Ulster University (UU) is a multi-campus, co-educational university located in Northern Ireland. It is one of the largest universities in the UK and Ireland. UU comprises of four physical campuses located in Coleraine, Jordanstown, Derry and Belfast. A fifth distance learning campus (Campus One) delivers fully online programmes which are mainly at the postgraduate level. It has a national and international reputation for excellence, innovation and regional engagement, making a major contribution to the economic, social and cultural development of Northern Ireland. The core business activities are teaching and learning, widening access to education, research and innovation, and technology and knowledge transfer. As Northern Ireland’s civic university, UU is grounded in the heart of the community and strives to make a lasting contribution to society as a whole. Renowned for its world class teaching, UU aims to transform lives, stretch minds and develop the skills required by a growing economy. The outcomes of Ulster’s research have global significance with local relevance, and contribute to social, economic, and cultural betterment of our region. Although the university can trace its roots back to the Victorian era, its sights are firmly set on the future. Students are at the centre of Ulster’s activities, and each of the four campuses provides a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses, which engage students and give them the skills to carve out their careers. Ulster has over 27,000 students and 2349 staff and is in the top 3% of universities in the world. The School of Education, located in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science offers course provision in initial teacher education (PGCE), continuing in-service vocational teacher training (Certificate in Teaching and Postgraduate Certificate in Further Education), educational leadership (MEd), TESOL and Library and Information Management. The School offers a strong undergraduate provision in education studies, focusing on special needs education, the integration of ICT into education and education law and policy. These courses are linked to professional bodies, including the General Teaching Council, British Council and Libraries NI. The School has approximately 600 full and part-time students, based across the Coleraine and Jordanstown campuses. The School of Education has a very strong focus on research, being ranked sixth in the UK in the area of research impact in Education in the 2014 National Research Excellence exercise (REF). The School hosts an internationally renowned UNESCO Centre, which has specialist expertise in education, conflict and international development. The UNESCO Chair for Pluralism, Human Rights and Democracy was established in 1999 and provides the leadership for research and development work related to children and youth with expertise in education, conflict and international development

The Professional Development Services for Teachers (PDST) is managed by Dublin West Education Centre and is Ireland’s largest Teacher Education Provider delivering CPD to the 3240 primary schools (4-12) and 722 post-primary schools (12-18) in the State. PDST was established in September 2010 as an integrated and cross-sectoral support service for schools and is now the country’s largest single support service offering professional learning opportunities to teachers and school leaders in a range of pedagogical, curricular and educational areas. It has a national remit and is centrally funded by the Department of Education to support the implementation of centralised policy and school determined CPD requirements.

Specifically, within PDST, PDST Technology in Education’s (PDST TiE) remit is to support schools with the implementation and embedding of digital technologies into classroom practice. Its service is central to delivering the annual action plans that support the delivery of the Digital Strategy for Schools 2015-2020. A core component of the current work plan is supporting the implementation of the Digital Learning Framework for schools, a framework developed for the Irish context and informed by the UNESCO ICT framework and DigCompEdu Framework. PDST Technology in Education has the responsibility to support all teachers in all schools and fulfils this through a comprehensive CPD framework that marries the best of face-to-face and online provision. PDST TiE also manages Webwise, Ireland’s Internet Safety Centre co-funded by the Ministry and the EU Commission and Scoilnet, an Irish repository for teacher created resources.

Dublin City University was founded in 1981 and is consistently ranked among the top young universities globally. DCU is a research-intensive university with modern campuses located in Drumcondra and Glasnevin (20-30 min from Dublin city centre), which provides office spaces, library, laboratories with dedicated equipment and other support services (e.g. restaurants, student accommodation, sports facilities etc.). The campuses are active and rewarding, full of student life, sports and leisure facilities. With the city just a 10-minute bus drive away, students of DCU have the best of both worlds; the social and cultural benefits of city life, but with the security and vibrancy of a university campus built very much for today. Dublin City University (DCU) has grown rapidly in scale and performance since being established as a university in 1989. In 2016, DCU incorporated with the former St. Patrick’s College, Church of Ireland College of Education, Mater Dei Institute of Education and St Patrick’s College. The expanded DCU has the first Faculty of Education in Ireland, along with four other faculties: Science and Health, Humanities and Social Sciences, Engineering and Computing, and DCU Business School. DCU now has a student population of more than 17,000 students, including 3,000 students from 122 other countries. DCU prides itself on delivering excellence across all of its activities and is recognised as acentre of academic excellence in education and research. DCU has forged a reputation as Ireland’s University of Enterprise, through its strong, active links with academic, research and industry partners both at home and overseas. Unconventional by nature, DCU broke with the traditional mould and introduced new approaches into the Irish education system. As the first university in Ireland to introduce work placements (Intra) as part of its degree programmes, DCU’s focus is not solely on academic learning: students get the opportunity to spend time in real-world professional environments as part of their studies, and they also get to work with innovators on their own ideas, setting up enterprises and exploring their own social and commercial ideas.

