Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ANNETTE (Advanced Networking for Nuclear Education and Training and Transfer of Expertise)

Teaser

The ANNETTE Project (Advanced Networking for Nuclear Education and Training and Transfer of Expertise) has the main objective to set up a major coordination of nuclear Education and Training (E&T) in Europe, with a long lasting impact through a sustainable structure of courses...

Summary

The ANNETTE Project (Advanced Networking for Nuclear Education and Training and Transfer of Expertise) has the main objective to set up a major coordination of nuclear Education and Training (E&T) in Europe, with a long lasting impact through a sustainable structure of courses delivered by different course providers.

In the summary of the project description, it is remarked that “the present situation of nuclear energy in Europe asks for a continuing effort in the field of Education and Training aimed to assure a qualified workforce in the next decades. In this scenario, ANNETTE is aimed at enhancing and networking the Europe-wide efforts initiated in the past decades by different organisations belonging to academia, research centres and industry to maintain and develop Education and Training in the nuclear fields. This will allow consolidating, developing and better exploiting the achievements already reached in the past and to tackle the present challenges in preparing the European workforce in the nuclear fields.”

The above clarifies the importance for society of the undertaken action: the need to operate and maintain the existing nuclear reactors in Europe, the plans for the renewal of their fleet to assure a continuing and safe carbon-free electricity production and maintaining competitiveness in the nuclear sector in Europe request a well educated workforce, at the level of nuclear experts, nuclearised specialists in different disciplines and nuclear aware personnel. ANNETTE, as a project coordinated by the European Nuclear Education Network (ENEN, http://www.enen-assoc.org/), is sharing with the Association the mission to contribute in maintaining and developing high level competences in the nuclear fields in Europe.

The structure of the project and its eight work packages are reported in the attached figure.

ANNETTE is definitely an ambitious project and the European Nuclear Education Network (ENEN), as its Coordinator, together with the other Participants, is committed to pursue each of the above objectives, being fully coherent with the mission of maintaining and enhancing nuclear E&T assigned to the Association.

Work performed

The ANNETTE Project status at the end of the second reporting period shows a good level of advancement in the planned actions in the different Work Packages. Inter alia, the following actions were carried out.

a) First period (in short)
• Broad inquiry among institutions involved in nuclear Education and Training (E&T) in Europe, about the needs for the delivery of specific courses and for setting up an advanced networking. Contacting the national nuclear networks (WP1)
• Collecting “Learning Outcomes (LOs)” of courses and submitting the collected course description and LOs to the judgement of the Stakeholders belonging to the Advisory Board and to the End-User Group of ANNETTE. Elaborating the received feedback from Stakeholders, from a desk research and from the performed inquiries (WP2).
• Drawing feedback from the experience of the recently completed NUSHARE project (WP5).
• Inquiry with a specific group of Stakeholders about the needs for E&T in the field of “nuclearisation” of fusion (WP6).
• Coping with the issue of modernisation of course delivery, by an intelligent use of the opportunities offered by e-learning (WP2, WP5 and WP6).
• Starting to plan the production of textbooks and multimedia (WP3.
• Coping with the difficult subject of organising a real cross-border mobility of nuclear professionals following ECVET principles and rules (WP4).
• Keeping tight contacts with platforms and Stakeholders (WP7) and managing the whole project (WP8).

b) Second period
• Deepening the discussions about networking mechanisms and drawing conclusions (WP1).
• Delivering advancements on the concept of communication and of the use of a possible teaching material repository (WP1).
• Investigating the reasons for the non-uniform distribution of EMSNE Alumni among ENEN Members (WP1).
• Undertaking the study of the different existing PhD Events, in order to propose possibly unified initiatives (WP1).
• Considering the possible proposals of certifications in nuclear disciplines (WP1).
• Defining the desirable and possible procedures to be established for evaluating the quality of E&T efforts (WP1).
• Engaging participants in the preparation of pilot courses to be delivered from June 2018 to July 2019 (WP2).
• Issuing the envisaged plan of courses and setting up the pages of description of courses on the ENEN Website (WP2).
• Presenting the concept of a “master” made of modular courses delivered by different Course Providers and achieved “incrementally” (WP2).
• Setting up a webpage for collecting the expressions of interest for participation in courses (WP2).
• Planning and delivering a Summer School, successfully held on 24-30 of June 2018 at the University of Turku (WP2, WP5, WP6).
• Starting delivering the courses from June 2018 (WP2, WP5, WP6).
• Monitoring the advancement of the pilot courses (WP2).
• Selecting and starting preparing educational material (WP3).
• Preparing a procedure for educational material assessment (WP3).
• Completing the preparation and running a cross-border, cross-company exchange of personnel coherently the ECVET principles (WP4).
• Identifying issues of the applications of ECVET to an industrial environment (WP4).
• Preparing and running a first Course on Human-Technology-Organisation/Human Factors for Nuclear Safety including Virtual Reality Resources as part of Safety Culture (WP5).
• Continuing the preparation of a MOOC on nuclear safety culture, in the form of 4 NOOCs (WP5).
• Designing three fusion specific courses, to be delivered in different formats (in presence, at the Summer School, by e-learning) (WP6).
• Keeping in touch in several occasions with the numerous stakeholders (WP7).
• Coordinating and carrying on the day-by-day management of the project (WP8).

Final results

As a whole, the project was able to contribute to advancements in a number of sectors.

• Exploring the feasibility of a wider networking between different nuclear fields, being already implemented in the structure of the Consortium, checking with stakeholders possible advanced networking mechanisms.
• Preparing the issuance of new ENEN certifications in nuclear disciplines.
• Exploring the challenges of setting up a pan-European “master” programme, which will collect several efforts deployed in the present and the previous European Fission Training Schemes, targeted to professionals in a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) perspective. The pilot courses will provide relevant information on the matters and the modalities of courses delivery to be considered most attractive. • Restarting in a more systematic way the preparation of educational material within the ENEN environment.
• Proposing an example of cross-border and cross-company mobility that will become a study case for future similar applications in the nuclear field: as mentioned, this work has identified problems worth of an entire new project to be assessed and solved in a systematic way.
• Integrating the teaching of “classical” nuclear matters with the new challenges involved in the “nuclearisation of fusion”, in a perspective of nuclear safety culture that must encompass both fission and fusion activities.

Website & more info

More info: https://www.annette.eu/.