The e-KNOWNET project will develop an innovative and viable ICT-enabled mechanism for fast and efficient sharing of new scientific knowledge among larger, non-expert segments of society.

The network brings together 5 complementary institutions associated with knowledge and learning (e.g. universities, research laboratory, technology provider to academic and school communities, and a science centre), with diverse experience of ICT-mediated learning, aiming to develop new, demand-driven insights and know-how on ICT-enabled science learning in non-formal environments.

The network with the use of ICT enables the direct cooperation between knowledge producers (researchers), transformers of this input (educational experts) and its end-users (learning communities). This direct cooperation accelerates the circulation pace of specialized information which reaches the citizen and limits the influence of extra-scientific factors upon the selection of scientific information and transformation into educational resources. A dedicated e-platform will act as the virtual depository for – and as the hub for redistributing- popularized new science knowledge available in resourceful forms beyond the conventional.

A series of pilot learning electronic resources and services available through the Internet or locally at science centres (i.e. science web content, e-exhibits) will be accomplished utilizing popular applications (e.g. Video Web casting, Video on Demand, Grid Computing, etc.). Science centres are expected to act as catalysts in this process of knowledge sharing and circulation considering their significant outreach potential and public appeal.

The e-KNOWNET will offer pilot learning activities which will be customized along the different pedagogical profile of each learning audience. e.g. Dialogue with users with special and demanding needs, will be stablished in order to ensure that their requirements are met. Specific actions to achieve this are the following: Technical meetings with representatives of such groups, provision of consultancy in the form of project management assistance and technical advice, to help in establishing particular network configurations. Well tested methods and practices of science education in life-long learning contexts, will be employed in this phase. The piloting activities will focus on fast developing topics of Physical Chemistry and will be adjusted to fit real learning needs of the users

The main objectives of the project are:

1. Produce an innovative model of a European knowledge-sharing network and trigger new dynamics in ICT-enabled life-long learning, through linking up fields that traditionally have been working in isolation, i.e. scientific research institutions, communities of pedagogical science experts and science centres. Knowledge-exchange among the e-KNOWNET partners will enable the consortium members to valorize their rich and complementary expertise in order to cooperatively produce ICT-enabled learning resources.
2. Use ICT tools to promote knowledge-sharing, collective thinking and networking. Test bed of the knowledge-sharing network will be the e-KNOWNET portal with suited infrastructure to accommodate participatory media (blogs, wikis, RSS, tagging and social bookmarking, music-photo-video sharing, mashups, podcasts, etc). These tools will allow interaction across vertical and horizontal dimensions (public/private, expert/non-expert, national/European/regional).
3. Promote the educational role of ICT in non-formal environments and encourage digital literacy, across the lines of gender mainstreaming. Learning communities (secondary education, adults) will be able to access knowledge in flexible educational formats with ICT tools and popular applications, such as: digital exhibits (e.g. 3D representations of science related objects/exhibits from EF collections and new science e-exhibits, virtual exhibitions, meta-collections (virtual collections thematically structured, built upon material drawn from various virtual collections in the world), educational simulations and models.
4. Enhance the quality of educational services provided in non-formal environments, such as the science centre/museum.
5. Tackling real needs for different learning communities. A collection of best practices in the field, a segmentation analysis of the potential users and identification of their learning needs will feed into and facilitate the strategic development of the e-KNOWNET services.
6. Offer new incentives in science learning (on selected topics of Physical Chemistry), users will be able to inform themselves about current knowledge in the field of Physical Chemistry, about the project itself and the partners of the e-KNOWNET, and to find interesting links, sites, events in the selected themes of Physical Chemistry.
7. Expand the human network involved in the e-KNOWNET (exploitation phase). All partner organizations will deploy their multiple interconnections with national, European and international networks and their links with key stakeholders and influential multipliers’ associations in the field of non-formal and ICT-assisted education in order to increase the impact of the project. The networking manual is an important tool towards this direction.
8. Promote and make known the e-KNOWNET to learning communities and stakeholders, through awareness raising and dissemination activities (launching and closing conference, two press conference, 5 science cafes, 2 awareness-raising workshop with key stakeholders, Science Cafes, press briefings and press releases).
9. Promote equal opportunities in informal learning for the disadvantaged, offering learning opportunities to remote, isolated or secluded populations, and people with disabilities, through the application of special assistive technology tools.