The Institute of Education comprises the largest critical mass of education expertise in Europe, spanning the full education continuum from Early Childhood through Primary and Second Level to Third and Fourth Level. The Institute has a staff of more than 125 full-time academics and a student body in excess of 4,000. As well as providing a range of undergraduate programmes in education, the Institute offers a rich menu of taught and research-based post-graduate programmes, at doctoral, masters, diploma and certificate levels.
As a centre of expertise and excellence in teacher education and education more generally, DCU hosts a range of research centres in key areas of priority and has an ambitious programme of research across education. The Centre for Evaluation, Quality and Inspection (EQI; https://www.dcu.ie/ceqie/index.shtml) is one such research centre which has created an unrivalled research, publication and school support reputation over the last two decades. EQI is a multidisciplinary research group examining the impact of evaluation and inspection in education and related fields. With a focus on quality and school support, EQI has worked with many school leaders for school improvement in varied fields. The project, Distributed Evaluation of Networked Schools (ICEP) is in alignment with DCU’s Strategic Plan in terms of bringing quality research to questions that are significant to the quality of educational provision and significant for the educational community. The Institute of Education in DCU is supported in the application and management phase of research projects by Research and Innovation Support (RIS). This unit has two constituent units which support the research and innovation activities of our academic and research staff and collaborative partners. They are the Research Support Unit and Innovation Support Unit (Invent), which along with Finance and Human Resources, provide support in the management of grants and offer advice on the organization, dissemination, negotiation, evaluation and monitoring of research activities. The Finance Office provides support on budgets, accounts for the receipts and payments of the University and all its departments and subsidiaries, manages payroll matters, student fee processing, advises on University income and expenditure trends, co-ordinates procurement, manages financial audits.

The University of Cyprus participates in PRIMAE Project through the Software Engineering and Internet Technologies (SEIT) Laboratory, an integral part of the Department of Computer Science. SEIT focuses its research activities on two important areas of Information Technology, namely Software Engineering and Internet Technologies. In the second area, the Laboratory concentrates on the development of ICT-enabled Creativity and Enhanced Learning Environments, platforms and tools for implementing Health monitoring and support services, Smart and Personalised services for Elders and Assistive Technologies for people with disabilities. SEIT has extensive experience in the area of applying ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) to e-Learning, m-Learning and Open and Distance Learning in general as well as Life Long Learning in particular. This expertise is both at a technical level and at developing policies and qualification frameworks for such activities. Regarding only the Erasmus+ related themes, SEIT has recently coordinated four Erasmus+ projects (VeLoCiTy, World-of-Physics, DiFens, IDEA) and currently coordinates one Erasmus+ project: wINGS (begun in 2018), and also participates in 14 more: EASIER, EPUM, ELSE, AT-SGIRES, SENSE, WINDEXT, Dig-It, ISSA, ICT-4TVET, TOOLS, PRIMAE, QHELP, Digi-Sporting and Job-Jo. SEIT has also participated in 13 Leonardo da Vinci projects, 3 EUMEDIS projects, 2 FP (Framework Programs), 1 INCO-DC and 3 projects funded by national funds. It has also participated in the EMUNI project and the VUSCC initiative, both related to policymaking or reform and qualifications accreditation, as well as in the Interreg IVC project Innofun, on developing policies for entrepreneurship and innovation. SEIT is currently participating in two AAL projects: eSticky, and GUIDed, and in one national project: ReaDI-STANCE.

VisMedNet is an association of professionals set up to bring together professionals who share an interest in youth and employment, education and research, entrepreneurship and innovation. Its team includes professionals backgrounds with more than 18 years experience in projects at local, EU and Mediterranean level besides a pool of cooperative experts that sustain its activities in various fields.

It is an initiator of activities and experimentations as well as a partner in several projects within its fields of expertise.

YOUTH & ADULT EDUCATION MOSTLY ON THE SUBJECTS OF EMPLOYMENT, CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

• Starting up and management of InternPoint programme working on several mobility projects related to internships in Malta for HE, VET and adult learning students, NEETs and ad hoc groups.
• Starting up of the InternPrize experimental dynamic for project based internships in culture, media, IT and creative industries.
• Partner and now still leader in exploitation of Youths Collecting Memories : Youth in Action project on media education for youths in the context of preservation of traditions through oral heritage.
• Co-Coordinator of Creative InternPrize : E+ KA2 Strategic Partnership VET on training on start-ups in the creative industries and setting up of a new platform for interaction between students, trainers and industry.
• Partner in Empowerment through Enterprise : E+ KA2 Strategic Partnership Youth on the creation of opportunities and training content for disadvantaged groups of women.
• Partner in Street Food Opportunities For Youth : E+ KA2 Strategic Partnership Youth on the skills for start-up and management in street food and preservation of traditions.
• Leader of two E+ KA2 Strategic Partnership Youth projects all under its InternPrize initiative that involves young people in real practical projects that are a learning and training opportunity while building a curriculum of experience on real life projects in the creative industries mostly social media strategies and marketing.
• Leader of another E+ KA2 Strategic Partnership Youth project engaging youth leaders in research on skills that make young people more employable.
• Partner in Opportunities for Youth in Pop Culture : E+ KA2 Strategic Partnership Youth on training in entrepreneurship and startups in popular culture.

EDUCATION, RESEARCH & INNOVATION

• Runs a concepts lab for the creation of project ideas and proposals in education together with 7 partners around Europe and Turkey.
• Is a specialist in the generation of sustainable communities and networks lately more focused on Communities of Practice.
• Co-Coordinator of VISConti project : E+ KA2 Strategic Partnership VET for the creation of a Community of Practice platform and dynamic on sustainability and creativity in science.
• Co-Coordinator of UPPScience project : E+ KA2 Strategic Partnership VET for the augmentation of the VISConti CoP and the setting up of online publishing in education and peer review.
• Co-Coordinator of ErasmusBUS : E+ KA2 Strategic Partnership VET on cross curricular modular learning on technical design for future car professionals.
• Co-Coordinator of MaTE : E+ KA2 Strategic Partnership HE on mapping of innovation in teacher education.
• Co-Coordinator of Business Ideas Generation : E+ KA2 Strategic Partnership VET on the skills for building sustainable business ideas that would be in close cross project cooperation with this project.
• Co-Coordinator of Future Planners : E+ KA2 Strategic Partnership Youth on real and effective community consultation in the area of human centred urban development projects.