The need for renewing the teaching of natural sciences was motivated by the signs of crisis perceived in schools related to the disinterest of students and their lack of success and in general in our society due to the decline of economic competitiveness at the end of the 20th century. Be it the members states of the EU or the USA one can observe that the number of students studying natural sciences at tertiary level has decreased significantly. It is a core interest of the developed and developing economies of the EU to secure the human resources (including young academics) of the technological competition – since without this the region will lose its competitiveness. In the background of the natural science R+D Investments it is indispensable that we have highly and broadly qualified, motivated academics. Parallel to the crisis phenomena new results in the field of education and psychology have constituted a new „critical mass” of impulses in the area of pedagogical development as a result of which a change of pedagogical paradigm occurred at the beginning of the 20th century. Our concepts of knowledge, learning and teachers have changed and the countries willing and able to change have done better according to the OECD surveys. The initiative of this project comes from Hungary, a country that has produced outstanding results in natural sciences from the middle of the 20th century onwards, and in particular in the areas of mathematics and logics. A great lesson to be learned from the PISA studies is that the knowledge base in the public education sector is dramatically decreasing. According to recent surveys the results of 16-year-olds were below average. One of the great advantages of the cooperation of the six countries is the so called German and Polish change of paradigm that was triggered by the shock caused by the PISA results and that has brought about significant outcomes. The new knowledge and methodology mean an added value for the partners from the point of view of developing a research-based, integrated science and mathematics teaching programme. Among our countries there are traditions that can be passed on from the so called Prussian teaching system and there is also transition towards modernisation and there are radically new, practical and motivating approaches as well. The expert committee (Rocard) entrusted by the EU with finding possible solutions to overcome the crisis of science education formulated some very important statements and recommendations in 2007, e.g.: • In schools it is the memoriter method that dominates and very often problem-solving and attitude-forming approaches that help to prepare students for solving the changing and complex problems of society (e.g. Knowledge-networking or learning-to-learn methods) are not even mentioned. There is a lack of team-work and often there are not enough experiments. • There have been a lot of excellent initiatives for renewing teaching and there are outstanding science teachers. Unfortunately these initiatives often remain isolated and best-practices are often not disseminated even within one country, not to mention their integration at EU-level. • Natural sciences should be taught inductively rather than deductively (research-based teaching), thus increasing students' interest in and the commitment to choosing science subjects. • It is important to promote and disseminate research based learning techniques and best practices in schools and in teacher refresher courses and teacher networks. • The teachers are the keyfigures and they need to develop their methodological competencies and their motivation as well. Natural science literacy is a concept that sums up the key elements of the new approach motivated by the demands of modernisation. These elements have been integrated into the key competencies as defined by the Council of Europe in 2006. European projects that have paved the way for this pedagogical approach and culture are: Pathway  http://www.bayceer.uni-bayreuth.de/pathway/, Scientix  http://www.scientix.eu, Primas  http://www.primas-project.eu/en/index. These projects are essential forerunners to our work.