On 30 and 31 May, the partners of the FUTURES project met in Bialystok for the second official project meeting of the project. The first day was dedicated to the internal pilot of the modules developed with the students from Bialystok University, while on the second day the partners discussed about technical, and administrative issues and took important decisions on the following steps.

This news recaps the main decisions and activities of the session held on the second day, 31^st May 2022.

The agenda encompasses administrative procedures (revision and approval of the new project plan), the evaluation of the pilot courses (1. Presentation of the feedback received from the evaluation questionnaires; 2. Presentation of the feedback from the facilitators; 3. Possible improvements of the training materials), the presentation of the Training Manual and possible improvements, and finally some updates on the dissemination activities.

The participants in the pilot were asked to evaluate the level of the lesson through questionnaires. The main conclusions from all the sessions of the modules that have been piloted within university students and early-stage researchers are the following:

• The participants of all sessions are satisfied with the quality of the presented materials and the level of good communication among them and with the facilitators;
• The majority of the participants agreed that the facilitators presented the session in a very clear and professional way, and evaluated with a very high score their level of satisfaction;
• The participants expressed the need to deliver the session also in person to develop a stronger sense of participation and commitment;
• The timing has been considered too tight the participants suggest extending the duration of the session (this does not apply to the session Performance For Futures that, from some participants, has been considered too long!);
• It would be highly appreciated if the instructions and assignments for all tasks were explained in more detail at the beginning of the session.

BUT team gave some updates about the Training Manual and informed the partners that the template must be fully completed. All the pictures of the presentations must be free of copyright. BUT suggested using Pixabay, Pexels, and Unsplash or own pictures, in order not to infringe the copyright rights of other organizations. In the Manual, there is also space for “recommended sources”, where the partners can include additional information, such as suggestions of materials for the learners to check before they take the course or materials to print before the course. BUT also prepared logos/symbols referring to each Design Principle. The partners are asked to check the symbols and provide feedback on the symbols they are doubtful about.

The possible improvements for the Training Manual are the following:

• adding infographics with design principles to all the modules;
• supplementing the content in module 1 (theoretical introduction, e-learning, recommended supplementary resources) and module 3 (theoretical introduction, e-learning).

All partners greatly appreciated the chance to meet again and the great hospitality of the BUT team. Everyone has a clear idea of what should be done in the coming months and Hanze will be ready to officially kick off IO3 activities in autumn 2022.