MALTA COLLEGE OF ARTS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Their core work

MCAST is Malta's leading vocational and applied education institution, bridging science communication, environmental research, and energy technology. They run recurring public engagement programmes (Science in the City festivals) that bring research to families and citizens through arts, comedy, and interactive experiments. Beyond outreach, they conduct applied research in Mediterranean-specific challenges: water-agriculture systems, nature-based solutions for urban ecosystems, photovoltaic integration, and electric mobility. Their strength lies in translating academic research into accessible formats and building Malta's research capacity through EU Widening Participation funding.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In 2014-2017, MCAST focused almost entirely on science communication and public engagement — the Science in the City festivals and ecosystem mapping (ESMERALDA). From 2018 onward, they made a decisive shift toward applied technology: photovoltaic integration (JUMP2Excel), electric mobility (NEEMO), and nature-based solutions (RENATURE), all as coordinator. This transition from outreach participant to research-capacity builder reflects their use of EU Widening Participation funding to develop in-house technical expertise.

MCAST is evolving from a science engagement hub into an applied research institution with growing technical depth in renewable energy and sustainable mobility, particularly for Mediterranean island contexts.

How they like to work

MCAST plays a dual role: they join large consortia as a minor participant for science communication activities (EUR 3-8K contributions), but they coordinate their own capacity-building projects with substantial budgets (EUR 200-517K). Their 59 unique partners across 31 countries show a broad but shallow network — typical of Widening Participation institutions that use EU projects to build international connections rather than deepen existing ones. This makes them an accessible partner for consortia needing a Maltese institution or Mediterranean testbed.

Extensive geographic reach with 59 partners across 31 countries, reflecting their strategy of using EU projects to integrate into European research networks. Their partnerships span across most of Europe rather than concentrating in any single region.

What sets them apart

MCAST occupies a rare niche as Malta's primary vocational college active in H2020, combining hands-on technical education with applied research. For consortium builders, they offer a Maltese partner with genuine Mediterranean island testbed conditions — critical for energy, water, and mobility projects where island-specific constraints matter. Their dual capability in both public engagement (proven through six years of Science in the City) and technical research makes them unusually versatile for projects requiring both R&D and dissemination.

Highlights from their portfolio

• RENATURE
  Their largest project (EUR 517K) as coordinator, focused on building research excellence in nature-based solutions — signaling MCAST's ambition to move beyond outreach into substantive environmental research.
• JUMP2Excel
  Second-largest project (EUR 496K) as coordinator, targeting Mediterranean photovoltaic integration and energy storage — their strongest technical research effort.
• NEEMO
  Coordinator of a EUR 330K electric mobility project, extending their energy expertise into transport — shows deliberate portfolio expansion into sustainable mobility.