To ensure smart, sustainable and inclusive economic growth in Europe an ever increasing number of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduates is needed. Fostering competitiveness while addressing challenges as climate change, energy supply, healthy aging and digitalisation in our knowledge driven European economy, the demand for STEM talent is continuously rising. Whilst the qualified STEM population is ageing , Europe is confronted with significant youth unemployment. The imminent need for STEM competences, plus the fact that unemployment is 3 times lower amongst STEM graduates underlines the importance of STEM. Thus, the issues are1. Ensuring sufficient inflow in all levels of STEM education and the labour market2. The ‘skills mismatch’ between the skills of recent graduates and those required by employers-- The triple helix approachIn response to the demand for STEM competences for innovation and economic growth, several EU member states have successfully elaborated national STEM strategies. National STEM strategies are mostly carried out by national STEM platforms; so called ‘triple helix’ organisations that promote a wide variety of innovative education and training practices based on the triple helix of close cooperation between business, education and government. The triple helix approach underlines that the potential for innovation and economic development in a Knowledge Society lies in a more prominent role for educational institutions, industry and government to generate new institutional and social formats for the production, transfer and application of knowledge. An example of a successful triple helix initiative is Jet-Net (Youth and Technology Network) in the Netherlands. Jet-Net is a joint initiative of the Dutch government, leading technology companies and secondary schools. Together the triple helix partners provide students with experiences that show the challenging, meaningful and socially relevant nature of technology. Since 2002 Jet-Net companies support schools in providing an educational environment including practical and real life professional context. Jet-Net is funded by both industry and government, enriching the science curriculum through guest lessons, company visits, project weeks and national events. After the success in the Netherlands, the Jet-Net best practice has been successfully introduced in Denmark as "Jet-Net.dk."-- International cooperation and the EU STEM CoalitionAfter the initial success of transferring initiatives like Jet-Net as well as the STEM platform model to Denmark and Estonia, the national STEM platforms of Denmark, The Netherlands and Estonia have recently joined forces in the EU STEM Coalition in order to further accommodate international peer learning and increase their effectiveness. The mission of the EU STEM Coalition is to create momentum for the development and implementation of national STEM strategies across Europe. The EU STEM Coalition is a Europe-wide collaboration that activates, stimulates and supports member states to work on a national STEM strategy and platform. The two main goals of the EU STEM Coalition are: 1. To facilitate and promote the exchange of best practices between national STEM platforms through peer learning activities. 2. To support other member states in the establishing a STEM platform through targeted taskforce meetings.-- The project: Action Plan EU-STEM CoalitionIn the past months the EU STEM Coalition has been confronted with a rapidly increasing demand for support by other EU member states that are interested in establishing a STEM platform. Among these countries are France, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Malta, Italy and Germany, as well as non-EU countries like Turkey and Ukraine. The EU STEM Coalition Action Plan aims to address this demand, by transforming the ad hoc bilateral relationships within the EU STEM Coalition into a solid, effective Europe-wide network.Finally, it is important to note that the EU STEM Coalition is first and foremost a European project. The desired impact of the Coalition is therefore reflected on a European level. Thus, after three years a significant increase in the amount of STEM graduates is estimated across the participating member state. In addition, the project strives to increase the quality of STEM education through the exchange of best practices between national STEM platforms. The desired impact of this is a significant reduction of skills mismatch, and consequently, a critical reduction of youth unemployment.(*) On the request of the National Agency Erasmus+ we would like to clarify that the ‘amount of participants’-column in the part I.2 of this proposal refers to the amount mobility’s. Thus, each transnational project meeting will only be attended by one representative of each project partner.The current platform partners, CSR Europe and Natuurvidenskabernes Hus (Jet-Net.dk) will participate relatively more in tas