SOSTRA
Soft Skills Training and Recruitment in Adult Educators (Ref: 2018-1-FI-KA204-047243)
The general objective of this project is to promote the development of quality training actions through the incorporation of a tool that guarantees the selectors of teachers, trainers or educators in education a professional process in the selection of the most suitable candidate. The tool will help the coach to design the position, the profile, identify key white skills, their level, the selection process and the diagnosis of candidates and their potential.
Specific objectives
- Identify the position of Educator, trainer or facilitator in terms of soft skills.
- Delineate the 40 key soft skills that an Educator, trainer or facilitator may need for the development of their teaching activity.
- Create a tool that:
- Set up a concrete and adapted profile of educator-facilitator with a view to their selection for a concrete formative action.
- Guide the trainer-selector during the selection process.
- Issue an individualized report to the trainer selector on each of the candidates showing the degree of development of the trainer’s key soft skills with recommendations for improvement through training proposals.
- Propose innovative contents for the training of the 40 optimized key competences.
- Disseminate the results of this training and other institutions that could benefit this product.
Action type: Strategic Partnerships for Adult Education
Budget: 241.430€
Investigador responsable en la UCO: Francisco José Saco De Larriva
web: sostra.eu
PRIMA MED-BERRY
Developing new strategies to protect strawberry crop in Mediterranean countries (PRIMA-S2-2018-PCI2019-103396)
Strawberry is fundamental crop for Mediterranean countries, the fruits have unique flavour and precious nutritional properties and their economic value is extremely high. Growing healthy strawberry using sustainable protection solutions that preserve the fruits quality and yield, and respect human health and environment is a challenging task..
In this project complementary expertise of researchers from public and private institutions from Italy, Spain, France, Morocco and Turkey are joined in the effort to develop innovative tools, protocols and strategies suited to revise the pathogen control strategies in view of innovative concepts of protection management. Here, conventional in struments (e.g. traditional breeding programs made with local germplasm) are integrated with New Breeding Techniques (NBT) able to develop new plants and products that counteract the most aggressive pathogens and the new phytosanitary emergences.
General objectives
The Med-Berry project aims are 4:
- 1: Resistant genes identification and exploitation. Local resistant germplasm will be used to develop resistant varieties against fungal diseases
- 2: Development of NBT protocols, and RNA interference molecules. Intragenesis protocols will be applied to study the role of key strawberry defense genes to increase fruit resistance. Specific dsRNA molecules will be designed to target pathogen key genes by topical application on plants (SIGS).
- 3. Socio-economic impact analysis. The economic sustainability of the developed solutions and their social acceptability across the Mediterranean countries will be evaluated to obtain realistic measure of the potential application of the new strategies.
- 4. Dissemination. Large effort will be put to disseminate results in different farming and industrial contexts and to share the newly achieved knowledge through the strawberry research network and the organization of training activities.
Investigador Principal: José Luis Caballero Repullo
Correo electrónico de contacto: bb1carej@uco.es
Página web del proyecto: https://medberry-prima.eu/
La UCO consigue 3 nuevos proyectos de Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership
La Universidad de Córdoba refuerza su participación en el programa Erasmus + gracias a la aprobación de 3 nuevos proyectos en la modalidad Strategic Partnerships en la convocatoria 2019. Los Proyectos Erasmus+ KA2 de Asociaciones Estratégicas son proyectos de cooperación entre instituciones que ofrecen a cualquier tipo de institución vinculada a la Educación Superior (KA203) o la Formación Profesional (KA202) la oportunidad de cooperar en el desarrollo de productos intelectuales innovadores que impliquen una mejora en los sistemas y estructuras de la Educación Superior. Son transnacionales y en ellas participan un mínimo de tres organizaciones de tres países del programa diferentes.
Tres nuevos proyectos concedidos en la convocatoria PRIMA 2019
El pasado mes de noviembre se dieron a conocer la resolución de ambas secciones de convocatorias de proyectos del programa PRIMA, en las que la UCO obtuvo tres proyectos. La iniciativa PRIMA (Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area) , es el programa conjunto de investigación e innovación centrado en el desarrollo y la aplicación de soluciones innovadoras para los sistemas alimentarios y los recursos hídricos en la cuenca mediterránea.
El proyecto FORCE, acción Marie Curie IF, se inició el pasado 1 de octubre
El proyecto FORCE “Molecular basis underlying the QTL responsible for the genetic control of flowering time in chickpea: an integrative approach” comenzó el 1 de octubre y tendrá una duración de 24 meses. El proyecto está financiado por la comisión Europea (160 932,48 €) por medio de una acción Marie Skłodowska-Curie-IF gracias al programa marco Horizonte 2020, siendo Jose V. Die Ramón (Departamento Genética – ETSIAM) el investigador responsable.
