SERN

14/10/2026

🌍 𝗥𝗘𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗞 𝗶𝗻 𝗗𝗮𝘂𝗴𝗮𝘃𝗽𝗶𝗹𝘀: from local practice to a shared compass for the city of the future!

On 6–7 October, the partners of the European project RETHINK met in Daugavpils (Latvia) for the assessment of the local activities carried out by the partners. The general objective of the project is to strengthen all citizens’ (particularly vulnerable groups and minorities) participation in rethinking the city as an inclusive, sustainable and beautiful place through art and culture.

𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟭: 𝗟𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗘𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗞 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀
Each city presented its local project and the participatory process behind it. Then, in mixed international groups, we analysed the projects through the three RETHINK values:
💙 Community First
💚 Experience Makers
💛 Nature in Balance
No rankings, only concrete evidence, to highlight strengths, areas to develop and practices that can travel from one city to another.

𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟮: 𝗥𝗘𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗞 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗕𝗮𝘂𝗵𝗮𝘂𝘀
We used the results of Day 1 to ask a bigger question: does the RETHINK Compass truly translate the values of the New European Bauhaus (beautiful, sustainable, together) into a practical framework for youth-led cultural and artistic action? The groups identified what to keep, strengthen, add and rethink, looking ahead to the project’s final event and closing publication.

𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲
A cultural walk through Daugavpils to the RETHINK graffiti wall and the Fortress was organised to see the concrete actions of citizens participating in the project.

A heartfelt thank you to the City of Daugavpils for the warm welcome, and to all partners for their energy and generous exchange!

👉 Learn more: www.rethink-the-city.eu

14/10/2026

The 𝗔𝗜𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 project has officially kicked off! SERN and the Municipality of Parma are hosting the first project meeting in Parma 📍

AIInclusion aims to support primary and lower-secondary teachers in using AI ethically and critically to foster inclusion, with a focus on pupils facing linguistic and learning barriers.

SERN takes part in the project together with two of its members: the Municipality of Parma and Linköping Municipality, which leads the project.

The first day opened with a welcome from the Municipality of Parma and SERN. Linköping Municipality then presented the project’s objectives, expected results and timeline, which runs from September 2026 to August 2029. Partners introduced themselves and their role in the project, and the afternoon was dedicated to how the partnership will work together: managing the project, evaluating its quality and communicating its results.

The meeting continues today with the second day of work. A great start to two days of collaboration between Sweden and Italy 🇸🇪 🇮🇹 and we look forward to the work ahead together!

Visit our website to learn more about the project: https://www.sern.eu/projects/ALLIN/

12/10/2026

We’re starting tomorrow! 🚀 The AIInclusion project takes its first steps in Parma, hosted by SERN, the Municipality of Parma and Casco Learning, bringing together partners from Sweden, Italy, Spain and Norway to work together on artificial intelligence and inclusive education.

Stay tuned for updates from the kick-off! 🎓 🤝

09/10/2026

In 2021, the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) published the report 𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘜 – 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘺𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘢 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘢. It shows that loneliness and social isolation affect not only people's mental and physical health but also trust and cohesion within our communities, and they are now increasingly recognised as critical public health issues.

📊 The COVID-19 pandemic made the problem significantly worse. Social distancing and mobility restrictions changed the social lives of many Europeans, and in the first months of the pandemic, the share of people feeling lonely more than half of the time rose from around 12% in 2016 to 25%. More recent data from the JRC's 2022 EU Loneliness Survey shows that loneliness remains a widespread issue: 13% of Europeans feel lonely most or all of the time, and more than one in three feel lonely at least sometimes (JRC Fairness policy brief 3/2023).

🔄 The report from 2021 also highlights some important shifts. Before the pandemic, northern Europe reported lower levels of loneliness than the rest of the continent, but these differences have since largely evened out. Also, young adults have now replaced older people as the group most at risk. At the same time, some patterns remain: economic prosperity and good health still help protect against loneliness.

🤝 Across the EU, most initiatives to tackle loneliness are developed locally and rarely form part of wider, structured programmes. This shows the key role municipalities and regions can play in building more systematic approaches and more connected communities.

Want to know more about the challenge of exclusion and isolation among young people and the elderly? Register for the Sern Thematic Wall seminar on 22 October 👉 https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/4hUtmr05X1

Read the full report here: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC125873

07/10/2026

🌱 The European project TIPS visits our schools!

Last week, Torrechiara Primary School and Langhirano Primary School welcomed the delegation of the Erasmus+ project TIPS – Trauma Informed Practices in Schools, as part of the second coordination meeting held in Parma.

The project group, made up of 15 teachers and experts in trauma-informed practices from Ireland, Spain, Romania, Turkey and Italy, visited both schools, which are associated partners of the project.

After the visits, the work continued with the development of the project e-books and the planning of the podcasts, which will feature the voices of experts in trauma-informed care to support teachers and educators.

