Since 2003, NTCenter has been an active initiator and partner in projects co-financed by the EU programmes on education and training.
We mostly engage in strategic partnerships related to identification and exchange of good practices, development of new training and assessment methodologies and of innovative science-based teaching solutions, design and pilot testing of instruments supporting training and education – e-learning content, online platforms, self-assessment tests, analytical matrices, professional and job profiles.
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New and current projects
NEW projects starting soon!
Uncontroversial | Erasmus+ | Controversial topics in the classroom
DECIDE | Erasmus+ | Biases and decision-making
SkillFoster | Erasmus+ | Cultural heritage
BROD: Bulgarian-Romanian Observatory of Digital Media 2021-2023
Digital Europe: 101083730 | DIGITAL-2021-TRUST-01-EDMO
As part of this 2-year project, where BROD is the regional digital media hub for the EU-wide EDMO network, we are taking the lead in the field of media literacy. NTCenter's role in the project is the development of a media literacy repository with authored content relevant to educators, journalists and the general public, as well as the organisation of specialised training sessions on media literacy and disinformation.
Learning Lines for Teaching Advanced Critical Thinking 2022-2025
Erasmus+ | 2022-1-BE02-KA220-SCH-000086253
T-ACT is a project where we will be introducing learning lines for information literacy and active citizenship in parts of the Flemish school system. The design of this project was originally based on the needs and challenges presented by AGSO, the public school system operator of the city of Antwerp, but we are also looking at integration with other school systems and different countries and regions.
3–D printers, Development, Digital community 2022-2024
Erasmus+ | KA210-VET-D4E234BA
The main goal of the 3D Project is to increase the technical skills and digital competencies of VET students through the implementation of a new learning approach while applying 3D printing in education. 3D printers are up-to-date technology in today´s digital and technological world. The project will be linking work-based learning activities - the creation of new 3D projects with raising students´ awareness and comprehension of the EU common values and VET students will have the challenge to develop an object of a 3D model on the topic of an EU Cultural (Craft) Heritage.
Disinfo Academy For HE Students | 2022-2025
Erasmus+ | 2022-1-BG01-KA220-HED-000085747
We view this project as an opportunity to raise our competence and professional expertise in the field. We structure it in a way to maximise value by ensuring that we not only work on comprehensive solutions (updated methodology and online course) but on intermediate analytical documents of intrinsic research value (analysis of existing methodologyр recommendations from newly-identified practices, report on cognitive processes, experimental labelling system, improved reach and effectiveness of narratives). This will provide grounds for better understanding and further improvements in tackling disinformation and fact-checking.
Expected results: a collection of practices observed in university focus groups and used by young adults; 4 moderators trained to run focus groups; revised, updated and extended fact-checking methodology, incorporating new practices and cognitive impact vectors; short-term staff training on methodology to prepare for the course creation; a comprehensive online course developed on the basis of the updated and extended fact-checking methodology and a collection of fact-checking digital tools.
Network of National Contact Points for Cluster 2 "Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society" and "SSH Integration" 2022-2029
Horizon Europe: 101059986 | HORIZON-CL2-2021-HERITAGE-02
Net4SocietyHE is our first project under the Horizon Europe framework. We are members of a consortium working on behalf of the European Commission to establish and operate a transnational network for Cluster 2 "Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society" National Contact Points (NCPs) in Horizon Europe. NCPs are officially designated to advise researchers and other relevant, eligible stakeholders in their efforts to secure EU funding.
Within the network, NTCenter will be acting as Impact Manager for a period of 7 years and is responsible for the entire set of activities related to impact monitoring, measurement, analysis and recommendations. As impact managers, we are working directly under the network leader, the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR). In 2023, based on our performance, we were asked to additionally assume the role of Quality Manager for the consortium.
Assessment for Learning in Citizenship Education 2021-2024
Еrasmus+ 2021: 2021-1-BE02-KA220-SCH-000030342
ALICE was developed to research good practices and design instruments for formative assessment of learning in Citizenship Education.
InTACT: Inspiring Teachers Against Conspiracy Theories 2021-2024
Еrasmus+ 2021: 2021-1-BG01-KA220-ADU-000026295
Another spin-off from De Facto, INTACT focuses on understanding conspiracy theories, their nature and propagation, and counteracting teh disinformation which they channel. InTACT also develops a model to assess the impact of consipracy theories on various social systems, and a training module based on the deconstructivist approach.
The Art of De-biasing 2020-2023
Еrasmus+ 2020: 2020-1-UK01-KA204-078905
The project builds upon the ongoing De Facto project which attempts to place the problem of disinformation and misinformation in education and training context. The project addresses the lack of a comprehensive approach to teaching educators about biases, building resilience among learners, promoting critical mindsets.
The online platform for collecting data on the prevalence, strength and clusterisation of cognitive biases is open at https://testmenow.eu.