El proyecto WEDISTRICT comenzó el pasado 1 de octubre
El proyecto WEDISTRICT «Smart and local reneWable Energy DISTRICT heating and cooling solutions for sustainable living» comenzó el 1 de octubre y tendrá una duración de 42 meses, con un coste total 19.273.573 euros de los que la Comisión Europea aportará 14.972.852 euros gracias al programa marco Horizonte 2020.
BOOST
Building social and emotional skills to BOOST resilience in children and young people (H2020-SC1-2017-PM-07-755175)
It is widely documented that social and emotional learning (SEL) programs are effective in promoting mental health and wellbeing in children and young people. However, a number of shortcomings of these programs have been identified, which may compromise their sustainability and long-term effect.It is widely documented that social and emotional learning (SEL) programs are effective in promoting mental health and wellbeing in children and young people.
The BOOST project will go beyond state of the art of current SEL programmes and develop an approach to integrate SEL in teachers’ pedagogical skills and classroom interaction and a tool for organisational development to facilitate implementation and uptake of the approach in classrooms, schools and among school owners (the BOOST approach).
The development will involve the young themselves, as well as school owners, teachers, policy makers and a multidisciplinary team of researchers from fields of education, public health, psychology and economics. This is to ensure the relevance, acceptability and organisational and political anchoring of the intervention, as well as to increase the potential for scale-up and sustainability of the intervention locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.
The end users of the BOOST approach are schools and teachers, but the target population are children and young people. To ensure the relevance of the BOOST approach in a wide range of European contexts, the approach will be developed, implemented and tested in three diverse European settings, Poland, Spain and Norway. The BOOST approach will be evaluated for its short-term and long-term effects on children’s social and emotional well-being, as well as for its economic benefits
General objectives
The overall aim of the BOOST project will be achieved through the following strategic objectives:
- A formative study will secure the cultural and contextual foundation and will provide the basis for the BOOST approach. The study will be a combination of available evidence of SEL programmes and a study of the various cultural, contextual and political educational environments where the approach will be implemented.
- BOOST will design an organisational and pedagogical approach based on findings from the formative study. The approach will then undergo an iterative consultation process in each of the three countries, and revised according to the experience and findings from this process. This process will involve key stakeholders (school owners, teachers, policy makers and researchers). The approach will strengthen SEL based teaching skills and understanding and facilitate its organisational uptake.
- The BOOST approach will be refined and evaluated in real school environments in at least nine schools in three European countries (Poland, Spain and Norway).
- The long-term and short-term effectiveness of the BOOST approach on children’s social and emotional well-being will be evaluated.
- An economic evaluation of the BOOST approach will be conducted in order to inform policy choices and provide evidence of economic feasibility of possible scalability as well as evidence of cost-savings in years, of adolescents and young adults, in relation to the increase of social and emotional well-being achieved by BOOST.
- Close collaboration with beneficiaries/ target population (children and young people), end-users (teachers and schools) and key stakeholders (municipalities/ local governments) throughout the entire project period. Together with targeted dissemination, this will ensure the relevance, ownership and full exploitation of the BOOST approach and its results.
Role of the University of Cordoba
- To ensure and oversee the implementation of the BOOST approach in real school environments in three European countries.
- To measure the short-term and study the potential long term effectiveness of the BOOST approach on children’s social and emotional well-being.
Investigadoras Principales: Eva María Romera Félix y Olga Gómez Ortíz
Correo electrónico de contacto: eva.romera@uco.es y olga.gomez@uco.es
Página web del proyecto: www.boostproject.eu
BOND
Bringing Organisations and Network Development to higher levels in the farming sector in Europe (H2020-RUR-15-2017-774208)
Project ‘BOND’ is centred on the implementation of reaching higher levels of organisation and networking, and develop a healthier, more productive, and more harmonious farming sector in Europe for the long term.
The ultimate goal is to build strong organisations and create stronger networks between farmers, between farmers organisations, and for them with policy makers, researchers, and others relevant to the networking and cooperation toward the goals: collective action for increased synergies and collaboration.
Through these new bonds, and through the tools and resources developed over the three years of the project, it can promote lasting change for the good of the farming sector and ultimately for everyone who relies on it for daily nourishment across Europe.
General objectives
Reach higher levels of organisation and networking, and develop a healthier, and more productive and harmonious farming sector in Europe for the long term
- SO1: Draw up solutions and build bonding capital within farmer and land manager groups, ensuring cohesiveness and trust among people
- SO2: Enable different organizations to come closer together, building bridging capital to form larger networks (value chains, cooperatives, apex bodies), understanding attitudes, weaknesses and constraints that impede collective action
- SO3: Build linking capital, developing ties with entities with different interests and powers, including government, donors, academia, private sector, to reach a stronger position in decision-making.
- SO4: Engage multi actors and policy makers. Design and deploy an Engagement and Dissemination
Role of the University of Cordoba
- Organize an interregional forum with the representatives, other key actors (academia, private sector, decision-makers, CSOs etc.) and project partners and undertake the initial Training of Trainers (TOT) for 20 trainers. The 4-day TOT will develop the capacities of participants in the different topics, and will provide a basis for future processes of change within their own organizations. Participants will commit to concrete actions to be undertaken in their organizations once they have completed the TOT.
