UPPScience falls squarely within EU strategies for fostering research, better quality education and a stronger European Research Area. It will build on a Community of Practice (CoP) for managers, teachers and trainers of STEM and IT subjects in Vocational Education and Training (VET) that has been successfully initiated in a previous Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership for VET called VISConti. UPPScience will create a CoP with a larger active membership than VISconti, including students in undergraduate HE. It will increase cross border cooperation around the use of professional profiling, research and publishing as a strategy for upping the quality of, and bringing a more scientific approach to, VET. It will support participants in the augmented CoP with four training activities in which they will receive training in research methodologies, innovation and creativity. They will be encouraged to push their own boundaries outside their usual comfort zone and to bring in their colleagues and peers through leadership by example. Every partner organisation will appoint an Ambassador of Change to promote the benefits of UPPScience and to catalyse the adoption of UPPScience methodology as a quality and internationalisation strategy within their own institutions.The project will help the target groups within the CoP and their colleagues and peers within VET and HE in general to overcome the perception that research is exclusively for the academic professions and researchers. It will help players in education and industry overcome their inhibitions and to engage in research and publishing, through small but high quality initiatives in this area, within a safe but rigorous environment. During the project lifetime, the members of the CoP will produce a minimum of 150 research projects and publications that will all be subject to peer review by at least two other members of the CoP. This will be supported by a web-based virtual work space, enabling the building and functioning of an active community without borders.UPPScience will thus use professional profiling as a strategy for better quality education and better employability of managers, teachers and trainers in VET. It will also enable HE students in the first years of study to further their professional training and to engage in research in topics pertaining to STEM, IT and areas such as sociology, economics and fields affected by or that have an effect on the world of science. These two target groups will work, collaborate and operate as a CoP that has as its objective the attainment of new or better standards in education and training. Science professionals will also take part in the CoP activities to ensure high standards of rigour and state of the art thinking.The partnership is made up of 22 organisations including 3 Universities, 7 VET schools, 6 High Schools, 3 Civil Society Organisations , 2 NGOs working in the field of education and 1 private company. The partnership represents 9 countries with the widest possible EU wide spread, and 1 partner from the Palestinian Authority.There will be 5 multiplier events in 4 countries as outreach activities for decision makers and potential beneficiaries from outside the partnership.
UPPScience was a 22 strong Strategic Partnership under the Erasmus+ KA2 for VET funding programme under the leadership of the NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNU. UPPScience built on the previous successful E+ KA2 for VET also under the leadership of NTNU VISConti by augmenting and widening the scope of the Community of Practice (CoP) started in that project and carrying out further development of the tools on the technological platform that supports the activities of the CoP. The CoP grew a much larger active membership and covered new areas of cross border cooperation around the use of professional profiling, research and publishing as a strategy for enhancing quality and a more scientific approach in education. http://cop.viscontiproject.eu In this way UPPScience supported the strategies of the EU for fostering research, better quality education and a strong European Research Area. During its 30 month lifetime UPPScience fulfilled all its objectives including: - the use of professional profiling as a strategy for better quality education and better employability of managers, teachers and trainers in VET who worked, collaborated and operated as a CoP that had as its objective the attainment of higher standards in education and training and - the overcoming of the general perception that research is only for higher academic professionals and researchers by helping players in education and industry to engage in research and publishing of their results through small but high quality initiatives in this area, within a controlled environment, supported by a platform on which they can propose and review small research projects. Small research and publishing projects by members of the CoP brought research and publishing within reach of all the players, whether professionals in management, teaching and training or students in the early years of HE, and science professionals from industry. 110 members of staff or members of partners received training in research methods and reviewing of publications proposed by other members of the CoP, which also created knowledge and consciousness of quality standards, an eye on innovation and creativity and a sense of responsibility towards peers. The CoP activities of research and peer review were all supported by technological tools that enabled exchange and sharing within the same organisation and in a cross border manner. This interaction was secured through a quality strategy that foresaw that members could only publish small research projects after the peer review of at least two other members. The platform tools also attach all activities of a member in the CoP to his / her profile. A publication is therefore attached to the professional profile of the member within the Community and to the profiles of the reviewers as well. In this way UPPScience created a quality challenge upwards by generating the consciousness of the importance of the upping of one's own profile in the Community. During the project lifetime 130 mini papers were published after peer review meaning an engagement of at least 3 members of the CoP in each paper (publisher and two peer reviewers) and the platform has started hosting activities from outside the partnership and the project activities because: - at least five partners are adopting the UPPScience strategies and use of its platform in their school and HE activities and - there is at least one E+ KA2 Strategic Partnership for Youth that is entirely based on youth leaders engaging in research in the UPPScience CoP. There are at least two more project and cooperation initiatives started up within the partnership to make the UPPScience CoP grow in numbers and scope in the area of research in the dependence of younger generations on everything digital and in the sharing of creative business ideas by VET students with the peer review of the commercial community around the partners. UPPScience was intended to be part of the internationalisation strategy of all the partner organisations and it has reached this objective with: - more than 90% of the participants in the four training activities being different from activity to activity, - more than 70% of participants in the activities of the project being new to EU projects and - more than 65% saying that they see ways of making UPPScience methods and philosophy as one of their avenues for local, regional and international cooperation. UPPScience published a set of recommendations for the future of education that is more research and research oriented and that are the result of the experience from UPPScience, the observations of the dynamics and reactions within the CoP and a partner wide reflection of how research and quality strategies in education through publishing is a creative and constructive way forward for a stronger ERA and higher quality education overall.