Newsletter No. 11

Another Project Progress on the sixth Fashion DIET
Transnational Meeting at Reutlingen University

The sixth transnational meeting (TM) of the Fashion DIET project was held on the 20th and the 24th of March 2023 at the Reutlingen University of Applied Sciences. The meeting thus framed the project’s third Learning, Teaching and Training event, which took place from the 21st to the 23rd of March. This time the get-together was organised predominantly as a face-to-face meeting. Therefore, more than ten consortium members of all partner countries attended the event in person while three consortium members from the Technical University of Iaşi and Stara Zagora joined the meeting online. Once again the project members met to discuss the previous and future milestones by sharing ideas and arguments.

Figure 1: Opening of the sixth Transnational Meeting of the Fashion DIET project with the consortium members.

Prof. Dr. Jochen Strähle (Germany), dean and organiser of the meeting in Reutlingen, welcomed the consortium members. All partner universities shortly reported on their activities and status regarding the progress in the intellectual outputs. Further lectures of the Further Education Module, including the respective one-pagers could be finished. Progress was also achieved in the completion of the ESD-manual. In this context, it was determined that additional chapters – e.g., an introduction to the teaching and learning materials, a take-home message, and a list of authors – should be included and that a timetable for translations into the national languages should be kept close. In the meantime, all partner universities have further worked on their teaching and learning materials which are intended for general and vocational school education. Satisfied that the project continued to have a positive impact with its dissemination activities, the team discussed which indicators would be the best way to capture this. Therefore, the team exchanged views on the status of work on further scientific papers and keynote speeches. Next, the team discussed various points on the topic of budgeting and reporting.

Figure 2: Group photo of the consortium in front of the TEXOVERSUM construction site.

To get some new ideas, the work was briefly interrupted by an enjoyable walk to the TEXOVERSUM construction site. Thereby the consortium members also checked on the progress of completion.

After the lunch break, the consortium members planned the upcoming multiplier events in small groups. It was decided that each country will have a different focus: The focus of Iaşi will be on the further education module, Yambol will address the content of the information and e-learning portal while Germany will work on the development of the teaching and learning materials. The first day of the TM ended with a walk through the city of Reutlingen where the team enjoyed a dinner together.

The second day of the TM dealt with the work on the databases Glocal Campus and the fashion and textile database F+TD. The team decided to open the international e-learning platform Glocal Campus to the public till the end of March 2023. It was also agreed that the F+TD will be hosted by Reutlingen University and that Glocal Campus will be linked to the TEXOVERSUM after the end of the Fashion DIET project.

Afterwards, the last details were discussed in order to successfully carry out the upcoming multiplier events in the three partner countries. As each multiplier event aims at a larger target group on a national scale and includes the dissemination of the intellectual outputs of the project and the project results, the team discussed details to invite stakeholders such as teachers, students and associated partners. Regarding other upcoming tasks and responsibilities, the consortium was proud that it reached further project goals, as the intellectual output 1 has been completed, the intellectual output 2 is in progress, while the intellectual output 3, i.e., the ESD manual and teaching and learning materials, will be finished in summer 2023.

Figure 3: All participants were involved in organising the national multiplier events.

The meeting in Reutlingen ended by clarifying open questions. All in all, it was another fruitful and joyful exchange. Now, the team is looking forward to meeting at the final TM in Freiburg, Germany, in July 2023.

Fashion DIET consortium, March 2023