The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation mission statement “is a catalyst for working together at all levels - local, national, regional and global - to understand, conserve and use sustainably the world's immense wealth of plant diversity whilst promoting awareness and building the necessary capacities for its implementation”. The interdisciplinary co-operation across EU boundaries throughout a strategic partnership involving high education institutions, conservation and research organizations (botanic gardens, gene banks, universities, research institutes, non-governmental organizations) may meaningfully contribute to create a better understanding of plant diversity threats and their possible solutions, responding also to current and emerging green jobs labor market. The HEI PLADI project relays on a constructive cooperation and integration between five Universities, research institute and organization all providing strong expertise in the field of plant biodiversity characterization, management and conservation and in lifelong learning. The HEI PLADI aims to support: a) implementation of reforms in line with the 2011 EU Modernization Agenda's priority areas; b) development of an European Area of Skills and Qualifications; c) enhancement of digital integration in learning, teaching, training and youth work at various levels. Indeed it proposes to develop, test and implement an higher education program structured in flexible learning paths on plant biodiversity evaluation, conservation and management. To improve mobility and provide more opportunities for students to gain additional skills on plant diversity the program will integrate, in line with the 2011 EU Modernisation Agenda priorities, ICT in a blended path virtual and physical mobility. The first target of the project will be students involved in the flexible learning path including courses on the e-learning platform and/or the practical activities planned for the physical mobility. Although a number of 20 will be supported by the project for the physical mobility, an higher number of students will benefit the courses on e-learning platform as these courses will be recognized and validated as ECTS. Furthermore, since the main outputs the project foresees are teaching materials that will be available as "open learning objects" in an e-learning platform, a wide number of persons beside students, such as educators, technicians and operators working in laboratories, herbarium, museum, germplasm banks, botanical gardens, natural parks, arboreta, plant nurseries and crop diversity projects etc, at local, regional, national and international level, will be also potential beneficiary. The project will develop seven intellectual outputs: the first is the implementation and use and of ICT for virtual mobility, teaching and dissemination, that can be used and (more important) re-used to support learning activities; the last (OU7) will be used for dissemination on a dynamic and interactive website of the results achieved by students. The other OU (3-6) will be related with packages of learning objective (OER) on: Plant taxonomy; modern methods for Plant taxonomy; in situ and ex situ plant conservation; Plant management: botanic garden; Geographical Information Systems. The project include the organization of seven short-term training activities as part of the “flexible blended pilot program” which will involve field works, field visits, practical and laboratory activities focused on developing skills and deepen knowledge on topics treated in the e-learning courses. The project is organized in three different stages: stage one will be focus on the implementation and organization of the blended flexible path; stage two pilot program starts; stage three evaluation on the results of the pilot course and dissemination. The project will provide the following results: a) the implementation of the flexible learning path on plant biodiversity evaluation, characterization, conservation and sustainable use, and the resulting outputs may be used in the courses of established curricula degree, and/or as optional courses, and to develop new curricula; b) the exchange of the best practices between partners during the cooperation and integration process ; c) strong cooperation and integration between partners, required by the project for the implementation of the program, will allow the strengthen of a consortium of new establishment with wide expertise in the field of plant diversity and teaching that may be used for the development of other LLP or EU research projects; d) the cooperation between partners Universities will promote the establishment of agreements for organizing practical activities (i.e. training schools) and for students and staff exchange and mobility; e) the use of the results of the pilot program as the base for further implementation of joint international courses such as Master and PhD program
Since millennia plant biodiversity represented the base of civilization, provided food, fibers and medicine; thus contributing to human well being and societies development, it has many foremost implications at environmental, economical, political, social and cultural level. As for instance by providing basic goods and ecosystem services it plays a pivotal role for poverty reduction: more than 1.3 billion people depend on plant biodiversity and on its basic ecosystems goods and services for their livings. However, plant biodiversity is also recognized as one of the most imperilled; it is estimated to experience greatest proportional change by 2100 owing to the environmental alterations caused by human impacts, climate changes, water shortages and recurring droughts. The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation addresses the challenges posed by threats to plant diversity and its mission statement “is a catalyst for working together at all levels - local, national, regional and global - to understand, conserve and use sustainably the world's immense wealth of plant diversity whilst promoting awareness and building the necessary capacities for its implementation” (http://www.cbd.int/gspc/strategy.shtml). The promotion of “Education and awareness about plant diversity, its role in sustainable livelihoods and importance to all life on Earth” is one of the five Strategy objectives. Societies sustainable development depends on this important objective and its related Target 14: The importance of plant diversity and the need for its conservation incorporated into communication, education and public awareness programmes; Target 15: The number of trained people working with appropriate facilities sufficient according to national needs, to achieve the targets of the Strategy; and Target 16: Institutions, networks and partnerships for plant conservation established or strengthened at national, regional and international levels to achieve the targets of the Strategy. In this context, the interdisciplinary co-operation across EU boundaries throughout a strategic partnership involving higher education institutions, conservation and research organizations (botanic gardens, gene banks, universities, research institutes, non-governmental organizations) can greatly contribute to the Strategy objectives achievement, by developing higher education programs on understanding of plant diversity threats, their possible solutions, and conservation, characterization, and sustainable use management practices. Moreover, providing human professional resources with deep knowledge and practical skills on different plant diversity aspects, it offers a possible response to the international emerging green jobs labour market. The HEIPLADI project aimed at developing, testing and implementing an higher education pilot program on different plant biodiversity issues. HEIPLADI follows the priorities of 2011 EU Modernization Agenda to equip young generation with transversal skills for the new emerging labour markets, such as green jobs, related with environmental protection and conservation. The pilot program implementation required the constructive cooperation and the successful integration of expertises between Botanic Gardens and Germplasm Banks from 5 Universities, i.e., Molise (IT), Cagliari (IT), Lisboa (PT), Malta (MT), Sofia (BG), and 2 research institutes, i.e., Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (GR), Centre for Biological Diversity Conservation in Powsin (PL). HEIPLADI flexible program, integrates ICT techniques in a blended path of virtual (e-learning modules) and physical mobility (practical activities). Five e-learning modules have been implemented and made available “in an open access” on the Moodle platform (https://dibt.unimol.it/HEI-PLADI/home/); thus they are usable by different stakeholders: i.e. students, educators, laboratories, herbarium, museum, germplasm banks, botanical gardens, natural parks, and plant nurseries staff at national and international level. Seven short-term training activities were organized as field works with the aim of developing skills and deepen knowledge on the e-learning module subjects. Beside the implementation of the flexible learning path on plant biodiversity evaluation, characterisation, conservation and sustainable use, the project provided: (a) teaching/learning materials usable in courses of established curricula degree, and available for a worldwide number of different stakeholders; (b) the exchange of the best practices between partners and the enhancement of the use of ICT for teaching and learning, promoting HEIs modernization; (c) the reinforcement of cooperation and integration between European Botanic gardens and Germplasm banks in the field of higher education (c) the base for the development of joint international courses such as a professional master on Applied plant biodiversity.