Besides spin-off projects and other initiatives on European platform level, the regional Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) on urban greening also realized a number of spin-offs. Here are some of such initiatives by the CoVE partners in Spain.
Urban Tree 5.0
In August 2024, a new innovation project titled ‘Urban Tree 5.0: Technological and Methodological Innovation in Training for Urban and Peri-Urban Tree Management’, was awarded to the Spanish CoVE partners Projar, EFA La Malvesia, and a new partner INS MontsiĂ .
This Spanish spin-off project will last for two years and represents a strategic collaboration between institutes and companies within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, funded by the European Union 🇪🇺.
Urban Tree 5.0 brings together three partners with the common goal of developing a management application for urban and peri-urban trees, providing an accessible working tool, specially designed for vocational training students.
By undertaking this applied training and innovation project, they aim to achieve knowledge transfer regarding urban green structures, promote technological and innovative training for emerging professions in the new models of smart green cities.
Circular Bricks
This project focuses on Circular Bioeconomy for Improving Agrifood VET Institutes’ Teachers’ Skills and Competencies. The bioeconomy in Europe is moving from a research niche to a market standard, as the European Commission is setting the course for a more efficient and more sustainable economy in the use of resources.
To help train and educate the new generation of bioeconomy professionals with the necessary technical and non-technical skills, the project partners rethink and improve their current educational model for the bioeconomy. This is Circular Bricks’ long-term ambition. Some initiatives have already been launched across Europe. However, there seems to be a lack of generalized and coherent schemes, especially with regard to the field of food production. To address these needs, Circular Bricks will train VET teachers in the agri-food sector to be able to train their students (i.e. the future generation of circular bioeconomy professionals) with the necessary “green” skills. required by current and future industries operating in the European circular bioeconomy.
Pollen
Pollen is an Eramus+ KA2 spin-off project, coordinated by the French school OGEC Notre-Dame. The project offers students the opportunity to access learning around the world of plants, their biology and their diversity.
Students between 12 and 17 years old from four schools (France-La Reunion, continental France, Romania and Spain), carry out a project oriented towards an environmental issue in Europe and entitled P.O.L.L.E.N. (Plants, throughout their lives, learning European Nature).
The actions carried out throughout the project allow students to develop basic competences (ICT, foreign languages, mathematics, science, writing), as well as personal skills essential for lifelong learning and for its insertion in the professional world: entrepreneurial spirit , initiative, teamwork, autonomy, creativity, problem solving, etc.
These actions also allow students and all those involved to give a better meaning to everyday ecological gestures, based on the challenges that we must face as European citizens.