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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 22 NOVEMBER 2021 18 COMMERCIAL Resource packs created through an Erasmus+ project to raise awareness about the social development goals ESPLORA Interactive Science Centre, in collaboration with Lignin Stories, Spazju Kreat- tiv, and the University of Mal- ta, hosted a half-day seminar on Creativity and Sustainable Development Goals, at the Es- ploraPlanetarium Hall, on Tues- day 16th November 2021. The results of the Erasmus+ project entitled 'Embracing the Sus- tainable Development Goals through Creative Arts', were disseminated during this sem- inar. The project's main aim was to bring about innova- tion and raise more awareness about the Sustainable Devel- opment Goals (SDGs) by using three creative Arts disciplines; Dance, Story-telling and Dig- ital Games. Aimed at enhanc- ing creativity in creative young practioners and VET teach- ers, the project partners de- veloped resource packs using these aforementioned disci- plines whilst focusing on three SDGs, namely Quality Educa- tion, Gender Equality and Life Below Wa-ter. The three year project was held in collabora- tion with four other organiza- tions picapipe GmbH- Austria, Copernicus Science Centre- Poland, OFF Foundation/Hod- works- Hungary, and the Seven Stories- United Kingdom re- ceived Eur379,166 in funds. The Hon. Owen Bonnici, Minister for Equality, Research and Innovation said: "This is a historic agenda with far-reach- ing implications. It is accepted by all countries and applies to everyone, taking into account various national realities, ca- pacities, and levels of develop- ment, as well as national strat- egies and priorities. These are universal goals and ambitions that apply to the en-tire world, including both developed and developing nations." Minister Bonnici also thanked Erasmus+ and Esplora Interac- tive Science Centre for co-or- dinating this project and all the participants for their com- mitment to finding innovative ways to engage our young ones and equip them with the skills required to take care of the environ-ment and each other, and hopefully do a better job than previous generations. The Parliamentary Secretary for EU Funds, the Hon. Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi stated in his speech "that this project, coor- dinated by Esplora, addresses the United Nations 2030 Sus- taina-ble Development Goals as it aims to raise awareness of global issues through creative arts. Embracing the Sustainable Development Goals through Creative Arts' (C-SDGs), is an- other pro-gramme co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union." Dr Zrinzo Azzopardi further explained that this project as- pires to create a unique way of how students, educators, and the general public, can learn more about these goals which the Mem-ber States are work- ing towards achieving by 2030. The Parliamentary Secretary ended his speech by affirming that such a project would not be fulfilled if it had to be held in one country as the different ex- periences, competencies, tradi- tions, and mentalities from dif- ferent EU coun-tries are a key asset to the realisation of this project. The resource packs incorporate; digital games which can be used for Game- based learning in relation to the three SDGs identified. The various digital games encom- pass backgrounds from the project countries themselves. Another resource pack focuses on the art of dance. Through choreographic scores, games, and other creative tasks this resource pack raises awareness on two goals; Gender Equality and Quality Education, includ- ing a video of an original dance per-formance on the SDGs identified. The third and last creative art is storytelling. This education- al resource pack includes nu- merous methods of storytelling that have contemporary rele- vance to local, environmental, and personal issues deemed important to young people. In addition, it also comprises stories with contemporary so- cial relevance, including those driven by and seek-ing to tack- le gender inequality, as well as a virtual compendium for sto- rytelling. All the resources are aimed at different age groups, starting from primary to post-secondary school students. The educa- tional resources may be freely downloaded through the project website: http://www.csdg.eu MeDirect Bank wins eBusiness award for best use of technology in business transformation MEDIRECT Bank Malta has won the "Best use of Technolo- gy in Business Transformation" category at the 2021 eBusiness Awards. The eBusiness Awards are organised by Tech.MT and are aimed at celebrating the successes in technology and promote the most innovative initiatives in the eBusiness community in Malta. These ac- colades are an endorsement of Maltese success in delivering projects, initiatives, solutions or other achievements in the digital field. The "Best use of Technology in Business Transformation" category rewards innovation, originality, scope, outcome and external impact. The award al- so recognises any positive con- tribution the innovation brings towards environmental sus- tainability. MeDirect's top priority is to provide their customers with the best experience through digital innovation and is there- fore continuously adapting to respond to customers' chang- ing banking needs. The suite of savings and wealth products are available to customers dig- itally through a best-in-class mobile app and online banking platform. In 2019, MeDirect embarked on a transformation journey to become a retail-focused digital bank. Through this journey, MeDirect's technology under- went an impressive transfor- mation, with the bank's offer- ing excelling at par with the best FinTech companies on the market. The award is a great recogni- tion of MeDirect's successful transformation of the custom- er application process into a digital one. The new and sim- plified onboarding process was introduced in the last quarter of 2020, with the aim of signif- icantly reducing onboarding time. The transformation pro- cess helped MeDirect improve both its efficiency as well as its customer reach, resulting in an increase of onboarded cus- tomers. The Group has also successfully deployed this up- graded onboarding process in Malta and Belgium. MeDirect Malta's eBusiness Award confirms the bank's positioning as Malta's first Digital Bank