When organisations come together to plan, deliver and evaluate EU-funded projects, the relationships that they build, the insights they glean and the team dynamics that they achieve over the months of working together, are assets that should not be undervalued. It is, I suggest, a potential of ever-growing importance in a programme like Erasmus Plus. With its system of funding rounds twice per year, partner organisations can build upon successful projects to maintain those relationships for new project applications that, if successful, can see the consortium hit the ground running. New projects in the hands of tried and trusted partnerships are particularly valuable to educators in technology-driven disciplines such as media literacy.

The current Erasmus Plus programme saw the introduction of the KA210 small scale partnerships, where as few as two partner organisations undertake projects with lump sum budgets of either €30,000 or €60,000. Our organisation, EurAV European Audio Visual CLG has one such project under its belt, CASK - the Climate Aware Seasonal Kitchen - and is currently working with partners on the final report of another one, DiSeRA - Disinformation of Seniors in Rural Areas. With four partner organisations in Italy, North Macedonia, Slovakia and Ireland, DiSeRA set out to bring media literacy to seniors through the medium of radio - a medium much utilised and trusted by this demographic. In the two years during which the project has been delivered, however, we have seen the online media landscape change at breathtaking speed. As partners met in January 2023 in Tusa, Sicily for the project's "kick-off" meeting, AI-generated 'Deep Fakes' - computer-generated videos of people doing and saying things that, in reality, they neither did nor said - existed, but they existed as something created by tech-savvy specialists. Less than two years later, the average smartphone user can create deep fakes that are pretty much indistinguishable from the real thing. The target group for DiSeRA - seniors in rural areas - are the demographic most vulnerable to being taken in by these fakes. 

The DiSeRA partners, in the course of their research, have found out a lot about the project's target group. Even in the short lifespan of the project, many have bravely bridged the digital divide and are now, at least, basic users of social media. Very few don't have a smartphone or tablet. This is a victory in terms of inclusion, but our research finds that seniors are the ones most likely to, unknowingly, share misinformation and disinformation - taking it on face value rather than fact checking it. As we prepare the final report for DiSeRA, therefore, we are also using our experience as a foundation for a follow-up project. We already have strong engagement with and the trust of our target group. We already have a strong and effective working relationship between the organisations. We know where each organisation's strengths lie and how best to divide tasks amongst ourselves. Perhaps most importantly of all, our work on DiSeRA has clearly identified the work we need to do. 

If, then, you're involved in planning an Erasmus Plus project - especially in media literacy or technology, perhaps you might consider including an ongoing evaluation into you project plan that can demonstrate the rationale for a follow-on project to keep the momentum and expertise that you've developed intact. Good partnerships can be slow to build and all to rapid to dissolve!

Declan Cassidy

Executive Director, EurAV European Audio Visual CLG, Ireland