A heartfelt thank you to IC Fermi- Ferrari, member of the SERN network, for their warm welcome, availability and collaboration! 💚

29/09/2026

28/09/2026

28/09/2026

𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁: 𝗘𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗺𝘂𝘀+ 𝗺𝗼𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗼̈𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴!
Representatives of the SERN consortium took part in a structured course in Östergötland on the impact and quality of change driven by Erasmus+ mobility, going straight to the heart of our challenge.

We started with a question we know well: why does learning from mobility so often stay with the individual? The "implementation gap" puts it clearly: personal impact scores 4.22/5, professional impact 3.66/5, while organisational impact drops to 3.22/5. Closing that gap is what this training is all about.

After an introduction to FoU Östergötland, a collaboration platform that helps 13 municipalities develop social welfare based on research and proven experience within the Swedish welfare system, we explored inspiring examples of turning knowledge into practice:

🔹 𝗡𝗨𝗦𝗢, the largest R&D study ever carried out in Swedish social services, covering more than 130 municipalities. Key lesson: data should be treated as a shared problem to solve, not a performance check, with engaged leadership and shared ownership of both successes and challenges.

🔹 𝗘𝘃𝗶𝗸𝗼𝗺𝗽 & 𝗘𝘃𝗶𝗗𝗶𝗴, a regional competence development model built on workplace learning and reflection, now extended to welfare technology and leading change. One message stayed with us: where change succeeds, managers have sustained their effort over time and made many adjustments until the new way of working became the new normal.

🔹 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗼𝗸𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹, focused on systematic follow-up and local knowledge generation in social services, based on a clear service description and systematic data entry.

🔹 𝗦𝗸𝗮̈𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗽, bringing us back to reality with innovative ways of working in social welfare in a challenging city district. Key lesson: cooperation among social organisations and closeness to people are essential for effective services, greater inclusion and a stronger sense of community.

With all this new knowledge from our Swedish hosts, we moved from listening to doing: we mapped the SERN knowledge journey and identified the weak points that stop mobility insights from reaching our organisations.

Tack så mycket to our colleagues at FoU Östergötland and Linköping Municipality for their generosity and expertise! 🙏

More info on the SERN webiste: https://www.sern.eu/social-services-and-digitalization-2025-2026/

18/09/2026

✈️SERN on the move again for Erasmus+ accreditation – this time to Linköping, Sweden!

Next week, 13 coordinators and welfare service managers and Erasmus+ referents from our Erasmus consortium are heading to Östergötland for a structured training course in two intensive days, hosted by FoU Östergötland.

Participating organisations are: Comune di Cervia, Casalecchio di Reno, Comune di Fidenza, Unione delle Terre d'Argine, ASP PARMA, ASP Città di Bologna and ASP "Cav. Marco Rossi Sidoli".

This isn't just another study visit. After 150+ mobilities and 5 years of learning across the SERN network, we're tackling the next big challenge: how do we turn individual learning into real organisational change? 🔄

Over two days participants will:

🔍 Explore the Swedish approach to organisational development and quality in social services

🎓 Learn from local experts, including Karolina Rydbrant (Skäggetorp area-based social welfare) and Jessica Sjögren (R&D Östergötland)

🛠️ Co-design practical monitoring tools to track the real impact of international mobility back home

🗺️ Build a shared roadmap to pilot these tools through to 2027

A big thank you to our Swedish colleagues at R&D Östergötland and Linköping municipality for hosting and sharing their expertise with us!

Stay tuned for updates at: https://www.sern.eu/social-services-and-digitalization-2026-2027/

17/09/2026

⚡ Another Erasmus+ project is launching: 𝘿𝘼𝙏𝘼4𝙈𝙐𝙉𝙄 - 𝗨𝗽𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝗹 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗖-𝗩𝗘𝗧

The project is coordinated by Länsstyrelsen Östergötland (CAB Östergötland) and will run from 2026 to 2029, co-funded by Erasmus+. SERN joins as a core partner — connecting the project to municipalities and regional authorities across the network — alongside Lepida ScpA, together with RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Länsstyrelsen i Dalarnas län (CAB Dalarna) and Platanias Dimos Municipality as project partners.

Across Europe, local authority staff manage energy data without structured training pathways, clear role definitions or shared professional frameworks. Municipal officers' competence profiles have not kept pace with the growing demands of energy data governance, data-informed decision-making and resilient planning. DATA4MUNI responds by structuring existing practices into clear C-VET competence frameworks and equipping staff with practical digital and AI-supported tools.

Throughout the project, partners will work to:

📊 consolidate and structure existing professional C-VET learning pathways in municipal energy data use into clear, transferable competence areas

🧭 develop a shared professional framework defining roles, responsibilities and activities for municipal staff managing energy data

🛠️ design and pilot a modular, practice-based training package tested in real municipal contexts across three countries

🤝 ensure long-term uptake and sustainability through peer networks, implementation support and scaling plans — with SERN driving engagement across its network of member municipalities and regions

You can find more info at: sern.eu/projects/DATA4MUNI