European EdTech Network Erasmus Project

Project Title

European EdTech Network

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Cooperation between educational institutions and business; Quality and Relevance of Higher Education in Partner Countries

Project Summary

One of the identified challenges of European Universities and institutions with a focus on educational technology was lack of effective collaboration to support the European EdTech industry. There are different reasons – language, time and distance barriers – that are hindering effective communication between various EdTech initiatives and preventing them from collaborating at European level. The EEN project was designed to solve this issue by develping a common platform to share experiences, concerns, research and best practices, available at: https://eetn.eu/.

The European EdTech Network is the first strategic partnership in the EU bringing together teachers, researchers and entrepreneurs in the field of education and digital technologies, through University-managed innovation programs (including incubators and accelerators), in order to promote digital methods and pedagogies, improving higher-education systems in collaboration with edtech businesses and innovators.

Four prestigious, innovative and technology-focused Universities have been leading the EEN, each one bringing a different geographic scope, diverse expertise and unique inputs into the project activities, but all of them focused in closing the gap between entrepreneurs (who often have no educative background) and the real needs of HE: IE University (Spain) leading the project; Oulu University of Applied Sciences (Finland); KU of Leuven (Belgium) and University College of London (UK).

At the moment of application, the project also incorporated as Associated Parthers, given their leadership in EdTech and unique contributions to the project´s objectives:
– Swiss EdTech Collider/ EPFL (Switzerland)
– Mindcet/ CET (Israel)

During the lifetime of the project, EEN gained new Associated Partners from different EU countries and representing relevant European Univerities including:
– Grenoble Ecole de Management (France)
– Malta College of Arts, Science & Technology (Malta)
– University of Münster (Germay)
– Learnovate at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)
– EDUCATE (UK)
– Kempten University of Applied Sciences (Germany)
– Linnaeus University (Sweden)
– Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands)
(all listed at: https://eetn.eu/partners.html)

Key specific objectives of the EEN have been:
– To exchange information, know-how and good practices in the field of edtech;
– To support European EdTech startups and entrepreneurs in their efforts to gain quality and competitiveness and make them familiar with the empirical findings of research on EdTech;
– To promote ICT tools, pedagogies and methodologies as the drivers of improvement of the high education system – its quality, access and inclusion;
– To foster entrepreneurship in the field of education and training.

The Intensive Study Programs (ISP´s) were one of the core actions of the EEN project, bringing together 1) internationally-reknowned academics and sector specialists; 2) world leading researchers in the fields of education, sciences and technology; 3) relevant and succesful entrepreneurs and startup founders; 4) expert mentors , coaches and staff from the different Universities; 5) reputed industry experts.

The ISPs aimed to bring unrivaled agenda content and act as catalyst for elevating dialogue and cooperation among Universities and entrepreneurs, exchange knowledge and train with top experts, in order to improve the educational systems in the partnering countries and beyond. These events (two held face-to-face and two online, due to the COVI-19 pandemic), enabled participants to work in multinational groups with a strong multidisciplinary approach and to benefit from special learning conditions not available in a single participating University. It encouraged multinational learning of EdTech topics, helping the discovery and understanding of technological innovations and disruptions in the field of education and their possibilities of scalibility and sustainability. It also allowed teachers and staff to exchange views and share innovative teaching and training methods, including entrepreneurial models in the field of edtech, and explore possibilities of new international collaborations, that will continue after the end of the project.

An tangible output of the project is the Edtech Platform (https://eetn.eu/), providing universities, research and startups with an innovative educational platform. It’s is the first transnational platform of such kind at EHEA level. Totally innovative, the EEN is strongly aligned with the European Council call for training and education systems to be ‘fit for the digital age’ and the European Comission’s Action Plan on Digital Learning. containing:
• OER – created and curated – of high quality regarding Education and Technology;
• Methodologies for university-startup collaboration in the field of EdTech;
• Information on innovative digital products/tools/methodologies from the universities and their startup & business networks.

Project Website

https://eetn.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 299796,95 Eur

Project Coordinator

IE UNIVERSIDAD & Country: ES

Project Partners

• KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
• OULUN AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU OY
• UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON