Following violent conflicts in Vienna in 2024, a debate emerged regarding how social media use in connection with international conflicts fuels violent escalation in Austria. Social media accelerates the spread of information and can foster the cross-border networking and radicalisation of like-minded individuals. Strengthening democratic resilience requires recognising and rejecting extremist narratives. While media literacy efforts often target youth, adults (40+), who significantly influence young people, are often neglected. Research and educational initiatives for this group are essential.

The ECHO (Extremism and Conflicts: Mobilisation Potential and Online Opinion Formation in Austria) project addresses these challenges through empirical and analytical methods, starting with a multi-thematic quantitative survey on social media use and international conflicts in Austria. This goes beyond descriptive research, analysing the link between social media use, information processing, and radicalisation indicators, supported by qualitative expert interviews. A subsequent retrospective case study, using multi-method investigation of a public violent conflict, will analyse the dissemination dynamics of extremist content. Machine learning will categorise content (e.g., hate speech, polarising content). Based on these findings, tailored solutions, including materials and methods for de-polarisation and media literacy, will be developed. Expected outcomes include insights into social media use across age groups, identification of radicalisation indicators, and implementation of findings in practical prevention measures, policy recommendations, and resilience-building materials.

The ACTIVE PCP project aims to address critical gaps in personal protective equipment (PPE) for first responders facing increasingly complex threats, whether man-made or natural. They operate in hazardous and unpredictable environments, from CBRN-E incidents to natural disasters, where effective protection is critical to ensure their safety, maintain operational readiness, and enable swift responses. Innovations in PPE tailored to these shared needs not only enhance individual safety but also foster interoperability across multi-stakeholder groups during joint operations. However, current PPE limitations expose vulnerabilities that affect responder safety, performance, and morale, ultimately hindering emergency services’ and first responders’ ability to protect people, animals, and property. ACTIVE PCP seeks to leverage innovative procurement methods to stimulate research and development in the private sector, encouraging the creation of cutting-edge PPE solutions tailored to the unique challenges of modern emergency response. Through this approach, the project aspires to set new benchmarks in responder safety, efficiency, and interoperability, ultimately enhancing the resilience of emergency response systems across Europe.

The twin transition, which involves integrating green and digital innovation and transformation, is an increasingly promising field, crucial for tackling the socio-ecological challenges of our time. For innovative environmental solutions to achieve lasting success, better knowledge transfer and co-creation across research, policy, industry, and civil society are needed. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) have emerged as a promising field in which innovative knowledge co-creation methods have arisen. With this in mind, GreenEsteem will use and advance good practices in the field of NBS to foster cooperation and knowledge exchange skills and practices. At the heart of GreenEsteem will be two urban living labs: Konin, Poland, and Sofia, Bulgaria, where sustainable NBS interventions will be co-evaluated, co-designed, and piloted.

Based on pilot outcomes and with strong support of expert groups and national expert roundtables, a comprehensive training program for knowledge co-creation and transfer will be established to tackle barriers and skill gaps among research, policy, industry, and civil society stakeholders. Strategic roadmaps and events will launch and intensify cross-fertilization networks engaged in the green transition. Supported by an online platform featuring best-practice toolkits, online training modules, a digital handbook, and policy recommendations, GreenEsteem is designed to reach practitioners, citizens and researchers alike, ensuring the replication of best practices of collaborative knowledge valorisation across Europe.

The VIRTUOUS project adopts a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to enhance the protection of places of worship, while simultaneously strengthening preparedness and prevention capabilities against potential terrorist threats. To achieve this objective, the project focuses on increasing understanding of terrorist threats, identifying vulnerabilities through innovative technologies such as Building Information Modeling (ΒΙΜ), and improving awareness and preparedness through recommendations and training exercises.

Building Information Modeling emerges as a groundbreaking tool for risk assessment, offering precise insights into architectural details and facilitating the development of attack scenarios. Through a structured procedure, the approach creates digital twins of physical structures, enabling the tailoring of security recommendations and implementation of training sessions.

VIRTUOUS fosters robust cooperation among a diverse network of stakeholders — including representatives of religious communities, public authorities, Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), academic and research institutions, and security technology providers. Through this collaborative framework, VIRTUOUS aims to build safer, more resilient environments for faith communities across Europe.

The METEOR project is driven by the need to transform doctoral education to better align with societal challenges and the demands of a rapidly evolving labour market. While the PhD is the highest academic qualification, its traditional focus on individual academic achievement often misses to equip researchers with the transversal skills needed to thrive in interdisciplinary, collaborative, and non-academic environments. METEOR aims to tackle skill mismatches, limited career guidance, and mental health pressures of doctoral students and early career researchers (ECRs).

To achieve this, METEOR delivers a comprehensive program combining evidence-based training with participatory methodologies. The project develops innovative online and offline training resources focusing on transversal skills like teamwork, intercultural competence, communication, and entrepreneurship. Core activities are in-person winter schools, online peer mentoring, and creating transdisciplinary research proposals aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, enhancing researcher employability, mental well-being, and societal impact.

The METEOR consortium comprises 13 partners, including leading universities, research institutes, and training providers from Poland, Norway, Denmark, Finland, the United Kingdom, Italy, Cyprus, Spain, Austria, Georgia, Türkiye, and Brazil. Leveraging strong connections with national education ministries and international networks, the project delivers long-lasting improvements to doctoral education and researcher development worldwide.

Security in Austria encompasses not only protection against crime and external threats but also the defence of democratic values and education. The SEEDS (Security Education by Empowering Democratic Strength) project aims to support democratic education by analysing students’ knowledge and interest in security policy issues and developing solutions to promote a resilient understanding of democracy.

In order to achieve the goals of political education, the facilitation of an age-appropriate understanding of Austrian security policy, sovereignty and neutrality as well as the liberal-democratic basic values of its political institutions must be further developed. This redesign must also consider the prevalent information sources among young people and how they interact with them.

The research and innovation project SEEDS addresses the strategic advancement of political education. For this purpose, the knowledge levels and interests of students in security policy topics, as well as the sources of information they use, are surveyed. The implementation of a structured needs analysis, involving the participatory engagement of students, teachers, and experts from the fields of education and security, identifies gaps and requirements necessary to foster an understanding of national security policy issues in Austrian school education.

FU-TOURISM is a groundbreaking programme that empowers tourism SMEs to thrive in the green and digital era. By creating a network of business support organisations in six European countries, FU-TOURISM provides funding and expertise to 102 SME projects that aim to transform their tourism practices. FU-TOURISM helps tourism SMEs to become more sustainable, resilient, and innovative, while contributing to the European Green Deal and Digital Single Market.

It is a collaborative project that brings together seven European countries, six of which provide direct Business Support Services to SMEs trough experienced partners: EUPOLIS (HR), FINNOVA (BE, ES), ENVOLVE (GR), SYNYO (AT), and VESTB (PL). The project also implements two DMO level pilots in two unique UNESCO tourism destinations: The City of Valencia and Town of Poreč – Parenzo.