National / associate partner

Global Talent Mentoring is an online mentoring program that fosters the world’s most outstanding young people who demonstrate exceptional talent and motivation in a specific domain within science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical sciences (STEMM). Each mentee works with a mentor who has expertise in the mentee’s area of interest over an extended period of time (e.g., from around the age of 16 up to the completion of advanced tertiary studies). The program uses its own innovative platform to facilitate one-on-one and group mentoring from internationally leading experts in STEMM fields that will guide mentees on an individualized pathway to excellence. Global Talent Mentoring is free of charge and open to participants around the world, regardless of cultural background or financial resources. The first round of mentoring starts in late 2020.

Global Talent Mentoring has international collaborations with more than 30 partners that connect it to networks across five continents. Thanks to the support of this growing network, Global Talent Mentoring has access to the world’s brightest minds in STEMM, each of whom help form the program’s vibrant community of STEMM expertise and talent.

Global Talent Mentoring is developed by a team of researchers and IT specialists under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Heidrun Stoeger, who is the chair for school research, development, and evaluation at the University of Regensburg (Germany) and has extensive experience in online mentoring in STEM. Global Talent Mentoring is the flagship offering of the World Giftedness Center of the UNESCO-recognized Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance in Dubai, UAE.

Global Talent Mentoring is cooperating closely with several members of the EU STEM Coalition to ensure optimal alignment with national and regional STEM-education programs. For more information about Global Talent Mentoring, its offerings, related research, and more, please visit the program page (link) or visit the Global Talent Mentoring website via the link above.

The Basque Government (Eusko Jaurlaritza/Gobierno Vasco) is the regional Government of the Basque Country (Euskadi). Its degree of autonomy in policy areas including education, industry, culture, health and social security and services has led the Basque Country to achieve a high rating in the Human Development Index: eighth place in the world. Industry is the driving force of the Basque economy, accounting for 24.1% of GDP, and it aims to lead the fourth industrial revolution: 128% productivity per employee. Commitment to innovation is the hallmark of the Basque Country, commitment that brought in recognition and resources at European level. The Basque Country is the autonomous community in Spain that assigns the highest percentage of its GDP to R&D, 1.89%.

Regarding education, schooling in the Basque Country is compulsory from age 6 and free from 3 to 16 years old. Euskadi has the lowest dropout rate (7.7%) for young people between 18 and 24 years old, and 48.9% of people aged between 30 and 34 with have higher education The Basque Country directs its efforts toward implementing a clear, close educational model, providing value and quality assurance. Its commitment to developing talent in people, concentrated in a nursery for highly qualified professionals, who are prepared to take the reins of the future, both locally and internationally, has been reinforced. In this sense, an increasing need in qualified professionals in science and technology is foreseen in the coming years. Therefore, the Basque Government is currently developing the STEAM-Euskadi Strategy, using an integrated and collaborative approach between the education and industry, with the following goals:

1. To guarantee education in the scientific and technological areas in the curriculum and the literacy needed by the society in an increasingly complex, changing and highly technified world.
2. To inspire students professional vocations and aspirations in STEM areas in order to have more, better and versatile professionals.
3. To attract less represented groups such as girls to scientific and technological fields
4. To favour education in science and technology in students facing social inequality situations.

Innobasque, the Basque Innovation Agency, is a private non-profit association established in 2007 to co-ordinate and drive innovation in the Basque Country in all its spheres as well as to encourage entrepreneurial spirit and creativity. Innobasque is made up of agents from the Basque science, technology and innovation network (RVCTI), private businesses, Basque public institutions, association representatives of Basque workers and business people, and other organisations related to innovation.

Its vision is to turn the Basque Country into a European innovation benchmark region. For this purpose, an ambitious short, medium and long-term transformation programme has been established. The mission is to drive the process of transforming the Basque Country towards an innovating society. The agency works to understand the complexities, define priorities, forge a strong bond between public and private agents, and foster the demand and necessary stimulus in companies and society as a whole.

AEDE-France is a French association founded in 1957 to promote European Literacy and citizenship education; to develop intercultural understanding among Europeans and to work towards high quality education for all. Its members are either individual people: teachers, school-heads, inspectors, educators, researchers, experts in education and in evaluation - or schools and teacher education - university institutes and professional organisations. Since its establishment, AEDE-France has been involved in various European project within ERASMUS and, now ERASMUS+. It is currently a member of the management team of ELICIT-PLUS (European Literacy and Citizenship Education). The 23 partner organisations are now offering training courses in a dozen different EU countries to develop a better knowledge of our complex histories and cultures and to foster a common understanding of our shared future.

AEDE-France has been recognised by the French Ministry of Education as “association complémentaire de l’enseignement”, which is a national agreement to cooperate with schools on matters related to European education, including STEM, and the broader topics of skills mismatch and youth unemployment. AEDE-France joined the EU STEM Coalition in 2015.

UPSTI is the "Union of Professors of Sciences and Technology for Industry". It was created in 1982, and gathers a network of more than 1,000 persons, professors, engineers and industrial partners, worldwide. The professors in UPSTI are in contact with more than 50.000 students, and the industrial partners come from more than 23 sectors. UPSTI's objective is to create more and structural elationships between education and industry. UPSTI has strong relation with French government and administrative education representatives, and works with government to create the education of the future. It participates to all the science and technology debates, and tries to make some proposals to improve the education in France for adapting the teaching curriculum and the training of professors.

The Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), established in 1983, is one of the largest research centers in Greece with well organized facilities, highly qualified personnel and a reputation as a top-level research foundation worldwide. The research and technological directions of FORTH focus on areas of major scientific, social, and economic interest. The Foundation, with headquarters in Heraklion, includes six Research Institutes in different parts of the country. FORTH currently employs 1080 people (researchers, technicians and administrative staff) and trains around 320 students from Greece and other European countries.

The Educational Research and Evaluation (ERE) Group operates within the Institute of Applied and Computational Mathematics (IACM), which is one of the founding institutes of FORTH. The Group’s research concerns are in areas of educational and social innovation with particular focus on the aspects of gender, S&T, ICT, adult education and leadership in education. The scope of activity is on research for modelling and the building of understanding of the emerging social, pedagogical / training and policy trends in Europe. The underlying concern is the identification of methods which can foster effectiveness in social cohesion and learning for responsible decision-making and improvement of education and lifelong learning services. This is achieved through the design and implementation of awareness development activities with the actors of the educational community, the carrying out of applied research, digital forms of course design and implementation, the conduct of programme evaluations. The Group’s research and evaluation activity is addressed under the scope of policy comprehensiveness and coherence within and across the sector of education and related sectors from a learning tradition perspective.

Over the years, the Group has developed conceptual tools to facilitate policy and tangible outputs to direct self-reflection for practitioners on matters pertinent to education and training.

Naturvidenskabernes Hus (The House of Natural Sciences) was established in 2007 in a collaboration between the business community, the municipality and educational institutions as a national non-profit organization for school-business collaboration. Bridging the gap between education and business the organization aims at increasing children and youngsters’ interest in science and technology and inspire them to choose a STEM education for the benefit of Denmark's growth, the green transition and a sustainable future. It is thus also deeply rooted in society's need for more people to choose a STEM education and career.

Naturvidenskabernes Hus develops and disseminates exemplary school-company collaborations for students throughout the country and builds capacity and culture for school-company collaboration at companies, in municipalities and at schools and high schools. The organization develops practical teaching courses, and the goal is for school-business collaboration to become a natural, integrated element in STEM teaching in both schools and high schools throughout the country. The organization plays a unifying role for school-business collaboration and to ensure coherence and synergy, they collaborate closely with other institutions and organizations, who develop and offer school-company collaborations.

Furthermore, Naturvidenskabernes Hus facilitates the nationwide corporate network Tektanken.
Through the network, companies make it possible for students to work hands-on with company-related tasks and meet role models on professional company visits. In addition to the five core companies Danfoss, Grundfos, Novozymes, Coloplast and Haldor Topsøe, more than 500 companies have participated in Tektanken's activities.

Other activities of Naturvidenskabernes Hus:

Naturfagsmaraton  - A nationwide competition in science, where 25,000 children and 1,200 teachers in 60 municipalities each year work with innovative teaching courses in mathematics, crafts and design, nature and technology and compete to win a prize for the best and most creative solutions to a variety of challenges in the field. Students and teachers gain experience with exploratory and practical teaching that increases the interest and motivation for the science subjects.

Girls’ Day in Science - A national campaign day that focuses on women in science, technology and crafts. More than hundred companies, educational institutions and organizations open their doors to thousands of girls for them to participate in practical and company-related workshops and meet inspiring role models.

Kloge Hænder (Wise hands) - Craft businesses, production- and industrial companies open their doors and invite school classes inside for an introduction to the craft subjects. Through different hands-on activities primary school students become aware of the many opportunities in a vocational education.

Óbuda University is the second largest technical university in Hungary with 13000 students, 6 faculties, 3 doctoral schools and 3 campuses. Óbuda University, the legal successor of Budapest Tech – or rather its legal predecessors: Bánki Donát Polytechnic, Kandó Kálmán Polytechnic and the Technical College of Light Industry – was established on January 1, 2010. Óbuda University has the only Engineering Education Centre in Hungary and has a strong relationship with industry for already ten years, which is the foundation of skill oriented learning. In 2014 the university launched the work-based dual education program. Most candidates in this program are from the faculty of IT engineering. It is a mission of the University to make higher-education more accessible in regions without higher education institutions, therefore a “higher education centre for community based studies” is established in the city of Salgótarján.

Óbuda University is the founder of the Hungarian STEM platform and is member of the EU STEM Coalition. Having long term experience with education-industry collaboration and the organisation of a variation of science competitions and activities, Óbuda University is well suited to boost a national pilot programme in Hungary.

The Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya) is the regional government of Catalonia. It consists of ministries and other bodies such as public companies and autonomous organisations that employ more than 200.000 people. It has responsibilities, among other areas, in: education, employment, universities and economic development. Secretariat  for Telecommunications, Cibersecurity and Digital Society is responsible for boosting the deployment and integration of digital technologies in each area of Catalan society.

The Catalan economy boasts a significant level of industrial activity in sectors such as automobiles and accessories, chemicals, and state-of-the-art computer and office IT equipment. The publishing industry and construction are also of crucial economic importance. 

The lack of students choosing studies in the STEM-related subjects, high rates of youth unemployment and sustained labour demand growth in some STEM-related sectors such as IT, robotics, automobile and mechanics industry, have driven the Government of Catalonia to aprove in February 2017 an Agreement to develop the STEMcat plan (national STEM strategy).This plan promotes vocations in STEM among youth, and has to be deployed in the Catalan schools during the next school year (2017-18). The plan is currently being developed by the Government of Catalonia and will cover four main focus areas:

• enhance teacher training in science, technology and mathematics;
• enhance STEM skills among students and develop strategies to globally assess them;
• encourage participation in school of companies in STEM sectors;
• promote science, technology, engineering and maths in society