of energy efficiency".
The project will focus on the current weak points that prevent forestry biomass to be relevant for a sustainable development of territories, developing technical issues, supporting tools and policies, involving all stakeholders and creating structures that support the cooperation between public and private actors. On the other hand, it will develop pilot experiences on 13 topics, trying to reinforce the cooperation among stakeholders and serving as demonstration and transfer tools of know-how on technical and management issues.
The project will bring on strategic long term impacts in rural areas on social, economic and environmental conditions and public policies. The main outputs will be technical proposals on practices and policies, a model on public support scheme and financing opportunities in forest biomass chain, development of agreements between public and private actors, transfer and application of know-how regarding forest and biomass management, creation of clusters and networks in rural areas and implementation of the smart grids concept to the biomass production chain.
The most relevant result is the promotion of RE and the involvement of key stakeholders in a forestry biomass production chain that improves governance of rural areas, reduces natural risks and fosters new economic opportunities. Moreover, results will contribute to restore the potential and conservation status of Mediterranean forests, halting their declining and promoting their active management and conservation. Finally, it will guarantee more secure supply of energy with mobilisation of wood biomass from forests and will enable the adoption of the smart grids concept to the RE chains.
PROFORBIOMED is the result of the merging of three different proposals related to biomass presented in the first stage of the call (PROFORBIOMED, BIO PRO ENERGY and MEDITMASS) and involves 18 partners from 6 countries and 16 MED regions. [+]