Social inclusion and employability for people with disability 2020-2023
Erasmus+ 2020: 2020-1-NL01-KA204-078905
Skillability is a an initiative addressing people with disabilities who have talents or skills. The project aims to support them as an additional source of financial income, contribute to the development of entrepreneurial attitudes, open the road to greater financial independence, reduce the reliance on the social systems, facilitate the return to formal or non-formal education and training systems, provide direct opportunities for digital training in developing new skills and partial qualifications, extend their contact and social networks, help reduce the impact of inaccessible physical environment and geography-based challenges.
Closed projects
SCIENCE FOR FUN 2018-2021
Erasmus+ 2018: 2018-1-NL01-KA201-038951
The project promoted attractive and effective ways of teaching science. The innovative model of training draws learners’ attention to science in a simple way with the purpose to discover, stimulate and develop their talents. The project was aimed at primary school teachers and pupils.
DE FACTO 2018-2020
Erasmus+ 2018: 2018-1-BG01-KA202-048002
We believe that education and training contexts should be free from misinformation and disinformation. And that we should try and find ways to avoid being consciously or unconsciously manipulated. That's why we created DE FACTO. It is our way of putting science in service of educators to improve the quality of teaching and learning. We have identified four major scientific concepts, the four pillars around which we built our project: Frames (Batheson, Lakoff), Systemic Causality (Lakoff), Motivated Cognition (Hughes, Zaki), Equivalency and Emphasis Frames Chong, Druckman). We created a framework showing the impact of mis- and disinformation on education. We reviewed the main types of disinformation and designed a number of case studies for training purposes. Our digital collection of tools is aimed at helping everyone who is interested in how disinformation is created as a way to fight it.
* Awarded a Quality mark by the BG National Agency for Erasmus+.
SKILLS+ European Skills Competition for people with a labour disability 2018-2021
Erasmus+ 2018: 2018-1-NL01-KA204-038899
This project increased the experience of people with a labour disability and their fitness for the labour market. The project was executed in cooperation with social partners and local stakeholders. This project connected to the broader mission of the EU that inclusion and diversity should be milestones of an advanced and fair society.
RED – Reinforce Europeans' Digital, Literacy and Numeracy Skills 2017-2020
Erasmus+ 2017:2017-1-NL01-KA204-035204
The main goal of the RED project was to create a modern and innovative platform that offers an individual baseline test to detect low levels of literacy and mathematical skills, educational materials on these topics, materials that represent (digital and video) digital services of social and public (government) organisations and provides a kind of “road map” in which all local-level organizations appropriate to the target group are categorized can be found and contacted. The project targeted adults with low literacy and mathematical skills, remote from society and/or the labour market, as well as organisations working in some way with this target group.
CoCOS – Co-created Courses through Open Source initiatives 2017-2020
Erasmus+ 2017: 2017-1-BE02-KA203-034744
The main objective of the CoCOS project was an improvement of the quality and effectiveness of learning through co-creation of educational materials. Co-creation has become a hot topic in education, especially because of its promising potential to leverage the input of students, fellow educators and experts in the professional field to provide up-to-date course material in a rapidly changing environment. Online co-creation environment was set up, specially tailored to allow structured, attainable co-creation by a large set of contributors.
IN PLACE 2017-2020
Erasmus+ 2017: 2017-1-CZ01-KA202-035426
The project was focused on fostering cooperation between vocational schools and the labor market in order to enable students to gain practical work experience and to make business use the innovative thinking and entrepreneurial aspirations of the students. The benefits for both parties were to increase the effective use of information and communication technologies in marketing. The project aimed at creating channels for cooperation between teachers, students and SMEs.
ARTIFEX 2017-2020
Erasmus+ 2017: 2017-1-BE02-KA201-034714
The focus of ARTIFEX was STEM education in an innovative learning environment outside the classroom. The project aimed to teach students to solve problems using interdisciplinary tools offered by public centers such as FabLabs and Makerspaces with free access to high-tech production equipment. The ultimate result of the ARTIFEX project was an open e-learning platform for teachers, teacher trainers and STEM trainers.
MAPLE – Measuring Achievement and Progress of Pupils in Europe 2015-2017
Erasmus+ 2015: 2015-1-UK01-KA201-013582
The MAPLE project adapted and expanded at EU level a UK-based model for baseline testing of IT competences in schools for children aged 10-16. By establishing a baseline and monitoring the progress, we helped teachers and school managers plan their work and measure the effectiveness of their teaching methods. MAPLE is a tool which allows testing of pupils at any competence level, regardless of how their knowledge and skills were acquired, and records the results in a massive database, allowing various comparisons while preserving individual and school results’ confidentiality.
iFlip – Flipping the classroom in adult education 2015-2018
Erasmus+ 2015: 15-204-012651
The iFlip Project intended to bring the flipped classroom method to the field of adult education. Starting with a detailed study of the training techniques and methods used by adult trainers, and the needs and preferences of adult learners, iFlip proceeded to develop a pilot course for trainers. The final objective of the project was to have 15 trainers participating in the pilot course, who then shared and collaborated with peers and colleagues from their organisations, developed flipped classrom compatible courses for thei respective subject matters, and applied this newly created content to over 100 learners.
Paraskills 2014-2017
Erasmus+ 2014: 2014-1-NL01-KA204-001215
The Paraskills project designed and tested a model for international skills competitions for people with disabilities, now known as SkillsPlus.
Diversity Management Extended 2014-2017
Erasmus+ 2014: 2014-1-BE02-KA202-000436
The Diversity Management Extended (DME) project was focused on researching the best practices in diversity management in organisations, and on the design and sharing of tools to help companies improve their diversity management policies and procedures.
THESS – Tourism and Hotel Management Educational Soft Skills 2013-2015
Lifelong Learning Programme, Transfer of Innovation 2013: 2013-1-SI1-LEO05-05348
THESS was a project to design and accredit European qualifications for the business of hotels and restaurants. The qualifications were set up by a team of vocational training experts, accredited in the UK and referenced to the European Qualifications Framework.
SENDI – Special Education Needs and Disability Inclusion 2013-2015
Lifelong Learning Programme, Transfer of Innovation 2013: 2013-1-ES1-LEO05-66586
SENDI was set around the idea of developing and accrediting vocational qualifications for people with disabilities and indirect support for non-subsidised employment.
INVESTINGREEN Jobs and Skills 2013-2015
Lifelong Learning Programme, Transfer of Innovation 2013: 2013-1-IT1-LEO05-04000
INVESTINGREEN Jobs and Skills project consisted of adapting an Italian model for institutional, community and financial support of green entrepreneuship and start-ups.
GEBOL – Getting European Business On-line 2011-2013
Lifelong Learning Programme, Transfer of Innovation 2011: CZ/11/LLP-LdV/TOI/134007
GEBOL was a project which targeted small and medium businesses and helped them establish their online presence, while providing at the same time real-world practice assignments for students in secondary education (general and vocational).
SAFE – Special needs Accreditation For Europe 2010-2012
Lifelong Learning Programme, Transfer of Innovation 2010: UK/10/LLP-LdV/TOI-309
SAFE was a project centered around adapting an existing competences’ assessment and certification model for students and adults with special educational needs.
Trainframe – A competence-based learning and training (CBL/CBT) framework for practical use within training organisations 2009-2011
Lifelong Learning Programme, Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships 2009: 2009-1-BG1-LEO04-01592
The TrainFrame project was a small partnership project which created a new competence-based learning and training (CBL/CBT) framework for practical use within training organisations, allowing to monitor the quality of their internal processes and procedures.
* Awarded a Quality mark by the BG National Agency for LLP.
INGOTS – International Grades, Open Technologies 2009-2011
Lifelong Learning Programme, Transfer of Innovation: UK/09/LLP-LdV/TOI-250
This project expanded dramatically the geographic coverage of available and formally recognised vocational certification for ICT skills for end users. We worked on expanding, translating and adapting criteria for skill and comepetence assessment. A number of national INGOT centres were established under the methodological guidance of the UK's TLM certification provider. Competence assessment was done in a specially designed online platform, with the system randomly selecting student work for checks and verification by moderators, which guaranteed consistency of assessment and overall quality management. The project offersed solid teacher training in project-based assessment, and the system had an in-built assessor support system.
Accreditation of Prior Learning | 2008
Lifelong Learning Programme, CEDEFOP, 2008-SV-01-BG-LLP-07103
This short staff mobility project was financed by CEDEFOP. In a convenient workshop-style format with intensive study visits in a number of companies and training centres in the Netherlands, EU vocational schools’ directors and top-level administrators discussed different innovative models for accreditation of prior learning (APL). APL is an integral function of all vocational training providers aiming to provide flexibility and recognition for already existing skills and competences.
E-train: E-learning in vocatonal training | 2008-2010
Lifelong Learning Programme, Grundtvig Learning Partnerships 2008: 2008-1-DE2-GRU06-00041 2
An international partnership focused on an approach and model to shift from traditional instruction to online e-learning training solutions. The project targeted digital content development, introduction of LMS, organisational re-adjustment and teacher training.
Training service for operators in the system of lifelong learning and professional training and active labour policies | 2007-2009
Lifelong Learning Programme, Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships 2007: LLP-LDV/TOI/2007/IT/403
The project focused on how best to design and integrate a support system for operators and stakeholders in a model bringing together training providers and public bodies (e.g. central and local government employment agencies). The overall purpose was to align policy with training practices and do this in a flexible and dynamic manner, ensuring continuity and sustainability.
CERTISKILLS – from skill to certification | 2003-2006
Lifelong Learning Programme, Leonardo da Vinci Pilot Projects 2003: I/03/B/F/PP-154191
This innovative project, a predecessor of the European Qualification Framework, researched, developed and validated models and and instruments for shared skills standards within the integrated system of education-training-employment. This involved the creation of detailed and complex competence dictionaries per occupation and a new approach to designing job descriptions.