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Purpose and scope of the deliverable: This is a framework report on Policies, Practices and Strategies. All partners have contributed material used in the production of the report which is described in the Work Programme as D2.1. This report seeks to establish a benchmark. With so much in flux, a starting point for identifying sig-nificant policy change is necessary. The benchmark is set at the outset of the project, approximately Q1 (January to March 2020), before the impact of COVID-19 and before the onset/impact of the new Programming Period. As a benchmark, the report seeks to be descriptive; there is no attempt at this stage to introduce any evaluation into the document; nor is there an intention to ’cluster’ case studies or countries – each case stands on its own merit. The attention to policy detail at Case Study level is relatively light. Here we are describing the Policy Framework. Detailed work on the Case Studies will take place later in the project when we have access to survey data and can view the emerging policies following the current hiatus in tourism. This is the first stage of the policy theme running through the three years of SPOT - the Social and Innovative Platform on Cultural Tourism and its Potential towards Deepening Europeanisation. This Framework Paper consists of four parts: Part One: The Executive Summary Part Two: The report on Policies, Practices and Strategies for each of the 15 partners (= Appendix A – Exploration of the Policy Framework) Part Three: A spreadsheet showing broad themes for each of the partners (= Appendix B) Part Four: A list of the sources used in preparing the report

This repository contains accompanying code for the comment "Years of life lost estimates cannot always be taken at face value: Response to "COVID-19 – exploring the implications of long-term condition type and extent of multimorbidity on years of life lost: a modelling study" " by Rubo and Czuppon.

PoliHelp - Donation and commerce platform This pandemic has ruptured our lives and forced us to rely on technology on an unprecedented level. Not only did it shock everyone, but it revealed all the weaknesses in local and national strategies and outreach actions. The situation is even more so in Romania, with its severely outdated service infrastructure. Now is the time to follow the change and embrace technology. Being a small, local company ourselves, we are very much aware of the struggle, which is why we want to contribute to supporting our community. This virus determined a peak of requests and interest in digital solutions. PoliHelp is a digital platform which will bring together the local community to fight against the threat. Local municipalities and organizations, hospitals, small companies, volunteers, donors and regional producers (eg: farmers, textile companies, restaurants, landlords) are brought together on the PoliHelp platform for match-making with those in need (eg: elderly people, first line health workers, schools). When in need, we must reach out to the community for help in a safe and optimal organized environment. The PoliHelp`s objective is to benefit the community and create a bridge between the supply and demand of resources during national emergencies such as the current pandemic. It aims at a unified approach for all local aid initiatives which are providing support. We intend to launch an MVP(Minimum Viable Product) in a timeframe of 6 months. Our solution provides an easy to use platform which will connect and complement the local municipality/government and will increase the local outreach of the civic initiatives. Whether it is a group of students that volunteer to help the elderly, a company that donates masks and gloves, a small local producer that wants to announce he has fresh products in stock to deliver or a NGO looking for volunteers, this will be the place to find out. Also, there will be a matchmaking option for money donors to choose a local producer which is able to deliver a product or service. Assessing and combining the data from the platform will help determine the most vulnerable areas, categories of citizens, businesses, while enabling us to strengthen them and prevent such a strong impact of a future outbreak. PoliHelp will be available as a responsive website with a mobile-friendly version. The dashboard will have a clean and modern interface, showcasing the most pressing needs of organizations/people in Romania and while offering the option of which cause you want to support and how do you want to contribute. This project aims to bring the community closer together and combine gathered data not only to help those in need during the COVID-19 crisis but learn how to deal with similar threats and future outbreaks. Created to counteract some of the pandemic’s more pressing issues, PoliHelp can permanently find its place in the community by helping local producers to join local demand.

Abstract presented at the 16th World Congress on Public Health 2020

In response to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, governments worldwide have introduced multiple restriction policies, known as non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). However, there still remains uncertainty about the relative impact of such policies. In this work, we quantitatively assess the eectiveness of NPIs using a causal inference approach. We gather geospatial data to study the eect size of dierent NPIs as measured by change of the reproduction number and mobility trends. Our analysis includes the most frequent NPIs that were applied by 121 countries throughout 2020 until February 2021 as well as country-level information such as mobility and economic, demographic, environmental, social and health indicators. We present findings about the causal impact of five restriction policies - mask wearing, entertainment closure, freedom of movement (border closures), domestic flight restrictions and school closure - and discuss challenges in drawing causal inferences when aggregating multiple countries.

The H-Watch is a fully open-sourde wearable long-lasting smart monitoring platform for health monitoring and tracking. Thanks to the integrated state-of-the-art NB-IoT cellular technology, it provides direct and secure cloud connectivity. It is based on widely available off-the-shelf components; however, it is designed with low-power and on-board intelligence in mind. Experimentalresults demonstrated only 5.9 mW of average power consumption, leading to a lifetime of 9 days on a small watch battery wothout, and up to 20 days with the solarenergy harvester.

Blog post reflecting on Ireland’s National Marine Planning Framework through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic

A website containing information about surgical mask testing

HEROES’ FOREST – HONOURING THOSE WHO KEEP US SAFE DURING THE PANDEMIC 12 May 20200 Belgian Flanders is a European region notorious for its lack of green cover: roughly 23 percent of the country is covered in forest and less than 11 of Flanders, the country´s most densely populated region, is forested. During the COVID-19 pandemic, green spaces and forests all over the world have become tremendously popular for citizens looking for meaningful ways to fill their days and stay healthy. The Flemish government has encouraged people´s outdoor activities, understanding that staying cooped up inside can become yet another health risk. However, some domains have had to close their doors as masses of people have flocked to the same scarce green spaces risking to spread the virus further. The Flemish nature organizations that for years have worked on raising awareness on the need for protecting nature in Flanders, have finally gained a stronger voice during this pandemic. Now more than ever we need to green our cities and increase the number and acreage of accessible forests in general. All signs point to this not being our last pandemic. While most of us spend our days at home, countless people are busy making sure we stay safe, fed and connected day and night. These are people in the health care sector and in the grocery stores; school teachers and kindergarten teachers; the post office workers and deliverers, and the police and fire department and anyone else who is staying out so we can stay in. These are also people who sew protective masks for the hospitals and elderly homes, people who do groceries for a neighbour and who lend a listening ear to those who are having a difficult time during this lockdown. To honour these “Corona heroes”, BOS+, a forest organization from Belgian Flanders and one of the CLEARING HOUSE project partners, has joined up with Flemish agencies and initiatives to honour these heroes for their efforts. Together they have set up an initiative for people to donate a tree which they designate to a person of their choice, a Corona hero. The aim is to create an entire forest full of trees honouring the Corona heroes – the Heroes´ forest. Planting the trees of the Heroes’ forest (photos provided by BOS+) The first Heroes´ forest will become part of an existing Wullebos forest in Moerbeke, East-Flanders, and will be accessible throughout the year. The addition of Heroes´ forest will restore the old forest belt in the north of East-Flanders and boost the biodiversity of the area. The name Wullebos is derived from the dialect word Wulle, meaning long-eared owl, an uncommon owl that lives in the Wullebos and will therefore see its habitat expand thanks to the Heroes´ forest. And as the heroes are spread out across the region, BOS+ and partners hope to realize one such forest in each of the 5 provinces. The initiative of Heroes´ forest is meant to be a permanent sign of gratitude for the people in the frontlines for their efforts. It will also be a permanent resource for anyone needing a moment in the forest. Finally, the Heroes´ forests is a way of expressing gratitude to nature for taking care of us. With nature´s support, we all have more hope for the future.

Researchers from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme - Horizon 2020's individual fellowship programme had written to the European Commission's President on 29. April 2020 (https://zenodo.org/record/3779067#.Xw7FHi17E0o). The intent of that letter was to voice researchers' concerns about Horizon 2020's lack of funding to support projects impacted by the covid-19 outbreak and to solicit appropriate support through costed extensions. The present document is European Commission's President's response on 18th June 2020, who continues to deny costed extensions for fellows whose research was impacted by the covid-19 outbreak, regardless of any circumstances.