- Identify the attitudes, weaknesses, disincentives and constraints that limit the development o collective and networking activities, in the selected countries, in different sectors, and to propose ways to overcome them, co-developing and implementing tailored capacity building to develop effective groups and help them engage in larger networks.
Investigador Principal: Mª Carmen Cuéllar Padilla
Correo electrónico de contacto: mcuellar@uco.es
PHOTO-CY-APPs
Photosynthesis and photoprotection regulation in marine cyanobacteria and its potential applications (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017-GF-795070)
Carotenoids evolved in cyanobacteria as components of membranes providing a structural role and likely influencing permeability to oxygen. Then they became complexed with proteins that enabled a great diversification in their functions to include both 1O2 quenching and light harvesting in photoprotection.
Photo-cy-apps is an ambitious project with the purpose of gaining a comprehensive understanding of the role of OCP and the new HCPs and CTDHs on photoprotection in marine cyanobacteria, with their potential application. The ecological importance of these microorganisms reinforces the relevance of this project, since the putative protecting role of OCP in a major subset of marine picocyanobacteria could be a key factor for their abundance, particularly in regions close to the surface of the ocean, subjected to high irradiances.
This project brings two research laboratories together with different and complementary expertise, the Kerfeld lab at the Plant Research Laboratory (PRL) at Michigan State University (MSU and LBNL) in the USA with the expertise in bioinformatics, biophysics and structural biology, and the Garcia-Fernandez lab at the University of Cordoba (UCO) in Spain with the expertise in physiological studies in marine cyanobacteria, to determine the role of these car-binding proteins in marine photoprotection and provide the foundation for the Fellow for her independent career after this interdisciplinary training-through research.
General objectives
1. Biochemical and structural characterization of OCP, HCPs and CTDH from marine Synechococcus and C. watsonii.
1.A. Protein production in E. coli and in cyanobacteria.
1.B. Pigment selectivity using mass spectrometry
1.C. Structural and biophysical characterization.
2. Functional characterization of OCP, HCPs and CTDH.
2.A. Non-photochemical quenching assays.
2.B. Determine the rates of O2 quenching.
2.C. Photoactivation of the different Synechococcus OCPs.
3. Discovering new functions provided by HCP-CTDH interactions.
4. Physiological characterization of OCP, HCPs and CTDH in marine cyanobacteria
4.A Determination of the gene expression and accumulation of these proteins.
4.B. Determination of the carotenoid profile in the different species.
Role of the University of Cordoba
Objectives 4A and 4B, described above, will be carried out by Dr. Domínguez-Martín in the third year of this project, at the return phase.
- Determination of the gene expression and accumulation of these proteins. Garcia-Fernandez Lab (the lab at the return phase) has the access to many different strains of marine cyanobacteria. The gene expression and the accumulation of the OCP, HCPs and CTDH will be tested under different conditions (e.g. light, key nutrients, temperature) to complete the in vitro characterization. Two different OCP antibodies, one to Arthrospira maxima OCP and the other to Synechocystis OCP will be kindly provided from Kerfeld lab. The Garcia-Fernandez lab has a SigF mutant for Synechococcus WH7803 kindly provided by Dr. Wolfgang Hess (University of Freiburg, Germany). I will use this mutant to determine the accumulation of the proteins in comparison to the wild-type to gain insights on the regulation of these proteins.
- Determination of the carotenoid profile in the different species. Using the mass spectrometry and the previous experience during the outgoing phase the carotenoid profile content will be determined in these cyanobacteria. They will be studied under different conditions (e.g. light, key nutrients, temperature).
Supervisor: José Manuel García Fernández e-mail: jmgarcia@uco.es
Investigadora Principal: María Agustina Domínguez Martín e-mail: doming64@msu.edu
Página web del proyecto: http://www.uco.es/grupos/adapromet/Home.html
CA.RA:VA.N
Toward a CAmel tRAnsnational VAlue chaiN (ERA-NET ARIMNET2/PCI2016-00011)
Here, we propose an applied project where the foundations for a modern, effective genetic selection scheme in dromedary camels in Algeria are laid down through:
(i) standardization of dairy/meat/fertility traits phenotyping protocols
(ii) evaluation and standardization of camel identification systems
(iii) implementation of standardized animal identification and phenotyping protocols in pilot farms
(iv) establishment of a first genealogical, phenotypic and genotypic database for further valorization through detection of selection signatures, GWAS analysis, and, possibly, modelling of simple and robust embryonic design for genomic selection approaches. Among the expected impacts: increased milk/meat production, higher profit-ability of the camel sector, more structured and enforced breeders associations.
General objectives
The general aim of the project is to put in place a combined and coordinated set of inter-disciplinary measures able to generate knowledge, capacities, and practices contributing to socio-economic development of the dromedary sector and local communities.