European Edtech Alliance year in review
2024 for the European Edtech Alliance
The EEA represents 28 Members from 25 Countries throughout Europe and brings together a wealth of experience in education. Members meet once a month to exchange best practice and support each other through targeted knowledge exchanges.
This year we welcomed a new board and are grateful to members and board members alike for their continued engagement and trust. Read on for an overview of some of our milestones this year!
Policy initiatives
The EEA has become a member of the UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition and we are excited to continue our work as part of the Digital Transformation Collaborative on topics of evidence, trust and data.
We have continued our support of the European Commission’s activities by providing a review of the Digital Education Action Plan. It is also our pleasure to be members of the commission’s stakeholder group on Digital Education Content, joined by two of our members, EdTech Bulgaria (Albena Spasova) and AFINEF (Pierre Laborde).
For the Council of Europe’s second working conference on regulating AI systems in Education, the EEA team developed the event formats and supported in managing the conference.
As a keynote speaker participating in the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union’s Digital Education Dialogues event, we got to present key ideas around Trust, Data, and a multi-stakeholder approach to collaboration.
EdTech Strategy Lab
In 2024, the EdTech Strategy Lab launched as a pivotal initiative aimed at empowering the EdTech ecosystem, fostering collaboration, and exploring the evolving needs and requirements of stakeholders around the topics of trust, evidence, and partnerships.
We have extensively explored the topics of evidence and evaluation frameworks for EdTech. See our deep dive reports for further insights:
Deep Dive I - Evaluation Mechaniams: A way to increase trust in EdTech?
Deep Dive III - The EdTech evaluation ecosystem: A brief overview
Over the course of the project in 2024, we delivered 16 workshops—both in-person and online—including listening sessions and dynamic feedback loops such as surveys. This comprehensive approach resulted in a community reach of over 10,000 participants, highlighting significant support and sustained interest in this initiative. Engagement extended to high-level actors, with 48 ministries of education participating, underscoring the project's importance at a global level.
Our culminating event of 2024 welcomed 135 attendees from 32 countries, featuring over 30 speakers. The iterative and intentional design of these events has been central to their success. Through ongoing cycles of building, refining, experimenting, and reflecting, we engaged with an exceptionally wide range of stakeholders—from elementary school students to senior policymakers.
EmpowerED
In the second year of the EmpowerED project, the EEA and project partners focused on refining and testing event formats to better serve stakeholders. Key initiatives that were led or co-organised by the EEA included one networking event for female founders at BETT and five workshops at major events like SETT Stockholm, EdTech Austria Summit, LETW, the Digital with Purpose Summit in Cascais, and the Bildungsfestival in Vienna. The focus of these workshops was on building trust within the EdTech sector through evidence and partnerships.
To provide key stakeholders with a comprehensive overview of the EdTech landscape, the EEA and project partners worked on three large publications:
First report on the State of Play of EdTech & the European EdTech Ecosystem (published in January 2024)
Second report on the State of Play of EdTech & the European EdTech Ecosystem (forthcoming, expected to be published in January 2025)
The first version of the European EdTech Ecosystem Roadmap: Towards Excellence in Educational Innovation
Moreover, EmpowerED partners developed resources to help EdTech organisations overcome the challenges related to the fragmentation of the European education markets:
MOOC: Navigate EdTech – Choosing Wisely for Learners (forthcoming, expected to be published in January 2025)
Responding to skills needs voiced by EdTech startups and developers responding through the European EdTech Map surveys, EmpowerED partners also developed a set of guidelines focusing on validating EdTech solutions with target groups and another one on improving the understanding and application of research throughout the EdTech development process (forthcoming, expected to be published in January 2025) as well as a MOOC focusing on entrepreneurial skills for EdTech organisations.
A third set of outputs is focused on equipping educators with the skills of becoming pedagogical mentors: This includes a dedicated MOOC and complementary guidelines that both will be launched in January 2025.
Find out more about the project here: EmpowerED
Female EdTech Fellowship
In 2024, the Female EdTech Fellowship welcomed 22 new fellows from 12 countries, bringing our total to 75 inspiring alumnae since the programme’s inception in January of 2022
Among the highlights for 2022 has been the in-person retreat for Cohort 5, as well as the privilege of hosting some exceptional speakers, including Zara Zaman (Emerge), Ilana Jankovic (Rubio Impact Ventures), and Laura Warnier (formerly the Chief Growth Officer at GoStudent), who shared their insights and experiences with our community.
As we look ahead to 2025, we're excited to unveil a fresh new look and new tracks for the fellowship programme! For example, in early 2025, we will be launching our official Alumnae Network, inviting all past fellows to reconnect through engaging programming and in-person retreats. Registration for the alumnae network will be possible from January 6th until January 31st, 2025.
If you're interested in learning how to become a fellow or how to support our programming, connect with us on LinkedIn or reach out via email at programmes@edtecheurope.org.
Open Positions at the EEA
Join us as we engage with Europe’s education ecosystem and become part of the EEA Team - Check out our open positions here.
Save the Date!
22nd-24th January: BETT UK in London, UK - Check out the Agenda
Check out our members’ newsletters
This newsletter is written and produced by the European Edtech Alliance. The European Edtech Alliance is a consortium of national trade associations and clusters working with founders and providers of education technology (EdTech), to support the domestic and international growth of these businesses and the innovations they represent. European EdTech News is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.