The first meeting of the project " Building an Ecosystem for 21st Century Skills Education in STEM (BE-21-SKILLED " took place at the beginning of June at Riga, organized by RTU FEEM. BE-21-SKILLED aims to identify and instill region-specific 21st-century skills (21CS) in HEI STEM teachers so that they are better equipped to transfer these to their students. A particular emphasis will be placed on female students in STEM, who are particularly underrepresented in STEM fields; are at greater risk of dropping out, and generally, have poorer career outcomes than their male counterparts.